Dickinson Globally Integrated Programs

Globally integrated courses are Dickinson College courses with international academic excursions embedded in the curriculum of the course. Students must apply through the Office of Global Education and pre-register for the required course through the Registrar’s Office before admission into the program. The focus of the campus-based course is to study topics related to the field experience abroad. Students receive course credit by completing the required course.

2008-2009 Programs

China: Emerging Superpower?

Approximate Dates of Study Abroad Component in China*:

December 28, 2008-January, 17, 2009

*(Please note these dates are subject to change based on flight availability).

This course will investigate two major sets of questions.  First, will China continue to develop in the next 25 to 50 years at the extraordinary pace of the past 25 years?   If so, what factors will contribute to continued rapid growth? (The list might include a large labor force; investment in new plant and equipment; heavy R&D spending; a strong educational system; adoption of high technology methods; lax enforcement of property rights; and rising demand from an emerging middle class.)  If not, what factors will hinder China’s continued transformation?  (The list might include environmental degradation; popular unrest; rising production costs and inability to modernize production facilities; and an unstable financial system.)   

Second, and depending on the answer to the first question, what will be the implication for China’s citizens and for the internal structure of China’s political economy?   For example, will there be continued progress toward more democracy and better conditions regarding human rights?  Furthermore, and again contingent on the answer to the first question, what impact will China’s transformation have on other actors in the international system, such as other nation-states,  intergovernmental organizations, multinational companies, and workers in other countries?    

The course will start with a three week experience in Shanghai and the surrounding region during the 2008-09 winter break.  It will combine conversations within the group with site visits and presentations by experts from the fields of government, academe, business, and non-profit organizations.   The course will then continue in the spring semester of 2009 in Carlisle, and will have a more traditional seminar style. 

All aspects of the course will be taught in English.  

While priority in admission will be given to those students who are majors in International Business and Management or in International Studies, it will be open to all students who are currently in their second, third, or fourth year at Dickinson and who have successfully completed at least one course in economics, international business, political science, or East Asian studies.  

Click here to download an application. (Applications are due Sept. 15, 2008)

For more information, contact:

Professor Michael Fratantuono

Phone: 717-245-1075

E-mail: fratantu@dickinson.edu

South Asian Diaspora Mosaic

Approximate Dates of Study Abroad Component in India*:

February 26-March 15, 2008

*(Please note these dates are subject to change based on flight availability).

The Community Studies Center is offering a team-taught Globally Integrated program during the spring 2009 semester, The South Asian Diaspora Mosaic.  The course will be taught by Professor Rose, Professor O’Brien and Professor Staub.  The focus of the mosaic program will be on the South Asian Diaspora in the United States, which will weave together three courses- one focusing on Lived Religion, one on Fieldwork and Ethnography, and one on South Asian narratives and cultures. An additional (optional) spring semester 2009 course entitled, Retracing Migration, will involve fieldwork with the South Asian community in Central Pennsylvania, as well as a 17 day course component involving field work and interviewing in India.  Students can choose to take the optional course in India as their fourth credit, or take a fourth course of their own choosing.

Course credits can be assigned in sociology, anthropology, religion, women's studies, American Studies, history, English, and the cross-cultural, and U.S diversity requirements can be fulfilled. For more information about the course and associated costs, please click here. 

Please note there are two different applications for this Mosaic program. 

One application is for students planning on taking the 4-course Mosaic, which includes the course component in India. Click here to download the 4-course Mosaic application. 

For students interested in taking the 3-course Mosaic, which does NOT include the course component in India, please click here for 3-course Mosaic application.

Please note the application deadline is September 15, 2008.

For more information, contact:

Professor Susan Rose

E-mail: rose@dickinson.edu

Professor Sharon O'Brien

E-mail: obrien@dickinson.edu

Professor Shalom Staub

E-mail: staubs@dickinson.edu

South Africa and the United States:  A Comparative Black Liberation Mosaic

The Comparative Black Liberation Mosaic will examine two of the most internationally significant liberation movements of the twentieth century: 

the Anti-apartheid movement in South Africa from the 1950s through the 1990s, and the African American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s-1980s. 

Students in this program will participate in a cross-cultural and transnational program that studies and researches in King William’s Town, South Africa and Coahoma County, Mississippi during the summer and fall of 2008.  Courses during the Fall 2008 semester at Dickinson College will consist of South African History, History of the African American Civil Rights Movement, Oral History, and Ethnomusicology: World Music from Liberation Movements.  Dickinson students will have the opportunity to study during the Spring 2009 semester at either Morehouse College or Dillard University.

Click here to download an application. (Applications are due March 7, 2008.)

Click here for more information about this Mosaic/Crossing Borders program

For more information, contact:
Professor Jeremy Ball
Phone: (717) 245-8191
E-mail: ballj@dickinson,edu

Professor Kim Rogers

Phone: (717) 245-1517
E-mail:rogersk@dickinson.edu

Venezuela and the U.S.:  Sustainable Agro-Ecosystems and Cooperative Movements

The College Farm, Environmental Studies and Prof. Susan Rose (Sociology) will be offering a fall/winter ethnographic field course addressing sustainable agricultural systems and cooperative movements.  Students will take a ½ credit course in the fall with Halpin and Rose, studying the concept of sustainability from both agricultural and economic/political/development perspectives. The group will then travel to Venezuela for two+ weeks in January '09 to work in the fields at La Alianza, a model organic food production cooperative, learning about sustainable agricultural practices, including vermiculture.  This January segment will continue in the spring semester as students process, analyze, archive, and present their final research projects. The second ½ credit course will finish by spring break.

Click here to download an application.  (Applications are due February 28, 2008.)

Click here for more information abou this Globally Integrated Program.

For more information, contact:
Professor Susan Rose
Phone: (717) 245-1244
E-mail: rose@dickinson.edu

Jennifer Halpin

Director of the Organic Farm

Phone:  (717) 245-1251

E-mail:  halpinj@dickinson.edu

Past Programs

Havana, Cuba: Cuban Economy and Society Today
This course begins with a two-week trip to Cuba that focuses on a study of the Cuban economy and society, followed by regular class meetings during the spring semester in Carlisle. In Cuba, students attend daily lectures facilitated by the University of Havana, in conjunction with the Facultad Latinamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), and take part in cultural activities and site visits that relate to the class discussions.

For more information, contact:
Prof. Sinan Koont
Phone: (717) 245-1841
E-mail: koont@dickinson.edu

San Salvador, Bahamas: Marine Science Program
This one-year interdisciplinary experience blends biology, geology, oceanography and environmental science and is built around a field course in San Salvador Island, Bahamas, during January break.

For more information, contact:
Office of Global Education
Phone: (717) 245-1341
E-mail: global@dickinson.edu

Montserrat: Geology and Sociology of Catastrophes
This two-course sequence investigates the geological and sociological effects of nature’s catastrophic events, especially volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and floods. A two-week pre-course field trip to the Caribbean island of Montserrat provides data for a semester-long research project on the impacts of the ongoing eruption of Soufriere Hills volcano. The field trip includes studies of volcanic deposits and eruption monitoring and prediction combined with interviews of residents and displaced Montserratians. The goal of the two-course sequence is to provide an integrated frame of reference for a better understanding of how humans interact with and are affected by nature.

For more information, contact:
Prof. Ben Edwards
Phone: (717) 245-1355
E-mail: edwardsb@dickinson.edu

Prof. Dan Schubert
Phone: (717) 245-1227
E-mail: schubert@dickinson.edu

Abu Dhabi and Dubai, United Arab Emirates: The Modern History of the Gulf
This course examines the history of the Gulf (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq) from the 18th century to the present. The course will begin with a two-week visit to Zayed University in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to examine first-hand the culture and society of this region. Students will explore the 18th-century roots of today’s political landscape, the long era of Pax Britannica, the rise of American hegemony and the impact of petroleum on Gulf societies.

For more information, contact:
Prof. David Commins
Phone: (717) 245-1846
E-mail: commins@dickinson.edu

Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina: Patagonia Mosaic
A faculty-student research collaboration between Dickinson and the National University of Patagonia, this program involves oral history interviews, field work, archival research, several field trips, and homestays. Participants engage in cross-cultural study of immigration, labor and community building in the city of Comodoro Rivadavia and surrounding oil company towns.

For more information, contact:
Prof. Marcelo Borges
Phone: (717) 245-1186
E-mail: borges@dickinson.edu