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 23 – September 20, 2012
Estimated Program Cost: $3,100
Prerequisites and/or Language Requirements: None
Credits: 5
Program Director: James West (Slavic); Mary Childs (Comparative Literature)
UW Study Abroad Advisor: Tim Cahill: timint@uw.edu
Application Deadline: March 1, 2012

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 2012, but the program runs August 23 – September 20, 2012, BEFORE the fall quarter starts, and will not interfere with your normal course schedule. You will earn 5 credits of SISRE 490, which CAN COUNT TOWARD YOUR ELECTIVE CREDITS in the Russian or 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:
http://studyabroad.washington.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=10604&Type=O&sType=O

• Slavic Languages & Literatures Russia: Russian Talk – Communication, Culture & Health

Location: Sochi, Russia
Department: Slavic Languages & Literature
Estimated Program Dates: August 23 – September 15, 2012
Estimated Program Cost: $3,400
Prerequisites and/or Language Requirements: None
Credits: 5
Program Director: Valentina Zaitseva (Slavic L & L); Zoya Polack (Slavic L & L)
UW Study Abroad Advisor: Tim Cahill: timint@uw.edu
Application Deadline: March 1, 2012
Information sessions:  Jan. 26th 3:00-4:00; Feb. 7th 4:00-5:00 in SMI M261

This program has been developed as a unique educational site in Russia (Sochi) that sets the study of Russian as a foreign language within an interdisciplinary program that explores theory and practice of interpersonal and cross-cultural communication. The program is open to students with and without knowledge of Russian, as long as they are interested in the topics of social interaction and communication barriers. The program offers a rich international educational and research experience for UW students from a variety of disciplines (political science, ecology, sociolinguistics, history, anthropology, business, medical sciences and global health).

Palm trees and a subtropical climate do not usually come to mind when one hears the word “Russia.” Just visiting Sochi will dispel the stereotype “Russia: ice and snow,” even though Sochi has recently won the right to host Winter Olympics 2014. The city stretches along the Black Sea shoreline beneath the foot of the Caucasus Mountains and covers a part of the unique National Park inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site. This is a beautiful place where Russia’s rulers (from Stalin to Putin and Medvedev) like to have their summer residences. Sochi has been a national health and recreation center since Soviet times.

This is an EARLY FALL START SEMINAR. The 5 credits will technically be applied to Autumn 2012, but the program runs August 23 – September 20, 2012, BEFORE the fall quarter starts, and will not interfere with your normal course schedule. You will earn 5 credits of RUSS 499, which CAN COUNT TOWARD YOUR ELECTIVE CREDITS in the Russian Major, the EELLC Major, the Slavic Literature/Russian Literature minor, or the Russian Language 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:
http://studyabroad.washington.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=11060&Type=O&sType=O
and Valentina Zaitseva’s website: http://faculty.washington.edu/vaz2/Exploration_Seminar.php