Jonathan Choti is Assistant Professor of African Languages in the Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages at Michigan State University (MSU). He holds a PhD in linguistics from MSU. He teaches Swahili language and courses in the Integrative Arts and Humanities (IAH) Program and College of Arts and Letters that focus on African cultures, languages, and literature. He was the faculty leader of the 6-week TPP-sponsored study abroad Program, namely Sustainable Community Development in Tanzania, in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019. Dr. Choti obtained his MA (English language and linguistics) and BA (sociology, English, and Swahili) from Egerton University, Kenya. He was a high school Swahili and English teacher in Kenya, a management communication lecturer at Kenya’s School of Government and a linguistics lecturer at the University of Eastern Africa-Baraton, Kenya. Dr. Choti is a member of the Association of Contemporary African Linguists (ACAL), the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL), African language Teachers’ Association (ALTA), and Kenya Scholars and Studies Association (KESSA). Dr. Choti’s research interests focus on the phonology and morphology of Bantu languages, sociolinguistics, second language pedagogy, and African cultures.

Eric Owusu Danquah is currently a graduate research assistant at the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences at MSU where he is pursuing a PhD in Crop and Soil Science. His research interest is in cropping systems and sustainable food production in the face of climate change.  As a research scientist with the CSIR – Crops Research Institute of Ghana, Eric, was a key team member of the yam improvement team at his institute which used participatory research approach with yam farmers to address the challenges of yam production in Ghana and the “west Africa yam belt”. The research suggested mechanized ridging with chemical fertilizer and trellis/minimum-staking options for sustainable yam production on continuously cropped fields, to address the problem of deforestation and drudgery associated with yam production.

He is also the African PI of the Africa R&D Connect of the Alliance for African Partnership of MSU whose objective is to enable interdisciplinary networking among students and faculty for sustained and continue collaborations after MSU for agriculture research and development in Africa.