Overview
IAU is pleased to offer eleven January Term Programs. These programs are designed for students interested in an academic and cultural experience abroad. The academic component of each program consists of a series of briefings from leading academic, literary, and political personalities and experts from around the world. Participants will visit several cities and countries, attending daily lectures and meetings with distinguished scholars from IAU, in addition to local guides and experts in the field of politics, art, history, and culture, and visit multiple historical, political, and cultural sites.
UPDATES: IAU is sensitive to the ever-changing landscape of the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. We plan to continue to run our J-Term programs in January 2021 and have created modified itineraries (listed below) that take travel restrictions and health and safety guidelines into consideration. Information about itineraries for J-Term 2022 and beyond can be found on each individual program page.
Diplomacy & Human Rights in the Mediterranean - Belgium, France
Europe and the Islamic World - France, Spain
French Language and Culture - France
Great Cities - Italy, France
International Business - Belgium, France
Mediterranean Basin - Greece
Museum Studies - France, Italy
North African Studies - Morocco
Photography: History & Digital Practice in Europe - France, Italy
Psychology of Peace & Conflict in the Mediterannean - France, Spain
Wine, Gastronomy and Sustainability of the Mediterranean - France, Spain
Diplomacy & Human Rights in the Mediterranean
Belgium • France
Diplomacy is about balancing multiple, sometimes competing priorities. How can the U.S. promote human rights in North Africa while also fighting terrorism? How does the US elicit cooperation from NATO allies while also getting them to pay their fair share? This study tour surveys how U.S. diplomats balance multiple goals and foreign policy challenges while working with partners from other governments, international organizations, and civil society in Europe and North Africa. The Mediterranean region is one where the most pressing foreign policy challenges of the day converge, from migration to counterterrorism and climate change to great power competition with China and Russia. This course will introduce students to the tools the U.S. uses to address these challenges, from public diplomacy to military partnerships.
Europe & the Islamic World
France • Spain
The Europe and the Islamic World Seminar is designed for students interested in an academic and cultural experience in France, Morocco, Gibraltar and Spain. Students participate in a series of briefings from leading academic, literary, and political experts on the European relationship with the Islamic world. In each city, students attend daily lectures and meetings with distinguished scholars from IAU in addition to local guides and experts in the fields of politics, art history, history, and culture. Special emphasis is placed on the importance of immigration to Europe and its current socio-cultural implications on the region.
French Language and Culture
France
The French Language and Culture January Term (J-term) is designed for students interested in a language and cultural immersion experience in the Mediterranean region of Southern France. IAU's exceptional out-of-classroom experiences include homestays, regional field studies, and extracurricular activities such as wine tastings and cooking courses. Students receive intensive language instruction and have an immersive experience in the local culture during this three-week program.
The many libraries, museums, churches, bookstores, markets, and cafés have earned Aix its reputation as one of France's most engaging cities. A wealth of cinemas, restaurants, discothèques, and sports facilities welcomes Aix's students. With its charm and Mediterranean climate, Aix-en-Provence is one of the most popular and sought-after cities in France.
Great Cities
France • Italy
IAU’s January Term Traveling Seminar is designed for students interested in an academic and cultural experience in France, Italy, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic. Students explore major cities across Europe using literature and the arts as a guide to understanding the rise and establishment of the urban setting. Through readings and media studies, students examine the artistic process from inspiration to creation. Site visits and guided tours then allow students to experience the historical, geographical, and demographical foundations that inform the fictional representations of European cities and their impact on perceptions of those cities today. Students have the opportunity to learn from and exchange their observations with experts from IAU as well as distinguished on-site scholars and local guides in order to frame their own perception of the cities and these cities’ representation through the arts.
International Business
France • Belgium
The International Business Traveling Seminar is designed for students interested in an academic and cultural experience in France, Morocco, and Tunisia. Students gain exposure to the diverse facets of international business while visiting countries at different stages of economic development. While in Europe and North Africa, students visit major multi-national organizations and locally-run businesses as well as meet with public officials responsible for economic policy in order to build a well-rounded understanding of the global market. Students have the opportunity to learn from and exchange their observations with experts from IAU as well as distinguished on-site scholars and local guides.
Mediterranean Basin
Greece
The Mediterranean Basin Traveling Seminar builds visual literacy in the history of art and archaeology as well as examines philosophical literature of the Mediterranean Basin- from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. The seminar cultivates strong research and critical thinking skills and develops students’ abilities to synthesize cultural, historical, political, and social information as it relates to the visual arts. The experiential learning component consists of a series of site visits made by academic experts from IAU in addition to local guides and experts in the field of history, art history, and archaeology.
Museum Studies
France • Italy
How does one preserve or even rejuvenate an artist's legacy? This January Term traveling seminar will focus on a selection of European museums in Amsterdam, Paris, Aix-en-Provence, and Barcelona dedicated to artists across a variety of disciplines, including painting, photography, sculpture, and architecture. Through discussions, museum visits, and other methods, students will analyze different curatorial methods of specific European museums as well as study original works by various artists with an emphasis on critical analysis. Students will collaborate with and learn from professionals in arts administration, practicing artists, and art history scholars linking the curatorial process to the history and content of specific works housed in specific museums. Students participating in this Museum Studies January Term program will have the opportunity to experience the inner workings of world-renowned museums and study the artworks that reside in them from this new perspective.
North African Studies
Morocco
The North African Studies Traveling Seminar is designed for students interested in learning about the major issues multi-ethnic, predominantly Islamic, and developing countries contend with. The Seminar will expose students to diverse and sometimes opposed views to these major issues. During the three-week seminar students will visit six cities and will attend daily lectures and meetings with distinguished scholars and practitioners in regards to culture, human rights, politics, and economic development.
There is a strong social service component to this seminar, as students will visit NGO's and meet with creative ordinary citizens who are striving to invent solutions to their most vexing problems such as fighting poverty and providing education to their children.
Photography: History & Digital Practice in Europe
France • Italy
IAU’s Photography: History & Digital Practice in Europe January Term Traveling Seminar offers students in photography the opportunity to acquire an artistic vocabulary and a technical comprehension of digital photography through museum study and on-site experiential learning in European cities renowned for their art. The questions of observation, composition, digital process, print and screen presentation will be addressed in relation to specific subjects, intentions and aesthetic judgments. Each student's particular experience of place in Amsterdam, Paris, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille and Barcelona will serve as the catalyst for creation throughout the course of the traveling seminar.
Students are expected to bring a digital camera and a laptop with some means of editing, although computers and Photoshop CC will be available during the last week of the program.
Psychology of Peace and Conflict in the Mediterranean
France • Spain
The Psychology of Peace and Conflict in the Mediterranean Seminar is designed for students interested in an academic and cultural experience in Morocco, Spain, France, and Gibraltar. This program is cross-listed and welcomes students from the psychological and sociological sciences as well as interdisciplinary studies. This course traverses history as a necessary backdrop to further explore the contexts students will occupy experientially through travel. Through contextualized perspective taking, the course study will forge ecologically grounded connections between violence at multiple levels (interpersonal, within group, between groups and sociocultural on a grander scale). By more deeply understanding violence and its impacts, the psychologically, sociological and political results will be interrogated through an interdisciplinary lens in order to imagine conflict resolution and peace processes for communities that widely remain erased, or oppressed in Morocco, France and Spain. The psychology of political decision making as it applies to international relations and the legacy that determines peace efforts will also be surveyed across cultures and countries. Dr. Kaivan teaches courses on Peace Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Cross-cultural and Multicultural Psychologies, Human Sexuality and Clinical Practicum courses.
Wine, Gastronomy & Sustainability of the Mediterranean
France • Spain
The Wine, Gastronomy & Sustainability of the Mediterranean J-Term Seminar focuses on the appreciation of gastronomy and wine while exploring regional and local delicacies. Students will learn to appreciate how these products are produced, understand how it impacts the environment, and will begin to recognize how our consumption choices may be a potential solution or hazard to the global environmental crisis.
Travel Itinerary
During these seminars, participants will stay in a combination of hotels, residence halls, and shared apartments. All breakfasts and some group lunches or dinners are included. Please click here for more detailed travel itineraries. Check the online calendar for J-Term start and end dates.
Candidates and Admission
APPLY NOW! The J-term Traveling Seminar is open to U.S. undergraduate students of any major. Applications will be accepted on a rolling, space-available basis until October 1.
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