Faculty-led Wheaton Programs
Wheaton faculty develop short-term programs during January and summer. Contact the Center for Global Education for information about upcoming programs.
- Witnessing Contemporary African Society and Culture: South Africa & Botswana - January, 2013
Witnessing Contemporary society and culture is an intensive, interdisciplinary course designed to give students exposure and an overview of two different African countries – South Africa and Botswana. The course is a one credit course and the coursework includes reading and writing assignments, on-site visits to townships, neighborhoods and museums, meetings with local leaders, lectures from local academics, and meetings with university students. Students will receive 1 Wheaton Credit.
Led by Professors Marcus Allen & Shawn Christian
- Tropical Field Biology - Costa Rica & Belize - January, 2013
One week at South Water Cay, a small island located along the world's 2nd largest barrier reef. Snorkel over coral reef, mangrove lagoon, and seagrass beds. One week at La Selva Biological Station, the most studied tropical rainforest in the world.
Field based study of the biology of coral reefs, mangroves, seagrasses, and tropical forests. To be taught at field stations in Central America. Lectures, guided natural history walks, guided snorkel tours, class research projects, and independent research projects. Prerequisites: 200-level biology and/or permission of the instructors. Students will receive 1 Wheaton Credit.
Led by Professors Scott Shumway & Shawn McCafferty
- Innovative Music Traditions of Trinidad and Tobago - January, 2013
This course is designed to bring students to the communities that have created the inspired and uniquely innovative music traditions of Trinidad. It’s one thing to learn about the Trinidadian Steelband in a classroom, it’s another to stand before an ensemble and feel the phenomenal energy that people are able to generate with these instruments. The historical variables that have brought people of diverse backgrounds together to create a variety of music genres and a celebrated Carnival tradition can be understood best by going to Trinidad, hearing the music on its home turf, experiencing the physical impact of live music performance, and talking with the people who have an intimate and passionate relationship with the music culture.
Significant emphasis for the course focuses on the experiential opportunities we encounter while in Trinidad and Tobago. Exposure to Trinidadian traditions through assigned reading, films, recordings and an independent research project helps to contextualize the music before we head south. Students also have first-hand experience with pan, playing weekly with Wheaton’s steelband, the Lymin’ Lyons, in preparation for our trip to Trinidad.
Led by Professor Julie Searles
- Traditional Chinese Medicine - Summer, 2013
Under the guidance of Wheaton faculty, students will be introduced to traditional Chinese medical practices and the philosophy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). These include herbal remedies, medicinal preparation, Chinese Tuina massage, acupuncture, moxibustion and other traditional therapeutic treatments. In addition to regular lectures, students will have daily interactions with Chinese medical doctors, students and hospital staff, and participate in various hospital activities, educational excursions observing rural medical practitioners of several minority groups. Regular discussion sessions will also be held to determine connections between Eastern and Western medicine.
Based in the city of Kunming in Yunnan Province, China, and in conjunction with the Yunnan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, this four-week program provides an introduction to the ancient philosophy, theory, history, and practices in TCM, one of the world’s oldest, and most-developed medicinal systems.
Dr. Edmund Tong, a Physiology professor at Wheaton College, developed an intense interest in Chinese Medicine after teaching a first year seminar on alternative medicine comparing Eastern and Western treatments of disease. As a result, he extended his faculty-student research on angiogenesis to study the effect of herbal medicine on blood vessel growth. Students will receive 1 Wheaton Credit.
Led by Professor Edmund Tong
- East Africa: Education and Development - Summer, 2013
Tanzania, one of the poorest countries on the African continent, has a long history of trying to engineer development through education.
Students will be introduced to the rich history from the pre-colonial period to the present which includes: a look at traditional education systems in several of the 120 different cultures of Tanzania; the introduction of mission and colonial schools; ujamaa socialist education models in the 1960s-80s; and current attempts to make secondary school a universal right for all children.
Students will embark from Arusha with its many museums, international war crimes tribunal court, and thriving markets to the Kilimanjaro regional capital city Moshi town for a week of lectures and site visits to schools, coffee cooperatives, local industries, hospitals, and development projects. We then head for our base on Mount Kilimanjaro, a cultural heritage site and the only snow-capped mountain that straddles the equator. Students will receive 1 Wheaton Credit.
Led by Professor Donna Kerner
For more information on these programs, please contact Jill Ostrowski at ostrowski_jill@wheatoncollege.edu
