Maymester

On this trip, students spent a few weeks on campus intensively studying the Cold War from the perspective of Eastern Europe. While in Europe, they traveled through Germany, Poland, and Hungary where they visited historic sights, museums, and memorials. Students appreciated having the opportunity to see the ways in which different artists conveyed their experiences during this time through their work.

This Maymester explored the unique interaction in Spain among the three great monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, especially in central (La Mancha) and in southern (Andalusia) Iberia. Both the land of Cervantes’ Don Quixote and the terrain of the Reconquista (reconquest) offer the opportunity to examine the rich cultural intersection of religious dialogue, literary creativity, philosophical inquiry, artistic innovation and architectural inspiration as well as linguistic and ethnic mixing that resulted from the long and conflicted interface of these three faith traditions. In Providence, students studied prominent historical-theological narratives and debates associated with the three course foci as well as interactions among European Christians, Muslims and Jews (consequences that influenced later relations with Indigenous peoples in the Americas and Africans in the Atlantic World).  In Iberia, students visited important urban and rural locations associated with these three belief systems and attended lectures by local experts on the conquest and reconquest of the peninsula in addition to the extension of their effects into the Atlantic World.

Building on two successful Japan Maymester trips (2013 and 2015), the 2017 Japan Maymester explored the historical relationship between Japan and the U.S., with a particular focus on visual sources. This Maymester once again featured a strong fine arts component with an emphasis on visual literacy and digital storytelling, courtesy of Prof. Eric Sung of The Department of Art and Art History.

This Maymester, led by Dr. Karen Holland and Fr. David Orique, O.P., traveled the same roads and visited the same sites that millions of pilgrims have journeyed for centuries. Major stops included Santiago Compostela, Madrid, and Salamanca, as well as Lisbon, Porto, and Coimbra.

Building on the incredibly successful 2013 Maymester in Japan (see below), this course added a new twist: a fine arts component thanks to the addition of visual literacy and digital storytelling, a component added by Dr. Eric Sung of The Department of Art and Art History.

The Rise of the Polis and the Birth of Classical Greece combined academic study and travel to Greece. The course surveyed ancient Greek history and showcased the archaeology, architecture, and religion of Western Civilization’s earliest foundations. The travel portion of the course included on-site lectures by archaeologists, art historians, and historians working on the sites.

The study portion of this major economic power provided the background for travel to this “Land of the Rising Sun.” Its cultural setting dating back to 30,000 B.C. offered students an extraordinary and unforgettable experience of Japanese culture and history.

A week of intensive on-campus study was followed by 12 days of travel to Fishbourne Palace, Stonehenge, Hadrian’s Wall, Newgrange, Glendalough, and Skellig Michael in such exciting locations as Chichester, Newcastle, Dublin, and Kilkenny.

Five days of classroom study about the Cold War era in Eastern Europe were followed by two weeks of memorable travel in Berlin, Gdansk, Warsaw, and Budapest.