Discover more information about the travel courses here.
FALL 2026 Travel Course Offerings
| Course | Topic and Destination | Leader |
|---|---|---|
| AHT 222T | Design Studies (Singapore and Malaysia) | Fassl |
| This course explores the fascinating histories of objects and environments that qualify as icons of design. How do the Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building or the Burj Khalifa stand as markers for values and ideals? Why makes for the longevity of the Little Black Dress as a fashion icon? These and other questions prompt the course to study built environments and landscapes, designed spaces of interiors and for performance, as well as graphic design, industrial design, the decorative arts, and fashion design. Through an interdisciplinary framework that considers materials, technology, culture, consumption, politics, and sustainability, students will acquire the theoretical underpinning to understand how design is shaped and how processes of ‘iconization’ are at work for both tangible products and non-tangibles, including lifestyles. Following historical, technical and theoretical studies and analyses, students will be guided through a design-thinking process to create a prototype for their own design idea and product. The design thinking skills acquired in the course will equip students with valuable tools to be applied to projects in other academic disciplines and to professional tasks. The course addresses all aspects and approaches of the Art Histories, Ecologies, Industries major. NOTE: This Academic Travel course carries a supplemental fee: CHF 1’175 (for students invoiced in CHF) or USD 1,565 (for students invoiced in USD). | ||
| AHT 263T | Art and Food (France) | Gee |
| This course looks at connections between the visual arts and food, considered both under the perspective of edible substance, and the culinary arts. First, it explores the representation of food in pictorial traditions in the early modern and modern ages, considering social, cultural and economic visual and culinary intersections. Second, the course engages with contemporary art practices that place food as their core material and subject matter. In doing so, the discussion moves to present issues regarding the politics of food. Here, aesthetics can confront socio-economic and environmental debates through joint representational and eatable strategies, where relations take the center stage. The course involves some encounters with artists and scholars who work with contemporary culinary aesthetics and food politics. The travel component is France where the group will participate in additional artistic visits and workshops. The course addresses all aspects and approaches of the Art Histories, Ecologies, Industries major. (Recommended prerequisite: AHT 102, AHT 103 or AHT 280.) | ||
| BIO 215T | Alp Nordic Ecosystem (Bormio, Italy) | Piccinelli |
| This course offers an in-depth study of cold ecosystems, encompassing a wide-ranging exploration from the European Alps to the Nordic regions, focusing on their ecological dynamics. It provides a comprehensive look at the environmental factors influencing these unique regions, including their diverse flora and fauna. The course will explore ecological processes, interactions, and the adaptations of species to their environments in both the Alpine and Nordic contexts. Students will engage with current issues such as climate change, human impacts, and ecological conservation challenges. The Travel component will allow direct observation and hands-on experience on the field. Students should be prepared for outdoor activities in varied weather conditions and terrains. Travel Destination: Bormio (Italian Alps). The academic travel component of this course will take place in Bormio (Italy), where students will conduct structured field-based activities in alpine environments aligned with course learning objectives. | ||
| BUS 243T | Personal Finance (Germany) | Suleiman |
| This course introduces students to the basic concepts and tools needed to make wise and informed personal financial decisions. The content of this course is presented from a practical point of view and with an emphasis on the consumer as the financial decision-maker. The primary objective of this course is to help students apply finance practices to their own life. For example, students will learn how to plan and manage personal finances, how to obtain credit to purchase a home or a car, and how to invest personal financial resources in stocks, bonds, and real estate. Students will also learn how to interpret financial and economic news that have an impact on personal finances. The travel component of this course will include visits to several cities in Germany such as Frankfurt and Berlin. During those visits, students will be introduced to financial institutions that are relevant for personal finance such as the ECB, the Frankfurt stock exchange, commercial banks, and wealth management and real estate firms. | ||
| CLCS 205T | Paris Protagonist: Lost in Translation | Ferrari |
| This creative writing course fosters and critical and creative encounter with the city of Paris, approached as a mythical urban landscape; one that lives and breathes as a protagonist through French literature and film. Students will critically examine how Paris has been imagined, constructed, and contested across time, considering the ways in which artistic and theoretical discourses shape and are shaped by the city’s evolving cultural identity. The travel component serves as the culmination of this encounter, moving students from analysis to creative praxis through daily site-specific writing prompts and workshop-style discussions. Core questions driving this exploration include: In what forms does the city persist as a protagonist across literary and cinematic history? What voices emerge from its ruins and reinventions? How do translation and transfiguration mediate our understanding of place, memory, and loss? And how might deepened cultural awareness complicate the allure of Paris as an aestheticized and mythologized space? Three thematic modules structure this inquiry: The poetry of Charles Baudelaire, foregrounding the spatial poetics of the city; Surrealism’s paradoxical approach to time—both defining and destabilizing Parisian temporality; The French New Wave (contrasted with foreign cinematic representations of Paris), with a focus on translation, transfiguration, and the allegorical play of light and otherness. (Course previously taught as CLCS 105T) | ||
| CLCS 310T | The Culture of Cities (Berlin) | Wiedmer |
| Portrayed at once as a space of disruption and of stability, of danger and of creativity, of inclusion and exclusion, the modern city has occupied a central place in the modernist and postmodernist imagination. Central to the contemporary imagination is the way urban environments shape social practices, ethical frameworks, and political cultures, while also revealing how the needs, movements, and struggles of diverse populations influence the form cities take. This course approaches the culture of a city through the lens of social justice, asking how questions of ethics, civic participation, inclusion, and sustainability are negotiated. Students examine how cities with distinct histories, geographies and sizes, governance models, and urban ecologies respond to challenges in overlapping and interacting dimensions—from the material (housing, infrastructure, streets, and climate-conscious public spaces), to the symbolic (narratives, memory, heritage), and the performative (art, music, film, protest, and everyday practices). Through theoretical framings, cultural narratives, collaborative projects and fieldworks the class reveals how cities negotiate processes of urban transformation such as gentrification, displacement, and changing class dynamics. The academic travel will take place in Berlin. During the travel to Berlin, students will analyze how the city addresses social sustainability and compare these approaches with those studied during the semester in Lugano, considering differences in geography, history, economic structures, and systems of governance. (CLCS 100 and CLCS 110 recommended). | ||
| COM 230T | Comm, Fashion, Taste (Italy) | Sugiyama |
| The sense of taste, whether it refers to the metaphorical sense of taste (aesthetic discrimination) or the literal sense of taste (gustatory taste), is a fundamental part of human experiences. This Academic Travel course examines various ways that communication processes shape our sense of taste in the contemporary society. It will explore topics such as the taste for food, clothing and accessories, music, and other cultural activities applying key theories and concepts of communication, fashion, and taste. Ultimately, the course seeks to develop an understanding of how interpersonal, intercultural, and mediated communication in our everyday life plays a critical role in the formation of individual taste as well as collective taste. In order to achieve this objective, field observations and site visits will be planned during the Academic Travel period. | ||
| HIS 215T | Central Europe: An Urban History | Pyka |
| This Academic Travel course seeks to explore urban development and urban planning of Central European cities from Antiquity to the Present. The course investigates the specific development of cities in Central Europe, both north and south of the Alps, with an emphasis on the legacies of Roman antiquity, the Christian (and Jewish) legacy of the Middle Ages, the role of princely residences, and of bourgeois middle classes. An important part plays also the various political movements of the 20th century, including the architectural fantasies of National Socialism, and the attempts post-World War II to deal with this legacy in a democratic society. The course asks in which way the interplay of tradition and modernity over time has structured not only the physical shapes of cities, but even the mindsets of the population. The travel component of this course features day trips to the Roman foundation of Como (Italy) and the oldest still standing structure in Switzerland in Riva San Vitale (Ticino), and a major excursion to the three most important cities in Bavaria: Nuremberg, Regensburg, and Munich (Germany). | ||
| HIS 241T | Modern Türkiye: Dreams of Modernity | Mottale |
| Turkey-Türkiye has become once more a major player on the international scene, while seemingly changing constantly. What are the origins and future perspectives of the modern Turkish Republic, and how are Turks see themselves? In order to answer these questions, the course starts from the heyday of the old Ottoman Empire, subsequently analyzing its crisis and decline, and the birth of the modern post-Ottoman states after World War I, with the Republic of Turkey-Türkiye as one of the main heir states of the Empire. The course focuses on the transformations that led to contemporary Türkiye from the Young Turks and the time of Atatürk to the current President Erdoğan. ‘Dreams of Modernity’ provides an understanding of Turkish nation-building process, highlighting the continuous political and social transformations of one of the major international actors in the Middle-Eastern and North-African area (MENA). | ||
| POL 176T | International Environ Pol (Costa Rica) | Zanecchia |
| The resolution of global environmental problems has been problematic for nation-states. Hence, international cooperation is essential for exploring and applying solutions. This course will first examine the origins of environmental problems facing nations such as climate change, desertification, biodiversity, and international trade in endangered species. Further topics for investigation will include the impact of globalization and the feasibility of sustainable development in the industrial north and developing south, as well as the effectiveness of international treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol and CITES. For the travel component of the course, on-site investigations may take place in various destinations, which may change from year to year, and may include the study of policies related to natural resource conservation, sustainability, and ecotourism. The destination of this course will be Costa Rica, a country that has achieved success in placing environmental concerns at the heart of its political and economic policies, demonstrating that sustainability is both achievable and economically viable. Costa Rica has been a pioneer in the protection of peace and nature and sets an example for the region and for the world. In particular, this academic travel will be based at Jardin de Poas, a forested, sustainable coffee farm on the slope of the nearby Poas Volcano. Destinations include visits to the Guayabo National Monument, an archaeological site of a past civilization; Cahuita National Park on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica known for its coral reefs and diverse marine life; and an immersive living experience with the Bribri, one of Costa Rica’s last indigenous tribes. Other scheduled activities include guided jungle and cloud forest walks, cheesemaking at a local sustainable farm, and hands-on tree planting and coffee harvesting. NOTE: This Academic Travel course carries a supplemental fee: CHF 1’350 (for students invoiced in CHF) or USD 1,800 (for students invoiced in USD). | ||
| POL 376T | International Environ Pol (Costa Rica) | Zanecchia |
| The resolution of global environmental problems has been problematic for nation-states. Hence, international cooperation is essential for exploring and applying solutions. This course will first examine the origins of environmental problems facing nations such as climate change, desertification, biodiversity, and international trade in endangered species. Further topics for investigation will include the impact of globalization and the feasibility of sustainable development in the industrial north and developing south, as well as the effectiveness of international treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol and CITES. For the travel component of the course, on-site investigations may take place in various destinations, which may change from year to year, and may include the study of policies related to natural resource conservation, sustainability, and ecotourism. The destination of this course will be Costa Rica, a country that has achieved success in placing environmental concerns at the heart of its political and economic policies, demonstrating that sustainability is both achievable and economically viable. Costa Rica has been a pioneer in the protection of peace and nature and sets an example for the region and for the world. In particular, this academic travel will be based at Jardin de Poas, a forested, sustainable coffee farm on the slope of the nearby Poas Volcano. Destinations include visits to the Guayabo National Monument, an archaeological site of a past civilization; Cahuita National Park on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica known for its coral reefs and diverse marine life; and an immersive living experience with the Bribri, one of Costa Rica’s last indigenous tribes. Other scheduled activities include guided jungle and cloud forest walks, cheesemaking at a local sustainable farm, and hands-on tree planting and coffee harvesting. NOTE: This Academic Travel course carries a supplemental fee: CHF 1’350 (for students invoiced in CHF) or USD 1,800 (for students invoiced in USD). | ||
| PSY 230T | Psychology of Emergencies (Italy) | Ongis |
| When ordinary life is disrupted - by an accident, a sudden hazard, or a fast-moving public emergency - people must think, decide, and act under pressure. Stress can sharpen focus or distort it; groups can coordinate brilliantly or break down; and what happens in the first minutes and days can shape recovery long after the event. This course introduces students to the psychology of emergencies by tracing that arc from immediate response to longer-term coping, with attention to experiences that may become traumatic. Drawing on cognitive, social, and clinical psychology, students study acute stress and emotion regulation; attention, memory, and judgment under time pressure; teamwork, leadership, and communication in high-stakes settings; bystander behavior; and practical principles of risk and crisis communication. The course also addresses trauma, resilience, and recovery, including the fundamentals of psychological first aid and clear ethical boundaries for non-clinicians. Learning blends classroom work with structured, scenario-based experiential activities (e.g., simulations, navigation/orienteering-style tasks, basic safety decision-making, self-awareness practice, and guided debriefing) to translate theory into practical skill. As an Academic Travel course, students complete an off-campus component in Italy that includes visits and learning activities with organizations and professionals working in emergency preparedness and response. Because field-based learning comes with real constraints, students are expected to be adaptable, flexible, and collaborative - comfortable with changing schedules, non-luxury accommodations, and the demands of learning outside the classroom. | ||
| SJS 377T | Sustainable Education in Madagascar | Galli |
| This course explores the challenges faced by the population of rural Madagascar – one of the poorest countries in the world – including limited schooling and poor learning outcomes, scarce and low-income employment opportunities, lack of basic infrastructure, high fertility, bad nutrition, poor health conditions and adverse environmental impacts. In particular, the Madagascar educational system and the reasons behind its very low quality are examined. During the travel, students are hosted by local schools and must adapt to lodging and transport conditions that, albeit still a luxury for most of the local population, are relatively closer to the lifestyle of the local population. This gives students the possibility to obtain first-hand experience of how different it is to live in low-income countries. Students have numerous opportunities to meet and bond with local students, teachers, school directors, tourist guides, and micro-entrepreneurs, allowing them to learn how rich Madagascar is in terms of cultural, natural, and human resources and to hear directly from the local youth what their needs, wishes and aspirations are. This academic travel in a remote non-touristic part of North Madagascar is organized by the Swiss NGO Boky Mamiko. Students are expected to participate in some pre-travel volunteering work and to represent the NGO in Madagascar in a professional and responsible manner. NOTE: This Academic Travel course carries a supplemental fee: CHF 1’500 (for students invoiced in CHF) or USD 2,000 (for students invoiced in USD). | ||
No one-credit courses are scheduled for FALL 2026.