Over the last 25 years, the realm of education has undergone enormous transformations around the globe, and especially in China. Indeed, while many have acknowledged the country’s role in world...Show moreOver the last 25 years, the realm of education has undergone enormous transformations around the globe, and especially in China. Indeed, while many have acknowledged the country’s role in world economy, few have stressed its parallel achievements in the field of internationalization of Higher Education. Nonetheless, researchers debating the issue have often adopted top-down approaches or focused on similar sets of examples, overlooking the complexities of each case. Moreover, international students' own viewpoint and their importance as the main actors shaping and undergoing the process as has often been neglected. The main aim of this thesis then, which is based on a mixture of interviews with international students, ethnographic observations conducted by the author at Shandong University, PRC in 2019, together with the study of secondary sources, is to shed light and highlight the importance of under-analysed themes and actors in the field of Internationalization of Higher Education in China. The findings of my research show that: international students form different background seemed to hold a positive evaluation of their experience in China; cultural-specific notions like Mianzi play an important role in the trajectory of internationalization of Shandong University; in turn, this last consideration seem to pose a challenge to the mainstream, linear view of the field which considers Internationalization as a global, active force passively employed by Chinese universities to reach specific - and mainly national - goals.Show less
Vocalisation is formed in the inversion of the face, up until it reaches the face it is a sound akin to blowing through a blade of grass, it has pitch and intensity but little shape. The shape of...Show moreVocalisation is formed in the inversion of the face, up until it reaches the face it is a sound akin to blowing through a blade of grass, it has pitch and intensity but little shape. The shape of vocalisation is formed in the "mask", the resonant chamber at the front of the head, the inverted face. Thereby, vocalisation is the sonic manifestation of the shape of the face outside of the body. This creates an ambiguity as to the directionality of the face, in that, when someone vocalises visibly towards me, I cannot be sure which way the face, sonically captured in vocalization, is facing. It’s unclear if the other is just talking to themself or to me or are half in half out or are rotating. The chord of vocalisation, the fact that each and every vocalisation is heard/felt as sound in the face and the face captured in sonic form outside of the body simultaneously, suggests that the interaction may be a Narcissus' story, where the face is more often or than not reflected back towards the self. This thesis is supported further if we think about vocalisation as a form of self-pleasure, in the erotic experience of forming vocals and the enjoyment of hearing one's own voice, reflected in the story of Echo. This seems to point towards a social failure or at least ambiguity of the interaction between self and other, if the self is always talking to the self. The experience further still, starts to feel violent when we de-mute or make sonic vocalisation, rarely done in a philosophy of voice. Incorporating sound's intrusive quality on the body into this intersubjective interaction points towards a violent potentiality. The intrusion of the sound of the other on my soundscape, my extended body, is the sonic extension of the body of the other in vocalisation, commanding a piece of my hearing territory, thereby penetrating my body. The problem is that I cannot avoid this because that bodily intrusion has a face attached. In reference to Levinas’ ethics of the face, I am forced to partake in these socially unfulfilling interactions out of a sense of duty to the other's face. To not acknowledge the face in response, even though that inevitable involves an intrusion, is also to estrange the other. Hence, I agree to maintain these interactions in a conduct of consensual violence. The ambiguity of vocal presence leads to a situation where it is violent not to be violent, in my vocal intrusion upon the other.Show less
In order to investigate the influence of voice pitch and facial dominance on voting behaviour and leadership perceptions, an experiment including 180 Dutch adults was conducted containing a 2*3...Show moreIn order to investigate the influence of voice pitch and facial dominance on voting behaviour and leadership perceptions, an experiment including 180 Dutch adults was conducted containing a 2*3 factorial design. The participants were exposed to a normal and manipulated picture of Jan-peter Balkenende, the former Dutch prime-minister. Respondents were also exposed to a manipulated version of his voice in which the voice pitch had been lowered by 20 herz. The respondents seemed unaware of the picture and voice pitch manipulations as the respondents exposed to the manipulations noted to be just as familiar with the person displayed on the picture as respondents in the control group. However, the manipulations did not have the effect that was expected based on previous studies, the experiment largely showed the subtle nature of these effects on leadership perceptions and voting behaviour. The findings in this study indicate the limited influence of voice pitch and facial dominance on voting behaviour and perceptions of a well known leader's dominance, honesty and power.Show less
