International Roundtable to Address COVID-19 Perspectives

BETHANY, W.Va. – The latest installment of the Bethany College COVID-19 Lecture Series is taking a global approach to the pandemic with Bethany representatives from nine countries participating.

At 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Harald Menz, director of international studies and professor of world languages, will moderate a roundtable discussion featuring past and present Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants at Bethany. Click here to access the Zoom link. The roundtable also will be live on Bethany’s Facebook page and archived for later viewing.

Current Fulbright FLTAs Tim Hefner, of Germany, and Inès Nabi, of France, and Bethany students Sophie Morey, of Australia, and Kyle D’Angela, of Canada, will participate in the live session.

Bethany student Tatiana Drew, of Antigua & Barbuda, current FLTA Shaymaa Kullab, of Gaza in the Palestinian Territories, and former Bethany FLTAs Professor Ming Gu, of Beijing, Aya El Shafei, of Egypt, and Chu-Yun Hsueh, of Taiwan, have submitted videos addressing the COVID-19 pandemic in their respective countries and how it has changed their daily lives.

El Shafei and Hsueh were at Bethany for the 2019-2020 academic year and experience the college’s shift to remote learning in March.

A question-and-answer portion is also planned during the hour-long event.

Hefner, Nabi, and Kullab are teaching German, French, and Arabic language and culture, respectively, for Bethany this academic year. The three Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants also helped organize the international roundtable event.

Three more installments of the COVID-19 Lecture Series remain this fall before picking up again in the spring semester. All lectures are available for viewing live on the Bethany College Facebook page.

The upcoming fall speakers are:

Oct. 27: Molecular Scale and Viral Transmission by Scott Brothers, associate professor of chemistry.

Nov. 10: Pandemics Past and Present by Ian Lanzillotti, assistant professor of history.

Nov. 17: Pandemics, Parties, and the Election of 2020 by Joe Lane, provost, dean of faculty, and professor of political science.

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Bethany College, founded in 1840, is the oldest private college in West Virginia. The Bethany experience focuses on academic excellence in the area of liberal arts and prepares students for a lifetime of work and a life of significance.