CCSA Summer Courses

This course immerses students in Belizean culture and trains them in contemporary anthropological field methods. Students will gain research skills to apply in their future careers, an appreciation for Belizean cultural diversity, and further their personal growth. While in Belize, students will be primarily engaged in guided applied ethnographic fieldwork. Students will learn about the local culture by doing participant-observation and conducting ethnographic interviews in a community-based research project. Students will learn research ethics, unobtrusive observation, participant observation, field note writing and coding, ethnographic interviewing, ethnolinguistic data collection, community mapping, and other ethnographic methods in addition to basic ethnographic writing.

Everyone has a story to tell, and in this class students will develop their own stories as they relate to the culture of Ireland by creating audio and video projects on location. We will examine digital media as a tool for seeing, exploring, and expressing cultural identity. While visiting ancient sites, cathedrals, and museums and attending concerts, students will document their experience as a participant observer during this important moment in their lives. You’re invited to take advantage of this opportunity to develop your cultural competency and sensitivity in the process of documenting intercultural stories in Ireland.

This course has broad appeal for students in all majors because their individual projects can be focused on a topic related to their major.

Explore theories and practical skills needed to manage arts and cultural organizations in the United States and Ireland, including art museums, galleries, theaters, symphonies, dance companies, and music festivals. We’ll visit various types of arts and cultural organizations, ranging from larger, well-established, national entities such as the National Irish Museum and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media in Dublin to smaller, newer, community-based organizations such as the Limerick Arts Office, Galway Dance Project, and Blue Teapot Theater Company. Along the way, we’ll compare Irish and American practices in such areas as governance systems and structures, program development and management, fund raising, volunteer and community engagement, and marketing and communications.

This course can be taken for upper-division undergraduate credit or for graduate credit.

London is one of the most dynamic cities in the world, and home to centuries of theatre, visual art, music, and design. In this class you'll explore some of London's famous sites, but you'll spend even more time discovering unique destinations and experiences that are off the beaten path. You'll see street art and the great masterworks, hear classical and contemporary music, watch cutting edge theatre and productions of Shakespeare, eat traditional British food and try new flavors. You'll even meet and work with some of the artists themselves. You'll experience first-hand how it feels, looks, and sounds as all the arts come together on the vibrant streets of London!

Honors credit available.

There are no better sites to explore England's rich medieval heritage than Westminster Abbey, The Tower of London, Canterbury Cathedral and Warwick Castle. These are just highlights among the tentative site visits in this course, which immerses you in the art, architecture and literature of medieval English society all the better to understand the cultural heritage that influenced the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Studying medieval texts such as Beowulf and Dante's Inferno which inspired Tolkien, in addition to visiting sites in Oxford associated with him, will further enhance your understanding of what fired the creative imagination of the author of The Lord of the Rings.

The course is open to any students, regardless of major. You don't have to be an English major; the course content and discussion is geared to a general audience. The course may also be taken for credit in an Honors program or for Graduate credit.

Designed for anyone interested in exploring new places, this fun hands-on course meets photo students, beginners to advanced, at their individual level. By strengthening technical and design skills, the class helps each student create a unique personal portfolio including iconic sites and hidden gems. We’ll visit London’s photo galleries and museums, photograph Big Ben and the Thames from London’s Eye, explore scenic vistas at Kew Gardens, and peek into photography’s fascinating history at its birthplace in rural Wiltshire. Experience the vibrant culture and rich history of London while learning how composition, light, color, exposure, and focus help capture your experience.

Honors credit available.

This course will give participants the rare opportunity to experience first-hand the bedrock of the British legal tradition. We will take a step back in time to visit London’s storied Inns of Court where so many distinguished lawyers received their training and also witness wigged barristers in action today at the Old Bailey Criminal Court and the Royal Courts of Justice. Day trips to Oxford and Cambridge Universities will help students understand the academic and cultural context for British legal traditions. This class enables American students to recognize and articulate how American civil and criminal statutes have evolved from the English common law.

Honors or graduate credit is available upon request.