Academic Travel Choices

Academic Travel is a one-credit course which includes pre- and post-trip meetings and a 10 to 14 - day journey. The Academic Travel Program is an integrated part of the Franklin College curriculum. Academic Travel is a credit-bearing degree requirement, and two weeks of travel each semester represent an extension of students’ class work. Travel is led by our faculty members and relates to the academic expertise of the individual professor and to his or her knowledge of a given country or area. All students, including semester and year-abroad students, are required to participate in the Academic Travel Program.

Academic Travel Choices/First Year Experience

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 216 Nice and Southern France
Professor Saveau

(Nice and its Region: From Impressionism to Contemporary Art) This program will focus primarily on the life and art of painters and sculptors who lived in Nice and its surrounding region. Artists such as Renoir, Matisse, Picasso, Bonnard, Giacometti found there a source of inspiration and cre- ativity that some of their artwork celebrates. Among the museums we will see are the Renoir, Matisse and Picasso Museums, the Maeght Foundation, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and the Beaubourg Gal- lery. The program will also focus on the architectural, geographical, eco- nomical and historical particularities of the Nice region. We will meander through the old parts of Nice, Cagnes-sur-Mer, Grasse, Vence, Saint-Paul- de-Vence and enjoy the sights and smells of outdoor markets that are so essential to the richness of Provence gastronomy. We will visit small picturesque villages whose Italian heritage is still very much visible, villages that are ranked among the most beautiful in France, in particular those that are called "villages perché s". Among them, is where Friedrich Nietzsche conceived the third part of "Thus spake Zarathustra",Tourrettes-sur-Loup, Gourdon.

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 273 Florence and Central Italy
Professor Mottale

(From Antiquity to the Present) This program will introduce the students to the civilization of Florence and Central Italy. Students will be studying the historical, social, political, cultural and artistic dimensions of this region. Florence will be the center and the base of this trip, while the most important cities in the area will be visited. They will include Siena, Arezzo, Volterra, Cortona, Perugia, Urbino, the Chianti region, and the Tuscan countryside.

TVL 285 Hamburg/Baltic Sea/Copenhagen
Professor Prisner

Hamburg prides itself on being Germany's "Gateway to the World". It is Germany's largest harbor and, historically, it connected the Baltic Sea region with North Sea access. In recent years, Hamburg has had to manage the challenge of globalization by developing new economical areas in cooperation with the surrounding communities. Copenhagen has to face the same situation and its answer is similar: building a metropolitan area with a diversified economical structure. We will spend several days in Hamburg, visiting the harbor, wharfs, the Airbus site, a publisher, and an advertising company (Hamburg is Germany's center of print media and is a leader in the field of advertising). We will also visit Luebeck. Then we will travel to Copenhagen, enjoying the countryside and the Baltic Sea on our way. Students will study how major cities deal with economic changes and will consider the problems harbor cities face as they make the transition to a global market.

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 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 318 Slovak and Czech Republics
Professor Bulcroft

An examination of contemporary Slovak social structure, relationships and culture as an example of current social conditions and culture in post-Soviet Central European society. This tour will incorporate seminars with leading experts on Slovak society and culture; visits to major business/work organizations (HP; US Steel); tours of significant urban and rural areas of Slovakia; student conducted interviews with Slovak students at two major universities to explore issues around youth, relationships and family life; and a close examination of the conditions and issues facing the Roma (including the potential for a service learning day in the Roma community in Eastern Slovakia). Interspersed with these experiences will be an opera performance at the Janecek Theatre in Brno (Dvorak's Czech peasant opera - "The Jacobin") and opportunities to explore historical and cultural sites in both the Sovak and Czech Republics (churches, museums, buildings, castles, monuments, etc.). Locations in Slovakia will include: Bratislava, Banska Stiavnica (UNESCO World Heritage Site), Banska Bystrica, Spania Dolina, Vlkonec, Levoca, Spisska Kapitula, Spissky Hrad (UNESCO World Heritage Site), Zehra, Presov, and Kosice. Locations in the Czech Republic will include: Brno, Prague, and Ceske Krumlov (UNESCO World Heritage Site), Depending on time and weather conditions, there may also be an opportunity to engage in winter recreational activities in the High Tatra mountains of Eastern Slovakia.

TVL 325 Elbe River Environs - Czech Republic and
Professor Hale

This travel will explore the course of the Elbe from its origins in the Czech Republic, through the UNESCO biosphere reserve Flusslandschaft Elbe, which spans over half to the German length of the Elbe, to its end in the North Sea. Along the way we will examine the natural communities of the river, the role history has had in shaping and protecting this important resource, the challenges facing the management of the river today, and the successes conservation has enjoyed thus far. While this travel will focus on themes most relevant to environmental studies majors and, conditions permitting, will involve some hands-on ecological fieldwork, it is open to all with an interest in the topic.

TVL 326 Berlin: Unification
Professor Wiedmer

(And the Wall Came Tumbling Down: Revisiting Unification in Berlin from a Historical, Political and Cultural Perspective) When asked where they were and what they were doing when hearing about the fall of the Berlin wall, most people who were adults at the time can tell you in fairly precise terms. In fact, the fall of the wall, and the politics and cultural upheaval surrounding it has, in geopolitical terms, had a similar effect as the moon landing or the murder of John Kennedy. And yet for today's students, toddlers at the time of this cataclysmic event, the notion of a divided Germany, of the co-existence of two separate regimes, and of the wall itself is history. The focus of this travel is to animate this history by taking participants to the original sites of the divide, such as Checkpoint Charlie, and what remains of the wall; to study what lead up to and away from November 9, 1989, in literature, documentaries, history books and in discussion with witnesses; to explore the traces of once-divided Germany by following the debates on contemporary architectural erasures and reconstructions in former East Berlin; and by savoring DDR nostalgia, complete with the requisite DDR cuisine and Trabi ride.