EC EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SUMMER PROGRAMS: My studies and interests are now a reality, what do I make of it?

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

My studies and interests are now a reality, what do I make of it?

Only ever doing a cruise to some resort island in the Bahamas, I have never gotten to extensively travel. To be honest I have not even crossed the Mississippi ! Travel was always relegated for the most part for a few day affair within the Northeast. I have always loved reading about history and taking language courses. Since starting at Emmanuel I have studied International Relations and have encountered so many different nationalities and world views. Getting to do the Crete program and doing some traveling to see a friend in Mumbai has been my chance to really get to have these experiences. What can I make of it so far? For one thing it was not intimidating as I thought it would be. Even in Mumbai, people speak a good deal of English, they are very hospitable, and a lot of infrastructural things like airports and railways are good about having English. In regards to the content of the program and my trip in general is I am really seeing how societies are under threat and suffering and prospering from globalization. Whether it was the streets of Athens or the shopfronts in Mumbai, there were minions, Hip-Hop, McDonalds, the mediocre looking Bay Watch reboot and Fidget Spinners. Talking with my friend's mom in Mumbai and her perspective was interesting along with the rest of his family. They essentially argued that American individualism and consumerism was having the ill affect. Students they said who went to the States to study came back having complexes of superiority and having little desire to see social customs through. Even here in Greece I can see how such a laid back and personal society is under threat of neoliberalism with its necessary imposition of efficient structures to deliver results like with the cafe where we were given complimentary food and how that business model cannot function under the EU's push for more structure and rules. Overall so far I have had a really fun time seeing the old buildings, learning Greek dance and baking bread in a little local bakery. I hope to experience more of this old and beautiful culture.

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EC Eastern Security Studies Program

In the summer of 2011, as the "Arab Spring" was unfolding and the "Eurozone Crisis" was entering its second year, the Emmanuel College Eastern Mediterranean Security Studies Program was established in Crete, as a way to make the location the classroom. Beyond the grand theoretical, historical and political understanding that can be achieved through reading and classroom discussion and exchange, a more immediate, intimate and truer appreciation of the complexities can only achieved by experiencing the cultures, languages of personal interaction.

Since 2012 students have been able to combine an intensive curricular study, with the experience of immersion and living in a local setting. The geopolitical and geoeconomic forces that have acted in the region for centuries, can be identified in the classroom, but they can only be understood by being there. This year's EC EMSS Program will add a fourth week of study, experience and exploration and will also travel to the islands of Rhodes, and Cyprus. In Rhodes we will be partnering with the Prefecture of Southern Aegean and the Aegean University, while in Cyprus we will be hosted by the University of Nicosia.