Fall 2008 Travel Offerings

The College reserves the right to change course offerings and scheduling.

In this section you will find a comprehensive overview of Franklin College's Academic Travel course offerings. For the most current list or if you would like to plan your Academic Travel Program, please visit My Franklin.

Academic Travel Programs scheduled for Fall 2008 are as follows:

TVL 202 Greece
Professor McCormick

The purpose of this Program is to introduce students to the birthplace of Western culture. Through visits to Knossos, Santorini, Mycenae, Delphi, Olympia and Athens, the Program traces the development of Greek civilization from Minoan civilization in Crete to the flowering of democracy in fifth-century Athens. Contemporary Greek culture, including modern Greek literature and politics, are discussed with students and professors from Greek universities. The Program is designed especially for students whose interests include classical literature, history and art. The travel destinations are integrally linked to the readings in "Introduction to Literature, Part I (LIT 100)."

TVL 203 Sicily
Professor Cappiello

"Without seeing Sicily one cannot get a clear idea of what Italy is," wrote Goethe. Barzini adds, "Sicily is the schoolroom model of Italy for beginners, with every Italian quality and defect magnified, exasperated and brightly colored." Most of the history of the western world took place around the shores of the Mediterranean, and each phase has passed over Sicily, leaving its mark to a greater or lesser extent. Traces of Magna Grecia can be found in places such as Agrigento, Erice, Taormina, Syracuse, Segesta, and Selinunte. Among the finest Roman monuments are the mosaics of Piazza Armerina and the amphitheater of Syracuse. Examples of cultures which followed-Arab, Norman, Swabian, French, and Spanish can be found throughout the island, often creating a blend of styles and colors. Students are exposed to the traces of all of these cultures. They also are made aware of the socio-economic realities and contradictions of today's Sicily by visiting the major cities of Palermo and Catania, as well as some small interior towns, local schools, and by meeting with some of the outstanding people who have dedicated their lives to bringing changes and improvements to the island.

TVL 213 Geneva, Brussels, Paris, Strasbourg
Professor Schlein

(International Organizations and their Role in Today's World) This program focuses on international organizations; how they are organized and operate, and how they deal with particular problems. Students are introduced to salient aspects of international politics and economics in Europe and to the political, economic and financial aspects of international integration and interdependence. These themes are underlined with visits to international organizations. Students visit Brussels and Strasbourg where the groups are hosted by the European Union Commission and Parliament and are directly informed about the progress being made towards European economic and political integration. In Brussels, a visit to N.A.T.O brings students up-to-date on the changes in strategy that this security organization is developing to cope with the changes in the international system and to maintain security and stability among the member states. Visits to Geneva and Paris in addition to Brussels and Strasbourg provide the opportunity to get to know a wide range of international organizations and their activities. In Geneva the students visit the United Nations at the Palais des Nations, the World Trade Organization, the UN High Commission for Refugees and in Paris the group visits the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the most important organization for economic analysis and forecasting, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

TVL 225 Northern Italy
Professor Adams

(From Antiquity to the Present) This Program introduces students to the history, politics, culture, and present day social and economic life of Northern Italy. Students may visit, among other destinations, Venice, Padova, Ravenna, Verona, Bologna, Torino, Bolzano and South Tyrol, Trieste and the Italian Riviera. In addition to historical, artistic and naturalistic tours to further the comprehension of the traditions of Northern Italian civilization, there will be scheduled visits to local industries and inter- national businesses in some selected areas. In each city, the program director, guides and specialists will lecture on particular relevant topics. Students will be expected to integrate the past and the present with an eye toward an under- standing of the future developments of the area in a united Europe.

TVL 229 London
Professor Stanford

(Primarily Modern European Art) This program is focused on Art in London. It is fundamentally a museum and gallery program and concentrates on the following: The Tate Gallery, The Tate Modern, The Courtauld Institute of the University of London, and the National Gallery. The program also includes museums of interest, and especially the British Museum, The British Library, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. For purposes of Twentieth Century historical interest the Imperial War Museum and the Britain at War Museum are also visited. A visit is made to Sotheby's auction house and to the Beaux Arts Gallery, one of the private dealerships in the Mayfair district of London. An attempt is made to allow time for individual interests (antiques, for example, or photography etc.). A one-day excursion is made to Salisbury Cathedral and Stonehenge, and another to Cambridge (to visit the University generally and King's College Chapel and the Kettle's Yard Museum specifically).

TVL 241 Ireland
Professor Matthews

(20th Century Irish Literature) The primary focus of this program is on Irish writing in the 20th century and its relationship to the writers' artistic, intellectual, social, and geographic backgrounds. It aims to make students aware of the peculiarly intimate connection of Irish writing to the Irish context. The idea and the actuality of the country were equally crucial for the Irish writers of the last century and the travel aims to bring the wealth of issues involved therein to life. Places such as Dublin, Sligo and Belfast are visited and the relationship to city, landscape and history of such writers as W.B.Yeats, James Joyce and Seamus Heaney are explored. Students learn to place a writer's words in the concrete physical and atmospheric context from which these sprang and to develop thereby a truly living sense of (Irish) literature. This program is oriented toward students interested in literature, history, politics, sociology, and cross-cultural studies.

TVL 274 Southern Germany
Professor Prisner

The program begins in the southern part of Germany, particularly Baden Württemberg and Bayern. Although Germany as a whole has experienced significant economic difficulties, the South has managed to make the transition into a high technology region. The trip begins in Stuttgart and proceeds to Ulm and Munich with visits, among others, to Daimler-Chrysler in Stuttgart, the Science Park, the University, and the Daimler Chrysler research center in Ulm. The trip then visits the 'German Silicon Valley' around Munich, Siemens Corporation, and the science and technology museum, Deutsche Museum, in Munich. Also included in this journey are visits to popular tourist destinations, to include castles, museums (Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart) and scenic areas.

TVL 277 Turkey
Professor Rocourt

(Turkey: the old and the new) Clichés about Turkey's unique cultural and geopolitical status abound. Is it part of Europe or part of Asia? Is it an Islamic republic or a European-style democracy? An original member of NATO, Turkey is today still only reluctantly embraced by the European Union, with full membership far from a certainty. The focus of the trip will be upon developing an understanding of why all the disparate and even paradoxical descriptions contain a kernel of truth. Modern Turkey has evolved from a unique historic blend of Greco-Roman culture, Byzantine dominance, and Ottoman politics, culture and religion, all of which were brought into the modern age by the political will of Ataturk starting in the 1920's. Destinations include Istanbul's innumerable historical and cultural shrines along with the modern corporate and university environment; Ankara, selected by Ataturk in the centre of the peninsula to be the heart of the new Turkish politics; and the South Mediterranean coast (Antalya/Alanya) with a focus upon Greco-Roman and medieval history, as well as modern-day tourism and agriculture. Readings will include an Ottoman history and a biography of Ataturk.

TVL 288 Japan
Professor Sugiyama

(Contemporary Japanese Culture and Communication) This academic travel offers students an opportunity to explore various aspects of communication in contemporary Japanese culture. Prior to travel, students will learn about such topics as verbal communication, nonverbal communication, cultural values, and communication technologies within the context of Japan. As a part of the travel preparation, student will identify a particular topic of interest, as it pertains to the travel theme of Japanese communication, so that they can make focused observations during the travel. Students will spend significant time in central Tokyo (e.g., Shibuya, Harajuku, Ginza), observing contemporary Japanese culture and communication. To put contemporary Japanese culture into perspective, students will visit some sights depicting "traditional" Japanese culture (e.g., temples and shrines in Kyoto, a tea house, the imperial house).

TVL 297 Lausanne, Geneva and the Alps
Professor Steinert Borella

(Travel Writing/Writing Travel) From the salons of Mme de Stael to twentieth-century travel writers Alex- andra David-Né el and Ella Maillart, France and French-speaking Switzerland have been home to a rich literary tradition. This course will offer an introduc- tion to the travel literature of France and French-speaking Switzerland in Eng- lish translation. (Students who can will be encouraged to read in the original French). Authors studied will include Madame de Stael, Nicolas Bouvier, Alex- andra David-Né el, Anne Deriaz and Ella Maillart. Course will include visits to St-Luc in the Valais, Lausanne, Coppet and Geneva in Switzerland as well as excursions to Digne-les-Bains in France. In addition to museum and chateau visits, this class will include several writing workshops and meetings with con- temporary Swiss writers.

TVL 301 Berlin
Professor Wiedmer

(War, Memory, and the Reinvention of Nation) We live in an epoch obsessed with memory: its specter haunts an array of activities - Intellectual, creative, and political; its processes shadow our individual and collective lives. And yet, despite this ubiquity, the idea of memory remains elusive and forever mutable, for depending on the context in which it is invoked and the purpose for which it is intended it can take on a range of forms. The contexts in which we will study the workings of memory is Berlin, a city representative of a national entity that in the course of the 20th century has reconstituted itself - in part dramatically - under the pressures of the murderous history of the Holocaust. The questions guiding our inquiry into the often conflicted postwar politics of memory in Germany, and its representation in the fabric of the urban landscape, are the following: how does a nation deploy memory to create a positive identity?; how do public representations work to elide, confirm or undermine the constantly shifting historical discourses; and to what extent, finally, are minorities or "the other" included in, or excluded from, the business of inventing national identity? We will read, visit and analyze a wide variety of cultural texts such as literary ac- counts, memorials, historical sites, exhibits, architectural structures, and films in an attempt to chart the often tortured process by which a nation comes to terms with its past, and projects itself into the future. Using some of the rich scholarly literature on memory that has been produced in the wake of the Holocaust, we will examine sites in former East and West Berlin for a cultural comparison of how our core questions are inflected by different sets of political circumstances and cultural pressures.

TVL 311 Malawi/Zambia: Sustainable Agriculture
Professor Zanecchia

This academic and service travel experience to Malawi and Zambia is a variation on past trips to Malawi/Zambia with specific focus on sustainable agriculture and development as applied to the Baobab Village in Zambia. In addition to understanding the history and cultural background of these two developing countries, special emphasis will be devoted to exploring the feasibility of sustainable agriculture in the context of development pressures and dependency theory. A small group of students will have the opportunity to study and understand the importance of sustainable development through lectures at the University of Malawi as well as at a brief stay at Freedom Gardens, a self-sustainable organic farm on the outskirts of Lilongwe. Students will thereafter travel to the Baobab Village and apply what they have learned in order to enhance the ongoing project. Ideally this service leadership and hands-on experience will lay the groundwork for the creation of an eventual Center for Sustainable Development. Students must apply for this Academic Travel experience. More information and application materials may be found on the Student Portal at: http://iqweb.fc.edu/.

TVL 312 Florence, Lucca and Siena
Professor Gebhardt

This Academic Travel highlights Florence, Lucca and Siena in central Italy. These three cities have a turbulent history, from which emerged perhaps the most explosive manifestation of art in the western world. We will try to follow their history from the Roman (and Etruscan) origins, focusing on their development during the medieval period, up to and including the Renaissance. Visits in Florence include the towers of the Cerchi and the Donati, la Torre della Castagna (the first town hall) Palazzo Vecchio, Bargello, and Torre della Pagliuzza, as well as the important churches, the Cathedral, the Palazzo Medici, and the Accademia. We will subsequently travel to Lucca and Siena and discuss their development during this period and their relationship to Florence. Although they both offer a similar history with divisions and wars between families and with neighboring cities, we will examine their individual characteristics. Prior to departure, students will be introduced to the development of the political situation from the medieval city-state to the Signorie of the Renaissance, and to the life and works of the most representative personalities (political, literary and artistic) of this period.

TVL 313 Chile
Professor Hale

The Bio-Bio river basin is Chile's largest, providing water and ecosystem services to over one million people. It contains the highest aquatic biodiversity in Chile and supports productive coastal fisheries. It is also home to much of Chile's forestry, paper, and hydropower industries. In this course, we will explore the complexity of water issues facing the Bio-Bio river basin in Chile. We will study river ecology and watershed hydrology, particularly as they relate to Chile and the Bio-Bio. We will learn about the exciting flora and fauna of the region and study how current and proposed human uses affect these resources. We will examine conflicts among the indigenous Pewenche people, environmentalists, and the hydropower and agro-forestry industry. This course will consist of seminars for several days at the Universidad de Concepción with a group of Chilean students and professors, followed by field visits to the river from its headwaters in the Andes to where it empties into the Pacific.

TVL 314 Cairo, Egypt
Professor Khan

This travel is intended as an introduction to the field of urban economics - a discipline which asks basic questions about the location of production, the division of labor, the terms of exchange between urban and rural areas, as well as the conditions required for sustained and balanced economic growth. Students will become familiar with the economic development of Cairo over two millennia and come to appreciate the constraints on growth and the opportunities for social innovation in a modern developing country megalopolis. The group will visit archeological sites, a broad spectrum of Cairo's residential areas, media outlets, government ministries responsible for urban planning, as well as cultural and educational institutions to experience, first hand, the challenges and hopes of this giant developing metropolis on the Nile.

TVL 315 Madrid and Northern Spain
Professor Mottale

This trip introduces students to history, culture, politics and arts of Spanish civilization by contrasting the history of Madrid and the surrounding region with that of the Basque country. Students will be familiarized with the layers of culture that have created modern Spain as a political entity, and the contrast with the rise of a Basque culture and national identity that has left its mark on the Northern regions. The trip will include visits to culturally significant sites in Castilla, Leon, Navarra, and the Basque country. In each city, the program director, specialists, and guides will deliver lectures on relevant topics to students.

TVL 316 Paestum, Pompei, and Rome
Professor Orsi

"Learned antiquity, through all its extent, was never enlightened to equal our times." This quote by Perrault (1687) made up the core statement of the discussion between the so-called "ancients and moderns" in the seventeenth century. Their quarrel was a witty cover for deeply opposing views on the idea of progress in society and its art and literature. Keeping the quarrel in mind, the travel will take a close look at some of Italy's most breathtaking monuments from antiquity to the present day. We will go from the temples of the Magna Grecia in Paestum, to Pompei and Herculaneum, where the daily life of ancient Rome was arrested with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, and finally to Rome itself, a modern city where antiquity and today's world intersect. Thinking about the notion of progress and its validity (or lack thereof) in contemporary life, we will visit and study archaeological sites, Renaissance and Baroque churches, modern art museums and galleries, and Rome's famous film studios at Cinecittà.

TVL 317 Croatia: Service Leadership
Professor Bourgeois

(Facilitating the Progress of Individuals, Communities and Society) This travel experience will focus on organized service and the ways in which community-based service efforts affect social change in Croatia. The course will explore the effectiveness and value of community service organizations, the leadership of such organizations and the challenges they face. Participants in this travel will develop an understanding of the strategies employed by government and non-government organizations to address the needs of various populations within a larger society. The course revolves around travel to and active participation in the life of a host community during the duration of the travel period. The immersion experience and associated assignments are specifically intended for students interested in personal involvement in social justice and service leadership. At the travel site, students will be required to perform service work and participate in additional activities. Students should expect service projects that may include painting, basic construction, clean-up and general construction duties. Elementary school visits that include tutoring, teacher assistance and interaction with local children are also in consideration. Participants should expect a significant amount of activity that may require a serious degree of physical ability. Service projects associated with this Travel may include heavy lifting, digging, basic construction, and basic landscaping tasks. Visits to museums, civic locations and recreational sites in Dubrovnik, and the Dalmatian Coast may be included in the travel to help students better understand the history, values, natural resources and traditions of Croatian culture.