While urban settlements have been an integral part of human life for millennia, cities today are arguably at the heart of survival on, and of, this planet. More than half of the world's population now lives in cities, and urban centers present some of the greatest social and environmental challenges of their time. Though students may study in or…

As international educators, the overwhelmingly urban context of study abroad requires not only a more intense querying of "the city" as a concept, but also more attention to how students could engage with and learn from the urban landscape. In this article, the authors begin with a theoretical flanerie through a range of ideas related to the city…

Greece conjures up images of idyllic island landscapes, turquoise seas and venerable mythic deeds set among majestic monuments. These notions are, moreover, often associated with a history, religious culture and language that are ancient. Tourist posters and national sentiment aside, today the Hellenic Republic is a country that is as much…

In the summers of 2007 and 2008 St. John's University's faculty arrived in Rome and spent two weeks working together at the university's campus in the Prati section of Rome as participants in a program that was half faculty writing retreat and half writing across the curriculum faculty development workshop. The focus of the St. John's University…

Students who attend Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, have elected to spend their university years in one of America's most distinguished small cosmopolitan cities. Over the last two decades as the world has become rapidly urbanized, Hartford has become a critically contested site where economic poverty, environmental degradation,…

Study abroad's purpose, once conceived primarily as a means for acquiring knowledge in a content area as well as language acquisition, began in the 1980s to be considered a vehicle for helping American students become less "parochial" and better prepared to live and work in a globalized world. To achieve these goals, students must be able to…

Jerusalem is more than an intriguing global historical city; it is a classroom for liberal learning and international understanding. It had never been a city of one language, one religion and one culture. Looking at the origins of Jerusalem's name indicates its international and multicultural nature. While Israelis designate Jerusalem as their…

The urban scholar Jane Jacobs once described city life as "the ballet of the streets." In more than a quarter century of joint teaching, the authors have used Jacobs' metaphor to help their students understand that cities are living organisms created and maintained, for good or ill, by the people who live and work in them. At heart their teaching…

Cultural sensitivity theory is the study of how individuals relate to cultural difference. Using literature to help students prepare for study abroad, instructors could analyze character and trace behavior through a model of cultural sensitivity. Milton J. Bennett has developed such an instrument, The Developmental Model of Intercultural…

The last two decades have seen institutions of higher education put increasing emphasis on both internationalizing their institutions and making them more sustainable. While laudable in their own right, there are contradictions and tensions between these goals, in particular when the carbon emissions involved in international activities like study…

International and intercultural learning requires flexibility, openness, and a willingness to adjust--on the part of the school as well as the student. Yet in social work, as in other professions requiring licensure and preparing professionals to work with vulnerable populations, flexibility is not simply a matter of convincing a department head…

International learning mobility is a strategic and operational priority for both the federal government and the majority of universities in Australia. Dating back over a decade, successive governments have stressed the public good to be derived from having an increased proportion of students participating in mobility programs. It is seen as…

Short-term study tours are among the fastest growing of study abroad experiences and serve the largest percentage of students choosing to study abroad. Fifty-six percent of students studying abroad go on short-term study trips lasting anywhere from two to eight weeks. These trips have the advantage of being able to provide study travel experiences…

Western Europe has been constructed in the field of education abroad as a "traditional" location: in some sense or another that label is used to suggest that it has a kind of static or dormant significance. In reality, Western Europe is an enormously rich location for study abroad precisely because it is a fluid learning environment that contains…

Students today are becoming more interested in international opportunities for study, and are drawn to alternative programs such as international service learning and international internships. These programs, however, must be carefully designed. In this paper, the authors propose using tools that go beyond the traditional understanding of…