I attended the second Tinker Talks presentation at Enarson Classroom. The event included four different presentations from graduate students in the process of researching at Ohio State. These students were awarded funds to conduct pre-dissertation research in Latin American countries from the Tinker Foundation’s Field Grant through a competition conducted by the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS). The first presentation was about Chile Peppers in Southern Mexico. The student traveled throughout Mexico collecting different varieties of the pepper to test the abiotic stress of drought and environmental adaptations to the stress. The topic of sharing one’s backyard chile peppers was an “ice breaker” for their research in which it culturally brings together the community was helpful. 

The second presentation was about glacier retreat on water resources and geo-hazards. The study was conducted in Cordillera Blanca, Perú. A team of researchers climbed the summit continuously collecting samples and extracting ice cores. This Latin American area is of interest due to its tropical location with the Pacific Ocean and the Amazon surrounding the mountain.

The third presentation was the study of Swidden agriculture and foraging effects on wildlife. Swidden is another word for the type of agriculture called slash and burn. In Belize, through surveys conducted on the Mayan locals, information was collected on the hunting procedures and animals within the community.

The last presentation was the most intriguing to me as I am currently studying Spanish. The focus of the study was on Linguistic expressions in Matanza Cuban Spanish. This research was conducted on how the rules of grammar are always changing with the addition of new expressions. The student was focusing on diachronic semantics utilized in real situations to simplify things in one’s language. There were two specific alterations in the grammar that were studied. The first study was an absolute generalization of grammar with the use of an obligate phrase, “Tener que”, for the future tense. The second study was about the state of the environment with the use of past prospective phrases, “Iba que”, for a hypothetical situation.

The students are continuing their research currently and will progress with this pre-dissertation collection of information at Ohio State. I enjoyed being a member of the audience learning about Ohio State research being conducted by graduate students. It was a great opportunity to learn about my interests in Latin American studies and about the ongoing community events.