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 247 Venice and its Lagoon
Professor Terzi

(History / Economics / Politics / Art / Literature / Environment) This cross-disciplinary academic travel program explores the historical, cultural, and environmental dimensions of the city of Venice from a variety of angles. This includes the origin of Venice as a Byzantine province, the development of political institutions, the origin of banking, the flourishing of commerce, the architecture and the art, and the role of Venice as a world political and financial power. Special attention will be given to the environmental system of the Venice lagoon that nourished and sustained the city of Venice throughout centuries. The symbiotic relationship of Venice with its lagoon will be considered with respect to current environmental questions and problems related to sustainable tourism. The itinerary will centre on Venice, its lagoon, its surroundings, and normally includes a 2-day cruise.

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 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 Nicolas Bouvier and Ella Maillart, French-speaking Switzerland has been home to a rich literary tradition. This course will offer an introduction to the travel literature of French-speaking Switzerland in English translation. (Students who can will be encouraged to read in the original French). Authors studied will include Rousseau, Madame de Stael, Nicolas Bouvier, Anne Deriaz and Ella Maillart. Course will include visits to the Val d'Anniviers in the Valais, Lausanne, Coppet, and Geneva as well as an excursion to the watch-making region in and around La Chaux-de-Fonds, named a UNESCO cultural site in 2009. In addition to museum and chateau visits, this class will include several writing workshops and meetings with contemporary Swiss writers.

TVL 305 Paris: Avant-Garde Literature and Creative Writing
Professor Ferrari

Urban development and the arts in the 19th and 20th Centuries This program explores a wide variety of visual and narrative representations of the city of Paris, with an emphasis on the 19th & 20th centuries. Student travelers to Paris will follow in the footsteps of some of the city's most culturally influential past inhabitants: from Charles Baudelaire to Ernest Hemingway, from Eugène Atget to Agnès Varda. In preparation for our on-site visits and lectures, our on-campus investigation will pause to consider the significance of artistic movements ranging from French Symbolism, to Surrealism, to Existentialism, to New Wave film. What role does the city of Paris play in inspiring the articulation and evolution of these movements? What are some of the common characteristics that link together the various representations of Paris that we will be looking at? What is it that seemingly enables Paris to transcend the role of urban backdrop and, often, become both protagonist and muse? Students will be expected to make oral presentations throughout their stay and keep a diary/scrapbook in which they will be asked to react to and interact with the unique cityscape which is the Ville Lumière.

TVL 320 Field Study in Malta: The English Business
Professor Starcher

This travel is about the relationship between national/local identities and sites of historical/cultural tourism, which students will explore with the help of students and professors at the University of Malta. The Republic of Malta is among the European Union's smallest and newest member states. Yet, its current status is just one of the many transformations the Maltese Islands have experienced in a history that dates back even before the Neolithic Period and includes not only the remains of its Megalithic temples but testimony in its landscape, monuments and even language to the passage of the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Romans, Castilians, Knights of St. John, the French and British. Thus, Malta is uniquely placed for reconstructing the history of the Mediterranean and particularly for telling an East-West border story about how the Knights of St. John resisted the Ottoman Turks and in so doing preserved the underbelly of Christian Europe. However, the students on this travel will not be engaged solely in the consumption of cultural artifacts, the consideration of historical renderings and in the enjoyment of a truly beautiful setting. Rather, through conversations and interviews with experts and students of cultural tourism, students will also try to understand how such a rich heritage is perceived by the people who live in Malta. In preparation for the trip, students will review the history of the region and will study specific aspects of Maltese culture, including an introduction to the Maltese language. Students will also read theoretical texts on tourism, travel, culture and visual representation, which are intended to help them conceptualize what they will experience.

TVL 321 Paris - The Visual Culture
Professor Fassl

The Visual Culture of Paris will examine a wide range of visual art movements that originated in Paris or for which the city was a major source of inspiration. The emphasis is on nineteenth and twentieth century art, exploring movements such as Realism, Impressionism and Postimpressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. A major subject of investigation and discussion will be photography and what role it played in the development of Modern art. We will use the Paris and its museums to ask ourselves what role the city, its visual and intellectual culture, played in inspiring the articulation and evolution of these movements? What is the effect of Paris on the creative eye today? Our major project will be a sketchbook in which students will engage with these questions, as well as visual and oral presentations.

TVL 333 The Republic of Venice, c. 500-1797, between History and Art
Professor Orsi

Venice is the only famous Italian city that can be said to not have had a Roman foundation. Born of the water sometime during the fifth century, the result of the aggregation of a number of maritime communities spread in the Laguna, by the early ninth century she had become an independent city state, with a locally elected duca and a democratic government independent from Byzantium. In her eleven centuries of history as a free and independent republic (specifically, an oligarchy of "noblemen" with no aristocratic hierarchies), Venice gave birth to a number of political, artistic and literary myths, and imposed herself as the bridge between West and East, not just at commercial level, but also in terms of artistic and literary invention, becoming one of the major powers in world history, particularly so during the fifteenth and sixteenth century. Our focus will be the history and artistic heritage of the "Serenissima" ("The Most Serene"), as she was called, from her tip-toe beginnings to her long yet luminous decline, which paved the way to the French conquest of 1797. We will spend five days in Venice and five days traveling in the "mainland." We will visit towns and cities that were part of the Venetian Republic; among them, Padua, Verona, Vicenza, Treviso, Chioggia; Brescia, and Bergamo. The course is taught in Italian and is part of the Italian Immersion program.

TVL 334 Eastern Europe: Service Leadership
Professor Carpenter

(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 Eastern Europe. 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. Specific destination will be announced in August.

TVL 334 Eastern Europe: Service Leadership
Professor Jones

(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 Eastern Europe. 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. Specific destination will be announced in August.