Study Abroad in Greece

Hellenic Studies Study Abroad Programs

Hellenic Studies offers study-abroad programs for students interested in expanding their cultural knowledge and awareness of the rich artistic and intellectual legacy of Greece, while also enhancing their intellectual curiosity and facilitating their development as citizens of the world. Check out the video from the 2014 study abroad program!   See below for our current study abroad program offerings.

Athens and Nafplion, Summer 2023 Quarter:

Greece and Europe- Travelers, Migrants & Tourists
Hosted by Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies and the American College of Greece.

Program Dates: June 21 to August 16, 2023

 

Application deadline is January 31, 2023 at 11:59 p.m.

 

 

Students in the program conduct ethnographic interviews while fully immersing in the culture, history, and beautiful landscape of Greece. Our goal is to produce data that can be turned into publishable papers in refereed journals. 

Students step into how and why Greece was constructed as a magnet destination for European and American travelers in the 19th and 20th centuries; why during the 1950s and 1960s the Greeks were forced to emigrate to Western Europe and to other western countries in search of a better life; why Greece became, especially from the 1990s onwards, a host country for immigrants from the Balkans and elsewhere; and how the phenomenon of mass tourism impacted the economy as well as the culture of Greece.

Some topics of study are: the perception and representation of Greece and the Greeks by Western European and American travelers; the construction of the tourist gaze on Greece; the relationship of Greece with neighboring Balkan countries, especially Albania, formerly the largest source of illegal immigrants to Greece; the question of human rights of undocumented immigrants in Greece; political and social tensions that the phenomenon of mass immigration caused in Greece; the emergence of multiple cultural identities following the arrival of immigrants and tourists in Greece, and the transformation of Greece from a ‘mono-cultural’ to a ‘multi-cultural’ country.

This knowledge and awareness are one part of exploring ethnic marginalization in Greece.  The Roma, as one particularly marginalized minority in Greece, have experienced discrimination and ostracism for centuries throughout Europe; the marginalization they face in Greece may be mild compared to other countries but is still significant.  The program assumes all human beings share equally in the right to dignity, respect, and fairness.  This assumption means that we do not see ourselves as “American saviors” but fellow humans interested in studying Roma culture and their way of life.  In the process we learn how to determine best practices to reduce the discrimination they face.

Students will visit many sites, both related to the Roma study as well as to the exploration of Greece’s cultural legacy.  These include stops at the Acropolis, New Acropolis Museum, the islands of Aegina, Hydra and Spetses, and a 7-day bus trip visiting the village of Vitalo on the island of Euboea, Meteora, Delphi, Olympia and Nafplion.  The last two weeks of the program are spent in Nafplion, where the program is hosted by Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies.  Students also will have a 4-day break in the middle of the program to travel, explore Athens or simply do their laundry.

Regular group meals will be provided to all students during the entire length of the program.

Site Visits:

Acropolis and New Acropolis Museum, Aegina, Euboea, Meteora, Delphi, Olympia, Mycenae, Spetses & Hydra. We also will attend special performances at the ancient theater of Epidavros and the Herodes Atticus Theater at the Acropolis.

As with all UW study abroad programs, there are no tuition charges associated with foreign study.  Students only play the program fee but still receive UW credits: for the  summer program it is 15 credits.

 

For more information, please contact Dr. Taso Lagos at taso@uw.edu.

 

********

 

********

 

Athens and Nafplion, Spring Break, 2023:

Greece and Europe- Travelers, Migrants & Tourists

Hosted by Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies 

Program Dates: March 13 to March 26, 2023

Application deadline is November 15, 2022 at 11:59 p.m.

 

Two weeks long, the Spring Break program allows students to get a “small” but still intense flavor of Greece – its culture, its food, its landscape, its hopes and dreams.  As with the summer program, we continue our ethnographic interviews in Athens.

 

The Spring Break Greece program was founded in 2017 for students who wish to visit Greece but can only do so for a short period. It also allows students to get a “taste” of Greece. We begin our stay in Athens, then travel by bus to the Oracle of Delphi, down to Olympia (site of the first Olympic Games) and then to Nafplion, to hold a mini-conference on that year’s topic at Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies.  

 

The photo above was taken in Nafplion, where the Harvard Center is located. While at the Center, students have full access to the Harvard Library resources at Cambridge, Massachusetts. You participate in the Harvard student experience for a few memorable days.

 

We stay at business class or above hotels throughout our stay in Greece. Buffet breakfast is included in the accommodations.  We journey through central Greece in a comfortable bus and take in the beautiful scenery at our leisure.

 

Plenty of free time is built into the program to allows students to experience Greek culture on their own. Nothing about Greece, and by that we mean the “real” Greece,  is uninteresting or not packed with cultural significance. 

 

We hope students return from the trip not only with enlarged horizons and a heightened sense of the meaning and interconnectedness of the world but also a greater awareness of themselves as global citizens. 

 

A total of 3 credits is offered for the Spring Break program.