The Effects Of Students Predispositions Toward Communication, Learning Styles, And Sex On Academic Achievement

Females are more apprehensive when talking in class, but more nonverbally immediate, and prefer a collaborative learning style.  Males prefer independent and avoidant learning styles, and report learning less than females

The haiga genre and the art of Yosa Buson (1716-1984). (Volumes I and II).

Yosa Buson (1716-84) was a leading practitioner of both literati painting and haiku poetry in Edo period Japan. Although he felt that the same creative impulse fed each discipline, existing scholarship has tended to compartmentalize his work. Taking a more integrative approach, this dissertation examines the form which most consistently and clearly expresses the unity Buson perceived between his painting and his poetry: the haiga. This genre has never been comprehensively surveyed in the West. So that Buson's haiga may be better understood, they are treated first in the context of several broader considerations of the form: its definition, sources, and earlier history of practice. First, there have been varying, frequently subjective definitions for the haiga ever since the term appeared in 1849. This study proposes that the genre may be studied most effectively when its identifying criteria are objective rather than subjective. Accordingly, the haiga is defined here as a composite work in which at least one inscribed haiku and a usually abbreviated painting exhibit linkage based on content. Second, neither general nor unique sources for the genre have ever been systematically explored as such. Therefore, this study discusses the haiga in terms of its specific configuration of pictorial and poetic sources in both the Chinese and Japanese traditions. Third, Buson's haiga were not an isolated phenomenon, but culminated generations of development. That prior history is surveyed here, with fuller discussion of haiga by Hinaya Ryuho (1595-1669), Matsuo Basho (1644-94), and Sakaki Hyakusen (1697-1752), the genre's most important earlier practitioners. Finally, Buson's haiga are comprehensively examined and interpreted. Often treated as addenda to his literati painting, they constitute a greater proportion of his oeuvre than has previously been perceived, and are central, not peripheral, to his creative activity. With consistently greater mastery than his predecessors, through appropriate linkage and stylistic and compositional choices, he fused the haiga's components into a whole that was repeatedly greater than the sum of its parts. In short, Buson's haiga may be seen as the crowning achievement of the genre and his most distinctive contribution to the history of Japanese art.Ph.D.Fine artsAsian literatureUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162508/1/9013984.pd

Consensus and divergence in international studies: Survey evidence from 140 international studies curriculum programs

There is a growing debate over the extent of consensus or divergence found within interdisciplinary International Studies (IS) programs. Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, this debate has taken place in the absence of empirical data. This article advances our understanding of the current state of IS curricula through an analysis of data generated from a survey of 140 interdisciplinary undergraduate IS majors across the United States. The surveyed programs comprise 63 Doctoral/Research institutions, 40 Master’s institutions, and 37 Baccalaureate institutions found in 38 states and the District of Columbia. The 140 programs are analyzed in terms of six basic components: introductory course(s), research methods, capstone course(s), area and/or thematic concentrations, study abroad, and foreign language requirements. The findings demonstrate significant areas of both consensus and divergence in IS programs.PublishedJournal Articl