Humanities Program Spotlight:

Landmark Videoconference Links Language Students from OSU and Syria

The Ohio State University Foreign Language Center and World Media and Culture Center hosted a landmark videoconference on April 27, in the Kermit L. Hall Videoconference Center in Hagerty Hall. Students in OSU Professor Danielle Marx-Scouras’s French literature class and advanced French students at the University of Damascus, Syria, discussed the famous short story, “L´Hôte,” by Albert Camus. Although apparently a simple tale, this story is fraught with ambiguities and subtleties, making it ideal material for a cross-cultural discussion between students in Syria and the United States.

This event marks the first language-student exchange via videoconference between Ohio State and Syria. Both groups of students read Camus’s work prior to the conference and then discussed it, in French, for one hour, guided by Professor Marx-Scouras and Professor Loubana Mouchaweh, chair of the Department of French at the University of Damascus.

The Ohio State students reported that the videoconference enriched both their interactions with the students in Syria and their understanding of Camus's story. Melanie Bynum noted that the video connection allowed students to "communicate with hand gestures, facial expressions, and respond in accordance to the body language. It made the experience slightly less technological and more human." Adela Lechintan wrote that "The video conference with Damascus made me realize how universal the work of Camus is, being studied in countries with such a different culture. I felt like it was a lesson of generosity and hospitality (if we think about the postcolonial point of view on our topic of discussion, Camus's "The Guest") but also objectivity, coming from people whose history was marked by periods of colonization."

The conference was initiated in Damascus by Professor Sabra Webber (Department of Comparative Studies and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at Ohio State), who is visiting at the University of Damascus, and coordinated at Ohio State by Dr. Rebecca Bias, Foreign Language Technology Integration Specialist for the Foreign Language Center. The College of Humanities and the University of Damascus plan to hold two to three such conferences each year.

Further information about the Foreign Language Center is available online at http://flc.osu.edu/.