Modern Japanese Society and Culture
Instructor: Noah Miles
nmiles1@uwyo.edu

To apply

The Japan summer travel course introduces students to modern Japanese culture and society. After several meetings on the Laramie campus, students will travel to three important areas of Japan - Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima.  In Tokyo, we will explore modern Japan and the relationship between old and new. In Kyoto, the group will stay at a Buddhist Temple and visit many historically significant and beautiful sites. Finally, after two nights near Hiroshima, students will go to Mount Fuji to relax in a hot spring hotel, enjoy the mountainous landscape, and eat delicious country-style dishes.

Through observing Japanese culture and people, readings of literary and scholarly texts, and their own research, students will come to understand the complexities of Japanese life. 

Shakespeare in England and Italy
Instructors: Peter Parolin and Leigh Selting
parolin@uwyo.edu; selting@uwyo.edu

To apply

This class has three main goals: 1. To introduce you to the world and the plays of William Shakespeare as texts; 2. To introduce you to the world and the plays of William Shakespeare as performance; 3. To expose you to places in England and Italy that were important to Shakespeare and to consider how these places might have informed his work.

The class considers Shakespeare language and themes and helps students understand how he sets up stories, conflicts, and relationships that continue to speak to us powerfully. One of Shakespeare’s themes is performance: what does it mean to put on a performance, to perform for each other, to play a role, to understand life itself as a kind of theatre. Accordingly, we will explore how performing the plays helps us understand and bring to life deeply embedded aspects of Shakespeare’s scripts. In the process, we will consider how specific decisions that directors, actors, and designers make in performance shape the meaning of Shakespeare’s plays today.

UW in Scotland: Stealing Culture
Instructor: Nicole Crawford and Darrell Jackson
nicole.crawford@uwyo.edu; darrell.jackson@uwyo.edu  

To apply

In one five-minute sequence, the new blockbuster Marvel movie Black Panther raises issues central to the modern museum world, including cultural appropriation and repatriation, the racial composition of museum staffs, and lingering stereotypes regarding visitors of color. Some of these concerns have been in the public consciousness since the 1980s, when the Greek government began campaigning forcefully — and so far unsuccessfully — for the British Museum to repatriate the Elgin Marbles, a group of classical sculptures removed from the Parthenon. But these issues have a fresh relevance today as society increasingly shifts away from a Eurocentric point of view and gains a renewed appreciation for the indigenous culture of formerly colonized nations.

By spending time with international experts and visiting relevant locations in Scotland, London, Amsterdam, and Paris, students will analyze all the different forms of theft that directly impact museums: cultural, fraudulent, and physical. This interdisciplinary class introduces students to the laws of governing and the circumstances behind topics regarding visual arts as cultural goods, international theft and smuggling of works of art, forgery, art museums, architectural preservation, and related matter.

From the Andes to the Amazon: The Politics of Resource Use, Extraction and Tourism in Ecuador

Instructors: Zoe Pearson and Nick Crane
zpearson@uwyo.edu; ncrane@uwyo.edu

To apply

Two simultaneous courses in Ecuador will focus on 'Conservation, Extraction, and Development' and 'Tourism and the Politics of Cultural Heritage.’ In these course(s), students will visit World Heritage Sites and the most important indigenous market in South America, hike in the Andes and Amazon, experience mining and oil extraction from the perspectives of local and indigenous communities, learn about and witness the extreme biodiversity of Andean and Amazonian ecosystems, visit farms and witness traditional production systems in action, sample native foods, engage in indigenous community-based ecotourism, and assist in the work of local sustainable development and regenerative economic systems.

Through these courses, students will develop an interdisciplinary perspective on timely themes in the regional study of Latin America, with an emphasis on Political Ecology and Cultural Geography as ways of thinking about our contemporary world. Students will also learn to be field researchers, through observation and practical engagement with methods of citizen science, conservation science, and qualitative social science.

Political Revolucion, Cultural Evolucion: Study Abroad in Paris, Barcelona, and Ronda
Instructors: Lori Howe and Zach Taylor
lhowe@uwyo.edu; ztaylor1@uwyo.edu

To apply

The A&S Core Global aspect of the course compares ancient and modern geopolitical elements of Spain to those of the U.S., while the Human Culture aspect explores ancient and modern art, dance, music, food, architecture, and religions. Political revolution influences cultural evolution, and vice versa; this joint exploration illuminates the complex, ancient threads, woven together over millennia, depicting the vibrant nation of España.

After three splendid days in Paris, we will explore exciting, urban Barcelona before then moving south to the historic, iconic pueblos blancos, or white mountain towns, of Andalucía. We will be headquartered in the walled city of Ronda, famed for its ancient architecture, culture, food, and museums.