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About the Program

The Honors Program invites students to apply for this innovative summer study abroad program based in one of Europe's most progressive and oldest cities. This four-week study abroad opportunity, based on a preparatory spring seminar, is open to all undergraduate and graduate students in the humanities and social sciences; a variety of disciplinary perspectives are encouraged. The 2009 Honors in Amsterdam program is organized around student research, taking as its primary task a productive balance between structured research and international engagement on the part of its participants.

Read about student research from past years »

Purpose

As our title indicates, we will attempt to unsettle the assumption that--at least under the conditions of travel--lives are simply private and places are simply public. Our course of inquiry, and recurrent touchstone for both the spring and the summer, is based on the proposition that space is a medium of connectivity, rather than functioning as a void or negative space to be filled. Urban space in particular binds people together, and serves as the means by which the private realm and the public sphere co-exist: both private and public are essentially social formations. Rather than seeing privacy and publicity as mutually exclusive, then, we will look at the ways they inform each other, both in Seattle and in Amsterdam. Pedagogically, we will do this by engaging a series of methodological exercises, ranging from the close reading of space, and objects within it; to examining some means of reading space as articulated in sociological and cultural studies contexts. Throughout, we will highlight and explore the observer's role in those proceedings--whether the observer is a critic, a participant, urban ethnographer or social anthropologist. The point is to provide the student with insight into the critical practice of means by which one accesses public citizens and reads for traces of private life.

Our program incorporates social science and humanities research with the exploration of digital data-gathering devices and e-Research techniques. To this end, the Virtual Knowledge Studio (VKS) will play a key role in co-developing methodologies and collaborative analytical techniques that will inform the execution of student research projects. The research projects, as well as the coursework at the University of Amsterdam, will retain a contextual grounding within the unique setting of Amsterdam. Experts from UvA will provide instruction on contemporary social issues within these broad topic areas while the UW instructors will facilitate student research projects and provide instruction on broader notions of knowledge production in research.

Partnerships

Learning partners will include the University of Washington Undergraduate Honors Program, The Virtual Knowledge Studio (VKS), Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the University of Amsterdam (UvA) International School for Humanities and Social Sciences.

Credit

Students will receive 15 credits of Honors Civilization credits: 3 credits in spring (pre departure seminar) and 12 credits in summer quarter 2009. Participating graduate students will coordinate the allocation of credits with their advisers. The culmination of this study will be student presentations at the University of Amsterdam. (Alternative credit may be available to non-Honors undergraduates; this must be arranged in advance with your departmental advisers)

Course Components

Spring Quarter - 3 credit seminar

The first stage of this study abroad program involves a mandatory 3-credit Honors seminar in Spring Quarter 2009. The purpose of seminar is to introduce Dutch culture and developed student research projects that will serve as a vehicle to explore and experience Amsterdam's vibrant urban culture. The seminar is organized around two intellectual streams. We will explore what it means to be at home in, or foreign to, an environment and we will engage in both established and emergent research practices that deliberately push the boundaries between modes of inquiry in the humanities and social sciences. Students will work in 2-3 person research groups on topics of their own devising; they are encouraged to pursue issues that emerge from the seminar reading and discussion. Each research group will develop e-Research designs in preparation for engaging the people, places, and institutions of Amsterdam.

Summer - 12 credits

During the month long summer program, students will employ the research designs developed in spring to engage in self-directed research as a means to learn about Amsterdam's history, art, architecture, public policy, and of course its urban culture. To augment the fieldwork component there will be course instruction, guest lectures, VKS interaction, city walks, museums, and weekend excursions that inform their research. Dutch academics and local experts will lead lectures and excursions.

UW Program Directors

Director

Prof. Jessica Burstein , English, University of Washington

(participating during Spring Quarter via video conference from London)
jb2@u.washington.edu
Office Hours: By appt.
Padelford A312

Jessica Burstein is an associate professor in the English Department, and an adjunct in the Department of Women Studies at the University of Washington. Her areas of expertise include modernism and modernity, literature at the turn of the twentieth century, contemporary fiction, and the role of avant-garde art in terms of the cultural mainstream. Her book Cold Modernism (2008) explores the art and literature of the body from 1900 to 1939, and its uneasy relationship to theories of the mind. She teaches courses on fashion and modernism, hard women poets, and boredom, and is the recipient of fellowships from the University of Chicago Franke Center for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Walter Simpson Center for the Humanities, and a Distinguished Teaching Award in the UW's Department of English.

Co-Director

Clifford Tatum, Knowledge Dynamics, Erasmus University Rotterdam

clifford.tatum@vks.knaw.nl
Office Hours: TBD or by appt.

Clifford Tatum earned an MBA at Seattle University, and is currently a Ph. D. student at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, as well as an instructor in the University Honors program. His dissertation research focuses on the use of information and communication technologies in collaborative knowledge production. In particular, Clifford's research examines the ways in which new media interventions can disrupt knowledge practice and thereby reveal both the situatedness of knowledge and the potential for softening boundaries between disciplinary traditions in producing, consuming, and applying knowledge.

Visiting UW Faculty

Iain Robertson, Landscape Architecture
iainmr@u.washington.edu

Iain M Robertson is an Adjunct Faculty in the College of Forest Resources, Division of Environmental Horticulture & Urban Forestry. His undergraduate degree in Architecture is from Edinburgh University, Scotland and his MLA from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a registered Landscape Architect and serves on the ASLA Roster of Visiting Evaluators.

Amsterdam Program Directors

Program Leader, VKS

Dr. Paul Wouters - Program Leader, Virtual Knowledge Studio, Erasmus University Rotterdam

(participating via Video Conference from Oxford University)

Programme Leader of The Virtual Knowledge Studio for the Humanities and Social Sciences (VKS); Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Amsterdam, NL; Professor of Knowledge Dynamics in the Faculty of Social Sciences, Erasmus University, Rotterdam.

Mirjam Schieveld - University of Amsterdam

Summer Institute International School for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Universiteit van Amsterdam.

Housing

Students will be housed in shared student dorms near the University of Amsterdam-ISHSS, located in the city's center on the Prins Hendrikkade. Classes will be held on the University of Amsterdam campus and, more often, the city itself. Students will conduct urban research and have guided instruction M-F, with weekends open for study, exploration, and relaxation. There will be opportunities for excursions on the weekends.

Program Cost

$4,000 per student--Program cost is approximate (includes tuition, lodging, classroom and lab fees, some group meals, admission to all museums and exhibits, excursions, ground transportation, and conference fees). Course fee does not include IP&E fee ($250), airfare ($800-$1,200 roundtrip, depending on when and where you buy your ticket), food (about $20-45 per day), and personal spending money.

Financial Aid

Students may use their regular financial aid and scholarship funds for study abroad. The exception is any scholarship in the form of a tuition waiver. Tuition waivers cannot be used to pay study abroad program fees. You may want to check with the Office of Student Financial Aid in Schmitz Hall for more information.

There are funding opportunities through the Global Opportunities Program, and the Office of International Programs and Exchanges also maintains a funding opportunities list at http://www.ipe.washington.edu/forms/FundingOpportunities.pdf

Refund Policy

A $350 deposit is required at the time of acceptance. This $350 deposit is non-refundable. Any student withdrawing from the program within 4 months of the program start date will be responsible for a minimum of 25% of the total program fee. In addition, there may be other unrecoverable fixed program costs. Any student withdrawing from the program within 2 months of the program start date will be responsible for 50% of the total program fee. Any student withdrawing from the program within 1 month of the program start date will be responsible for 75% of the total program fee. Withdrawal after a program begins involves the loss of the entire program fee.

Once accepted to the program in order to formally withdraw, you must do the following, in writing:

• Contact the program directors.
• Submit a signed withdrawal form to the UW Office of International Programs and Exchanges (see http://ipe.washington.edu/forms/WithdrawDefer.pdf).
• Provide notice in writing to the program director that you will no longer be participating in the program for which you have signed a contract and accepted a slot.

Your withdrawal date is considered the date (business day) your withdrawal paperwork is received by the UW Office of International Programs and Exchanges.

Travel

To Amsterdam

Participants are responsible for making their own travel arrangements to Amsterdam. You may wish to explore budget fares offered on websites such as Travelocity and Expedia, as well as STA and Council Travel on the Ave.

Within Amsterdam

Students and instructors will take at least one overnight trip during the course. In addition, we will be making several day-excursions. Students will also have opportunities to travel on their own for two or three day-jaunts.

All participants must have a passport valid for the duration of the program. It may take as long as six weeks to obtain or renew a passport.

Application Process

Acceptance into the program will be decided based on application materials, interviews, and the student's demonstration of motivation to challenge themselves intellectually across academic disciplines and cultures and to work both individually and in groups. Too, as representatives of the University of Washington while abroad, students must conduct themselves in appropriate fashion.

Apply online through Catalyst (UW Students)

Apply online through Catalyst (for external, non-UW candidates)

Please print out three copies of your Catalyst application, plus three copies of current transcripts (unofficial is ok). Applications are due to the Honors Program, MGH 211, no later than March 29, 2009 (postmarked). Late applications will be considered on a space-available basis.

Contact Information

For more information, please contact:

• Jessica Burstein, jb2@u.washington.edu
• Clifford Tatum, clifford@u.washington.edu
• Julie Villegas, villegas@u.washington.edu




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