JT
Jessica Tate
  • World Languages
  • Class of 2018
  • Nashville, AR

Jessica Tate studies communication and culture in Argentina

2017 Dec 19

Jessica Tate of Nashville, AR, was among a group of nine University of Arkansas at Little Rock students who had the opportunity to explore Argentinian culture on a study abroad trip this fall.

Dr. Avinash Thombre, professor of applied communication, led the group of students to Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nov. 15-22 to explore cultural hybridity, health disparities, and communications.

Thombe described Argentina as the perfect country to explore a hybrid culture, with immigrant populations from Italy, Germany, Spain, Syria, and China. While in Argentina, they discussed communication and culture with students and faculty from the Universidad de Buenos Aires. They also interviewed Argentinians who have mixed European and Indian ancestry to understand the process of hybrid identity formation in a modern society.

The class also studied the origins of tango, took lessons with local instructors, and got a taste of the local culture through drinking yerba mate, a popular herbal tea that is served in a hollow gourd and drunk through a metal straw called a bombilla.