Study Abroad

Take your learning experience to the next level by participating in one of the College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters study abroad programs. Students gain a global perspective through the college’s international partnerships and through study abroad opportunities in countries including Cyprus, Poland, Greece and Iceland. Visit the Office for International Affairs for a full list of opportunities to study abroad.

Students from UM-Dearborn in French 340: France's Site of Memory course joined Provost and Professor of French, Gabriella Scarlatta on a journey through the sites of memory in France. The course highlights specific sites which are studied in order to show students the importance of place (monuments, towns, castles, cemeteries, areas, ruins, and royal palaces) to France’s collective memory. These sites have remained alive to current days with emotional and patriotic meanings that offer students a compelling insight into France’s civilization and cultural heritage.

Sites Visited:

• The Catacombs
• Notre Dame
• The gardens of the Luxembourg Palace in Paris
• Museums - such as Le Louvre
• Royal Palaces - including Versailles and the Loire Castles of Chambord, Amboise and Azay-le-Rideau, the Place de la Bastille
• North of France - including Bayeux and its tapestries, Mont Saint Michel, and the Normandy Beaches, as crucial historical sites during WWII
• Mont Saint Michel
• Saint-Malo
• Bayeux

The sites bring French history and civilization alive, thus crystallizing a material memory that reconstructs France's history and culture. Provost and Professor of French, Gabriella Scarlatta notes, “It was an unforgettable experience filled with learning, adventure, and cultural discovery. I couldn’t be more proud of our students for their curiosity and engagement throughout the trip. Many thanks to the Office of Global Engagement for all their help with the students and the trip logistics!”

Students from UM-Dearborn took classes in Poland together with students from the University of Gdańsk and other exchange students. The three classes are an engineering course on human-centered design with Georges Ayoub, a class on the history of Poland, which is being guest taught by University of Gdańsk faculty, and Kristin Poling's class on the History of the European city. 

Group Outings:

• Visit to Malbork Castle
• Tour of the historic city center
• Visit to the city’s iconic port crane where students climbed around the inner workings of the recently renovated 17th-century machinery
• Visit to the Museum of the Second Wold War
• Visit to the European Solidarity Center
• Walking tour of the Gdańsk shipyards. 

Students work together in the classroom with students from Poland. In the European city class, students give presentations on their hometowns, so UM-Dearborn students hear about life and experiences from fellow students from all over Europe—from Portugal to Belarus—and also get to research and present on the history of Metro Detroit, seeing it with new eyes in this international context. 

The European city course covers the history of city planning. Students' homework is to go out and explore the city and take photos that they can link up with the ideas talked about in class. As students see features of the city environment—like transportation, housing, and green space—they recognize the product of historical processes. Understanding our environments as the result of concrete historical processes, students are more likely to think critically about the ways we can change and improve those environments in the future. 

Students from UM-Dearborn visited Puerto Rico for Professor Jacob Napieralski’s GEOL 377 Environmental Field Methods course. The course gives students the opportunity to observe and critically study different natural and human environments, while collecting data and navigating different places and terrains, and getting a feel for field work. 

Over their time, students visited El Yunque National Forest for a night hike where they saw fluorescent scorpions, bioluminescent mushrooms, and tarantulas (oh my!) The were also able to work in the National Forest for 2 days. The group then traveled to the beaches of Western Puerto Rico to survey coral diversity and health. They also visited Sandra Farms in Adjuntas, which is a sustainable coffee farm, to observe the modern and ecologically sound methods in their production processes.

15 students traveled to Spain during the Thanksgiving break in 2023, under the class SPAN 359: Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Cultures of Spain. Students in the Philosophy and Spanish disciplines collaborated for the trip with Professor of Philosophy Imran Aijaz and Professor of Spanish and Director of International Studies & Global Cultures, Jorge Gonzalez del Pozo.

The group traveled to Madrid, Toledo, Córdoba and Granada, all cities with the religious and social legacies of the coexistence of the three cultures. This period was unique and still can be appreciated through architecture, art, thought, law, and religion.