Estimated Cost: $2,700
Lead Instructor: Professor Jason Hiester
Travel Destination: Spain and France
Travel Timing: December 28, 2026 - January 6, 2027
Description: This 10-day travel-learning experience immerses Ohio Wesleyan University Choral Art Ensemble choir students in the rich musical, spiritual, and architectural heritage of Spain and France. The program integrates choral performance, sacred spaces, with particular attention to labyrinths, pilgrimage traditions, and historically significant religious sites.
Students will prepare and present choral concerts in cathedrals, monasteries, while exploring the cultural and historical contexts that shaped Western sacred music. Through guided site visits and interactions with local musicians and clergy, students will develop a deeper understanding of how music functions as a spiritual, communal, and historical practice.
Prerequisites: None. Students participating in the program must be registered for MUSP 001 and pass the audition, which will take place at the beginning of the fall semester.
Capabilities Statement: Students must be able to independently navigate airports while managing their luggage, including carrying their carry-on bag and transporting their checked bag for short distances. Students should be prepared for long periods of travel, including flights lasting approximately 8–9 hours. The trip will involve a significant amount of walking and full daily schedules, so students should be comfortable with extended periods of physical activity and long days.
Lead Instructor: Professor Tamara Panhuis
Travel Destination: Tanzania
Travel Timing: May 2027
Description: Biology of East Africa is an upper-level course devoting a semester to the study of the animals, plants, ecosystems, evolution, and conservation of East Africa. After extensive study in the classroom, the class will travel to Tanzania, Africa, to put theory into practice as we observe the spectacular ecosystems, behaviors, and traits of Tanzanian flora and fauna.
Capabilities Statement: Students should be comfortable with long travel days, hot and dusty conditions, and long rides in a safari jeep over bumpy terrain. Students should be comfortable being away from home, in unfamiliar environments with unfamiliar foods, for 14 days.
Lead Instructor: Professor Randolph Quaye
Travel Destination: The Netherlands, England, Denmark, and Sweden
Travel Timing: May 2027
A comparative analysis of health care systems from a number of countries, including the United States, Sweden, Great Britain, Netherlands, and Denmark. The course will apply concepts and methods to the study of health and illness. Topics covered will include social determinants of health; health-related behavior; the history of health and medical care; health care financing, and the rise, development, and de-professionalization of the medical profession. The course will further explore the structure and function of the health care delivery system; planning, regulationand politics of cost control.
Students will travel to Sweden, England, Denmark, and the Netherlands to explore the different health care structuresin these countries.
Prerequisites: None
Capabilities Statement - The course is rigorous and it is supplemented with classroom lectures, readings, examinations, and anethnographic research paper. Students must be willing to travel to Sweden, England, Denmark, and the Netherlands (12-18 hours in flight) and to adhere to all protocols recommended by the instructor. Students will be housed in university hostels and/or budget-style hotels. Students must be ready to travel by bus, train, and walking for at least 2-5 miles per day, attending lectures and visiting hospitals and clinics. Finally, students will be required to document their experiences via video or digital recording.
Lead Instructor: Professor Hank Blume
Travel Destination: Spain
Travel Timing: May 2027
Description: Students will travel to multiple locations in Spain to study Roman colonization of the Iberian Peninsula and its relationship to ethnicity and the Romans' imperial project. The archaeological record in Spain provides tangible evidence for the theories discussed in the parent course: Empire and Ethnicity in the Ancient World. The on-site locations involved are: Complutum (based in Madrid), Merida, Córdoba, Italica (based in Seville), and Cartagena. In these cities, students will visit archaeological sites and museums. They will be required to do reading, give presentations, and conduct comparative analysis. Students will also be given the time and opportunity to see some sites in these cities that are not related to Rome as well as experience modern Spanish culture.
Prerequisites: None
Capabilities Statement: Students are expected to demonstrate engagement with the course materials, keep a timely schedule, as well as be responsible travelers. They will need to be comfortable with flying independently on transatlantic flights with their own luggage (8+ hours), as well as spending significant time on a stagecoach bus as we travel between cities. There will be moderate amounts of walking (4+ miles in some days). Students should also be comfortable with heat as Spain can be quite hot (80s to 90s f.), especially in the South, but if we are lucky it will not be too bad in May.
Lead Instructor: Professor Mehwish Abbasi
Travel Destination: Silicon Valley (San Jose, Palo Alto, Mountain View), California, USA
Travel Timing: May 2027
Lead Instructor: Professor Nancy Comorau
Travel Destination: Ireland
Travel Timing: May 2027
Description: Students will travel to multiple sites in Ireland, visiting the capitals Dublin and Belfast, border city Derry, and Ireland's largest literary festival: Listowel Writers Week festival in County Kerry. We will see sights related to Ireland's literary history and present and consider the ways in which the island's literature and politics intersect. After spending a semester reading 20th- and 21st-Century Irish literature, students will walk in the footsteps of Joyce's Leopold Bloom, follow the paths laid out in Ciaran Carson's Belfast Confetti, see plays in Ireland's famed theatres, and watch the literature they've read all semester come to life around them.
Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for this class, but many of the readings are very challenging. Students from all majors and years are welcome, provided they're willing to work to meet that challenge. This course meets the requirements for the "Listen, Imagine, Understand" competency. Honors Option available for interested students.
Capabilities Statement: Students should be able to walk moderate distances over varied terrain, including with their luggage through city streets and on multi-hour walking tours. We may be able to accommodate physically disabled students on this trip; please contact the instructor with questions or concerns.
Please reach out to Dr. Comorau with any questions!
Lead Instructor: Professor Jon Younkman
Travel Destination: United Arab Emirates (Dubai)
Travel Timing: May 2027
Description: FIN 361 (Financial Management) teaches the basics of investment and corporate managerial finance. Topics include capital budgeting techniques, financial analysis, time value of money, asset valuation, risk and return, financial forecasting, sources and forms of long-term financing, and the cost of capital. While the course is taught within a U.S.-centric regulatory and institutional framework, we will extend the course to a more global framework incorporating global capital flows, digital finance, and emerging markets and how these aspects increasingly shape how firms assess risk, allocate capital, and create value. This course extends core financial management concepts into a global context through an embedded Travel-Learning experience in Dubai, one of the world's leading financial hubs and a strategic gateway connecting Western markets, emerging economies, and the Global South.
Dubai is not simply the host location of the Dubai FinTech Summit conference; it serves as a living case study in rapid economic diversification, regulatory innovation, Islamic finance, state-led infrastructure investment, and fintech development. During the travel component, students engage directly with global finance leaders, visit innovation districts such as the Dubai International Financial Centre, and explore historical and traditional marketplaces to contextualize modern finance within Dubai's broader economic narrative. Structured reflection sessions and a post-trip synthesis assignment require students to compare U.S.-based financial practice with Middle Eastern and broader international models, examining how cultural norms, regulatory environments, and global capital flows influence professional decision-making.
This course fulfills core competencies related to critical thinking, global engagement, ethical reasoning, and responsible professional conduct. Upon completion, students will be better prepared to operate in international financial environments and to evaluate financial opportunities within diverse and evolving global markets.
Prerequisites: FIN 361 is an upper-level finance course. The Travel-Learning component is open to students enrolled in FIN 361 during the Spring semester in which the travel occurs. FIN 280 and ACCT 110 are prerequisites for FIN 361.
Capabilities Statement: Dubai is a dynamic, fast-paced, and pedestrian-accessible global city. Students should be prepared for significant walking, extended conference sessions, professional networking, and full-day site visits. The itinerary includes visits to major financial and cultural sites such as the Burj Khalifa, traditional Gold and Spice Souks, the Al Fahidi historical district, and a day trip to Abu Dhabi. Participants must demonstrate professional conduct in formal business settings, including appropriate attire, active engagement in discussions, and respectful networking with international finance and fintech leaders.
Because this is an international program, students must be prepared to navigate long-distance travel, time-zone adjustments, and unfamiliar regulatory and social environments with maturity and situational awareness. The experience is academically rigorous, professionally immersive, and culturally engaging, requiring intellectual curiosity and adaptability.
Lead Instructor: Professor Xiaoming Chen
Travel Destination: Japan and Taiwan
Travel Timing: May 11-23, 2027
Description: HIST 116 covers the history of modern Japan, Taiwan, (South) Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The optional travel-learning component of the class will take place at the end of the spring semester right after graduation. Students in the travel-learning section of the class will spend six days in Japan and five days in Taiwan. Through visitation of various historical sites and participating in traditional cultural activities, they will visualize history and gain further knowledge on the complexities of power and inequities that the Japanese and Taiwan people experienced in the past centuries.
In Japan, the students will visit places such as Tokyo Imperial Palace, the SCAP building, Shibuya, Roppongi Hills Observatory, Mount Fuji, Nijo Castle in Kyoto, Kyoto Imperial Palace, Nanzenji Temple in Kyoto, and Himeji feudal castle in Kyoto. They will also participate in a Kimono tea ceremony and samurai sword training experience combo in Tokyo. The places that the students will visit in Taiwan include: Fort San Dominga (Town of Red Hair People), the Palace Museum in Taipei, the National 228 Memorial Museum in Taipei, and the Museum of Nine Tribes of Taiwan Aborigines at Sun Moon Lake. Students will participate in the Baishatun Marching Worship of Matsu in Taichung, and have dinners at Taipei's famous Shihlin Night Food Market and the Ximending Night Market. While tasting the many varieties of delicious food, students will learn about the history and culture behind the food—especially the connection between Chinese culture and the culture of Taiwan.
Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites. The travel-learning component of the course is open to students who enroll in History 116 in Spring 2027 and those who previously completed this course. History 116 also fulfills the core competency of "Examine Power & Inequities."
Capabilities Statement: Some walking is expected on Mount Fuji, during the Baishatun Marching Worship of Matsu, and in the cities of Japan and Taiwan.
Lead Instructor: Professor Paul Dean
Travel Destination: Scotland
Travel Timing: May 2027
Parent Course Description:
How do we tackle the world's biggest social and environmental problems? This course explores global problems and solutions by examining two of the most controversial and pressing problems of our time: immigration and climate change. For immigration, we examine the push and pull factors driving immigration throughout the world, perceptions of immigration, and how US immigration law shapes experiences here in the US. We will partner with a local NGO, the Immigrant Worker Project, to examine the real life stories and experiences of migrant agricultural workers within Ohio, and their connections to their home communities throughout Central and South America, Africa, and the Middle East. For global climate change, we will examine social forces shaping people's perceptions of climate change, a range of proposed strategies to address climate change, and the politics, tradeoffs, and effectiveness of proposed solutions. By comparing and contrasting solutions, students will strengthen problem-solving skills as they develop policy proposals for tackling climate change. As we examine both immigration and climate change, we will analyze how inequalities, power, and ideologies shape problems and solutions. Throughout this course, students will learn to be solutions-oriented citizens of the world.
Travel Component Description:
The travel learning component of the course will focus on climate change policy in Scotland, which is a global leader in climate performance and policy. The bulk of our travels will be to the picturesque Scottish Highlands, with its towering mountains and seaside cliffs. In the Highlands, we will explore renewable energy projects and rewilding programs, and learn how they manage conflicting stakeholder interests across business, environment, and labor. We will also visit the ancient castles and cathedrals of Edinburgh and Glasgow in between meetings with climate coalitions and activists. All along the way, we will meet with advocates and protestors against climate policies to understand how political coalitions navigate a range of social interests. At the core of these climate change debates, we will explore the tension between capitalism and environmentalism to better understand where these systems align and diverge, and how power and ideology shape climate policies and perceptions.
Prerequisites: None
Lead Faculty: Professor Eva Paris-Huesca
Travel Destination: Spain
Travel Timing: May 2027
Description: Spanish 225 (Intermediate Spanish I) completes the intermediate segment with intensive review and focus on the use of compound verb tenses in different settings. Our goal is to reinforce Spanish grammar and vocabulary, to develop communicative and rhetorical skills, as well as fluency and pronunciation, and to reflect critically on different approaches to and experiences of our themes, particularly within Spanish-speaking communities across the world. Though the main emphasis is on speaking and writing, we also focus on listening and reading.
The assessment measures that I plan to use in class to evaluate the learning objective outcomes are as follows: In-class participation and completion of two cultural events, 3 chapter exams, one oral interview, and weekly homework.
By the end of SPAN 225, students have acquired a strong development of the four basic language skills as well as cultural awareness needed for the travel learning component:
The course is taught exclusively in Spanish. Spanish 225 is designed for students who test at this level or who have satisfied the language requirement (Span 110 and 111) and who would like to continue to increase their fluency in Spanish.
Prerequisites: SPAN 111 or equivalent.
Capabilities Statement: Students are expected to demonstrate responsibility, independence, and active engagement throughout the program. This includes attending all scheduled activities, arriving to morning classes on time, and being physically prepared for daily walking in the city by wearing comfortable shoes. Students should also communicate in Spanish as much as possible with their host families, while showing cultural adaptability, respect for shared living spaces, and commitment to completing all academic requirements, including journals and reflections.
Lead Instructors: Professor Dawn Chisebe and Phokeng Dailey
Travel Destination: Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa
Travel Timing: May 2027
Description: Both courses will center the role of colonialism, eurocentrism, and patriarchy in the production of health knowledge and health disparities among Black women, the mechanisms through which mass-mediated and interpersonal communication messages affect health behaviors and outcomes of Black women in the USA and Southern Africa, and how health communication theory informs research and health intervention practices targeted at Black women in the USA and Southern Africa.
We will travel as a group to Namibia, Botswana and South Africa to learn FROM local people and put that in concert with what we learned prior to entering their communities and workplaces. All three countries are studied and discussed in the parent courses as instrumental sites for Black feminism in Africa and post-colonial initiatives centered around Black women's health. The three countries border one another, have linked economies through trade and migration that impact Black women, and have been the focus of much of the global work on HIV/AIDS, malaria, and vaccine research. The travel component is intended to allow students to observe first hand a) the relationship between language, culture, race/ethnicity, gender, and place and health outcomes of Black women in Southern Africa, (b) the impact of large-scale health initiatives in Southern Africa on Black women and (c) the unique ways that Black women frame their activism surrounding access to and the creation of public health initiatives.
Prerequisites: None
Capabilities Statement: Students will be expected to walk moderate distances, including during walking tours, through museums, through airports, and at times, on uneven or unstable surfaces like sand, rocky areas, and areas without defined sidewalks. Students will be expected to carry their own luggage through airports, and as we are traveling from site to site. This trip does involved multiple flights (both long and short durations) and excursions on buses and safari vehicles.