SU European Cultural Explorations

Held on Tuesdays 8:30-9:45am, this semester-long course will introduce students to the theories and cognate areas of the Summer courses, as well as allow students to begin working in their groups, generating their ideas for their group projects, and beginning the research they will need to complete their papers and projects. The traveling portion of the trip demands research skills and content knowledge that students will need to develop and understand prior to conducting the research for our classes abroad. As such, students will be provided training in these methods during the Spring semester so that they are ready to begin conducting research in cross-cultural psychology and at the public memory places and tourist destinations on our program.

In this class, students will explore a number of different perspectives on rhetoric and human communication in an attempt to better understand how rhetoric constricts tourist destinations, creates public memory, and shapes our experiences with each of these. Students will critically examine the rhetoric that surrounds both tourist destinations and places of public memory. Students will examine travel guides, travel blogs and websites, and other rhetorical artifacts associated with our international destination to reveal the ways that the traveler’s attention is focused on particular sites or events. Then, as the group travels together, students will investigate how tour guides and interpretative materials communicate and how our experiences are shaped by this rhetoric.

There are no prerequisites for this course. This course fulfills upper-level Communication Studies, Humanities General Education, Business, or Elective.

For much of Psychology’s history, it has been critiqued for studying human behavior, cognition, and emotions in a vacuum that largely ignores the cultural environment in which these processes occur. Indeed, our field has notoriously conducted its research on WEIRDos (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic cultures, and within those cultures, mostly White, middle class, college first-years). No doubt these biases limit the application of some of our findings. With this limitation in mind, the field of cultural psychology was born, and with it came a greater appreciation for the ways in which one’s behavior, development, cognition, emotion, language, health, brain, and social interactions are cultural products. In this course, students will study of how cultural meanings, practices, and institutions influence and reflect individual human psychologies. Unlike other psychology courses, students will approach psychological theory and findings assuming at least the possibility of cultural variability. Using Spain, Italy, and Hungary as the classroom, students will observe, engage with, and ask questions of how culture affects our affect, behavior, and cognition.

There are no prerequisites for this course. This course satisfies both the Social Science area requirement and the Social Justice requirement. It also counts as an upper-level Psychology elective for majors.

API offers best-in-class programming, with student well-being a high priority.

Our mission is to create better global citizens through international experiential learning. API programs are developed to be transformative, career-boosting experiences that include:

• Community involvement through optional volunteer programs with API Gives Back
• Cultural awareness through relevant coursework and time spent in multicultural student groups
• High-touch student support throughout the program 

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Academic Programs International (API) was founded in 1997 and is dedicated to providing high-quality, affordable experiential learning programs. Their extensive pre-departure preparation, coupled with strong support services on-site, facilitates academic, cultural and linguistic learning. Within the supportive environment of the API programs, API participants are encouraged to explore their host communities and become increasingly independent and confident in their own abilities. They strive to make international educational experiences accessible to as many participants as possible, and, as such, works to provide multiple program components at a low program cost.

API is committed to providing enriching international experiences to its participants. We believe in the importance of promoting acceptance, dignity, and respect among people of all backgrounds. No matter who you are or where you come from, API will support you during your journey abroad.