Cultural Connections

Please consider presenting on the culture and agriculture of a country your ancestors came from during the 12:40-1:35 class period on a Tuesday in January.  January 14 or 28 would be preferred.  (Tuesday is the only day that the excellent and large Wooster Science Building 175/175A is not being used around lunch time for classes). 

We also welcome presentations about different regions of the US.  

Just email me as soon as possible if you are interested.  We like to put together a flyer with photos of presenters and an image from your country and a title of the presentation, usually a well-known phrase about the country.  We like to start promoting 4 weeks in advance.  

We also welcome presentations by internationals from all countries that have not presented since we restarted the live series in the new building in November 2021 after the worst of COVID.  Below is all the preparation information that I share with Cultural Connections presenters: 

• As for sharing the food of your country, many participants use our CFAES International Programs purchasing Visa card to buy food at a local grocery store—or sometimes an international grocery in Cleveland or Columbus—and prepare the food themselves.  I have 4 slow cookers you can use to prepare food or keep it warm. 
• If people from your country—or ethnic heritage—work or study at CFAES Columbus, I will contact them to ask that they present from Columbus at the same time.  So you’ll have another person or people who can help you put the presentation together.  This can include faculty from your country.  
• You can watch a variety of previous presentations here:  https://ipa.osu.edu/wooster-campus  Just scroll down past the Celebration of Nations and bus announcements.  I suggest the presentation on Hungary, as it took place in the current room and had more than one presenter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbEGdyFt6qo  
• While some speakers favor a “my beautiful country” approach, others devote part of their talk to a specific agricultural issue giving their talk a title that looks good on their CV.  But only as long as it is explained in a way that the non-scientists in the audience can understand enough of it to enjoy it and learn something. “Where Culture Meets Agriculture” is the theme of the series –but feel free to bring in any insight (personal or gained through conversation, literature or media) connected to general rural life or food as well.  Please suggest a title that begins with the name of your country, then a phrase or a couple of its characteristics.  
• We normally devote the first 15 minutes to people lining up to get food and talking amongst themselves before the speaker and the streaming start.  But I’d like to explore ways to make those 15 minutes more productive.   So if you can think of statements/questions/food for thought etc. to either project on the screens during the first 15 minutes (or handouts I COULD copy and leave on the desks) for discussions of 2 or 3 people, tell me. 
• I encourage all speakers to send me their PowerPoints and notes so that I, a long-term language teacher, can ensure that everything is clear.  You would actually talk 35 minutes, but if you show a video or 2, this could be reduced to 25 minutes or a total of 12 minutes each, perhaps taking turns of talking in 3-to-6-minute blocks, according to the themes of your PowerPoint. 
• I always encourage speakers to speak slowly and annunciate, as over half the audience does not speak English natively.  I request that you send me your PowerPoint the day before so that I can have it cued before the event and in case something happens to your computer/ media storage device/ the internet. Because PowerPoints can be too large to send by email.  If the file is too large to send to my email, you can put it in my box file via a Buckeye Box link I will send you upon request.  Please email me when you have done so.  The PowerPoint must be put on the desktop computer—not a laptop.  
• As you can see on the flyers, we livestream the presentation via Zoom to Columbus, and indeed to anyone who connects via the URL.   We also make it available via my webpage for people to download later and watch.  It is good to leave a little room at the top of the PowerPoint because Zoom icons appear there.  
•  One presenter should bring a laptop to the event so that we can test the Zoom link.  As my Zoom account is the host of the meeting, my laptop will not work for this test.   
• We expect 30 to 55 people in Wooster.  Classroom size limits us to around 30 in Columbus.  The rsvp system will tell us how many meals to make in meat, vegetarian and vegan variations, preferably vegetarian and vegan versions of what you are giving the meat-eating audience.    Sometimes no one requests a vegan meal.  
•  I have a number of pots and serving dishes as well as hundreds of paper plates and napkins and plastic cups, forks, etc. so you would neither have to buy or set up any of that.  I handle all the announcements and arrangements.  A few presenters make drinks from their country.  I supply water for everyone. A minority of presenters supply drinks as well.  Please tell me as soon as you know whether you will include drinks. 
• I will work with an administrative assistant or fiscal person in your department so that you can use their p-card/p.card/purchasing card (an OSU credit card) to buy food from your part of the world in Columbus.  Diversity funds will pay for everything. 
• Please feel free to contact me about any aspect of this.   I hope you will share your mobile telephone number with me.  I am unlikely to use it but in cases of coordinating food or checking something before the presentation, a text or a call can solve a lot of problems.  Mine’s +1 605 691 1066.

If your country is not on the list below, please consider presenting.  

Presentations since we restarted the live series in the new building in November 2021 after the worst of COVID had forced us on to Zoom:  

38 Nov 16, 2021 Thailand.  Khwannarin Khemsom, Thanaphat Auwattanamongkol, Wirat Pipatpongpinyo and Ekachai Dumkliang 

39 Dec 9, 2021 Kazakhstan. Meirambek Mutalkhanov, Visiting Scholar, FABE

40 Mar 21, 2022 Hungary.  Distinguished Prof. Judit Puskas, FABE. Kristof Molnar, Research Associate, FABE

41 April 19, 2022 Panama. Nuris Acosta, Research Associate, Entomology. Luis Cañas, Assoc. Prof. of Entomology, CFAES Wooster/ Director of FAES International Programs

42 Sept 15, 2022 Denmark. Amalie Ehlers Bedsted, Visiting Fellow, Center for Food Animal Health

43 Oct 20, 2022 Malawi. Yamikani Ng’ona, Master’s Student, Entomology

44 Dec 8, 2022 Turkey FIRST IN COLUMBUS, Türkiye, Prof. Gonul Kaletunç, Food Innovation Center, FABE. Dr. Pinar Barkan, post-doctoral researcher, Entomology.  Dr. Bilal Bayazit, postdoctoral researcher, Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute, Wexner Medical Center

45 Jan 26, 2023 Vietnam. Nghi Nguyen, Graduate Student, Dorrance Lab, Plant Pathology 47 on photo, turned in 55 rsvps

46 Feb 16, 2023 Poland Martyna Sokołowska, Nina Kantor-Malujdy and Tomasz Konieczny

47 Tue April 19, 2023 Panama. Nuris Acosta, Dr. Luis Cañas, Entomology

48 Sept 26, 2023 Belize. Arnol Gomez, Graduate Student, Entomology

49 Oct 13, 2023 Spain. Drs. Javier Campos and Carla Roman, Visiting Scholars, Food, Agricultural & Biological Engineering Dept.

50 Nov 16, 2023 Ecuador. Fiama Guevara, Jorge Valle, Juan Quijia and Andres Velasco, Graduate Students Plant Path and HCS Departments 

51 April 2, 2024 Ethiopia. Debasu Gella Doctoral Fellow/ Visiting Scholar, Center for Food Animal Health

52 April 4, 2024 Japan in Columbus. Mizuki Yoshida, Entomology Columbus

53 Sept 17, 2024 Pakistan. Sonia Hussain, Visiting Scholar, Plant Pathology. Nimra Khalid, Research Technician; Shuja Majeed, Graduate Research Associate; Muhammad Saad, Graduate Research Fellow, all from Animal Science

54 Oct 8, 2024 Ukraine. Dr. Maksym Kolesnikov, Head, Dept. of Crop Production & Horticulture, Dmytro Motornyi Tavria State Agrotechnological University, Ukraine

Wishing you a happy end to the semester, 

Jason