This study reflects on the development and implementation of mid-term oral examinations in large-scale lecture courses at a large, public research university; specifically, this work examines the implications of oral exams for fostering student engagement and concept-based comprehension in addition to institutional and course commitments to diversity. This research traces the development of an effective method for administering oral midterms and assesses the advantages and challenges of utilizing oral examinations for student assessment by detailing student feedback and TAs' reactions to administering this examination format. Findings reveal that oral examinations provided a chance for students to develop skills through a different means of engaging material and to foster a concept-based learning approach. In a discussion of student and TA reactions, this paper reports a predominantly positive assessment by both groups while noting the challenges and disadvantages of this format.
Romantic partnerships affect local ways of thinking about and experiencing the self amid rapid economic, social and political change. In evaluating social status, Thais are reconciling local mores, Western gazes, and Asian cultural flows that shape sensibilities, aesthetics and desires. I show how middle-class gay men negotiate romantic partner preferences with East Asians or 'white Asians'. While there is a body of scholarship that addresses Western influences on Thai gender and sexuality, little is known about the impact of East Asia. Following Ara Wilson's (2004. The Intimate Economies of Bangkok: Tomboys, Tycoons, and Avon Ladies in the Global City. Berkeley: University of California Press) 'intimate economies' and her (2006. 'Queering Asia'. Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context N:14. Available online: intersections.anu.edu.au/issue14/wilson.html (accessed 15 March 2010)) call for studies addressing connections within Asia, I use macrosocial and ethnographic data to argue that Thailand's geopolitical position, situated between wealthier and poorer countries in the region, constrains and enables new partner preferences. Specifically, there is a racialisation of Asianness and reorientation of desire away from Caucasian partners towards East Asian ones.I'm sitting on the BTS, Bangkok's Skytrain. The doors open. An older, large-bodied farang (ฝรั ่ ง white person) 1 enters and sits next to a young Thai woman across from me. She turns her body away from his, searches in her purse for her ya dom (ยาดม inhaler), and takes a deep sniff. She puts the inhaler back in her purse, tilts her body toward the Thai woman next to her, and looks down at the floor. 2 How can we read her actions? Her turning away from the farang is a physical disassociation with him. The movement shows her unwillingness to be considered by others to be
Inter-Asian cultural flows are transforming everyday Thai gender practices and performances in unexpected ways. The most striking example is the way in which Korean popular music, or K-pop, is molding contemporary beauty and dance aesthetics through cover dance, the copying of choreographed movements from music videos. K-pop cover dance has become a definitive social activity among Asian sissies (young feminine gay men) and is organized into an extensive contest circuit leading to an annual competition in Korea. Thai sissies are among the most enthusiastic and skillful practitioners of K-pop cover dance, and some practitioners, such as the members of the group Wonder Gay, have become national celebrities. I describe how cover dance demarcates a new social arena for feminine Thai males to express themselves through the idiom of modern Korean female embodiment. Semiprofessional cover dancers constitute a class of "hyper-fans" who become "demiidols," with fan followings in their own right. I argue that Thai K-pop cover dance can be read as both an aspiration for personal and national development that indexes participation in a new cosmopolitan Asian sphere. The cover dance phenomenon in Thailand highlights recent shifts in Asian regionalism, idol fandom, and transgressive gender performance. Keywords sissy, cover dance, Korean Wave, Thailand, inter-Asian popular culture I n the climate of political uncertainty following the 2006 military coup d'état, many Thai people worried about perceived weaknesses of national character allegedly manifest in both a large transgender population and an international reputation for sex tourism. Thailand is also anxious about being seen as a copycat nation populated by followers rather than by innovators and creators. These concerns converged in 2009 when a cover dance video went viral and incited a gender panic in Thailand (Käng 2012). The video shows the group Wonder Gay performing the choreography from the hit Korean pop music video by the Wonder Girls, "Nobody."Cover dancing to K-pop is immensely popular among feminine Thai gay men, who participate in an extensive contest circuit that culminates in an annual
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