Experiencing the New Europe is a three-week international summer program, which combines classroom study with on-site experiential learning to explore cultural, political and economic transformation in the newly integrated Europe. Through its interactive curriculum, Experiencing the New Europe, studies how large processes of geopolitical change (the fall of Communism, democratization, European integration) play out in the local setting of a large European city and its inhabitants.
The program is based in Wroclaw, an academic and historical city located in the Southwest of Poland, the capital of the region of Lower Silesia. The city of Wroclaw offers a unique urban and cultural experience to international students who will have the opportunity to study European culture, society and politics through interactive learning methods, by visiting governmental, academic, business and civil society organizations in the city and the region. The program draws students from Poland, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and the United States. An important component of the summer school is students' active role in the learning process - they will complete their own research projects on the city and this work will serve as a basis for their course paper and the final presentation at the Wroclaw City Hall.
The Summer Institute offers an interdisciplinary program of study: European Urban Cultures and Societies in Transformation (anthropology, urban studies, history). The program is divided into two courses which have a different focus and will be credited as two different subjects - Culture and Urban Environment (Anthropology, Urban Studies), and Social History and Politics (History). The course is co-taught by European and US anthropology faculty (Hana Cervinkova, Ph.D., - anthropologist, University of Lower Silesia, Wroclaw, Poland; Krista Hegburg - anthropologist, Columbia University, New York, USA; Tom Chivens - anthropologist, Rice University, USA). Morning classroom sessions are combined with afternoon site visits, film screenings and discussions, guest lectures and weekend study tours to Prague and Krakow.
Though admission is open to others, the Summer Institute is designed for third or fourth-year university students who wish to enrich their studies with a short-term study-abroad program. The program is taught in English. The summer school is being held under the patronage of the Mayor of Wroclaw.
