May 2024 Travel Courses
Applications for May Term 2024 travel courses were due on Monday, October 2, 2023. You are still welcome to submit a late application in the event that there are seats available in a course after all on-time applications are considered. Please note that for late applications, you will likely not hear back about its status until after the usual mid-October notification timeframe.
Note that more information about each of the courses, including dates, better fee estimates, advertising posters, and videos, will be posted as the summer goes on. We recommend waiting until September to apply.
[CLOSED] INQ-177-TA Nature and Culture in Japan
Instructor: Dr. Marwood Larson-Harris
Prerequisites: Permission
Fee: $5200
On location in Japan: May 10 - May 26, 2024
Specific Essay Prompt: What specifically interests you about Japan and what knowledge do you have about the country? What interests you in Japanese Religions?
Eligible for scholarship support: Measure of a Maroon, Cobbs and Fortnightly Scholarships
How have Japanese religious practices and literary texts been shaped by the natural world? Do the different religious traditions practiced by the Japanese conflict with one another? This course explores these and other questions through immersion into the Japanese landscape. By learning about indigenous nature-based religions such as Shinto and Shugendō and by visiting Buddhist temples in Kyoto, we will gain an enriching perspective for reading classical literature such as The Tale of Genji and The Pillow Book. Explorations of key Taoist, Confucian, and Buddhist texts will help us grasp the art and architecture of important temples and rock gardens in Kyoto and nearby Mt. Hiei. By visiting the original locations that affected Japanese history, religion, and literature, we will see for ourselves how the landscape posed challenges and uniquely shaped the Japanese experience.
Previous knowledge of Japan or Japanese religions and a definite interest in Japan are recommended.
[CLOSED] INQ-177-TB Desperately Seeking Dragons
Instructor: Dr. DB Poli
Prerequisite: Permission
Fee: $4650
On location in UK: May 11 - May 24, 2024
Specific Essay Prompt: The natural world is full of wonder. Describe a time that you interacted with the natural world and it impacted your life in a way that changed the way you see it.
Eligible for scholarship support: Measure of a Maroon, Cobbs and Fortnightly Scholarships
How can we use the scientific lens to observe and examine folklore origins? How does observation of the world around us help us hypothesize about the mysteries of the natural world? Geneticists have been able to explain a number of phenomena (cyclops, mermaidism, werewolf syndrome) through genetic mutation, but it is the collection of stories and analysis of cultural norms that provide the conclusions upon which lore is created. This course is designed to examine dragon folklore representations through a scientific lens. Approaching folklore establishment from a multidisciplinary viewpoint provides a more complete picture of lore development and propagation. Travel will include locations rich in dragon lore and coordinating geologic phenomena as well as museums, churches, castles, and fossil sites.
Students should be able to walk several miles within a day and to move their own luggage a distance. No language skills are needed but students must be willing to take the time to try to understand English with a unique vernacular and accent. Internet access will be limited in some locations. Students must be able to be "unplugged" for those time frames.
INQ/HIST-177-TC Historical Archaeology
Instructor: Dr. Whitney Leeson
Prerequisites: Permission
Fee: $2600
On location in Virginia/South Carolina: May 13 - May 31, 2024
No essay is required.
Eligible for scholarship support: Fortnightly Scholarships
This course introduces students to the basic methods and theories of historical archaeology in a hands-on setting. Students will learn about the practical skills of surveying, excavating, and recording by engaging in one week of archaeological fieldwork at Preston Place in Salem. Students will also spend two weeks on the road visiting important sites, museums, and labs across Virginia and in South Carolina to find out how and why historical archaeologists choose to interpret the artifacts they uncover the way they do. Specific attention will be paid to the material culture produced by enslaved peoples and what it teaches us about the slave trade and the ways in which we remember the historical narrative of slavery.
Students must be able to work outside for a week with shovels, trowels, and other equipment and be able to kneel, lift buckets of soil, and be willing to approach outdoor fieldwork with a positive attitude. Student classification, how this course fits into a student's academic program or programs, diversity, and GPA will be primarily considered during the application process.
[CLOSED] INQ/HIST-277-GTA 1492: History and Memory
Instructor: Dr. Ivonne Wallace Fuentes
Prerequisite: Permission
Fee: $5050
On location in Spain: May 8 - May 31, 2024
Specific Essay Prompt: What, if anything, does the year 1492 mean to you? How do you think we should remember and commemorate this year in our educational system today?
Eligible for scholarship support: Measure of a Maroon, Cobbs, and Fortnightly Scholarships
Why was 1492 a momentous year? How do we understand and remember Columbus, but also the Catholic Kings capturing of Granada, ending 700 years of Islamic rule, and their forcing Jews to choose between conversion and exile a few months later? This travel class explores these three pivotal moments in the history of Spain and the early modern world: the conquest of Granada; the expulsion of the Jews and the creation of the Sephardic diaspora; and the Columbus voyage which brought together the fates of Africa, the Americas, and Europe. We will focus on how these events are understood, explained, and commemorated in Spanish public historical practice in museums and memorials. This class is thus about 1492, but also about how we understand 1492 today and what it has come to represent to us, more than five hundred years later.
Students should be able to walk for several hours a day in warm temperatures; this class travels through four different urban settings, so flexibility is required.
[CLOSED] INQ/HIST-277-TA Pausanias' Grand Tour of Greece
Instructors: Dr. Jason Hawke and Dr. Rob Willingham
Social Media Page (Facebook)
Prerequisite: Permission
Fee: $5250
On location in Greece: May 13 - May 30, 2024
Specific Essay Prompt: What does Greece mean to you? Please describe why some aspect of Greece – its culture, its people, its history, or something else – fascinates or intrigues you in such a way that you want to spend sixteen days learning intensively about it, and discuss how you see this course fitting into your education as a student of Roanoke College?
Eligible for scholarship support: Measure of a Maroon, Cobbs, and Fortnightly Scholarships
Pausanias, a 2nd-century AD Greek living under Roman rule, visited sites of past glory and wrote an informative travelogue and cultural history of ancient Greece. Students will travel in his footsteps, a journey that will take them to Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Delphi, among other sites. Students will experience firsthand the monuments of ancient Greece and their modern presentation and confront the landscapes that Pausanias describes. In reflecting upon their own reactions and Pausanias’ account of the ancient Greek past and its remains, students will interpret their responses to Greece ancient and modern. By immersing ourselves in Pausanias’ account, and relevant modern scholarship, and visiting the landscapes Pausanias once beheld, we will be able to consider the interplay among the physical and imagined pasts and think about the ways we construct identities through the conversations we choose to have with those pasts and how we conduct them.
All students are encouraged to apply; applications are considered primarily based on the strength of essay, general academic performance, and lack of disciplinary problems and with a goal of achieving a balance of interests and personalities.
[CLOSED] INQ-277-TB Learning Team Dynamics through International Service
Instructors: Dr. Johanna Sweet
Prerequisite: Permission
Fee: $3,100
On location in Belize: May 19 - May 31, 2024
Specific Essay Prompt: We will be working in teams to build facilities at a Christian school in a rural area of Belize. You will be hot, eating home-cooked local foods, working hard outdoors most days, and living in a dormitory-style building with no air-conditioning. With that being said, what appeals to you about taking this course?
Eligible for scholarship support: Measure of a Maroon, Cobbs, and Fortnightly Scholarships
Students will participate in service learning with Toledo Christian Academy in Belize. Students will learn the process of team formation, what role they most commonly take in a group, how they manage conflict, and how worldview has shaped their team approach. Students recognize their strengths and further development opportunities. In addition to service, students will experience swimming at Rio Grande Falls, touring the local Mayan Villages and their ruins, snorkeling the reefs off Placencia, and exploring the market of Punta Gorda. Students will analyze their experience working in teams and how communities in Belize function as a team. Questions we will address include: How do functional and effective teams form? What is the common role do you find yourself taking in a team? Is conflict good or bad in groups? How do you manage conflict effectively? To what extent does worldview shape your approach to team dynamics and conflict?
Students will be working and staying in basic dormitory-style housing with no air-conditioning and living among the elements (heat and spiders, for example). Toledo remains the poorest district in Belize and has very limited internet access; students must act with respect to the Christian school and their students (no profanity, good behavior).
Students will be working and staying in basic dormitory-style housing with no air-conditioning and living among the elements (heat and spiders, for example). The area lives in poverty and has very limited internet access; students must act with respect to the Christian school and their students (no profanity, good behavior).
[CLOSED] INQ-277-TD Walking the Camino de Santiago
Instructor: Dr. Lynn Talbot
Prerequisite: Permission
Fee: $3,150
On location in Spain: May 6 - May 31, 2024
Specific Essay Prompt: What motivates you to walk the Camino in Spain? What hiking experiences have you had? How will you be prepared to accept the challenge of backpacking many miles?
Eligible for scholarship support: Measure of a Maroon, Cobbs, and Fortnightly Scholarships
Why did medieval peoples choose to walk hundreds of miles to visit relics? Why do people today choose to follow these same routes? Discover the answers to these questions as we walk the ancient Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route across northern Spain. We will visit medieval shrines, study art, architecture, and history while sharing the path, meals, and pilgrim dormitories with hundreds of other modern-day pilgrims. This course will be taught in English while on location in Spain.
Some knowledge of Spanish may be helpful but not required.
INQ/ENST-277-TF Sustainability and Spirituality in the Pacific Northwest
Instructor: Dr. Laura Hartman
Prerequisite: Permission
Fee: $3,650
On location in Pacific Northwest: May 13 - June 2, 2024
Specific Essay Prompt: The hardest part of this course is living for 2 weeks in an off-the-grid ecovillage with no phone or internet connection (you will be able to use technology "offline," like if you had downloaded things to watch or read or listen to). What do you anticipate being difficult about this circumstance? How would you prepare, and how well do you think you could handle it?
Eligible for scholarship support: Fortnightly Scholarships
Holden Village is a very special place. Formerly a mining camp in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state, Holden was bought by Lutherans who transformed it into a phenomenon that is hard to describe. Part eco-village, part religious community; part village, part retreat center; remote, yet grounding; creative, yet rooted in tradition. In our time at Holden, we will participate in its daily rhythms and study its environmental sustainability. In so doing, we will learn to answer questions about renewal, restoration, reformation, and ritual. The place itself is our primary text and students will learn to articulate what they learn through creative projects.
Students should be willing to prioritize the good of the group and put up with some indignities for the sake of others (some students may chop onions, some may clean toilets, and all will take a turn on dish duty) and be prepared to live in accommodations similar to a hostel. All students must be prepared to be independent and able to disconnect from the grid (there will be no internet or cell phone access). Concern about sustainability or being spiritual would be helpful but not required.
[CLOSED] INQ/FREN-277-TA Paris Premedieval, Paris Postmodern
Instructor: Dr. Alison Clifton
Prerequisite: Permission and FREN-201
Fee: $5000
On location in Paris: May 13 - May 31, 2024
Specific Essay Prompt: Please explain why studying abroad in France will make a difference in your studies. In other words, how will taking this course in Paris impact your personal and professional growth? Be specific.
Eligible for scholarship support: Measure of a Maroon, Cobbs, and Fortnightly Scholarships
Paris’s broad, tree-lined boulevards with bustling cafés and chic boutiques, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower. This Paris is less than 200 years old. What was Paris like before then, and what were the forces that shaped it? We will study Paris’ development and experience its transformation as we visit Gallo-Roman ruins, walk along medieval streets and city walls, and examine the cityscape from the towers of Notre Dame and the roof of the ultramodern Grande Arche.
INQ/SPAN-377-TB The Legacy of the Incas in Contemporary Peru
Instructor: Dr. Jose Banuelos Montes
Prerequisite: Permission and SPAN-202
Fee: $3,800
On location in Peru: May 6 - May 21, 2024
Specific Essay Prompt: How would being a part of this course develop your cultural self-awareness? How do you view "difference" as a learning opportunity? Imagine you have been put in an environment that is unfamiliar to you; how would you respond to that unfamiliarity?
Eligible for scholarship support: Measure of a Maroon, Cobbs, and Fortnightly Scholarships
The course will examine the historical and cultural traditions of the Incas and their relevance in contemporary Peruvian society. The course will provide a survey of history, society, culture, economy, and politics to familiarize students with a diverse Peruvian society. The course will be taught in Spanish.
Students should have a grasp of global issues and trends, be willing to withhold judgment, value other cultures, and practice a cycle of listening, observing, and then evaluating.