Rome and Southern Italy (Roman/Italian Civilization)

Our travels to Rome and Southern Italy offer a unique opportunity to explore and learn about some key periods of Western Civilization. We will enter into a “time machine” in which we come face to face with the remains of Greco-Roman culture standing alongside the splendors of the Renaissance and Baroque periods as well as the realities of contemporary Italy. In Campania, we first visit the Greek temples at Paestum, and then move on to the world’s best-preserved Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, where they are able to examine early and recent archeological findings. An excursion to Mount Vesuvius, which erupted in 79 A.D. and devastated the surrounding area, gives us a bird’s eye view of the territory, which hid the two cities for many centuries. The city of Naples, the Amalfi Coast, and Sorrento, are among the other sites visited in this region. In Rome, in addition to the ancient, Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces of art and architecture, we have the opportunity to see the Vatican, have an audience with the Pope, and learn about the role of the Roman Catholic Church in Italy.

Switzerland (History and Culture)

Due to characteristics such as linguistic diversity, local authority, direct democracy, and armed neutrality, Switzerland is commonly regarded as an exception to the rule of national development and of limited importance. Our travels within Switzerland focus on the history and culture of the Swiss-German and Romansch urban and rural communities with emphasis on their relationship to the development of medieval and modern Switzerland. Cities and towns visited include Lucerne, Schwyz, Einsiedeln, Bern, Basel, Zürich, St. Gallen, Appenzell, and Chur. We will study historical developments such as the founding of the Swiss Confederation in the thirteenth century, the initiation of the Swiss Reformation by Ulrich Zwingli in the sixteenth century, and the introduction of the federal government in the nineteenth century. In addition to Swiss cultural figures such as Heinrich Pestalozzi, Jacob Burckhardt, Gottfried Keller, Paul Klee, and Alberto Giacometti, we encounter also the legacies of foreigners who lived and worked in Switzerland such as Desiderius Erasmus, Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Einstein, Vladimir Lenin, Thomas Mann, and James Joyce. In so doing, Alex and Cody address questions of the identity and role of Switzerland in Europe today.

Greece (Origins of Western Civilization)

The purpose of this excursion is to explore the birthplace of Western culture. Through visits to Knossos, Santorini, Mycenae, Delphi, Olympia and Athens, we will attempt to retrace the development of Greek civilization from Minoan civilization in Crete to the flowering of democracy in fifth-century Athens.

Australia: Sydney (Australian Society)

Our trip to Australia provides an introduction to the different conceptual and methodological approaches to social science. It is based on a broad-ranging examination of the structure of contemporary Australian society and the process of change that is currently transforming the lives of individuals, families and communities. This introduces us to the key concepts and theoretical perspectives in social services, as well as the basic skills involved in social research. Topics addressed in the include: the changing structure of families; new approaches to gender and sexuality; the characteristics of social groups; the changing nature of authority and government; the impact of Aboriginal rights and multiculturalism; and social movements and social policy.

Japan (Japanese Civilization)

This trip introduces us to the culture and the arts of Japanese civilization, with a focus on communication. Starting in Tokyo, we visit various museums, and cultural & religious sites, and observe various facets of Japanese civilization, including an early morning visit to the famous Tsukiji fish market. In Aichi prefecture and in Kyoto, visits are scheduled with Japanese school students. Other visits include factories, museums, and cultural sites. Cultural excursions in Kyoto, Nara and other cities complete an “orientation” to Japanese arts and culture.

Nice and Southern France (Nice and Its Region: From Impressionism to Contemporary Art)

This trip is divided into two parts. The first part is dedicated to art from the end of the Nineteenth century to the present. The artistic focus is on the lives and art of Renoir, Matisse, Chagall, Picasso, Ferdinand Léger, Ben, Yves Klein, César and Arman among others. Visits are made to the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, the Matisse Chapel in Vence, the Picasso Museum in Antibes, the Picasso Chapel in Vallauris, the Ferdinand Léger Museum in Biot, the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence and the Contemporary Art Museum in Nice. The second part is devoted to the discovery of the National Park of Camargue. Alex and Cody will go horseback riding, learn about Camargue horses and bulls in the wild, sample culinary specialties from the region, and spend a day in the World Heritage city of Arles.

Morocco (Listening to Morocco, Music between Tradition and Modernity)

Jazz legend Randy Weston went to Morocco in the 1960s following a tip that jazz originated from Afro-Moroccan Gnawa. He hasn’t returned back home yet. Weston often speaks about preserving traditional music in Africa and shielding it from too many foreign influences. As an expressive form, music is a wonderful way of learning about how cultures negotiate the push and pull of traditions and modernity. In this academic travel, Alex and Cody will learn about how music in Morocco has evolved and survived through conquests, colonization, and globalization. The program will look at various musical traditions from African to Andalusian to Sufi, and see how their commercialization both nationally and internationally has affected them. The point of this travel is to develop an appreciation of Morocco’s cultural heritage through its music. The program will meet musicians (both known and unknown), officials, label company owners, music producers, and will attend wedding ceremonies in different regions.

Switzerland: French-Speaking Switzerland and France (Travel Writing)

From the salons of Mme de Stael to twentieth-century travel writers Alexandra David-Néel and Ella Maillart, France and French-speaking Switzerland have been home to a rich literary tradition. This will offer us an introduction to travel and the travel literature of France and French-speaking Switzerland in English translation. We will include visits to the Fondation Pierre Gianadda in Martigny, Lausanne and le Musée d’Elysée, Coppet and Geneva in Switzerland as well as excursions to Digne and Grenoble in France. In addition to museum and chateau visits, We will include several writing workshops and meetings with contemporary Swiss and French writers.

India and Nepal (Poverty and Politics)

Our travel to India will allow us to see the many contradictions that exist within the largest democracy in the world. We will be visiting historical sights, monuments and memorials in New Delhi and Calcutta. However, the main focus of the trip will be on the system of international development aid. We will be visiting projects sustained by private Foundations that allow children to be taken out of poverty and put into schools in order to learn trades that will lead to self-sufficiency upon graduation. These projects are in remote areas of the country. Staying at the projects will mean we have the opportunity to live as the local people do in primitive situations. We will have first hand experience of sub-standard living conditions in a developing country. We will see the nature of development aid, how it works, when it is successful and when it is not. We will also see the contrasts of the extreme economic conditions in India. This trip will change our views on the differences between the developed and underdeveloped worlds. Then it’s off to Nepal for a 4-week trek amongst the great Himalayan mountain range with my good friend Mr. Salakpa Sherpa.

Ireland (20th Century Irish Literature and its Contexts)

The primary focus is on Irish writing in the 20th century and its relationship to the writers’ artistic, intellectual, social, and geographic backgrounds. It aims to make one 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. We 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.

Vienna and Salzburg

This trip will explore the cultural and natural heritage of two important cities in Austria: Salzburg and Vienna. The trip will begin in Salzburg with planned visits to the Dom Cathedral, St. Peter's Abbey, and the Fortress Hohensalzburg, Salzburg's Acropolis. In addition to a classical music concert, the itinerary will include a field studies exploration of the natural surroundings and Lake District of the Salzburg area. The trip will then proceed to Vienna, home to the Hapsburgs and Mozart, where visits include the Stephansdom Cathedral, the Schönbrunn Palace and Kunsthistoriches, Albertina and Belvedere Museums. Throughout the trip, we will explore the rivers that pass through these cities (the Salzach, Danube, and Main), how the rivers have shaped the cities, and how the cities have impacted the rivers.

Paris (“Paris was where the twentieth century was” – Gertrude Stein)

After World War I, writers and artists from around the world sought intellectual, artistic and sexual freedom in Paris. Ernest Hemingway, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Alice B.Toklas, Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, William Carlos Williams, James Joyce end their friends turned a few square miles on the Left Bank of the Seine into one of the richest art colonies of the 20th century. The decade put American literature on the map: F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote – and lived – the “jazz age”, Ezra Pound collected funds for writers, composed short operas, and wrote experimental poems, and Ernest Hemingway sat in a garret forging a brand-new American prose. Gertrude Stein held weekly salons throughout the decade. Alex and Cody will follow in the literary footsteps of previous writers in many neighborhoods. Visits include Gertrude Stein’s salon, Shakespeare &CO., the bookstore founded by young American Sylvia Beach who helped publish James Joyce’s radical novel Ulysses, and Hemingway’s favorite café. Through walks, lectures, discussions and readings, we will identify the literary themes of the era and explore the expatriate world of 1920s Paris.