This abroad is an interdisciplinary approach to the arts and humanities. It includes courses in theatre, art, and history in which students engage deeply in experiential learning, making, and doing.
What does it mean to see through the eyes of an artist? This abroad approaches that question through an interdisciplinary study of art, history, literature, and performance, integrating the perspectives from these different ways of seeing, learning, and experiencing the world. We will look at Scottish and English visual and literary cultures from a historical and contemporary perspective. How have art and literature reflected, shaped, and expressed a culture over the centuries? Students will do primary historical research on topics from the English Renaissance to historical revolutions. The research will connect their learning in museums, historical sites, and the British Library to their own contemporary understanding and expression of culture. Students will develop a personal creative practice through visual art, acting, writing, and reflecting. We will also think through how artistic production relates to a specific place — in this case Scotland and England — and their unique histories and cultures.
An exciting aspect of this program is the deep study of a Shakespeare play as literature, visual art, and performance, culminating in a full theatre production of a play, performed and produced by the abroad group on campus. Students will be actors in the play, and they will have a hand in creating the visual aspects of the production, from costumes and props to set painting and graphic design.
This program is open to all students and all majors.