EC EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SUMMER PROGRAMS: Taormina

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Taormina

Going to Taormina was an amazing experience. This city has sat here perched on the cliffs of Sicily for centuries. Built in 392BCE the city has changed hands from one empire to the next. From the Greeks and Romans to the Arabs and the Spanish Taormina has thrived. Today the presence of all the former empires can still be felt. The Palace has faces of Arab and Spanish architecture, and the Greek temple and theater can still be seen behind and under the city church. Going up to this city you can see the riding roads and the buildings on the cliff and truly understand how it to the Arabs 80 years to capture the city.

Our time in Taormina was brief, but we were able to experience the beauty of centuries worth of culture. Leaving Taormina was as sad as it was a battle. We missed the first shuttle to get down the hill and the second shuttle filled up almost as quickly as it pulled up. Everyone in our group was able to get on the bus rather quickly except for Thespina Maddie and myself. The bus almost left without us so we had to muscle our way into the bus through separate doors. Getting on that bus was one of the most immersive Realpolitik moments of the trip so far. Im glad that I was able to have this memory though. It made the trip to Taormina that much better.

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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.