The Third Annual Conference on Global Higher Education at Lakeland University Japan

John Rucynski, Jr. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages at Okayama University. His research interests include content-based instruction, the integration of language and culture teaching, and the role of humor in language education. He is the co-author of the textbooks Surprising Japan, Surprising Japan2 (Shohakusha) and Working in Japan (Cengage Learning) and the editor of New Ways in Teaching with Humor (TESOL Press).

Lee Laurel • Laurel Lee is a fourth-year student in the Faculty of International Liberal Arts at Soka University, Tokyo, Japan. In an effort to address a global issue, she has initiated and successfully organised the International Anti-nuclear Exhibition, “Transforming the Human Spirit” in Goldsmiths, University of London during her study abroad with her multi-cultural team from five countries. Originally from Singapore, she is fluent in English, Mandarin Chinese and is currently embracing Japanese.

Menezes Junior Adilson • Junior Menezes was born in Brazil and has lived in six countries. As a result, he has acquired an in-depth perspective of global citizenship and cross-cultural understanding. Junior is in his final year at the FILA program at Soka University and is planning to pursue his master studies in Educational Leadership in the USA. Junior has been teaching English in both Brazil and Japan for more than five years.

Steiner Gloria • With an Austrian background, Gloria Steiner moved to Japan when she was 18 years old. Through studying in a multi-cultural environment for more than four years, she developed a global mindset and learned to embrace diversity while deepening her cross-cultural understanding by living in two international dormitories with students from all over the world. She is currently a fourth-year student in the Faculty of International Liberal Arts at Soka University.

Toda Hideyuki • Hideyuki Toda is pursuing his Bachelor degree in an all-English program at Soka University. He cultivated cultural intelligence through studying abroad for one year each in the USA and the United Kingdom. Through his experience as a participant-observer for academic research in Malaysia, he gained awareness of the importance of an inclusive society. He plans to utilise the skills acquired in Soka University as a global social entrepreneur. He is originally from Kanagawa, Japan.

Mary graduated from Muskingum University with a BA in French, International Business, and Economics. She earned her MA TESOL from Bowling Green State University. She is a member of TESOL and has served as chair of the Awards and Grants Committee. Her teaching and research interests are academic writing and writing centers. At Kwansei Gakuin, Mary has coordinated the EC5 and EC6 Seminar courses.

Stew received his BA in International and East Asian Studies from Kalamazoo College, and his M.Ed. in TESOL from Seattle University. Before relocating to Japan, he was the Coordinator of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at the University of Notre Dame, Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures. His research interests include intercultural communication, International Teaching Assistant (ITA) training, and the assessment of oral proficiency.

Journalist-turned-academic, Andrew Horvat switched careers in the mid-90s after noticing that the most vociferous complaints about difficulties accessing Japanese markets came from monolingual foreign businessmen. Horvat accepted a fellowship at the National Foreign Language Center in Washington DC, where he studied language policy which he now teaches at Josai International University. Between 2008 and 2013, Horvat directed Stanford University’s undergraduate program in Kyoto. He is author of Japanese Beyond Words.

Paul Snowden is Vice-President of Kyorin University, Tokyo, and Emeritus Professor of Waseda, where he was Dean of the School of International Liberal Studies, 2006-2010. Recently increasingly involved with lexicography (e.g. Kenkyusha’s New Japanese-English Dictionary 5th edn.), he has also written many textbooks for many kinds of language learners. He lectures occasionally on Shakespeare, cultural (mis)understanding, global citizenship and anything else that might qualify as an International Liberal Art.

Dr. Gregory Poole is a professor of sociocultural anthropology at the Institute for the Liberal Arts, Doshisha University. His research interests are in the anthropology of education, language, and Japan and his publications include the monograph, The Japanese Professor: An Ethnography of a University Faculty (2010), as well as two recent co-edited volumes, Reframing Diversity in the Anthropology of Japan (2015) and Foreign Language Education in Japan: Exploring Qualitative Approaches (2015).

Dr. Aaron Kingsbury earned a PhD in geography from the University of Hawaii, USA. He has lived over 10 years in Japan and his research is centered on the construction of meaning and cultural change in agricultural communities across East Asia and North America.

Lona Smith earned a MA in Sociology from the University of North Dakota, USA. Her research is centered on social psychology and gerontology. This is her first experience in Asia.

Both Aaron and Lona are Assistant Professors at Mayville State.

Aaron Hahn is a Lecturer at Fukuoka University. He currently conducts research on how English language modeling can positively impact pedagogical practice, along with critical discourse analysis of TESOL scholarship.

Catalin Strimbei is a PhD Associate Professor at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania. He teaches databases systems and advanced information systems.

Roxana Marina Strainu is a PhD student at Alexandru Ioan Cuza Unviersity and she is working at her thesis about e-education systems.

Alexandra Nistor is a PhD student at Alexandru Ioan Cuza Unviersity and she is preparing a thesis about testing the systems.

Tomomi Sasaki: MA student, Graduate School of Humanities, Nanzan University