Enews413 新進教師簡介-Alex Escalante講師
出自KMU e-News
高雄醫學大學e快報 第413期 通識教育中心專題
新進教師簡介-語言與文化中心 Alex Escalante講師
Hey!/Hola!/ 你好! My name is Alex Escalante, M.A., but please call me “Alex.” Oh yeah! I now have a Chinese name: 燚 喬 艾. I am a teacher at Kaohsiung Medical University, the General Education Center of Language and Culture, to be specific. I moved to Taiwan 2 ½ years ago, been instructing at KMU for most of my time here. I am fortunate enough to be able to call upon a very diverse educational and professional background, which I use to ensure I am giving my students a proper forum to rock some cognition. I have a Certificate of Completion in Communication & an Associate’s degree (major in History) from Bakersfield College. I also have a Bachelor’s degree from California State University, major in History with a minor in Communication (graduated with honors, Magna Cum Laude), as well as a Master‘s degree from California State University (graduated with highest honors, Summa Cum Laude).
When I was 18, I joined the U.S. Army. I ended up being sent to fight in the war in Iraq, was there for 18 months (that whole experience definitely changed my life). After I returned to California, I began my university education. While in California State University for graduate school, I also started training and working as an H.S.I. Special Agent criminal investigator (trainee). I eventually changed careers to be a university professor instead. I have taught numerous classes and in numerous disciplines, including: Introduction to Sociology, Sociological Research Methods, World History, American History, Public Speaking, English Literature, English Composition, even taught Mathematics one semester. I wanted to live my life abroad and knew that my teachings as a university/sociology professor would only benefit if I lived as a global citizen and interacted with other professors, academics, students, etc. from a different culture than mine. I did not want to live my life ensconced, vegetating in one little corner of the world. I resigned from my tenure-track professor position to move to Asia (Taiwan).
I designed my class to be less of a clinic on the memorization of a factual inventory, and more of a cognitive safari as we objectively and critically analyze humanity, like: why we are the way we are, what we scientifically know about the human condition, and where we are going. My goal is to challenge your preconceptions about the world. We have all been taught and trained to see the world in a particular way, usually vis-a-vis our cultural lenses. I design my class to urge you to step out of that context, pull back that veil, remove those lenses, turn around, and objectively analyze what is there, to see what is really there, as opposed to seeing what we have been trained to see.
I have a challenge for you. [If you see me walking around campus; I challenge you to stop me and identify the punctuation mistake I made in this sentence.] If you are a former student of mine and you do not see the punctuation mistake, dude, seriously, we need to talk (do the Starbucks Test). Haha. I was recently vaccinated and I experienced an unusual side effect; I got really good at Mario Kart. Come at me, bro! Haha
I would like to thank all of the students, faculty, and staff at KMU. All of whom have helped to make me feel welcome and have definitely made my stay in Taiwan so incredible.
