New study abroad course offerings available during summer session

For the first time, Tufts will be offering two study abroad programs for students during the summer 2017 session. "Rome in Focus: Philosophy & Photography in the Eternal City" is a new course offered by the Department of Philosophy, while "Bridging Venice" is a course that was previously only offered at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA).

Julie Graham, lecturer of painting at the SMFA and one of the instructors for "Bridging Venice," explained that part of the focus of the course is to view art in context.   

"It's a class for artists and people who are really interested in art … and we will be in Venice for a few weeks during the Venice Biennale, which is one of the foremost art venues in the world," Graham said. "We will spend a lot of time at the Biennale and the outlying exhibitions."

According to Graham, the Venice Biennale is an opportunity to see a wide variety of contemporary art.

"[It’s an] opportunity to see one of the major art exhibitions in the world that happens every other year in Venice.  It's one of the oldest biennales … in which artists from all over the world participate," Graham said. "So it's an incredible opportunity to see what's going on in the contemporary world around the globe."

Graham believes that this course would be less effective if held in a traditional classroom because of the benefits of seeing art in person.   

"We all look at digital images online and in books, which is wonderful, but it doesn't compare to seeing the real things in person," Graham said.

Meanwhile, "Rome in Focus" will incorporate both philosophy and photography. It will address the philosophical contrast between insiders and outsiders and the political and social ramifications of these relations, Stephen Martin, program manager for the philosophy department and an instructor for "Rome in Focus," explained.

"We ourselves will be outsiders to Rome, which is this ancient city that has had a lot of insiders represented in its population," he said.

The course will include two weeks in the city of Rome, but Martin believes this may not be enough time to fill the introductory class with rigorous material.

"The real challenge I would say of doing short-term international programs is that it's difficult to pack everything in," Martin said.

To solve this, the course has an online supplement that students complete before going to Rome, he explained.

"We see the two weeks in Rome as the culmination of … a six-week program," Martin said. "So the first four weeks starting in May … we [will have] online modules, each of which is designed to anticipate a different day in Rome."

According to Martin, studying philosophy and photography in conjunction helps build connections between the two.

"We really think that artists … are concerned with deeply philosophical questions and we are interested in having conversations with artists in this respect,” he said.

Martin suggested that this course could change people's perceptions of philosophy.

"There is [an] opportunity here to show that philosophy, like photography, can be this completely active discipline where you're getting out into the world, being stimulated in various ways and using that stimulation to generate new ideas and explore the intellectual world," he said.

Martin explained that one potential benefit of summer study abroad programs is that they allow students to view their studies in a new perspective due to the new environment in which they are taught. However, this environment sometimes leads students to take summer courses less seriously, and Martin hopes this will not be the case with his course.

"I think that our major hurdle is that Tufts students do not think of the summer session as anything but a time to maybe check off some boxes [so] that you don’t have to do it in the [next year]," Martin said. "They don't really think of it as a time to do really cool, groundbreaking stuff."

According to John Barker, the dean of international education and extended programming, Tufts hopes to create more of these abroad courses in the future.

"It is truly exciting to collaborate with the campus community to bring new programs and international opportunities to our students at Tufts," Barker told the Daily in an email. "In the future, we will continue to develop new programs that meet faculty and student needs to create new dynamic international opportunities."