Wales 2025: Community Transformations

Wales is an historic nation located within the United Kingdom, but with considerable autonomy. With their own cultural and environmental sector and laws, a strong and growing minority language, and a unique geography surrounded by coasts on three sides with the Cambrian Mountains running down the nation's spine, Wales offers a diverse, beautiful, and safe environment for students to gain experience in the environmental humanities and social sciences.

Students will learn about unique expressions of cultural, community, and economic change working with a handful of industrial communities and heritage institutions. Students will visit the country's Parliament, six national museums, three national parks, four UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and spend at least three days at Europe's largest cultural festival, the National Eisteddfod, hosted in Wrexham in 2025.

By the end of the program, the students will have a set of hands-on experiences (supported by a breadth of academic evidence) from which to draw upon as they question how we define community, the standards of community-based research, and how we understand the global political economy of resource extraction, use, and relations. The program fee includes registration and lodging for the biennial International Welsh Studies Conference hosted at Rio Grande University in 2025 where all students will begin the program immersing themselves in contemporary academic debates about Wales and the Welsh identity and diaspora.

Wales: Community Transformations centers how we can better contextualize our cultural understandings of community, place, and nature to bring nuance, respect, integrity, and justice into independent research.

Program Dates: June 23 - August 9, 2025
Travel Dates: July 16 - August 9, 2025
Application and Deposit Deadline: March 7, 2025
Earn 6-10 credits, including 6 in HASS

Courses

Students enroll in 6-10 summer session credits (Track B) through Michigan Technological University and pay the associated tuition costs. Students choose two or three of the following courses: SS 3960 Cultural Immersion (3 credits; HASS) or SS 5201 Cultural Immersion (1-3 credits), SS 4551/5501 Industrial Communities (3 credits), and SS 4710 Geographies of Migrant Communities (3 credits; HASS). We will also offer two optional PE courses (PE 0167 Moving for Fitness and PE 0175- Hiking). Courses meet General Education requirements and capstone, methods, and major requirements for Social Sciences undergraduate and graduate students. Additional research opportunities may also be available - contact instructors if you are interested.

Instruction will occur in the field. Students' involvement with partner institutions and personnel and within the larger group in exploration and discussion will replace the traditional lectures of the courses.

Course Descriptions

SS 3960 - Cultural Immersion

Course designed for students on supervised study abroad or exchange programs in which they investigate and report on cultural patterns and behaviors.

Credits: variable to 3.0; Repeatable to a Max of 9
Semesters Offered: On Demand
Pre-Requisite(s): UN 1015 and (UN 1025)

SS 4551 - Industrial Communities

Introduces advanced students to scholarly literature on industrial communities and its methods through reading and discussion of selected articles and case studies. Students will acquire skills in oral history, archival, field, and community-based research.

Credits: 3.0
Lec-Rec-Lab: (3-0-0)
Semesters Offered: Fall, in even years
Restrictions: May not be enrolled in one of the following Class(es): Freshman, Sophomore

SS 4710 - Geographies of Migrant Communities

Covers the geographies of ethnic identity and nationalism, national identity and territory, borderlands and diasporas, national separatism and the variety of ways in which cultural difference asserts itself.

Credits: 3.0
Lec-Rec-Lab: (3-0-0)
Semesters Offered: Spring, in odd years
Pre-Requisite(s): UN 1015 and (UN 1025)

SS 5201 - Cultural Dimensions of International Immersion and Research

Students reflect on their culture and assumptions about the world; discuss conducting research responsibly; consider structural, material, and historical dimensions of social problems and social change; and explore how to live and work effectively with people from other cultural groups.

Credits: variable to 3.0
Semesters Offered: On Demand
Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Level(s): Graduate

SS 5501 - Industrial Communities

A graduate seminar covering studies of industrial communities. Introduces the methods and approaches of this field through reading and discussion of selected articles and case studies. Students will acquire skills in oral history, work with archival materials, and conduct field and community-based research.

Credits: 3.0
Lec-Rec-Lab: (3-0-0)
Semesters Offered: Fall, in even years
Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Level(s): Graduate

PE 0175 - Hiking

Fundamental knowledge and skills specific to hiking will be covered. Appropriate clothing and footwear for hiking is recommended. Course meets on weekends (usually Saturdays). Due to class structure, students must attend all classes - No Exceptions.

Credits: 0.5; Repeatable to a Max of 1; Graded Pass/Fail Only
Lec-Rec-Lab: (0-0-2)
Semesters Offered: Summer

Itinerary

We will travel together from Columbus, OH on July 16, fly together as a group from Columbus to London on July 19th, have a private coach for most of the program and return to the United States on August 9th, with the option of staying longer or traveling elsewhere.

Days	Location and Activities
June 23 - July 15	Bi-weekly Zoom and in-person cultural immersion prep classes, primarily Welsh language introduction and practice
July 16 - 19	The International Welsh Studies Conference, Madog Center for Welsh Studies, Rio Grande University, Rio Grande, Ohio
July 20 - 25	Cardiff (St. Fagans National Museum of History, Welsh Parliament, Cardiff Bay, National Museum Cardiff, Swansea and the National Waterfront Museum visits)
July 25 - 28	Bannau Brycheiniau National Park (Big Pit Coal Mine, Blaenafon Industrial Landscape World Heritage Site, Hay-on-Wye, Waterfalls)
July 28 - 30	Pembrokeshire Coast National Park (National Wool Museum, Neolithic Standing Stones)
July 30 - August 2	Llanberis (Aberystwyth and the National Library of Wales stop, Eryri National Park, Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales World Heritage Site, Caernarvon and Penrhyn Castles)
August 2 - 9	Llangollen (Wrexham National Eisteddfod, Pontcysyllte Aquaduct and Canal World Heritage Site, Offa's Dyke border hike, Chester and Liverpool visits)

Costs

Students pay a $1,000 deposit. Students then register for summer Track B credits with MTU as normal and pay the associated tuition. Tuition will include a "lab fee" of $1,500. The deposit plus the lab fee covers the costs of the program ($2,500 overall) in addition to the instruction and tuition costs. This includes flights, in-country transportation, lodging, activity expenses, some meals, travel insurance, registration and lodging for the Welsh Studies conference, and program administration.

Study Away Information

Here are some other resources that will help you with your visit:

Behavior, Expectations, and Accommodations

Students are expected to abide by the Michigan Tech student conduct code. There is zero tolerance for drug use. Violations will result in immediate expulsion from the program and no refund.

Michigan Tech has standard policies on academic misconduct and complies with all federal and state laws and regulations regarding discrimination, including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. For more information about reasonable accommodation for or equal access to education or services at Michigan Tech, please call the Dean of Students Office, at 906-487- 2212 or follow the link above.

Financial Aid

You can cover all program costs with financial aid. To qualify, you must be enrolled in 12 summer credit hours.

You will receive 6-10 credit hours in Track B for this program. Michigan Tech students may enroll in 2-6 credit hours in Track A to achieve full-time status, or enroll in an additional directed readings or research courses with your program leaders. Please contact one of the program leaders if you're interested in the directed readings option.

Consult with the Michigan Tech financial aid office or the financial aid office of your home university, if you are not a Michigan Tech student, for more information about how to fund your study abroad.

Courses

Course Descriptions

Itinerary

Costs

Study Away Information

Mark Rhodes II

Kathryn Hannum