Faculty Led Programs

Education Abroad

UTSA Policy on International Travel to Restricted Regions Department Guidelines for International Policies

Current Faculty-Led Programs

Belize Asia study abroad image
ANT 3046/ANT 5556
Belize Summer Field School in Archaeology
Drs. Jason Yeager and Kathryn Brown, COLFA, Anthropology

This program is an intensive 4-week, 6-credit program in archaeological field methods (ANT 3403). Students will learn basic archaeological field techniques of surveying and mapping, excavation, and artifact analysis by participating on our on-going scientific studies of Maya civilization in the Mopan valley of west-central Belize. They will also learn about Maya archaeology, architecture, and art through evening lectures and weekend field trips to important archaeological sites in the region. The program is open to graduate students, who will enroll in graduate-level field course at UTSA.

 

China
Honors College China Program
HON 3223/CHS 1213
Dr. Richard Diem, Honors College

This program offers students the opportunity to study the cultural and economic history of China. Its objective is to have the students understand the impact of Chinese cultural and economic expansion on our society. Students will get an opportunity to visit the two largest cities of China along with a major cultural center. In addition they will also visit several universities and meet with Chinese students. All students will complete two papers and a final exam. A program of this type that provides for an onsite interactive cultural experience can only be taught on-site. It also meets UTSA strategic globalization initiative.

China
Culture and Education Systems
Dr. Wan Yao, COEHD, Education

This spring break program allows students to learn cultural and education systems in China and explore research opportunities in China while visiting Beijing and Xian. Students will be required to complete written assignments and group projects.

China
Yunnan Opera Workshop and Festival
Dr. William McCrary, COLFA, Music

This is a summer opera workshop program to be offered in the city of Kunming, China. While there are many workshop programs offered throughout the United States and abroad, currently, none are offered in China. China is highly desirable because of its current attraction to the West as well as its affordability. Another unique feature and highlight to the program will be its international faculty. This program will have scenes performed with orchestra in the 400 seat concert hall in the Kunming City Auditorium.

 

England
London and Its Literature
Dr. Mark Bayer, COLFA, English

This course will look at some familiar works of English literature in London. Encountering this urban context first-hand helps students understand viscerally the factors that motivated the authors of these works and consider both how audiences first encountered them and how and how the works resonated with the lives of Londoners. Students will demonstrate competency in reading and analyzing complex literary artifacts, oral communication through class discussion and writing.  Have you ever wanted to witness one of Shakespeare’s plays at the Globe Playhouse? Make your own pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral like Chaucer’s characters. See the Elgin Marbles that inspired Keats’ poetry. Retrace the steps of Charles Dickens and Virginia Woolf around London.


Finland
COBI Immersion - Finland
Drs. John Darling and Vic Heller, College of Business, Marketing/Management

This study abroad immersion course offers students an introduction to the issues of doing business internationally by comparing U.S. practices with those of Finland and Scandinavia. All coursework and other activities are designed to address four major frames of reference: attitudes, knowledge, abilities and skills necessary for success in an international context. The context will focus on the socioeconomic, political, cultural, and organizational environments, along with values and operational norms, corporate structures, functional are adaptations, and role of corporations in society, including organizational ethics and social responsibilities.

 

France
Dialogues in Urban Planning - Paris
Drs. Richard Tangum and Maggie Valentine, College of Architecture, Architecture

The course will examine the history of urban planning and design in Paris, France, from Antiquity to the present through a series of lectures and on-site visits to the extant elements of its various plans and architecture. Students will be staying in the 12th arrondissement, half a block from the Gare de Lyon and close to many significant urban educational resources.

 

Germany
Berlin-Art & Art History
ART 6023
Dr. Ronald Binks, COLFA, Art & Art History

The goal of this course is to expand each student’s understanding of his/her art by studying the art and culture of another society, in an historical context from 1900 to present times. Students will study the development of Berlin since 1885, focusing on the arts, through readings, films and videos, in preparation for travel to the city in March: a twelve-day site examination to research a particular aspect of Berlin to be selected by each student as his/her research project. After returning to San Antonio, the research project will be further developed for final presentation in May.

 

Germany
UTSA in Munich-Modern Languages
CHS 1213/HON 3233/GER 4213
Dr. Christopher Wickham, COLFA, Modern Languages

Offered in 2013!

The course provides students with a perspective on the history, cultural history, and contemporary life and issues of a vibrant, modern European city. Using example material from the art and architecture of Munich, students will have the opportunity to become familiar with major periods and epochs in the cultural development of Europe. A major purpose of the course is to allow students to experience Munich and perform on-site research for their individual project.

 

Italy
UTSA Urbino Program
Up to 12 credit hours, fall only
Dr. John Alexander and Mr. Darryl Ohlenbusch, Architecture

These classes are geared toward imparting knowledge about, and giving students experience with the ideas and design language that shaped historical buildings and cities. In the Italian setting, students will have the best classical examples to study. The sequence of courses will engage them in experiencing and analyzing the context not only as interesting historical artifacts, but also as sources for their work in the design studio. It will challenge them to learn the classical design language, then utilize and develop expertise with it. Through the careful observation required of a good sketch, students can learn directly from the buildings, streets, and plazas in the town and region.

 

Italy
COLFA Semester in Urbino
Up to 12 credit hours, spring only
COLFA faculty and team-taught with University of Urbino faculty

Come experience the Renaissance in the historical walled city of Urbino—World Heritage Site and renowned center of Italian literature, art, and culture. Immerse yourself in the works of Dante, Petrarch, and Castiglione. Walk the cobbled streets where the young Raphael once walked, and study the classical foundations of the Renaissance as they emerge before you in the literature, art, and language of fifteenth-century Italy.

You’ll tour the stunning palace of the grand duke Federico da Montefeltro and fall in love with the art he surrounded himself with. You’ll travel with your professors to nearby medieval towns, and then on to Rome, Venice, Florence, and other historical cities. You’ll study Italian and live among Italian students at the University of Urbino, with stunning mountains and the gorgeous Adriatic coast at less than an hour's reach.

 

Italy
UTSA  Architecture in Rome
Up to 12 credit hours, summer only

Students will focus their work on sketching, documenting, and observing critical historical buildings of the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and modern periods in an effort to understand the development of architectural design and urban theory. This analytical work will provide the foundation for both a design project and a series of brief essays.

Siena

Italy
The Classical World, Siena
Up to 6 credit hours, summer only
Dr. William Short, COLFA Philosophy & Classics

This five-week course will be based in Siena; it is a workshop in which students will be engaged in "hands-on" study of classical antiquity. A series of seminars will explore major themes of the anthropology of the ancient world, including myth and religion, kinship and family, the relationship of the human and animal worlds, images and economy and trade. Students will undertake their own research, studying these themes in literature, art and archeology through on-site visits to museums and other places of historical, archeological, cultural importance around Siena. Trips to Volterra, Pisa, Florence, Tarquinia, Volci and Rome will be included.

 

Italy
Honors College Italy Program
ARC 1413/HON 3223/CHS 1213
Dr. Richard Diem, Honors College

This program provides students an opportunity to study and engage in a cultural experience in three Italian cities: Venice, Florence, and Rome. Its focus is on developing a cross cultural awareness of the impact of Italian history and culture and the development of the “urban” place. The uniqueness of the historical and cultural venues in Italy provides students with a cultural perspective they cannot attain anywhere else.

 

Japan
Special Topics in Japanese Architecture and Cities
ARC4953 / ARC6973
Taeg Nishimoto, College of Architecture, Architecture

This program is a three-week trip for upper-level and graduate architecture students who visit the traditional as well as the contemporary architecture of Japan. The class focuses on not only visiting various important locations, but also the understanding of cultural/social conditions of Japan that relates to the uniqueness of the built environment of Japan.

 

Mexico
Norogachi Field School
Sue Ann Pemberton-Haugh, College of Architecture

This program will provide students with formal instruction and hands-on experience in theory and techniques of earth architecture, focusing on designing and constructing energy-efficient structures from adobe and other natural, readily available materials, historical architecture, focusing on developing and applying methods to document, interpret, and restore Spanish colonial buildings.

 

Russia
UTSA in Russia-Modern Languages
Dr. Marita Nummikoski, COLFA, Modern Languages

Offered in 2013!

Students travel to Moscow with a UTSA faculty member for a four-week language and  culture study at the Center of Russian Language and Culture at Moscow State University. Students attend classes for three hours Monday-Friday for a totoal of 80 academic hours and spend the afternoons and weekends on organized cutlural activities, including trips to museums, excursions outside of Moscow, etc. The last 4-5 days of the program are conducted in St. Petersburg.

 

Singapore and Vietnam
COBI Immersion - Singapore and Vietnam
Dr. Joel Sagert, College of Business, Marketing

This course is designed to provide instruction and practical application for students in marketing and international business in two Southeast Asian countries, Singapore and Vietnam. These two countries provide a broad range of variation in their state of economic development, type of economic system, business climate, language and culture and thus provide opportunity fir students to learn international business skills. Formal instruction and site visits will include exposure to marketing and other aspects of international business regarding: socio-eonomic and political environments; cultures, values, and interpersonal norms; organization and corporate structure; area and company marketing adaptations; the role of corporations in society; ethics and social responsibilty.

 

Spain
Barcelona, Spain Program
Architecture, spring only
The study-abroad program to Spain combines studio classes with travel to some of Spain’s most impressive and important architectural sites. Based in Barcelona, the program is in collaboration with the Barcelona Architecture Center, an organization within the Fundacio Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya system. Students will study and live surrounded by masterpieces ancient and modern architecture, with glimpses of a modern cultural energy, seen in the modernista architecture that stands out throughout the city. Of course, Barcelona is also home to Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia church and fantastical houses and apartment buildings. Competing with Gaudí, however, is opportunity to see works by the most famous Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso.

 

Spain
Comparative Criminal Justice in Spain
CRJ 6403/CRJ4863
Dr. Roger Enriquez, College of Public Policy, Criminal Justice

Mini-mester program with special emphasis on comparative criminal justice, visits to police station of the Foreign Unit of the National Police, cultural visits, and classes at the Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche and Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche. This course provides students the opportunity to see first-hand how different nations approach problems and fashion solutions. The primary learning objectives are gaining factual understanding about international criminal justice system and in particular the Spanish system of policing, courts, and corrections. A special focus will enter on two problems that challenge many nations: domestic terrorism and immigration. Students should be able to identify the differences and similarities between American model and European model.

 

Spain
COBI Immersion – Canary Islands: Business Plan Competition
MGT 3003
Drs. Cory Hallam and Anita Leffel, College of Business, Management

The Global Venture Experience (GVE) will take place during two weeks on the island of Gran Canaria, Spain. The program centers around a six-day business plan competition, with three days devoted to immersional travel, and the remaining six days devoted to global busness and cultural immersion and exchange activities. The immersion course will include class meetings prior to travel to prepare students for the GVE on two key levels: first, the students will become extremely well versed in developing business plans and preparing venture sales pitches. Second, the students will be exposed to intercultural communication strategies deisgned to improve their effectiveness as international entrepreneurs in a global business immersion experience.

 

Spain
Spain- Business Success in Spain
MGT/MKT 6973
Dr. Dennis Lopez, College of Business, Marketing

This study abroad course gives students an introduction to the challenges of doing busniess internationally by comparing U.S. practices with those of Spain. All coursework and activities are designed to address four frames of knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for business success in an international context. Class sessions, visits with companies executives, and cultural activities will take place in Madrid and Barcelona, the two business captials of the country.


Spain
UTSA in Spain – English
ENG 4953
Dr. Norma Cantú, COLFA, English, Classics & Philosophy

This goal of this course is to have participants engage in serious study and production if creative nonfiction while studying at the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo. The objectives are grouped according to three main competencies around written, oral, and in technlogical skill sets. There will also be visits to various locations, such as the El Parado and the Reina Sofia Museum, excursions to performances such as plays, dances, and celebrations in Toledo, and around Madrid.