Contact: Maridith Geuder
Study-abroad subjects ranging from fashion design to Shakespearean drama will be among summer classes taught by five Mississippi State faculty members through an American higher education consortium.
Students enrolled either at the Starkville university or any other member institutions may register through Feb. 28 for 2002 courses being offered through the 24-member Cooperative Center for Study Abroad. CCSA's administrative offices are located at Northern Kentucky University. (The center may be accessed on the Web at www.nku.edu/~ccsa/.)
Mississippi State's participation in the study-abroad program originates with its University Honors Program membership in the CCSA. MSU is the only Mississippi member, with others in Alabama, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
CCSA annually develops courses in Australia, Barbados, England, Ireland, Kenya, New Zealand, and Scotland. Part of the regular academic offerings of participating universities, its classes are taught by faculty members at consortium schools.
MSU-led courses available July 4-Aug. 5 include one in Australia and four in London, England.
Taught by art professor Marita Gootee, the Australia course is titled "The Photographic Journal Down Under." Students will visit the Great Barrier Reef, Northern Territory rainforests and the Blue Mountains near Sydney while completing pre- and post-trip projects.
The London courses include:
--"Transcending Time and Place: Visual Design in Dress as Related to Historical and Folk Influences." Phyllis Bell Miller, a human sciences assistant professor, leads an examination of historic costumes that enables students to interact with designers, weavers and museum curators while preparing a design resource notebook.
--"Shakespeare from Page to Stage." Assistant English professor George Evans Light will focus on four plays while having his students visit the Bard's birthplace and grammar school, and attend a Globe Theater performance.
--"Social and Cultural Aspects of Food." Human sciences professor Wanda L. Dodson directs an exploration of food's many influences, among them, geography, history, economics, politics, and religion. Students will visit food markets and manufacturers, along with libraries, hospitals, museums, and other institutions.
--"Churchill's Britain." Assistant history professor Richard V. Damms will examine such themes as the transformation of British democracy, the rise and fall of the British Empire, the world wars, and the emergence of the welfare state. His students will visit appropriate historic London sites that illustrate these aspects of Churchill's life and times.
For more information about course offerings and costs, telephone the University Honors Program at (662) 325-2522.