Information Sessions:  Held in Prothro 233 on the following dates

Wed. 10/6 12:30-1:30pm
Thurs. 10/28 4:00-5:00pm
Wed. 11/10 5:00-6:00pm

Application Opens: October 1, 2021

Application Deadline: December 1, 2021

Program Start Date: June 1, 2022

Program End Date: June 27, 2022

NOTE: Students take a 2-credit UST course during Spring semester 2022.

The estimated cost for this four-week program will be between $7870 and $8570. Cost is based on enrollment and may change.

The program cost includes:

• $550 non-refundable deposit
• 6 credits of tuition
• Group airport reception and return
• On-site safety, health, and cultural orientation
• Housing in shared hotel or hostel rooms
• Breakfast in some locations
• 7 group meals
• API on-site staff
• Medical and life insurance
• Local transportation passes for Barcelona and Budapest
• Entrance fees during cultural activities and excursions
• Day trips 
• Ground Transportation on all API-arranged activities
• Transportation between cities

The program cost does not include:

• International airfare
• Baggage fees and travel insurance
• Passport and visa expenses
• Additional meals
• Personal expenses: toiletries, activities, snacks, personal travel, souvenirs, etc.

The SU European Cultural Exploration Program is an 8-credit program. Admitted students start the program in Spring 2022 with a 2-credit UST course. In Summer 2022, admitted students continue their studies with two 3-credit courses. The program is a total of 8 credits for 3 courses. 

All students will take the following courses:

Spring 2022:

UST course with Dr. Valerie Renegar & Dr. Erin Crockett (2 credits)

Held on Tuesdays 8:30-9:45am, this semester-long course will introduce students to the theories and cognate areas of the Summer courses, as well as allow students to begin working in their groups, generating their ideas for their group projects, and beginning the research they will need to complete their papers and projects. The traveling portion of the trip demands research skills and content knowledge that students will need to develop and understand prior to conducting the research for our classes abroad. As such, students will be provided training in these methods during the Spring semester so that they are ready to begin conducting research in cross-cultural psychology and at the public memory places and tourist destinations on our program. 

Summer 2022:

COM75-303: Travel, Tourism, and Communication with Dr. Valerie Renegar (3 credits)

In this class, students will explore a number of different perspectives on rhetoric and human communication in an attempt to better understand how rhetoric constricts tourist destinations, creates public memory, and shapes our experiences with each of these. Students will critically examine the rhetoric that surrounds both tourist destinations and places of public memory. Students will examine travel guides, travel blogs and websites, and other rhetorical artifacts associated with our international destination to reveal the ways that the traveler’s attention is focused on particular sites or events. Then, as the group travels together, students will investigate how tour guides and interpretative materials communicate and how our experiences are shaped by this rhetoric.

There are no prerequisites for this course. This course satisfies the Humanities requirement. It can count as an upper-level Communication Studies elective for majors or a Business elective for majors and minors.

AND

PSY33-303: Cross-Cultural Psychology with Dr. Erin Crockett (3 credits)

For much of Psychology’s history, it has been critiqued for studying human behavior, cognition, and emotions in a vacuum that largely ignores the cultural environment in which these processes occur. Indeed, our field has notoriously conducted its research on WEIRDos (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic cultures, and within those cultures, mostly White, middle class, college first-years). No doubt these biases limit the application of some of our findings. With this limitation in mind, the field of cultural psychology was born, and with it came a greater appreciation for the ways in which one’s behavior, development, cognition, emotion, language, health, brain, and social interactions are cultural products. In this course, students will study of how cultural meanings, practices, and institutions influence and reflect individual human psychologies. Unlike other psychology courses, students will approach psychological theory and findings assuming at least the possibility of cultural variability. Using Spain, Italy, and Hungary as the classroom, students will observe, engage with, and ask questions of how culture affects our affect, behavior, and cognition.

There are no prerequisites for this course. This course satisfies both the Social Science area requirement and the Social Justice requirement. It also counts as an upper-level Psychology elective for majors.

Accommodation in shared hotel or hostel rooms throughout the duration of the program; linens and towels, internet and daily breakfast included. Welcome and farewell meal and 6 group meals will be included (8 meals total). Students are responsible for all other meals.  

In each destination, students will attend a walking tour given by a professional tour guide with experience in the region. These guides will feature the historical and cultural significance of the notable locations in each city that students visit.

While in Barcelona, students will visit:

• Eixample neighborhood
• Gothic neighborhood
• Gaudi’s Batlló and Gaudi’s Casa Milà
• Day trip to Tarragona, one of the best-preserved Roman archeological sites in Spain

While in Florence, students will visit:

• The Duomo, Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore
• Uffizi Gallery
• Day trip to Pisa to visit the tower, cathedral, baptistry, and camposanto 

While in Tuscania, students will:

• Enjoy a group potluck dinner and game night
• Relax at scenic Lake Bolsena where they can enjoy the beach, boat tours, excursions to islands on the lake, and exploring lakeside villages

While in Budapest, students will visit:

• Castle District
• Royal Palace
• Szentharomsag Square
• Holy Trinity Column
• Matthias Church
• Fisherman’s Bastion
• Day trip to Danube Bend to visit Visegrád