Ancient Forests: Legal & Philosophical Perspectives
Professor Andrew Haile, School of Law

This Dialogue explores legal and philosophical frameworks for protecting “old growth” forest—woods that have never been logged since European settlement of North America. Combining an overview of key environmental laws and a philosophical exploration of foundational questions in environmental ethics, the trip will immerse students in the magic of ancient forests. We will study indigenous approaches to conservation and take a deep dive on the “timber wars” in the Pacific Northwest as a precursor to modern culture wars. The Dialogue will take place in British Columbia in western Canada (Vancouver and Vancouver Island) and the Olympic peninsula in Washington state and will include a 5-day guided backpacking trip into Olympic National Park, home to one of the largest intact old growth forests in the country.

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Storytelling, Landscapes, & Contested Identities in the North of Ireland
Professor Michael Patrick MacDonald, Honors Professor of the Practice

Join us for a trip through lush glens and along the rugged coastline of Ireland, North and South, with stays in urban Dublin, Derry, and Belfast as well as in the rural Donegal area where Gaelic is still a first language. We will take excursions to places such as the Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery and the Antrim Coast. Through visual art, music, poetry, story, and even political testimony, we will witness how the primary cultural, social, and political life of this island is bound up in the esteemed position of the Storyteller. This dialogue will look at the role of storytelling in both the landscape and the contested identities of “Northern Ireland” in particular. The dialogue will be informed by an understanding of the social, political, and geographic history of Ireland and the role of story in establishing political and social worldviews in a colonized country. Students will read, write about, and discuss the social, political, and geographic history of the island of Ireland, North and South, with an eye on colonization, trauma, and recovery, as well as the role of storytelling as a way to make sense of one’s world, to connect with one another and to the bigger picture, as well as its role in asserting either pride and resistance, or power and dominance.

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Climate Science, Engineering, and Policy
Professor Auroop Ganguly, COE

From the Taj Mahal in Agra to the world’s highest mountain peaks near Kathmandu, from the Little Tibet of Leh in Ladakh to the backwaters of Kerala, from the ancient capital city of Delhi to the beautiful beaches of Kovalam, we will travel across Nepal and India from the high Himalayas in the north to the Indian Ocean in the south during the Summer Monsoon season as we learn about climate change in emerging economies. We will learn about the sciences, engineering, data sciences, social sciences, public health, and policy aspects of climate change as well as how resilience can be developed across multiple sectors ranging from water, energy and food resources to critical infrastructures and hazards management. We will discover adaptation and mitigation through role playing exercises called climate war games, and frugal innovation (such as India’s Mars mission which it is said cost less than the production cost of the movie Gravity) through experiential learning. We will explore cultures ranging from Tibetan Buddhism practiced in Ladakh to one of the oldest form of Christianty in Kerala, an amalgamation of Hindu and Islamic traditions and architectures in Delhi and in Kovalam, the tradition of Tantric Hinduism including the worship of the Mother Goddess in Nepal, and an ethos that passionately welcomed persecuted minorities including the Zoroastrains and the Jewish peoples. We will learn about a culture that developed the concept of zero and the decimal system, arguably the world’s first urban civilization, and Golden Age economies that were the envy of the contemporary world, but which also let itself be devastated by divisive forces within and inconceivably cynical destructive forces without, only to gradually attempt to rise again from the ashes post Independence in 1947.

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Novel Antibiotic Discovery & Landscape Photography in Chile
Professor Veronica S. Godoy-Carter, COS

This Dialogue will cultivate two ways of seeing and pursue two fields of endeavor for which the extreme environment of the Atacama are uniquely suited: microbial sampling and landscape photography. The world’s oldest and driest desert on earth offer the chance to sample novel bacteria, enhancing our knowledge of bacterial diversity, plant associated bacteria (whenever plants are found) that could potentially aid plant growth in dry and salty environments, and potentially the discovery of new antibiotics. Samples will be analyzed using molecular methods. In parallel students will learn how to view and capture the otherworldly landscape on film. San Pedro de Atacama has some of the most beautiful and unusual settings in the world, as well as unparalleled views of the stars. Students will learn to see their surroundings anew at both the micro and the macro scale.

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Legal and Philosophical Perspectives on Free Speech and Protest in France
Professor Candice Delmas, CSSH

This Dialogue explores the legal and philosophical frameworks that regulate free speech and protest in France, with an eye to comparing them with the United States context. France has a vibrant culture and history of protest and resistance, from the French Revolution to today’s general strikes. It also has strict hate speech laws and a much less permissive free speech culture than the US. The Dialogue combines an Honors Seminar (HONR 3309) exploring the central legal issues surrounding free speech with a social and political philosophy course (PHIL 2303) focused on the ethics of protest, with both courses converging under the broad umbrella of dissent. The Dialogue is set in Paris and Lyon, where students will familiarize themselves with distinct aspects of France’s rich history of protest and meet different local actors, including lawyers, solicitors, jurists, historians, philosophers, and activists.

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Design for Justice, Democracy, and the Environment
Professor Sarah Kanouse, CAMD

Long described as the crossroads of Europe and Asia, this beautiful, rapidly changing country faces a crossroads with radically different paths offered by the European Union, Russia, and China. With only thirty years of independence, Georgia has often struggled to balance democracy, economic development, and environmental protection. However, artists and designers have become exceptionally active in public life. They are using creative tools to demand a democratic, sustainable, and just future for a nation that is both ancient and still relatively young. Field trips, studio visits, and guest lectures will introduce you to Georgia’s rich culture while showing how the arts, culture, and design can foster inclusive and culturally relevant practices of democracy and environmental stewardship. You will create a place-based, creative media project responding to Tbilisi’s urban environment through an educational collaboration with students at Tbilisi Free University. Finally, a road trip through Western Georgia will immerse you in the stunning, ecologically diverse countryside as you develop the skills to interpret the changing social and political landscape critically.