Dr. Valerie Renegar, Professor of Communication Studies and Chair, and Dr. Erin Crockett, Professor of Psychology

renegarv@southwestern.edu

crockete@southwestern.edu

Information Sessions: 

Check back in Fall 2023

Application Deadline: December 1, 2023

Program Start Date: June 2024

Program End Date: June 2024

NOTE: Students take a 2-credit UST course during Spring semester 2023.

NOTE: Below costs are from the 2022 program.  Costs for the 2024 program will be forthcoming.

The 2022 estimated cost for this four-week program was 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 Galway, student activities include:

• Guided walking tour of Galway
• Galway Food Tour
• Day trip to Connemara countryside including visits to Kylemore Abbey and Diamond Hill National Park

While in Prague, student activities include:

• Neighborhood walking tour
• Guided walking tour of Prague
• WOW! Black Light Show
• Day trip to UNESCO World Heritage Site Český Krumlov including guided tour of town and palace

While in Plitvice Lakes National Park, student activities include:

• Guided tour of Lower Lakes
• Guided tour of Upper Lakes
• Guided walking tour of Dubrovnik
• Painting class and guided tour through Croatian Modern Art exhibition at MOMA Dubrovnik
• Day trip to Lopud island including a guided tour