Southwestern University has collaborated with AIFS to create a new program in Cuzco, Peru. The first course being offered is “Visual Cultures in the Andes.” It is a three-week summer course being taught by Patrick Hajovsky, Assistant Professor of Art History and Omar Rivera, Assistant Professor of Philosophy. 

The Visual Cultures in the Andes centers on the convergence of the ideologies and images of indigenous and Spanish cultures in the multi-faceted city of Cuzco, which is located at an elevation of 11,200 feet in the Andes Mountains of Peru. Unlike other Latin American cities, Cuzco is an architectural palimpset of ancient, colonial, and modern times. The street layout and building foundations retain their origins as the Inca capital city in the 15th Century, the religious complexes betray Spanish colonialism and indigenous appropriations of Catholicism between the 16th and 18th Centuries, and modern life continues at the interface of multi-cultural contacts and tourism. Living in Cuzco, students will see and study Inca architecture and indigenous concepts of representation. They will examine colonial-period representations and religiosities, and they will witness syncretic images and their function in modern religious festivals.

Some of the excursions include; El Triunfo (16th - 17th Century), the Museo de Arte Religioso del Arzobispado (Museum of Viceregal Art), the Museo Inka, the Coricancha/Iglesia y Convento de Santo Domingo, the Iglesia la Compañia de Jesús, the Museo de Santa Catalina, Kenko, Sacsayhuamán, San Pedro de Andahuaylillas (16th Century), the Sacred Valley, Pisac, and Ollantaytambo en route to Machu Picchu.