TRACKING CULTURES PROGRAM 2008

TRAVEL WITH UT STUDENTS AND FACULTY TO SPAIN AND MEXICO! 

INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF THE CULTURES OF SPAIN,  MEXICO, AND THE SOUTHWEST ON CAMPUS AND ABROAD

SPRING AND EARLY SUMMER 2008

MAJOR TRAVEL EXPENSES COVERED; SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE


The Tracking Cultures Program is now accepting applications for the spring and summer 2008 program.

Tracking Cultures is an innovative cultural studies program that engages students in the interdisciplinary study of southwestern culture's historical roots in Mexico, Spain, and North Africa.

Each fall, the program faculty accepts ten to fifteen students who will enroll in four challenging seminars at UT during the spring semester.  Students will travel to Spain over spring break and enroll in a summer course taught on site in Mexico and New Mexico. The capstone project of the program is a final report on a specific topic related to students' individual programs of studies.

The program is a blend of study abroad and carefully coordinated academic course work in Austin.  Faculty from several different departments at UT work closely together to plan the program's curriculum, identifying fundamental themes and goals for each course, coordinating examinations and writing assignments, and encouraging synthesis exercises that transcend traditional academic boundaries. Courses offered in the program for the spring 2008 semester are as follows:

SPN 50: Tracking Cultures Seminar (Reed)

HIS 306N: Intro to History and Culture of Spain (Villalon)

Colonial Content Course: (HIS 350L, HIS 363K, or ANT 326L)

Fourth Course (related to student's interests or Southwestern content, chosen from SPN 352, ANT 322M, ANT 324L, HIS 317A, E 342, or other approved options related to the student's major)

Local faculty in each country enhance the students' exposure to each culture with a series of lectures and on-site discussions in the most important locations for the study of cultures in contact.

After studying the wide array of academic subjects related to the program, students then focus more specifically on a topic of personal interest when they write their reports, due at the end of the first summer session.  Past report topics have investigated the arrival of Islamic medical technology in the New World, comparative vernacular and monumental architecture in North Africa, Spain, and Mexico, contrastive studies of colonization and religious conversion, and a variety of other issues related to art, literature, music, history, geography, anthropology, religion, and politics.

Tracking Cultures, with its interdisciplinary focus rooted in Texan cultures, is a flagship interdisciplinary study abroad program at the University.  Applications for the 2008 program are due November 5, 2007. There is a program fee of $2,500, which covers five weeks of travel to Mexico, New Mexico, and Spain during the spring and summer. The University underwrites the remaining costs of the program.  A limited number of need-based scholarships up to $1,000 will be available and students will be directed to other sources of financial assistance.

Upper division standing and basic language proficiency in either Spanish, French, or Arabic are required.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT ANY OF THE FOLLOWING FACULTY:

Prof. Cory Reed, Program Director, BEN 4.140 (232-4512)

Prof. Madeline Sutherland-Meier, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, BEN 4.134 (232-4513)

Application materials are also available from Priscilla Ebert, in GEB 2.200, and from undergraduate advisors in the Departments of Anthropology, History, Spanish and Portuguese, and other Liberal Arts departments.

The letter of recommendation may be waived if students can list the name of a faculty reference on the application form.

Application materials are available on line at:

http://www.utexas.edu/cola/study_abroad/tracking_cultures/