Study Abroad and Service Learning
Opportunities in Women’s Studies
University of Michigan-Affiliated Programs Offering Women’s Studies/Gender Studies Courses
Semester Programs with a Specific Focus on Women and/or Gender Administered By Other US Colleges
Summer Programs Administered by the U-M and Other US Colleges
The University of Michigan Women’s Studies Department
encourages students to study abroad in order to enhance their
education and gain international perspectives on gender issues
and feminism. Students routinely look back on their time spent
abroad as a valuable aspect of their undergraduate career. There
are many excellent study abroad opportunities offering students
a variety of possible experiences: among them cultural immersion,
summer field work, intensive language learning, independent
study, and participation in another educational system.
Planning early for study abroad is important, as is research into study abroad possibilities. Both the Women’s Studies Department and the University of Michigan Office of International Programs (OIP) are committed to working with students to help them find the right study abroad program. Women’s Studies invites students to make an appointment with a concentration advisor to discuss specific study abroad options for Women’s Studies majors. Please call 763-2047 or e-mail wsp.advising@umich.edu.
The Overseas Opportunities Office is
an information resource center within the University of Michigan’s International
Center that provides information about options for study, work, and travel
abroad.
The U-M Global Intercultural Experience for Undergraduates Program (GIEU) sends small groups of undergraduates and faculty members (normally in the summer) to exciting locations in the US and around the world for three to four weeks of engaging intercultural academic studies.
Opportunities in Women’s Studies
The Women’s Studies Department and its faculty have offered study abroad programs in Honduras, South Africa, and Jamaica. Not all programs are offered every year. For more information, please contact the Women’s Studies office at 734-763-2047.
Pedagogy of Action
Under the leadership of Dr. Nesha Z. Haniff, a faculty member in the Women’s Studies Department and the Center for African American Studies at the University of Michigan, students in the Pedagogy of Action Program have the opportunity to travel extensively throughout South Africa, teaching in various academic settings and visiting numerous historical sites throughout the extension of the trip.
The Pedagogy of Action Program uses an oral module to present basic HIV and
AIDS material to low-literacy communities, focusing on physical motions and
acronyms to teach the biology of HIV and AIDS, how the illnesses develop and
can be contracted, and how to treat individuals that may be affected by either
illness. The Program aims to educate people about the biology of HIV and AIDS,
explaining how HIV affects the immune system of the body and how HIV can develop
into AIDS over time. This program also focuses on social stigmas of individuals
affected by the illnesses, aiming to correct some of the most common “beliefs” about
HIV and AIDS-infected individuals. In South Africa, University of Michigan
students present the modules to their counterparts in South African universities.
Together, the students present the modules in communities across South Africa.
In a one-month stay in South Africa in 2007, 17 University of Michigan students taught more than 500 people the oral methodology of HIV prevention. Those first-generation teachers were students from the University of Zululand, international students from the University of Witwatersrand, primary school students from Cato Crest Primary School in the Township of Cato Crest, Durban, high school students and teachers from Mayville primary and secondary schools in Cato Crest and home-care workers from the Red Cross in Cape Town. In turn, those 500 people taught more than 900 people who were members of their universities, school and communities.
Students who participate in the Pedagogy of Action take two courses during the academic year in preparation for their trip abroad. An introductory course introduces students to social activism and the process of influencing change within various communities. A second course covers the history of South Africa as well as current social and economic issues taking place within the country. Students also learn to identify their own ‘community’ and present the HIV and AIDS module to community members in order to solidify the nature and content of the module.
One of the 2007 team members, Erika Purcell-Williams, says, “It has
been an absolute pleasure and honor to participate in the Pedagogy of Action
program. We are consistently reminded that we as instructors are the greatest
beneficiaries of this program.… [Johannesburg] has presented South Africa
in a completely different light; it is a nation full of hopes, dreams, possibility,
and stamina.…I will remain thankful to the Pedagogy of Action program
for allowing me the opportunity to share and grow overseas for a long time
to come.”
Transitions in Reproductive Health and Maternity Care Project in Morazan, Honduras
Under the direction of Lisa Kane-Low, Assistant Professor of Nursing and Women’s Studies, and Joanne Motino Bailey, Service Director of the Nurse-Midwifery Service at the UM Hospital and a lecturer in Women’s Studies, students spend two weeks during the summer in a rural Honduras community focused on providing reproductive and maternity health care education and services. Student participation grew from a research project focused on transitions in maternity care and the role of skilled birth attendants or midwives in the local community.
Students prepare for the service learning study abroad in “Reproductive
Health and Policy in the Developing World”, a course focused on global
reproductive and maternity health policy and how it shapes the local provision
of women’s health care services in developing countries emphasizing Latin
America. Students develop an understanding of women’s reproductive health
using a broader consideration of the intersections of gender, race/ethnicity,
class, culture, geography, economic status, nation, and other identities. This
includes considerations of access to health care personnel, resources, and
services as a background to opportunities to improve women’s health status
locally.
Women in Cooperatives, South Africa (WiCSA)
Women in Cooperatives, South Africa (WiCSA) focuses on Phumani Paper, a poverty-alleviation project that, since its creation in 2000, has grown to 19 sites across rural South Africa. Founded by Kim Berman, an artist/activist/teacher in Johannesburg and director of Artist Proof Studio (a 3-year program that recruits and trains African youth in print-making) Phumani Paper employs over 200 people as paper-makers. Phumani uses low-technology methods and agricultural waste materials for the production of high quality paper and paper products that are marketed to the arts and crafts industry and local businesses.
WiCSA involves students, faculty, artists, and activists in participatory action research (PAR) on challenges that face the papermakers as they endeavor to become successful independent businesses in their communities. The use of Photovoice and other narrative-based methods has told stories about resilience and creativity in the lives of Phumani’s workers as well as the enormous impact of HIV/AIDS on their chances for success. Currently, the project focuses on culturally sensitive strategies for talking and teaching about HIV/AIDS and for providing accessible health care resources.
Jane Hassinger is the faculty coordinator for WiCSA and has worked since 2003 with collaborators from the University of Michigan, the University of Johannesburg, and the Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg on an intervention/research project that combines the arts, social work, community psychology, and HIV/AIDS educators in South Africa. WiCSA has been developed as a model for an intercultural/international project that will involve undergraduate students in participatory action field research in South Africa and the United States. Jane’s work focuses on feminist practice, psychoanalysis, trauma, resilience, groups as sites for individual and collective growth, and the interactions of creative activity and learning.
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University of Michigan-Affiliated Programs Offering Women’s Studies/Gender Studies Courses
University of Michigan students attending one of the University’s own
study abroad programs will earn in-residence credits and may use financial
aid money (if eligible) to help defray program costs. In addition, they may
apply for scholarships awarded by the Office of International Programs to program
participants. For more information on these programs visit the Office of International
Programs at 1712 Chemistry Building or see
their website. For a list of U-M affiliated programs offering Women’s
Studies/Gender Studies courses, please see the
OIP’s Women’s Studies web page.
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Semester Programs with a Specific Focus on Women and/or Gender Administered By Other US Colleges
Antioch College, Comparative Women's and Gender Studies in Europe
See the Antioch Education Abroad web page or contact (800) 874-4986.
Augsburg College, Center for Global Education, Cuernavaca, Mexico—Crossing Borders: Gender and Social Change in Mesoamerica, fall semester
Social and Environmental Justice in Latin America, spring semester
See the Augsburg College Center for Global Education web page or contact (800) 299-8889.
School for International Training—The Balkans: Women and Democratization, fall or spring semester
Jamaica: Gender and Development, fall or spring semester
Mali: Gender and Development, fall or spring semester
The Netherlands: Identity, Gender and Sexuality, fall or spring semester
See the SIT study abroad web page or contact (800) 336-1616.
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Summer Programs Administered by the U-M and Other US Colleges
Michigan State University—Women’s Studies in London, England, summer program
See the MSU study abroad web page or contact (5l7) 353-8920.
University of Michigan—St. Peter’s College, Oxford University, Summer program in Medieval Studies.
See the Office of International Programs web page.
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