Buckeye Language Network Symposium: Fostering Cross-Departmental Collaboration
The Buckeye Language Network (BLN) Symposium, held annually at Ohio State University, serves as a vibrant platform for connecting faculty, scholars, and students across various departments. The symposium's primary goal is to foster cross-departmental exchange and collaboration, a mission it achieves through two main avenues: faculty presentations and graduate student poster sessions.
This year's symposium featured a compelling presentation by Javier Jasso, which sparked engaging discussions among attendees. The event also showcased 17 diverse and intriguing posters from multiple departments, highlighting the breadth of research being conducted at OSU. The poster session, a central element of the symposium, culminated in the awarding of prizes to outstanding contributions. Ash Lewis from the Linguistics department secured first prize, while Zeynep Arslan Ozkaynak from Multilingual Language Education earned second prize. Both awards were well-deserved, reflecting the high quality of research presented. The first prize was $400, and the second prize was $200.
Attendance at the symposium was encouraging, with approximately 40 participants. While post-pandemic fluctuations in numbers have been a challenge, the organizers are optimistic about increasing attendance in future iterations. The symposium continues to be a crucial event for fostering academic connections and collaborations within the OSU community.
The event was organized by a dedicated steering committee, including Micha Elsner (Department of Linguistics), Björn Köhnlein (Department of Linguistics), Carmen Taleghani-Nikazm (Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures), Francis Troyan (Department of French and Italian), and Janet Vuolo (Department of Speech & Hearing Sciences). Special thanks go to Anna Babel for her invaluable assistance as a poster judge, and to the Center for Languages, Literatures & Cultures, particularly Nick Gore and Julia Mains, for ensuring the availability of easels and poster boards.
Looking ahead, the Steering Committee plans to maintain the successful structure of faculty talks and graduate student poster sessions. Additionally, there is interest in reviving the undergraduate research panel, which aims to provide undergraduates with the opportunity to present their research and share their experiences. Although this initiative did not gain significant traction this year, the organizers are hopeful about its potential for next year's symposium.
Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive, with many expressing satisfaction with the poster session. While no specific anecdotes stood out, the general sentiment was reassuringly upbeat.