The Spring Institute for Studies in Global Stewardship will serve a selected group of students aspiring to a broader understanding of global forces, issues, and concerns from within the context of a specific cultural perspective. These students will spend spring term living overseas based in a particular country from which they will examine both a broad range of topics crucial to global and human development (in politics, economics, the environment, health, education, development, culture, and so on) and also focus on specific themes, which will change from year to year. The locations and themes will be determined in some part by the disciplines and interests of the faculty involved, which may also reflect areas of significant or growing interest to the University or may represent an opportunity to introduce areas currently less well represented in the University’s regular curriculum. Generally, there will be at least two W&L faculty from different departments participating in the academic offerings of the program, augmented by guest lecturers and specialists drawn from the local area.
The academic structure of the program will rely on INTR 296 Culture and Society which will be a constant part of the program. This may be offered as a single 6 credit course, or as one of two 3 credit courses. In the latter case, the second 3 credit course will be specific to the thematic topic(s) of the particular Institute and sponsored by an appropriate department at W&L. Faculty are invited to submit proposals for a Spring Institute (usually at least 18 months in advance) or they will be recruited for a proposed Institute by the Center for International Education and the International Committee. Courses will be limited to 12-15 students per participating faculty member, consistent with what is logistically possible. The primary purpose of the program will be to engage students in critical ‘on-site’ thinking about major issues facing the world today.
It is expected that, consistent with the overall mission both of study abroad at W&L and specific to the mission of global stewardship as originally proposed to the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Fund, the Spring Institute will be structured in such a way as to offer maximum immersion and engagement with the host culture. Generally this will involve significant duration abroad, having a settled home base in the host country, minimizing travel from one site to another, placing students in home stays, offering conversational instruction in the local language, and using the resources of a local partner institution to handle or assist with both the logistical and academic arrangements for the program. Through this structure it is also intended that the cost to each student for these Institutes will be minimized to make the program as accessible as possible. Funding from the Johnson gift will further subsidize these Institutes as well as assisting in each program’s development.
The intent of the original Global Stewardship program, which goals and values are meant to be reflected in the Spring Institute and as taken from the original grant proposal , include aspirations to:
The Spring Institute is also intended to reflect as much as possible the curricular components of the original program, which included two courses, 1) Human Geography and Culture, which was to focus on an examination of such topics as human migration and mobility, the historical background and contemporary realities of social organization and interaction, the impact of environment, both rural and urban, on global life forms, the impact of humans in particular on the environment and the role of culture in defining values and motivating human action, and 2) The Global Environment, which was to provide an overview of some central themes and problems confronting the world at the dawn of the third millennium which may include the environment, global warming, population growth, poverty, global food supplies, health and healthcare, nationalism, global economic interdependence and natural resource management as well as of existing agencies concerned with and strategies being directed towards these problems (successfully and unsuccessfully).
Spring Institutes have been planned or proposed as follows:
Spring 2006 Culture and Society in West Africa: Politics, Media, and Literature in Senegal
Spring 2007 Culture and Society in South India: Religion, Science and Healing
Spring 2008 Proposals include:
Funding for the program beyond 2008 will be sought, based on the program’s success to that date.