Travel Courses (TRAVL-UG)

This online course provides an opportunity for students studying abroad to reflect, analytically and creatively, on their travel experiences. We examine the art created by travelers—travel literature, photography, paintings—and consider how traveling can itself be viewed as an art, with its own conventions, styles, traditions, and opportunities for innovation. All of the course activities are conducted on the class website: students blog about their responses to the readings and their own travels, post photos, and comment on each other’s posts. Enrollment is limited to students studying at one of NYU’s study abroad sites. Reading assignments include Alain de Botton’s The Art of Travel as well as books relevant to the city and country of each study-abroad site. For more information, visit the course website: travelstudies.org.

THIS COURSE TAKES PLACE IN HAWAII. Islands play a special role in a variety of scientific disciplines, both as privileged sites of experimentation and as unique objects of study. Islands are places where we can see into Earth's interior, into the depths of the ocean, and into the distant past. They have also been key locations for understanding human societies and building empires in the formerly unreachable. Hawai'i has a number of unusual natural and cultural features that make it a particularly fruitful location for this kind of pursuit. Its marine animals, such as dolphins, can help us understand not only the aquatic environment but also the nature of consciousness and communication. Its indigenous culture still retains a robust presence, providing a way to study how cultures develop in isolation and how they change with outside exposure. This interdisciplinary science course will explore the Hawaiian islands through the perspective of various scientific disciplines such as geology, oceanography, marine biology, geography, ecology, and astronomy, as well as anthropology, evolution, exploration, and climate change.

Dickens' novel, Bleak House (1852-53), is an omnibus of mid Victorian society, encompassing a wide range of themes: wealth and poverty, children and parents, legacies, the place of women, illness and health, crime and punishment, tradition and reform--all against the background of the rapidly growing, foggy, filthy city that is nineteenth-century London. Often it is said that this novel is 'about the law;' the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce is a central driver of Dickens' sprawling story. Dickens also takes us into the broader world of legal London, offering some of the most memorable lawyer characters in nineteenth-century fiction. In this course, we focus intently on a slow and careful reading of Bleak House, supplemented by readings and field trips designed to help us understand nineteenth-century London and the Victorians. While locating the course in London will still not let us experience at first-hand Dickens' world, we can bring what might seem like very distant and strange locations closer through outside-the-classroom experiences that permit us to reflect on the city, which is in effect a character in the novel. We will frame our investigation with the idea of jurisdiction. Jurisdiction refers to the expertise or command of a particular court, but we will broaden this idea--as Dickens does in his novel--to think about space, place, and time, affect and desire, and the " jurisdiction" of literature. Who gets to "say the law" where and with what authority? What is the space of the literary? And how does the space of nineteenth-century London shape Dickens' fiction?

London is a Victorian city: the years during which Queen Victoria reigned (1837-1901) marked its development as one of the first truly modern, global metropolises. Charles Dickens is the most important novelistic voice of that city, producing unforgettable images of its streets, its people, and its institutions throughout his writing career. In this course, we engage a study of the writer and his works through the exploration of London as a modern urban space. We'll begin the course with Dickens' journalism, setting it in the context of the rise and expansion of the periodical press, and focus our attention on some of the major urban issues that arose in the mid-century: slum clearance, policing, the rise of the middle class, education, and environmental issues, such as the need for a modern sewage system, that arose in a rapidly expanding urban space. We will then turn to two of Dickens' novels: Oliver Twist (1837-39) and Bleak House (1852-53). How does the novel "write" the city? How does the city shape the form of the novel? Punctuating and enriching our reading and discussion of these novels and the city they imagine and depict, we'll participate in guided walks, visit museums, and hear from guest speakers to learn more about Dickens' London and contrast it with the London of today.

During a three-week interdisciplinary course, students will investigate the unique visual artistry inherent in Czech theater, its history and influence in Eastern Europe, and its application in contemporary theater performance. Steeped in a legacy of theater performance rooted in the visual tradition, Prague is home and host to some of the most innovative work in theatrical design and performance. This course will trace the genealogy of design influenced performance from its roots in the concentration camps of World War II where the practice of using found objects in imaginative ways began as a means for creating the world of the play to the later 20th century when theater artists invented new ways of communicating visually with their audiences as a means to escape censorship from totalitarian government officials. Through architectural and gallery tours as well as attendance at Czech theaters we will investigate the historical and political conditions from which Eastern European theater emerged in the 20th century and the influence of visual design in contemporary Czech theater. Every four years, the city is also home to the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, the largest exhibition of stage design in the world, showcasing the work of artists from more than 75 countries and featuring performances based in visual elements. The course will coincide with PQ12 and make use of this learning resource and opportunity to interact with artists from all over the world. The course will include hands on workshops where we will explore tools and approaches for collaboration between the visual and performing arts as well as new ways of incorporating visual arts into storytelling and performance. Classes, taught in English, meet four days per week.

From the written works of Harlem Renaissance writers Langston Hughes, Claude McKay and Countee Cullen that fomented the Negritude movement, to the performances of Josephine Baker, to the art of Henry Ossawa Tanner and Beauford Delaney, to the music of jazz musicians Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Bill Coleman, to the political philosophies and writings of W.E.B Dubois and James Baldwin, Paris's influence on the creation of African American culture has been profound. Less noted is the degree to which the African American presence in Paris influenced international art and political thought, from the use of African cubism among European artists to the shaping of the philosophies of thinkers like Sarte, Camus and de Beauvoir. We will focus on Paris as a site of exchange—as an intersection through which pass influential ideas, forms and actions. We will consider the degree to which the encounter with Paris paradoxically made African American writers and artists more aware of and intent upon defining and articulating their Americanness, and finding in it a foundation for increased political activism and shaping of a Pan-African sensibility and community. This class will examine the literature, art, food, geographies and politics of African American expatriates in Paris, paying particular attention to the ways that the view from another shore shaped political thought and activism arising from a deepened awareness of national and international identity that Paris inspired.

THIS COURSE TAKES PLACE AT N.Y.U. MADRID. This course explores the contemporary history and geography of Madrid, with a focus on recent changes. Compared to just twenty years ago, Madrid, like most European cities, is today more diverse, more interconnected (and subject to more complex governance arrangements), more unequal, more subject to volatile financial investments, and more environmentally vulnerable. This course explores both how residents have experienced these changes and how organized groups and institutions have sought to respond to these challenges.

The sport of football (soccer) has gripped the minds and hearts of billions across the world. From workers in a local rum shop to noted philosophers and writers, devotees of the sport have commented on the poetics and politics of football, arguing that it has the power to transform identities, space, and bodies. With a specific focus on post-World War I European history, nationalism, race, and gender, this course examines the way football has been used to shape national identity, to bolster ideologies of the state, and as a tool to publicly litigate national, racial and ethnic, and gendered myths. How does the evolution of the old Latin adage panem et circenses (bread and circuses) from pan y toro (bread and bulls) to pan y fútbol (bread and soccer) help us to understand the politics of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and the peculiar role of football in state governance? How are Catalan and Basque identities re-imagined through football clubs during Spain's transition to democracy? What role do literature and cinema play in this reconstruction of identity? By focusing on the spectacle of Spanish, English, and French football and its intersections with the histories of politics (national and colonial), media, and cultural production, this course examines the creation and reproduction of national narratives in the European and colonial sphere.

From the arrival of the Umayyids in 711 until the fall of the Emirate of Granada in 1492, Muslims created a vibrant and cosmopolitan civilization in Spain where arts, philosophy, science, and different communities of faith flourished. Al-Andalus emerged as a hub of cultural and intellectual exchange amongst Muslims, Christians, and Jews. The renowned Muslim philosopher Ibn Rushd, who wrote extensive commentaries of Aristotle, was born in Cordoba. So did Maimonides, the great Jewish philosopher and Talmudic scholar. Ibn Rushd and Maimonedes joined a long list of philosophers, physicians, astronomers who contributed richly to the expansion of knowledge during Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula. " Europe"s relationship with Islam remains problematic as it often involves cultural essentialism and "othering." The arrival of increasing numbers of Muslim immigrants and refugees in Europe in recent decades has reinforced the negative perception of Islam. Islamic Spain offers useful and necessary historical context to explore the deep, productive, meaningful, and less antagonistic exchanges between Europe and Islam. Studying the Islamic past of the Iberian Peninsula will allow us to develop useful insights regarding a complex, multilingual, polyethnic, and pluralistic society. By situating Al-Andalus as a part of the European experience, we will move away from the Eurocentric and exclusivist notions of historiography that stress the Reconquista as a point of inflection. Instead, we will recover the dynamic society that existed before then. Islamic Spain defies Orientalist notions of Islam through its accommodation of diverse theological positions and pluralistic philosophies rooted within the Islamic tradition.

Buenos Aires, known as "The Paris of the South," is one of the mythic cities of the world. Containing nearly one-third of Argentina's population, the city has had an inordinate impact not only on Argentina, but on Latin American consciousness and identity. This three-week course will trace the evolution of the political theorists, educational reformers, and creative artists whose works have shaped the culture, art and politics of Buenos Aires and Argentina. Readings include excerpts from the works of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, José Enrique Rodó, Robert Ferris Thompson, and George Reid Andrews; fiction by Jorge Luís Borges, Silvinia Ocampo, Julio Cortázar, Roberto Arlt, and Adolfo Bioy Casares; such documents as Nunca Más, and the film The Afro-Argentines. Field trips encompass the rich resources of the city's museums, historical sites, and ethnic neighborhoods. Sessions with leading Argentine jurists, educators, and artists are an important component of this course. In addition, students will spend one weekend in Montevideo, Uruguay.

THIS COURSE TAKES PLACE AT N.Y.U. BERLIN. Application: http://gallatin.nyu.edu/utilities/forms/summersaapp.html   For more information: https://gallatin.nyu.edu/academics/global/travelcourses/berlin.html   Description: Some of the most thrilling, momentous, and terrible events of the 1900s occurred in Berlin, which present tales of warning and inspiration to the present century. This four-week interdisciplinary seminar tracks these major events and traces change through the study of primary materials (literature, film, art, buildings, music, political discourse) and secondary readings drawn from a range of disciplines including history, sociology, philosophy, and critical theory. Berlin's streets, buildings, memorials, and cultural monuments offer cautionary tales about the folly of nationalist ambition; inspiring sagas of intellectual and physical courage; cold testimonials of crime and retribution; lyrical ballads of brutal honesty; personal records of hope and despair. From one perspective, all of these narratives are episodes in an epic whose grand and central scene is World War II; this is the point of view to be adopted in this course. Students will take in many of the sights and sounds of old and contemporary Berlin but will focus on the involvement of twentieth-century, Berlin-based politicians, activists, artists, architects, bohemians, writers, and intellectuals with the causes, experience, and consequences of World War II. Our period of study begins just before the outbreak of World War I and ends during the astonishing building boom of the post-Wall 1990s and early 2000s.

Contemporary representations of India either paint the subcontinent as a vast treasure trove of exotic culture and tradition and/or as an emergent economic powerhouse, rapidly modernizing to overtake the West. Sitting uneasily between these two images is the idea of India as a third world country, struggling with disparities of well being by trying to "develop" itself. During this two-week course based in Bangalore, India, students are offered an interdisciplinary learning experience that explores the dynamics of culture and development within globalizing India. Bangalore, considered the “Silicon Valley” of India, is at the epicenter of India’s information technology boom—its changing urban landscape a microcosm of third world urban development and globalization. In the classroom, students will be introduced to the philosophical underpinnings and practice of “development” as an important framework through which ideas of culture, economy, politics, tradition and modernity are organized and managed by the Indian state and international organizations. Background historical works will explore how the idea and practice of development are linked to colonialism and anticolonialism, capitalism, nationalism and globalization. Readings will also explore the cultural politics of tradition, tourism, heritage and monuments and the environment in order to understand how tourism is linked to development.

With the demise of European colonial empires and the emergence of the neo-colonial state, the continent of Africa has become the center of development discourse. This dialectic between largely European and US American thinkers and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) has produced a slew of books within the last decade that analyze the impact of NGOs and the challenges of international aid programs. For the most part, many of these texts conclude that modernization must emulate the West, while other scholars argue the futility of monetary aid efforts. This course examines the shifting meaning of development from Africans and non-African thinkers. Is development a by-product of former colonial structures? In what ways do NGOs enhance or adversely affect developing nations? By exploring key texts that examine the problems of aid programs, strategies for structural and economic improvement, and ideas that address poverty, political instability and the rights of marginal groups, this course utilizes the disciplines of history, anthropology, and economics to better understand the merits and tensions of development in Africa. Group site visits both in and out of Accra will allow for further immersion in the history and culture of the region, ranging from visits to Elmina Castle, local NGOs, the W.E.B. Du Bois Memorial Center for Pan African Culture and outings to Ghanian museums and other historical sites. Students will live in NYU-arranged housing located in residential neighborhoods within walking distance from the NYU Center.

This travel course examines urban development in the postcolonial global South through the lens of cities in Senegal, West Africa. Like elsewhere across the global South, Senegal is rapidly becoming urban. This process implies a host of important transformations and challenges for development, the environment, and the socio-political lives of city-dwellers. Owing to the country’s particular development trajectory, long history of urbanization, and important legacy as one of Africa’s strongest democracies, Senegal provides an especially fascinating place to examine these dynamics and grapple with their implications for urbanism in the global South and beyond. This course will be based in Senegal’s capital city, Dakar, but will include overnight trips to the other important Senegalese cities of Saint Louis (the colonial capital of French West Africa) and Touba (Senegal’s Islamic Mecca) to compare the form and function of these alternative urban histories and development strategies. Through a combination of course readings, classroom lectures, tours, walks, and field visits, we will explore the legacies of colonialism and unpack a number of key contemporary debates and challenges faced by urban planners and city residents.

This course explores the longstanding and complex relationship between the Irish and African diasporas as a means of engaging broader themes of ethnoracial groupmaking, post/coloniality, and inequality in multicultural democracies.  People of Irish and African descent have lived in close proximity for four centuries-- a result of transatlantic migration, forced and otherwise. Relations between the two groups have been marked by both conflict and collaboration, shaped by prevailing conceptions of identity, hierarchies of belonging, and access to pathways of upward mobility in “new” world societies. In the last two decades, however, Ireland has become the site of that encounter. A booming “Celtic Tiger” economy of the 1990s has transformed an emigrant society into an immigrant one, as migrants from around the world have relocated there. As a growing population of Irish citizens of African descent has come of age, the country is grappling with new questions about what it means to be Irish, be it by way of birth, passport, immigration, ancestry, or culture—in Ireland now. Given these changes, Ireland is an ideal site to engage some of the most pressing questions of our time: What is required to create a multicultural democracy? How can belonging that doesn’t depend on sameness be made real? What counts as “same” and “different”? How do societies manage the ordeal of integration?  The course takes place mainly in Dublin with short trips to the west of Ireland and Belfast. Site visits may include the EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, Frederick Douglass Walking Tour and the Ulster Museum, among others.