PCV: Paid Caribbean Vacation

So as many of you know, I actually have to take some classes while aboard this ship and while I m not too excited about it, I think it wont be too bad. This will be one of the true examples of the classroom getting in the way of my education. Needless to say here are my classes. I am taking 12 credits.

SEMS 101 Global Studies
Subject: Geography
Professor Dan Christie, Coordinator
This interdisciplinary course focuses on the countries visited and is tailored especially to meet the global and comparative approach of Semester at Sea. It is mandatory for all students. In addition to providing basic information about the countries on the itinerary, Core also provides a meaningful framework by which to compare data, examine issues, and develop concepts. Participants learn how to understand cultural and social phenomena with which they are constantly coming into contact during the semester and to highlight both commonalities and differences from one society to another. Core equips participants with observational and analytical skills for encountering societies different from their own, and different from each other, a key factor in facilitating the integration of class work and field work for all courses. Objectives: 1) To provide basic information about the physical and cultural geography; key historical events; the current social, economic and political situation of each country visited. 2) To present regional and global issues which in various ways affect the countries on our itinerary. Examples include race relations, population, poverty, ethnic/religious conflicts, technology, status of women, human rights, environment and globalization. 3) To emphasize the similarities and differences in the variety of human experiences and to assist students in developing the observational and analytical skills needed to draw cross-cultural comparisons. Method of evaluation based on four or five objective tests.

SEMS 400 “Masculinity” and “Femininity”: Close to Home & Around the World
Subject: Sociology
Professor Toni Zimmerman
We all have a general sense that gender and gender-related issues both reflect and shape prevailing norms and values in countries and cultures around the world. But how and why, and why might we care? Our travels around the world, together with our intense time aboard ship, afford us the opportunity to answer these questions – and we’ll do so by exploring how gender intersects, in sometimes surprising ways, with other social categories (e.g.,. class, race, sexuality, religion, and age) in the shaping of norms and the generation of expectations. Through careful reading, observation, and discussion, we’ll the analyze gender dynamics of the various cultures and societies on our itinerary – including the culture aboard ship. Students will evaluate how gender expectations and roles frame their daily lives and relationships, and frame their academic and professional lives. Special focus will rest on understanding, in a comparative perspective, gender expectations of men and women, common gender stereotypes, and how “masculinity” and “femininity” play out in ways both constraining and enabling. Methods of evaluation include three exams (10% each, 30% total), two ten-page papers (15% each, 30% total), field reports (20%), and series of in-class exercises (20%). Pre-requisites: At least two prior courses in some combination of Sociology, Psychology, Women’s Studies: or permission of the instructor.

SEMS 436 Politics and Memory
Subject: Political Science
Professor Giles Wayland-Smith
The rich tapestry of a country’s political life can be captured not only by reading analytical texts and historical documents but also by examining the many cultural forms through which that nation’s memory – its historical narrative – has been preserved and interpreted. This course draws on a wide variety of narrative “texts” to illuminate the complex political histories of the countries we will be visiting. Films, novels, short stories, poems, and memoirs will provide the core of the historical narratives to be examined. At the same time, museums and historic sites in the countries being visited present their own narratives; students will be required to visit at least three such sites in order to capture the particular intersection of system and story that is being presented. Among the central questions being addressed throughout the course are the following: In what way(s) does the political system, past or present, shape the story that is being told? Exactly whose memory, whose story, is being told and how is it presented? Whose story is being left out and why? What are the political consequences of the remembering (or forgetting) that is contained in the material presented? Methods of evaluation include a personal journal (20%), three analytical papers, focusing on literary analysis and national political/historical narratives (40%), six shorter papers connecting the port experience to class themes (30%), and class participation (10%). Prerequisites: One Political Science and one English Literature course, or permission of the instructor.

SEMS 444 Gender, Class, Race-Ethnicity, and Social Change
Subject: Anthropology
Professor Gloria Rudolf
This course explores the global issue of inequality based on gender, class and/or race-ethnicity, and the associated problems of discrimination against women, the poor, and peoples of color or particular ethnic groups. The spotlight will be on gender inequality. We’ll explore how class and race-ethnicity intersect with gender to shape various types of systematic exploitations and responses. Some of our major questions will include: How have gender relations been defined for women and men in different historical times and places? What are some current ideas about the relative influence of culture versus biology in the formation of a society’s race and gender categories? How is the development of inequality in gender relations related to class and race-ethnicity? How have people historically responded to or resisted these inequalities? What can policy makers, practitioners and activists of social change projects learn from such questions? To help students relate course materials to their daily lives, each person will keep a personal journal. Class attendance, preparation and general participation (30%); Group class facilitation in class of one course reading (5%); Class presentation (with port partners) of one field project (10%); Class presentation of an analysis based on your personal journal (5%); Take-home exam (20%); Portfolio of field projects (20%); Synthesis paper describing and analyzing a theme in your journal (10%). Prerequisites: at least six social science (e.g. political science, history, sociology, anthropology, economics, women’s studies, and/or environmental studies) courses, or permission of the instructor.