UA in Italy: Following Shakespeare (2018, 2019, 2022, and scheduled 2023)
- The premise of this program is to visit many of the places in Italy where Shakespeare's plays take place while earning six hours of credit, three of which count towards students' general education requirement. As students travel, they study the enormous influence of Ancient Rome and the Italian Renaissance on Shakespeare and the broader Western world. Although the program focuses on Shakespeare and Roman and Italian literature and art, participants more broadly will come to recognize and appreciate the interconnections across world literature and culture. In addition to a handful of Shakespeare's plays, students will study Virgil's The Aeneid, selections from Ovid's The Metamorphoses, parts of the Christian New Testament, Dante's Inferno, Petrarch's love sonnets, Machiavelli's The Prince, and Collodi's Pinocchio. Although the itinerary shifts from year-to-year, students can expect to visit Venice, Verona, Florence, and Rome, and a few of the following: Padua, Milan, Pisa, Syracuse (Sicily), Taormina (Sicily), Ravenna, and/or Bologna.
- Apply here.
UA in Japan: Japanese Literature and Film (scheduled 2024)
- Students participating in this program will study traditional Japanese literature and film, with a particular focus on literature of the Kamakura period and its impact on director Akira Kurosawa. The primary purpose of the course is to consider how filmmaker Kurosawa merged Shakespeare with Japanese film, particularly during a time when Shakespeare's popularity grew until he became naturalized with his own Japanese name, "Sao." The ultimate goal of the program is to facilitate a transformative process, whereby Alabama students will be absorbed by Japanese culture (traditional and contemporary), just as Shakespeare has been absorbed by Japanese literary and cinematic culture. The major texts to be studied are as follows: Shakespeare (Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear); Kurosawa (Throne of Blood, The Bad Sleep Well, Ran); Nara mythology (Kojiki); Heian literature (The Tale of Genji; The Pillow Book); Kamakura literature (The Tale of the Heike and Noh theatre); Edo literature (Basho's haikus). Students will earn six credit hours, including three hours of general education credit that fulfills the "L" or "H" requirement. Along the way, students will visit the major Japanese locations connected to this literature, including but not limited to the Mukojima Hyakkaen Garden, Basho Memorial Museum, Haruki Murakami, the Kurosawa museum, and several famous Tokyo book stores.
UA in Iceland: The Traditions of Beowulf and Norse Mythology (coming soon)
- This program spends approximately 10 days traveling along the Ring Road in Iceland as students student Viking history and culture with particular attention given to Beowulf and other parts of Norse mythology.