Global Semester Program

Partners Project: Centenary College

Project director David Havird, who also teaches English, has been developing a model for a course with an intercultural extension, which focuses on integrating the classroom experience with overseas travel. This challenges the traditional model, wherein overseas travel has no context. He reports, "this spring I've been teaching a course whose readings 'map out' southwest England, from London down through Hampshire, over to Dorset, Dartmoor, and Cornwall. I designed the course with an intercultural extension in mind, even though the grant proposal specified a course for 2002-03. A couple of students and I, along with a colleague in English, will be going to England in May with the idea of demonstrating the viability of this 'course + intercultural extension,' and I'm expecting one of the students to share her reflections with students in the fall." He has been consulting with colleagues interested in similar courses, and plans on offering a more extensive course-plus-travel in the spring of 2003. "In the process I am hoping to demonstrate for colleagues in various disciplines how intercultural extensions to existing courses can enrich those courses and how the courses, somewhat reconceived with the travel in mind, can prepare for a more meaningful intercultural experience," he concludes.

Report by David Havird, Centenary College, 7 March 2002

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