Exploration Seminars

Looking for a fantastic opportunity to experience a new culture?

UW Exploration Seminars Abroad

• Georgia – The Country: Golden Fleece, Panther Pelt, Rose Revolution – Under the Skin of Today’s Georgia

Location: Turkey & Georgia
Department: Slavic Languages & Literature
Program Dates: August 27 – September 21, 2013
Estimated Program Cost: $2,900
Prerequisites and/or Language Requirements: None
Credits: 5
Program Director: James West (Slavic); Mary Childs (Slavic & CHID)
UW Study Abroad Advisor: Tim Cahill: timint@uw.edu
Application Deadline: March 1, 2013
Information Session: March 4, 2013, 1:30 p.m., THO 317

This seminar will introduce students to culture and politics in Georgia, a small but fascinating and important country situated between two of the world’s most politically and economically troubled regions – Russia and Eastern Europe to the north and the Near East to the south. The importance of these areas for American foreign policy and long-term economic interests needs no introduction! Students will stay in homestays with Georgian families, attend lectures with regional experts, and explore the geologically complex, scenically impressive, and biologically rich Caucasus Mountains.

This is an EARLY FALL START SEMINAR. The 5 credits will technically be applied to Autumn 2013, but the program runs August 27 – September 21, 2013, BEFORE the fall quarter starts, and will not interfere with your normal course schedule. You will earn 5 credits of JSIS 489, which CAN COUNT TOWARD YOUR ELECTIVE CREDITS in the RUSS Major or the Slavic Literature/Russian Literature minor. Please see Megan (mastyles@uw.edu), the Slavic Department adviser in Smith M253, if you have questions about how this will apply to your degree.

• Scars on Romanian Culture: Dracula and Ceausescu

Location: Bucharest, Brasov, Sibiu and Suceava, Romania
Department: Slavic Languages & Literature
Estimated Program Dates: August 26 – September 22, 2013
Estimated Program Cost: $3,000
Prerequisites and/or Language Requirements: None
Credits: 5
Program Director: Ileana Marin
UW Study Abroad Advisor: Tim Cahill: timint@uw.edu
Application Deadline: March 1, 2013
Information session:  Feb. 20 at noon in MGH 211B

The program will present Romania’s past and present, with an emphasis on how much communist remnants are still part of the everyday life and to what extent history plays an important role in justifying the present. During the Spring quarter, the three orientation sessions will offer students background information about Romanian history and geography, cuisine and mentality, culture and life, as a way of introduction to our exploration on the site.

In Bucharest, Brasov, Sibiu, and Suceava, the major stops of our journey in Romania, students will attend lectures offered by Romanian scholars and will also directly encounter artifacts, edifices, monuments, and artwork previewed in class. Lectures will address topics from medieval history to the 19th century transformation into a nation-state and 20th century literature (Blandiana, Cartarescu, Popescu, Manea), as well as the struggles of artists under communist censorship. In Bucharest, students will have the opportunity to meet award-winning directors (Cristi Puiu and Cristian Mungiu) and watch some of their internationally acclaimed movies.

Film screenings, city walks, field trips to Sighisoara and Bran, and museum tours will complete our experience and, at the same time, will offer students the opportunity to make connections with Romanian students and professors.

Students will upload their findings on the blog everyday, creating thus a pool of topics from which each student will choose one to develop into a 2,500-word article. Articles will be proposed for publication to the journals of our host universities.

This is an EARLY FALL START SEMINAR. The 5 credits will technically be applied to Autumn 2013, but the program runs August 26 – September 22, 2013, BEFORE the fall quarter starts, and will not interfere with your normal course schedule. You will earn 5 credits of HONORS 394, which CAN COUNT TOWARD YOUR ELECTIVE CREDITS in the EELLC Major or the Slavic Literature/Russian Literature minor. Please see Megan (mastyles@uw.edu), the Slavic Department adviser in Smith M253, if you have questions about how this will apply to your degree.
For more information, visit the program website and the International Programs website
http://studyabroad.washington.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=10604&Type=O&sType=O