Abstract
This chapter discusses the challenges and rewards of designing study abroad programs to include participation by graduate students within a specific institutional context: the university where I worked between 2009 and 2018. The constraints to and possibilities for devising study abroad programs at other educational institutions will necessarily vary. However, many of the issues I confronted in establishing short-term study abroad programs to include graduate students in humanistic disciplines—including English, creative writing, and communications and rhetorical studies—are generalizable. In planning a course to include graduate students, one may very well come up against institutional restraints and departmental regulations. The practical realities of graduate students’ lives, academically as well as financially, may also constrain their participation. For graduate students who do manage to overcome those limitations, however, short-term study abroad can have significant long-term effects.
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Notes
- 1.
Between 2011 and 2016, the university also operated a Middle East center in Istanbul. It suspended operations there in spring 2016 because of political unrest and closed the center a short time later.
- 2.
On the concept of study abroad in earlier historical eras, see Hoffa (2007).
- 3.
In 2013, Master’s and graduate professional students accounted for 11 percent of the total number of students studying abroad (Farrugia and Bhandari 2013: p. 21).
- 4.
Students pursuing MBA degrees often study abroad during the summer between their first and second years. See Dyer et al. (2009: pp. 179–94). Law students often study abroad after their first year in order to gain valuable knowledge about the political and legal cultures of other nations. See Burkhart and Stein (2017: p. 217). Medical students often undertake international clinical rotations. See P. Drain et al. (2009: pp. 320–25).
- 5.
According to the 2013 Open Doors report, non-professional Master’s and doctoral students comprised only 3 percent of the total number of students studying abroad (Farrugia and Bhandari 2013: p. 21).
- 6.
I discuss the differences between programs and courses more fully in Chap. 7.
- 7.
As it happens, England experienced a wave of terror in the summer of 2017, which I discuss more fully in Chap. 6.
- 8.
The English department’s field exam for PhD students consists of two parts: a three-hour written examination, in which students are expected to demonstrate breadth of knowledge in one of four areas (British literature, American literature, film and screen studies, and critical theory), and an article-length essay.
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Morrison, K.A. (2019). Designing a Study Abroad Program to Include Humanities Graduate Students: Institutional Constraints and Possibilities. In: Study Abroad Pedagogy, Dark Tourism, and Historical Reenactment. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23006-7_2
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