This semester, between teaching and her own studies, Karen Lopez Alonso had the opportunity to connect with and learn from a wide-variety of scholars. In the following she explains a standout presentation that she attended. 

“This semester there were wonderful lectures across disciplines. The discussion group “Cultural Resilience” has brought together a group of researchers from different disciplines, such as, Folklore, Literature, Linguistics, Geography, Anthropology, etc. One of the most remarkable presentations happened at their Conference Sustainable Pluralism: Linguistic and Cultural Resilience in Multiethnic Societies with Dr. Kendra McSweeney from the Department of Geography with a presentation entitled “The Limits to Socioecological Resilience in eastern Honduras”. 

The hard reality of Eastern Honduras described by Dr. McSweeney exhibited a community where resilience to language maintenance is just a layer of the multiple processes for survival. She explained that for these speakers of Tawahka, Miskitu was their lingua franca, but their education was provided in Spanish. This situation is just an example of the powers played in the community and much harder is their truth trying to stay alive after the effects from cocaine trafficking. The reaction to what is happening in this part of the World expanded in a deep sad silence in the room during her talk. This moving presentation makes one wonder how can one go to these realities and leave? Her work gives a light to the social role of the researcher in such hard realities. In simple words, there is more to fieldwork and research, it is key to our job to make an echo in that society, then we can share our experiences and findings with the World.”

This moment highlights just one of the many opportunities in which the graduate teaching assistants in the Spanish and Portuguese department are able to partake. Opportunities such as these allow students at Ohio State to dive deeper into the world of linguistics and become a part of research from around the world.