Purdue News
Purdue News
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January 16, 2004 Lecture series will bring slice of Cuba to PurdueWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University faculty members have launched a research and teaching collaboration with two Cuban universities and are presenting a series of 12 lectures on campus about the island nation. The first presentation of the "Experiencing Cuba" series on Wednesday (1/21) will focus on the plan to develop an educational exchange program among Purdue, University of Havana and the Agrarian University of Havana. Four Purdue faculty members, who recently visited Cuba and met with faculty and administrators from the two universities, will talk about the outcome of those meetings. "This is an opportunity for Purdue to be represented in Cuba during a time of transition in that country," said Bob O'Neil, Purdue entomology professor. "A lot of agriculture-based industry is in Cuba and a number of American companies have already been there." The chance to have the three universities working together in research and education is an excellent way to improve relations between the United States and Cuba, he said. As a first step toward this, Purdue faculty members have formed the Committee on Scholarly Exchange with Cuba. The committee includes O'Neil; Kamayar Haghighi, an agricultural and biological engineering professor; Bruce Hamaker, food science professor and director of the Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research; and Harry Targ, political science professor. They will take approximately 15 students to Cuba for a three-credit course, called "Experiencing Cuba," during the Purdue Maymester. Fifteen days of the 21-day course will be in the country, which lies 90 miles off the coast of Florida. "It's good for our students to see a society in transition and to see how a socialist country functions," O'Neil said. The committee anticipates a time when Cuban students can come here on an exchange program, but he said that isn't possible at this time. O'Neil, Haghighi, Hamaker and Targ will comprise the panel for Wednesday's (1/21) presentation, which will be from 4:30-6 p.m. in the Morgan Room on the second floor of the Food Science Building. All the programs are free and open to the public. Subsequent series topics will include "Cuban history and politics, U.S./Cuban relations, conducting business in Cuba, Cuba and the food system, Afro-Cuban history and culture, women in Cuba, alternative agriculture in Cuba, Cuban film, Cuban baseball and Cuban social policy. The presentations will take place at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, with the exact schedule to be announced. Further information can be obtained by e-mailing Hamaker (hamaker@purdue.edu), O'Neil (rjoneil@entm.purdue.edu), Haghighi (haghighi@purdue.edu) or Targ (targ@polsci.purdue.edu). Writer: Susan A. Steeves, (765) 496-7481, ssteeves@purdue.edu Source: Bob O'Neil, (765) 494-7207, rjoneil@entm.purdue.edu Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722; Beth Forbes, bforbes@aes.purdue.edu Related Web site:
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