Faculty in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology regularly teach Study Abroad (international) and Study Away (U.S.) courses in Winter Term. A few examples include the courses listed below. Visit the Isabella Cannon Global Education Center to learn more about these options.

Ghana: West African History and Culture (GBL 2470)

In this winter term travel course, students experience life in Ghana while appreciating the country’s rich past. They will learn about the diverse ethnic groups, societies, and cultures in Ghana, the tragic Atlantic slave trade, Ghana’s important role in anti-colonial nationalism in sub-Saharan Africa, and how Ghanaians are working to overcome the challenges of development. Students might discuss African politics with a Ghanaian professor one day and visit a village of craftspeople doing craftwork the next. The course integrates classes taught by Ghanaian professors and professionals with visits to fascinating sites throughout the country. We start with travel to the beautiful Volta region. Visiting rural communities provides students fantastic opportunities to learn about people’s daily lives and concerns. Returning to Accra, students become familiar with Ghana’s lively capital and surrounding area. On a longer journey, we travel to Kumasi, Mole National Park, and along the coast to the castles of Elmina and Cape Coast. We will walk across rope bridges above the rainforest at Kakum National Park. Students learn about Ghanaian cultures, but most students go further – questioning some of their values and assumptions and recognizing a shared sense of humanity with people whose lives differ.

Latin American Social Movements (GBL 2930)

This winter term travel course explores Latin American social movements with a focus in Buenos Aires, Argentina. These movements have a rich history and trajectory in defining human rights, non-violence, decolonialism, feminism, self-determination, and autonomy. By tracing the diversity of collective action against injustice and violence, we consider how the struggles of the urban poor, women, and environmentalists, inform and respond to structures of oppression and thereby shape the city, the state, individuals, and the human experience at large. This course introduces students to political and social organizations that they will visit and analyze in-depth. The class focuses on artistic expressions as a form of activism, specifically via assignments in the form of poetry, drawing, and reflection. This final presentation focuses on one relevant aspect of Latin American social movements and the relationships between art and activism.

Disney: Happiest Place? The Science of Happiness at Disney (GBL 2020)

Examining literature from sociology, psychology, economics, anthropology, humanities, arts and the natural sciences (neuroscience, biology, and behavioral genetics), students will be invited to consider the ways in which physical environments can shape individual and group experiences of happiness. We will consider happiness in a social context and with attention to the tangible and intangible costs of happiness. We will deconstruct the ways happiness is constructed and performed in the Disney setting. Emphasis is placed on the ways happiness is defined cross-culturally and on the different ways individuals and groups pursue and experience happiness. The relationship between happiness and social stratification is examined.