Between Truth and Falsity: Liberal Education and the Arts of Discernment

Edited by Karim Dharamsi, Mount Royal University, Canada and David Ohreen, Mount Royal University, Canada

It seems we are awash in information. From the moment we wake until we turn over our phones at night, we are bombarded with images and messages, news and information from a confounding number of sources. But as the amount of information available to us increases ever more rapidly, its quality and reliability seem less credible. Russian troll bots, 4chan, Breitbart, and Rebel Media, challenge our credulity, but they do so by mimicking aesthetic registers consumers expect of “traditional” media outlets. Moreover, traditional news sources, both privately owned and public broadcasters, already weakened by eroding revenue, cuts to budgets, and shifting demographics, are under sustained attack from those who wish to damage their ability to hold powerful people to account. Instead of a multi-perspectival approach, which seeks to report to the public the many ways to address a particular issue, taking the reporter’s role as neutral with regard to outcome, “fake” or “ideologically” driven news sources compete for audience attention and faithfulness, often using emotion to rally people toward a certain political cause or issue. Academics, meanwhile, have their work attacked and undermined by people or groups seeking to advance political or economic interests. They are told they too are political actors, one more voice in a messy public arena instead of a font of reliable information and knowledge. While academics continue to believe that their work, at least in part, enhances our understanding of the world and informs debate, how do we know that their conclusions are indeed more reliable than their critics in the “post-truth” era? ‘Between Truth and Falsity: Liberal Education and the Arts of Discernment’ will aid academics and students seeking to better grasp the value of liberal education within this post-truth era. It seeks to advance pedagogical ideas in order to fight factual erosion and reinforce intellectual capacities that are able to critically assess the chaos of information enveloping all segments of society. This volume will therefore be of particular interest to academics and university educators working in higher education, graduate students theorizing the nature of media and the role of higher education, undergraduates studying liberal education and the nature of the university, and those thinking about liberal education.

Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Spaces: Shaping Futures and Envisioning Unity in Diversity and Transformation

Edited by Zilungile Lungi Sosibo, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa and Eunice Ndeto Ivala, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa

Higher education in post-apartheid South Africa was always likely to attract academic interest, and yet there remains a dearth of research on creating teaching and learning spaces suitable for students from diverse backgrounds. Using examples from higher education institutions across the Southern African Developing Community (SADC) region, this volume explores the ways teaching and learning spaces are being used to advance the transformation agenda of higher education in these regions, and provides concrete recommendations for the future. The book is sure to appeal to academics from a variety of disciplines - from African, African American and ethnic studies to education and sociology. It will be of particular interest to teacher trainers, administrators and policy-makers working in higher education, and anyone else with a stake in managing cultural diversity in education.

Lingüística del castellano chileno / Chilean Spanish Linguistics

Estudios sobre variación, innovación, contacto e identidad / Studies on variation, innovation, contact, and identity

Edited by Brandon M. A. Rogers, Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, USA and Mauricio A. Figueroa Candia, Universidad de Concepción, Chile

Ya desde el siglo XIX, el castellano chileno generó interés en lingüistas como Lenz (1891), quien lo aclamó como un geolecto dinámico y en constante evolución. Más recientemente, un grupo importante de lingüistas contemporáneos ha indicado que existe una gran cantidad de diferencias entre el castellano de Chile y otras variedades en varios frentes lingüísticos; tanto es así que debería considerarse como una zona dialectal independiente en el mundo hispanohablante. Su interés como caso práctico se ve reforzado por la incongruencia del grado particularmente alto de variación social y el menor grado de su variación geográfica. Lingüística del castellano chileno: Estudios sobre variación, innovación, contacto e identidad es el primer volumen de su tipo, y reúne el trabajo de un grupo diverso e internacional de investigadores e investigadoras del castellano de Chile. Mediante el uso de métodos, teorizaciones y análisis lingüísticos actuales, este volumen examina cómo el uso, la variación, las actitudes, la identidad y el cambio lingüístico se manifiestan de manera única en diferentes aspectos del castellano chileno y sus hablantes. Este volumen, que acerca el trabajo más actual sobre la lingüística española de Chile a la vanguardia del campo, constituye un recurso valioso para aquellos involucrados en la investigación y la enseñanza de la lingüística, la variación y el cambio lingüístico del castellano, así como para estudiantes de grado y posgrado. As early as the 19th century, Chilean Spanish attracted the interest of linguists such as Lenz (1891), who hailed it as an evolving and vibrant variety. In more recent times, a number of contemporary linguists have indicated that such a variety of differences exist between Chilean Spanish and other varieties on a number of linguistic fronts, that it should be considered as an independent dialectal zone in the Spanish-speaking world. Its interest as a case study is reinforced further by the incongruence of the particularly high degree of social variation and the small degree of geographical variation. Chilean Spanish Linguistics: Studies on variation, innovation, contact, and identity is the first of its kind, bringing together the work of a diverse and international group of researchers on Chilean Spanish. Through the use of current linguistic methods, theorization, and analyses, this volume examines how language usage, variation, attitudes, identity, and change are uniquely manifested in different aspects of Chilean Spanish and its speakers. Bringing the most current work on Chilean Spanish linguistics to the forefront of the field, this volume will be a valuable resource to all involved in the research and teaching of Spanish language linguistics, language variation, and change, as well as undergraduate and graduate students alike.

Western Japaneseness: Intercultural Translations of Japan in Western Media

Edited by Frank Jacob, Nord University, Norway and Bruno Surace, Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy

Our images of non-Western cultures are often based on stereotypes that are replicated over the years. These stereotypes often appear in popular media and are responsible for a pre-set image of otherness. The present book investigates these processes and the media representation of otherness, especially as an artificial construct based on stereotypes and their repetition, in the case of Japan. 'Western Japaneseness' thereby illustrates how the Western image of Japan in popular media is rather a construct that, in a way, replicated itself, instead of a more serious encounter with a foreign and different cultural context. This book will be of great value to students and academics who hold interest in media studies, Japanese studies, and cultural studies. It will also appeal to a broader audience with interests in Japan more generally.

The Holocaust in South-Eastern Europe: Historiography, Archives Resources and Remembrance

Edited by Adina Babeș-Fruchter, State Archives of Belgium / Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society, Belgium and Ana Bărbulescu, Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, Romania

For many decades, the Holocaust in South-Eastern Europe lacked the required introspection, research and study, and most importantly, access to archives and documentation. Only in recent years and with the significant help of an emerging generation of local scholars, the Holocaust from this region became the focus of many studies. In 2018, under the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure umbrella, the Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania organized a workshop dedicated to Holocaust research, education and remembrance in South-Eastern Europe. The present volume is a natural continuation of the above-mentioned workshop with the aim of introducing the current state of Holocaust research in the region to different categories of scholars in the field of Holocaust studies, to students and—why not—to the general public. Our scope, not an exhaustive one, is to present a historical contextualization using archival resources, to display the variety of recordings of discrimination, destruction and rescue efforts, and to introduce the remembrance initiatives and processes developed in the region in the aftermath of the Holocaust.