Students will present on international topics Wednesday. (Photo by Tim
Marsh, WSU Today)
Marsh, WSU Today)
PULLMAN – It’s called the Globalization Poster Gallery, but the undergraduate presenters often have a personal connection to the topic they are presenting.
In this year’s poster session, scheduled 4-5 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 1, in the CUB junior ballroom, U.S.-born and foreign-born WSU students will be exploring a variety of topics, from how religious symbols are used or misused by non-believers to whether children in war-torn countries experience violent video games differently than children in the United States.
The three-year-old poster session encourages students to find a topic with international implications and explore it. Kelsey Hawthorne, International Center coordinator, said about half of the presenters will be students who have participated in a WSU education abroad program and the other half will be students affiliated with the International Center. In many cases U.S.-born students draw on their experiences living abroad, while foreign-born students pursue topics that emerge during their time in the United States.
Kate Wray Chettri, Education Abroad advisor and outreach coordinator, said the Globalization Poster Gallery is another opportunity for students working in either Education Abroad or the International Center to tie their own international experiences to global issues. “We asked them to find something that has a local-global connection,” she said.
One student will be presenting research on why certain lifestyle choices common in France but less common here, could contribute to lower obesity rates in that country. Another student who studied in France is looking at the controversy over old-age pensions, and how that compares to U.S. policies regarding older Americans, she said. A student who studied in Japan will be presenting research on differences in business culture in Japan and the U.S.
All of these projects allow students to stay connected to their international experience while also digging deeper and making connections to globalization, Wray Chettri said.
The same is true for students from other countries who are experiencing a foreign culture here in the United States, Hawthorne said.
Po Yi Wong of Hong Kong was surprised to walk into a Las Vegas restaurant over the Thanksgiving break and see a statue of Buddha, even though the restaurant served meat. Many Chinese Buddhists do not eat beef or other large animals, Wong said, so she was surprised to see the image of the Buddha there.
Wong, a senior majoring in communication and international business, decided to research how other religious symbols are misused, including the Christian cross, for the Globalization Poster Gallery.
“I would like to bring some awareness to how people should be more sensitive to religious symbols,” she said.
Vanessa Han of Korea and Ngoc Thai of Vietnam decided to team up on a poster about the destruction of World Heritage Sites. Around the world, there are more than 900 sites that have been identified as having outstanding universal significance for cultural or natural reasons, according to the World Heritage Centre, a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) initiative started in 1972.
Protecting World Heritage Sites should be everyone’s concern, said Han, because the sites aren’t just important to one country, they are important to the world. Sites are in danger for many reasons, she said, including war, natural disasters and simple decay.
In her country, she said, in 2008 an arsonist destroyed the Great South Gate, the 600-year-old entry to what was once the walled city of Seoul.
“We lost our most important treasure to fire,” she said, because there weren’t sufficient security precautions in place.
Thai said their poster would show ruined World Heritage Sites from around the world, including Spain, Italy, France and China. People need to understand how important these sites are and more needs to be done to protect them, she said.
For more information about the Globalization Poster Gallery, go here.