EARN LESLEY CREDIT STUDYING IN MONTREAL OR SANTA FE!
Students traveling through Lesley's Traditions and Cultures Institutes discover new perspectives and insights into the cultures and history of areas such as Montréal, Santa Fe, Martha's Vineyard and here in Boston.
Open to both graduate and undergraduate students, the Traditions and Cultures Institutes grant 3 to 6 graduate credits. Guided by Lesley faculty representing a variety of disciplines and programs from across the college, students become immersed in the diverse cultures, landscapes, and rich traditions of each site. Local experts from a variety of cultural and professional backgrounds meet with students and share their inside perspectives on local issues, past and present. Students select and research a topic of their own interest and create a final project. Past projects have included not only research papers but a children's book, curriculum units, a photo essay, an interactive computer project, and a quilt.
Melinda Green is the institutes' program advisor. She became an enthusiastic proponent after her own participation in the Traditions & Cultures on Martha's Vineyard Institute. "I learned more about the Vineyard through this experience than I did from ten years of summer employment there," she says. "And as a group, we supported each other by sharing resources, ideas, and any pertinent tidbits of information we came across while working on our own projects."
In May 1997, institute participants will travel to Montréal, Canada, to study the city's history, art, architecture, folklore, film, literature and urban environment. Led by Lesley faculty member Constance Counts, students will take neighborhood walking tours through downtown and Vieux Montréal and visit the McCord Museum, the Musee des Beaux Arts, and the Botanical Garden. A field-trip to Ottawa may include stops at the National Gallery of Canada, the Parliament Building, and the Museum of Civilization. Through these and other activities, students will explore such issues as bilingual education, cultural diversity, political-economic systems, and health care management. Past participants have done research and projects on the treatment of Native peoples by Canada and the United States, language-immersion curriculum for bilingual education, and cross-cultural comparison of Canadian and U.S. health care systems, to name a few.
Santa Fe is the destination for the summer Traditions & Cultures Institute. From July 30 through August 9, 1997, lead faculty Winifred Skolnikoff will engage participants in study of the Santo Domingo Corn Dance, the Anasazi cliff dwellings, Georgia O'Keefe's Ghost Ranch, the Mabel Dodge Luhan House and the San Ildefonso pueblo. Through these activities and individually designed research, students will explore the rich cultural legacies of the Southwest and the interactions between the Native American, Hispanic, and Anglo traditions. Past participants' research focused on areas such as the four fundamental facts of life for Native people, the Colonial period in American literature through a study of three cultures, and Hispanic women and healing traditions.
"It's been the highlight of my student experience," says Liana Caffrey (School of Education) of her trip to Santa Fe. "We were living, breathing and experiencing the history and culture of New Mexico."
