Making Place: Tourism, Culture & Global Communication
2008 Exploration Seminar in Switzerland

**THIS PROGRAM IS FULL AND NO LONGER ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS**

Program Director: Crispin Thurlow, Communication
Dates of Instruction: Sunday, June 22 – Saturday July 19, 2008

NOTE THAT THIS PROGRAM IS A SUMMER AND NOT AN EARLY FALL PROGRAM: Unlike other Exploration Seminars, this is a summer program which has important credit, payment and financial aid implications. Please click here for information.

This Exploration Seminar will help you understand some of the human consequences of globalization by studying the important role communication plays in tourism as a global cultural industry. As the world’s single largest trade, tourism is a powerful factor in shaping everyday interpersonal, intercultural and inter-national communication. Nowhere is this more apparent than Switzerland – the birth place of modern tourism and a country which embodies the challenges and successes of multilingualism, multi-culturalism and multinationalism. Since the 1850s, Switzerland and especially Interlaken (our base for the seminar) have organized and promoted themselves as the quintessential tourist destinations. In the face of global warming, European/EU politics, and international economics, this “production of place” is also being constantly revised. In June 2008, as co-host of the European Cup football (‘soccer’) tournament, Switzerland becomes yet again a major focus of cultural production.

The seminar will be an enjoyable learning-by-doing experience and you’ll be involved in a series of practical projects involving different theoretical issues and key research skills (e.g. visual ethnography, text analysis). In doing so, you’ll be examining the linguistic, visual, material and spatial strategies used to represent and promote Swizterland as a global tourist destination. You’ll also study how visitors and local people interact in tourist sites. It’s in this way that the seminar will address the darker side of tourism as well, by considering how the making of place and the production of culture always overlook many areas of life. So, for example, one assignment will have you undertaking “counter tourism” in Geneva, following non-touristic routes through this global diplomatic city and developing an alternative tour-guide script. Through a series of fieldtrips, hands-on projects, and guest speakers you’ll be asked to evaluate critically the implications of tourism for human communication on both a local scale and a global one.

Pre-progam requirements
Once accepted into the program, you will be required to attend three pre-program meetings in the Spring quarter. These will entail a general “getting-to-know you” session, a very basic crash-course in everyday Bärndütsch (the local dialect of Swiss German), and the assigning of a small project to be completed before and upon arrival in Swizterland.

Credit
In taking this Exploration Seminar, you will earn six credits in COM 322 Global Communication. (Alternatively, you may earn six credits of CHID 471 Europe Study Abroad (I&S ). You should check with your advisors to determine how these credits can count towards your own departmental requirements.

About the Instructors
Crispin Thurlow, the program director, was born and raised in England, before living for twelve years in South Africa, eight years in London and six years in Wales. He moved to the USA five years ago and is currently a professor in the UW’s Department of Communication. In 2007, he received the university’s Distinguished Teaching Award. As the teaching assistant for this seminar, Ms Kristine Mroczek brings both a professional and academic knowledge of the tourism industry. Her graduate research is rooted in intercultural communication, discourse analysis and visual communication.

Student costs:  
$2,900 Program Fee
$200 IPE Fee
The program fee covers home-stay accommodation (with local Swiss family, including breakfasts), month-long Swiss travel pass, museum entrance fees, opening and closing night events, and main excursion fees. Additional costs include: round-trip fare to Zurich/Geneva, health insurance, meals, personal spending money, any visa-related costs for non-US/non-EU passport holders (see these guidelines for more information about visas). The instructors will also try to help you find the most affordable flights (e.g., a cheaper group booking).

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