SPRING 2023 Travel Course Offerings

SPRING 2023 Three-Credit Travel Course Offerings

Course Topic and Destination Leader
AHT 225T Naples and the Sea Gee
Founded as a Greek colony on the fertile yet dangerous flanks of a volcano bordering the sea, Naples in the southern part of the Italian Peninsula has a history rich in upheavals, crossings and transformations that have shaped its unique cultural identity over the years. During varied political regimes, from the Romans to the Angevins, the crown of Aragon to the Kingdom of the two Sicily’s, the Mediterranean Sea nurtured the fortunes of the port city and its inhabitants. Commerce and politics long arrived by sea; migrating people, objects and ideas similarly converged on ships to one of the largest metropolises on the European continent. Palaces and churches, painting and sculpture, along with music, poetry and a bustling city life expressed the tumultuous inner spirit and aspirations of the maritime city. This course looks at the relation between Naples and the sea through different visual art forms from Antiquity to the present. In particular, it considers the modes through which aesthetic practices could help channel, negotiate, and construct the Neapolitan imagination at the crossroads of maritime cultural routes. The course includes an academic travel to Naples where students will get first-hand experience of the city and its arts. (Recommended prerequisite: AHT 102 or AHT 103 or AHT 280.)
BUS 136T Marketing in a Global Context (Med) Miniero
This course is an introduction to the tools and concepts used in the marketing process for consumer and industrial products as well as for services. The focus is on the basic marketing concepts (product, place, price, promotion) as they relate to the field of global marketing. Emphasis is placed on the increasingly important role of interdisciplinary tools to analyze economic, cultural and structural differences across international markets. Specific consideration is given to the development of integrated marketing programs for a complex, global environment. The travel component of the course will provide students with the opportunity to experience the marketing concepts (product, place, price and promotion) for the specific case of a cruise company (MSC Cruise). Students will go on a cruise on the Mediterranean Sea and will work side to side with the cruise management.
BUS 235T Corp Social Responsibility (Netherlands) Schultz
The course provides students with a state-of-the-art understanding of corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The practical relevance of CSR is highlighted through various examples that show how corporations have to deal with emerging ecological and social sustainability issues and stakeholder demands. Given the challenges' underlying complexity and uncertainty as well as multi-stakeholder involvement, corporations require awareness and strategic thinking to engage with their evolving responsibilities. Drawing on examples from various sectors, students will learn about different managerial approaches to address CSR issues and meet diverging stakeholder demands when designing and implementing long-term CSR strategies. The travel component of this course will take place in the Netherlands: Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
BUS 257T Global Social Business (Spain) Mehra
The UN Agenda 2030 – Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a global commitment made to address challenges related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. Amongst other actors in the public, private and non-profit domain, there is a new form that is disrupting the role and identity of business. Social businesses are created with the main intent and purpose to deliver both social and financial value to society. Students will be introduced to the SDGs and will focus on a) understanding role of business and responsible leadership b) social innovation and design thinking c) stakeholders engagement and the innovative business models d) SDG impact measurement and B-Lab movement. Through case studies of global social businesses, interactive discussions and hands-on problem solving, students will have the opportunity to better understand and address sustainable development challenges through travels in Spain (Madrid and Barcelona)
CLCS 105T Paris Protagonist: Lost in Translation Ferrari
This Academic Travel and creative writing course creates the occasion for an intensive hybrid scholarly/creative encounter with a mythical urban landscape which figuratively lives and breathes, as a protagonist, through French literature and film. The travel component that underscores this course will also mark the culmination of this Parisian encounter, ushering students from the realm of theory to practice with daily (on-location/site-driven) writing prompts and workshop-style events designed to address the following key questions: What forms does this protagonist assume as s/he endures through time? What voices emerge from the space of her debris? What gets lost in translation and how can the dialogue between art and cultural theory aide us in finding our way through this impasse of loss? How can the deepening of a student’s cultural awareness help the City of Light avoid being subsumed by her own, distinctive, and almost irresistible, charme fatal? Three thematic modules will frame this exploration and create a groundwork on which to base the student’s intellectual discovery and experimentation as writers/travelers: the poetry of Charles Baudelaire highlights the unique experience of Parisian space; the contribution of Surrealism which both defines and defies the peculiarities of Parisian time; the French New Wave (contrasted to foreign cinematic renderings of Paris), with a focus on the twin concepts of translation-transfiguration, allegories of Light and “Othering.” Students enrolling in this course may expect dual-language editions of French literary sources and French films with English subtitles (when possible).
CLCS 236T Prague on the Page Roy
The literature of Prague lies in the city's complex web of identities, a web created by social upheaval through the ages. Beginning with sixteenth-century tales of the Golem, the clay figure animated by Rabbi Loew to protect the city's Jewish community, students will investigate how Prague's writers have responded to the politics of their times by embracing the surreal and the ambiguous. In particular, this class will look at how these authors have found inspiration in the city itself. Reading includes Franz Kafka's evocation of the early twentieth-century city and a selection of works by more recent writers such as Weil, Kundera, and Hakl. Studying the way these writers repeatedly draw on each other through the idea of the city as a text, students will visit their haunts in Prague and its surroundings, and map their works onto the city's landscape and onto its history, with the surreal Kafka museum as a starting point.
CLCS 251T Reading Moroccan Culture Saveau
This course examines gender, ethnic, class, family, age, religious relationships within contemporary Morocco. It first provides students with a historical overview of Morocco since its independence in 1956, focusing on the monarchies of Hassan II and Mohammed VI the current king. It explores the power dynamics that exist in a society that is predominantly patrilinear and where gender roles are mostly divided along a binary system; it studies the place of the individual in a society where the collective ego prevails; it considers the place of Berber identity within Moroccan society and finally it explores Sufism as a counter-power to any form of Islamic rigorism. All the themes studied are substantiated with presentations by Moroccan scholars working in the fields of sociology, gender, ethnic, religious, and music studies. (Knowledge of French recommended.) This course carries a supplemental fee: CHF 300 (for students invoiced in CHF) or USD 330 (for students invoiced in USD).
COM 235T Food Journalism and Culture (Italy) Martinisi
The importance of food is clear: we eat food to stay alive and thrive. Food, its production, commodification, preparation and consumption is and it has long been a place of cultural formation, negotiation and mediatization. In this sense food journalism plays a crucial role in today's journalism practice around the world in attracting a larger and diversified readership. The course will introduce food through its mediated representation involving journalism but also film, television and the Internet. The topics include the politics of celebrity chefs, food TV shows, restaurant reviews, lifestyle journalism, and other food media's place in the "world of goods". It will also include the social dimensions of food in media by engaging with issues of multinational power, globalization and inequality. The travel component to Italy will include visits to Milan, Parma, and Bologna. This will offer a great opportunity for students to develop insights into the field of food journalism and to experience the excellence of the Italian food with the aim of connecting food texts, culture and writing.
ECN 125T Venice: Econ History & Current Challenge Terzi
The course introduces students to the economic history of Venice and the challenges Venice is facing. Students investigate the origin of Venice as a Byzantine province, the development of independent and long-standing political institutions, the flourishing of banking and commerce when Venice was a world political and financial power, the architecture, the social fabric of the city, the exceptional flowering of the visual and applied arts, the lagoon as both protection and threat, the contemporary identity of Venice as a major tourist destination, and its current challenge in making tourism more sustainable and in developing ideas for preserving and rethinking the city. This course includes travel to Venice and its lagoon with overnight boat trips.
ENV 230T Freshwater Conservation Della Croce
This course explores various aspects of rivers, freshwater lakes, and groundwater aquifers. It provides an introduction to the distinct ecology of these three freshwater systems, their human uses, different approaches to their conservation, possibilities for restoration of degraded systems, and a look at the role that lakes and rivers play in international relationships. During Academic Travel, the class will visit various freshwater systems and will also practice field data collection techniques. Tentatively, the travel will take place in North-East Italy and Slovenia. This course may also include shorter day-trips to local points of interests.
POL 215T Inequality and Politics (Spain) Volpi
Since the 1980s, economic inequality has been increasing in all advanced democracies. This course will provide a broad overview of the causes and consequences of the growing economic inequality in Europe and the US. In doing so, this course will clarify the meanings of "economic inequality", consider the relationship between inequality and democracy, explore trends in inequality, and situate current economic disparities in a historical context. Some of the major themes of the course are: causes of growing economic inequality, poverty, public opinion, inequalities in political voice and representation, the role of money and politics, and public policy. This travel course will take students to Spain, specifically to Sevilla and Madrid. Students will have the opportunity to meet scholars working on inequality with different approaches and to talk with NGOs that work to reduce different kinds of inequalities.
POL 381T Sustainable Development in Africa Zanecchia
This advanced Academic Travel course to Botswana builds on the politics and practice of sustainable development in the industrial North and developing South. Through case studies and on-site analysis, students will better understand the political, social, economic, historical, and cultural relationships that encompass the important field of sustainable development. Students will analyze how developed and lesser developed countries approach environmental sustainability and natural resource management. Student research projects will include team-based analyses of climate change and the related politics of sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, biodiversity, and sustainable design within the context of conventional and critical development theories. This course carries a supplemental fee: CHF 1,550 (for students invoiced in CHF) or USD 1,700 (for students invoiced in USD).
PSY 214T Positive Psychology and Health Montross
This course examines and applies the psychological theories, research, and evidence-based interventions designed to optimize health and well-being. By focusing on topics such as creativity, happiness, hope, humor, gratitude, mindfulness, resilience, spirituality, and wisdom, students will explore how human beings can best thrive and reach their full potential. This course will allow for an in-depth examination of how people across various generations and cultures have used their strengths to help themselves grow and their communities flourish - even during difficult times. Overall, students will learn new perspectives on how to live a healthy, meaningful life, and gain strategies to authentically advance the greater good for all humans. The travel component will take place in Spain, tentatively Madrid or Barcelona.
STA 275T Studies in Ceramics (Italy) Zdanski
This introductory ceramics course combines art history and studio work with an intensive travel period in northern and central Italy. Students will be given the opportunity to understand the complete process of producing objects in clay and terracotta, from the first planning/designing phases, through the basic modeling techniques, to the more complicated processes of firing and glazing. Studio sessions both on and off campus will incorporate lectures on artists and art movements, as well as visits to local venues, major museums and other sites of importance with regard to the use of clay and terracotta in the fine arts. The on-campus lectures aim to provide students with an understanding of the importance of northern and central Italy for the history of ceramics from the age of the Etruscans to the present day. All students will have the opportunity to do in-depth, intensive work in clay modeling, hand-built ceramics and glazing techniques. The first part of the course will focus on the functional aspects of the terracotta object, while the second will introduce terracotta as sculpture.

SPRING 2023 One-Credit Travel Course Offerings

Course Topic and Destination Leader
TVL 258 Career Dev for Global Citizens (Prague) Rayford
How does one integrate an international education experience with the career development process? This course emphasizes preparation for graduate and professional experience by introducing and familiarizing students with the career development process. Particular focus is placed on identifying and communicating the skills, traits, and values gained through international, cross-cultural, and disciplinary learning experiences. In Prague, students will interact closely with Franklin alums through networking and coaching sessions. Through on-site visits, they develop skills specific to the international job search. The class is geared toward juniors and seniors who are planning for their future after university and working internationally.