Home > Academics > International Studies > Practical Information: Places, Programs, & Finances > Intensive Course Abroad Programs

January 2009 Intensive Course Abroad Programs

General ICA Information

You must attend an advising session in the Office of International Studies in order to receive an application to any ICA program.  Call OIS (410.337.6455 or x6455) or e mail Paige Pape (ppape@goucher.edu) in order to register for an ICA advising session. 

Speak with your academic advisor about your interest in a particular ICA program, so that you will know how the course applies to your graduation requirements. 

Pay attention to deadlines!  The application deadline for January 2009 ICAs is April 8th, 2008.  If you are accepted to a January 2009 ICA program, please be prepared to pay a $500 deposit no later than May 1st, 2008. OIS is currently accepting applications for JANUARY 2009 Intensive Course Abroad programs. 

The following programs will run in January 2009:

Culture and Arts in West Africa
Accra, Ghana

Ghana’s rich and deep cultural traditions have persisted through centuries of colonization, strife, governmental corruption, and other, often extreme hardships. This three-week course is your opportunity to experience firsthand the enduring and changing West African culture through intensive interdisciplinary study of the country’s customs, social institutions, and arts. In the capital city and artistic center of Accra, you will attend lectures at the National Theatre of Ghana and other institutions. You’ll go on field excursions to meet artists, see theatrical and dance performances, and take classes in West African drumming, dance, and more. As a complement to your experiences in the city, you will also live for part of the time with a family in the rural village of Ho.

“Culture and Arts in West Africa" includes a seven-week preliminary course during the fall semester prior to the Ghana trip and a seven-week follow-up course during the following spring.  

Directors: Kaushik Bagchi & Lindsay Johnson

Info Session:  TBA

Tropical Marine Biology in Honduras
Institution: Roatan Institute for Marine Studies
Roatan, Honduras

The coral reef of the Caribbean continental shelf is the largest in the Western Hemisphere, and the area off the northwest coast of Roatan, Honduras, features more than 30 miles of fringing and barrier reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves, and an extraordinary variety of marine life.

In this three-week course at the Roatan Institute for Marine Studies, you will explore the endangered coral reefs of Honduras through dives, field experiments, and lectures emphasizing the analysis of the reef’s structure and function. The course also includes an excursion to lowland rainforests on the Honduras mainland.

Directors:  Cynthia Kicklighter & Theresa Hodge

Info Session: Friday, February 22nd   3:30 PM   Hoffberger G37

United Kingdom: Shakespeare--Stage & Page

Shakespeare: Stage & Page examines the relationship between Shakespeare as literature and Shakespeare as theatre: we examine Shakespeare’s works from both a historical/critical perspective and from a performance perspective. Professor Jeff Myers of the English Department and Professor Michael Curry of the Department of Theatre will add a new component to Shakespeare: Stage & Page by offering the course for the first time as an intensive study abroad.

Appropriately, the topic for the course will be the significance of place in Shakespeare’s plays. We will travel to locations across the United Kingdom that are important settings in some of Shakespeare’s plays. 

We will examine six plays during the 16-day trip (under consideration are

Cymbeline, Macbeth, Richard III, King Lear, Henry V, and The Merry Wives of Windsor) and possible site visits include Inverness (the Macbeth castle), Dinsinane and Fife in Scotland, Milford Haven in Wales, and York, Dover, Pomfret Castle, Salisbury, Windsor, Southampton and London in England. We will also include travel to Stratford-Upon-Avon, the place of Shakespeare’s birth, and the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Directors: Michael Curry & Jeff Myers

Info Session: TBA

Spanish 120 in Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca, Mexico

“Spanish 120 in Cuernavaca” is an unusual opportunity to learn by immersing yourself in a Spanish-speaking culture very early in your language studies.

You will take the first half of the course at Goucher over the first seven weeks of the fall semester, followed by the required primer course “Gateway to Mexico” during the second seven weeks. In January, you will complete the course in Cuernavaca, a university town filled with cafés, shops, and cultural attractions ranging from ancient Aztec temples to contemporary museums of art.

You will live with a host family for the duration, reinforcing what you’ve learned in your daily classes on Spanish language, conversation, and culture in conversations over dinner and around the house. You will also join your Goucher classmates on excursions to cultural and historic sites around Cuernavaca, Mexico City, and the surrounding countryside, and you’ll have plenty of time for additional exploring on your own. Throughout the experience, you’ll have plenty of opportunities for the kind of casual and formal conversation that will noticeably accelerate your Spanish skills.

Directors: Florencia Cortes-Conde

Info Session: TBA