The Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) sponsored two GLP courses in spring 2017.
Crossing Borders: Migration in the 21st Century
Crossing Borders: Migration in the 21st Century was led by Xavier Escandell (anthropology) and David Cook-MartÃn (formerly sociology).
With a focus on the symbolic and physical importance of borders to people on either side of them, the course explored several questions:
- Why do people leave home and risk long and dangerous journeys?
- Why do we build walls and intercept migrants on land and sea?
- What do journeys, walls, and government efforts to regulate migration mean to the people affected?
Travels took place in two parts over spring break and in late May through early June to:
- Southwestern United States, and Tijuana, Mexico
- Madrid, Seville, Ceuta, and Granada, Spain
- Athens, Greece
- Hamburg and Berlin Germany
Food, Culture, and Identity in China and Russia
Identity, Tradition, and Food Culture in Russia and China was led by Todd Armstrong (Russian) and Jin Feng (Chinese).
The course examined how these societies (re)make and consume food traditions and explored how socialist and post-socialist cultural forces shape and are influenced by foodways in China and Russia. Special focus given to how the cultures and societies have undergone and continue to experience vast transformations, drawing from Chinese and Russian literature, cookbooks, cultural histories, art, film, folklore, and more.
Travels took place in two parts:
- Spring break travels to Shanghai, Hanzhou, Suzhou, and Nanjing, China
- Summer travels to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Irkutsk, and Vladivostok, Russia