Teach

Course to offer for fall 2023 at University of Wisconsin-Madison:

JOURN 162 — MASS MEDIA IN MULTICULTURAL AMERICA 


This is an introduction to the roles and functions of print, film, electronic and digital media in multicultural America. It offers international comparisons that highlight differences and commonalities in the social and cultural position of mass media in societies with racially and ethnically diverse populations. 

Research, Training & Practice

Berktay, Asli. & Wang, J. (2022). "Co-teaching Theme Parks: A Collaboration between An Anthropologist and A Historian (一门关于主题公园的课程，历史学与人类学的火花)." Interviewed and translated by Mengzhu An. TyingKnots, April 8.

Wang, J., & Hargis, J. (2021). "Reflections on productive discomfort and the right amount of confusion, frustration and success." Journal of Transformative Learning, 8(1).

COURSE TITLE | Global Perspectives on Society (GPS)

Between 2019 and 2021, I was a postdoctoral fellow at NYU Shanghai, teaching the course of Global Perspectives on Society (GPS), together with my colleagues.

In this course, we explore a set of recurring questions about how society is, or should be, organized, based on the close examination of diverse thinkers and writers from different time periods and different parts around the world. Over the semester, students develop skills that are central to a liberal education.

For the GPS course in Fall 2019, students learned to:

Field trip to Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum, 2020:

I believe hands-on experiences are critical to facilitating students' self-learning. 

Students wrote field trip reports on their observations and reflections.  


In the fall of 2020, we covered topics including:


Due to COVID-19, students and I worked hard to co-create an inclusive, stimulating learning environment. 

Our sections are in the blended mode, i.e. simultaneously taking place online and in person. As one student commented in the Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET), "She maintains a good balance between discipline and welfare, with a compassionate understanding of the problems that students face, especially remotely."

Some students also visited the Shanghai Propaganda Art Center after the semester ended. 

COURSE TITLE | Ambitious and Ambiguous: A Journey into Theme Parks in China 

Ambitious and ambiguous, the theme park phenomenon in China is an integral part of a fast-changing neoliberal economy fueled by national imagination. This course invites students to embark a journey into theme parks in contemporary China. The journey starts with an intellectual mapping of the idea of theme parks around the world. We will look at the theories surrounding theme parks on a global scale, as well as the theories surrounding national imagination. Then, we will turn our attention to the diverse theme parks in China. More specifically, students will explore different historical, cultural, ethnic, national, and gender narratives which bridge the knowledge gap between the global and the national through case studies. 

Co-taught with Dr. Asli Berktay, a historian of the enslaved experience, of the slave trade and of comparative slavery in both Africa and in the African Diaspora. 

Due to the outbreaks of COVID-19, this course was an experimental teaching experience in many ways. 

We used different classroom settings and virtual reality technology among other ways.  Students learned how to conduct fieldwork without physically visiting a theme park (though we really planned to!). 

If you are interested in the syllabus or the design of the course, feel free to contact me. 

To be updated!