STUDY ABROAD
The VMC coordinates a wide range of diverse study abroad experiences, around the world and of various durations, and advises students on financial assistance to help make Study Abroad possible.
Study Abroad Partnerships
The VMC serves as coordinating body, with the School of Music, for a wide variety of Study Abroad opportunities, both for domestic students traveling elsewhere, and for international students studying on the Lubbock campus. We believe that such global experience is invaluable for all college students, but particularly for Fine and Performing Arts professionals-in-training. VMC staff are leaders in developing new paradigms for Study Abroad and international student exchange programs, as well as being key innovators in developing and administering faculty-led programs, to date including Ireland, England, Belgium, Spain, and the Czech Republic. These programs have enrolled TTU students from across the Lubbock campus and with representation from every College. We can also assist in determining course equivalencies between international campuses and Texas Tech University, and most particularly in designing maximally effective curricula for domestic Fine Arts students.
DR. SMITH'S "IRELAND" SEMINAR
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The flagship VMC Study Abroad faculty-led course is Dr Smith's seminar "Music, Folklore, and Tradition in Irish Cultural History", offered annually in the Spring semester since 2006, and including a two-week Maymester field-trip to Connacht in the West of Ireland.
The course has become a "workshop" in international study, providing many TTU students their first Study Abroad experiences and enhancing Dr Smith's international collaborations. |
View Ireland Seminar Spring 2012 in a larger map (Interactive map of 2012 Itinerary)
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Music, Folklore & Tradition in Irish Cultural History (MUHL4300-003/MUHL5320-003)
Course Facebook group: http://on.fb.me/ty2ybP
This seminar is an intensive, topics-oriented survey of the styles, practices, and cultures of music and oral tradition in Ireland since St. Patrick. Drawing on lectures, reading, listening, audio/visual sources, in-class performances, and individual research, this course provides students with an enhanced learning experience combining approaches from folklore, ethnomusicology, cultural and literary history, performance studies, anthropology, geography, and more.
Exploring the interaction between music and other aspects of cultural expression—talking, reading, listening, playing, and singing together—we will discover Irish influences from and to the other Celtic nations and to global communities; the interaction of morality, memory, texts, music, dance, and the sacred; and the impact of the Irish Diaspora on music and culture worldwide.
Tracing the Irish tradition’s histories, influences, and modern permutations, and examining them on recordings, video, and in live performance, we will expand our own artistic and intellectual insight and cross-cultural sophistication. Our theme will be the complex combinations of social, historical, political, colonial, economic, biographical, and artistic factors which have shaped Irish culture and identity over the last two millennia.
Intersession study abroad: A final component will be a spring intersession trip to the West of Ireland, May 20-June 4, during which Dr Smith will lead day trips, musical expeditions, and roaming seminars on music, folklore, and cultural history in the Irish countryside. Participation in this trip is a mandatory part of the course and Study Abroad scholarship assistance is available.
Meets TR 9:30-10:50 a.m. M268 School of Music.
Open to undergrads and grad students from across the TTU campus. Permission of instructor required. Fulfills upper-level Music History requirement for music majors.
Requirements include mid-term and final essay exams, a research or creative project, attendance, and participation.
Cost of the trip, which includes air-fare, accommodations, all transport (coach, ferries, rental vehicles, etc), all event fees and tickets, and 1 meal per day, is estimated at $3300 maximum. This cost is assessed as a course fee (like a lab fee) by SBS and can be paid using financial or other monies. Any surplus not spent on the trip is returned to students during the course of the trip.
Additional funding is available through the Study Abroad Competitive Scholarship.
Priority for enrollment in the course is given to (1) graduating seniors and graduate students and (2) music majors.
Course Facebook group: http://on.fb.me/ty2ybP
This seminar is an intensive, topics-oriented survey of the styles, practices, and cultures of music and oral tradition in Ireland since St. Patrick. Drawing on lectures, reading, listening, audio/visual sources, in-class performances, and individual research, this course provides students with an enhanced learning experience combining approaches from folklore, ethnomusicology, cultural and literary history, performance studies, anthropology, geography, and more.
Exploring the interaction between music and other aspects of cultural expression—talking, reading, listening, playing, and singing together—we will discover Irish influences from and to the other Celtic nations and to global communities; the interaction of morality, memory, texts, music, dance, and the sacred; and the impact of the Irish Diaspora on music and culture worldwide.
Tracing the Irish tradition’s histories, influences, and modern permutations, and examining them on recordings, video, and in live performance, we will expand our own artistic and intellectual insight and cross-cultural sophistication. Our theme will be the complex combinations of social, historical, political, colonial, economic, biographical, and artistic factors which have shaped Irish culture and identity over the last two millennia.
Intersession study abroad: A final component will be a spring intersession trip to the West of Ireland, May 20-June 4, during which Dr Smith will lead day trips, musical expeditions, and roaming seminars on music, folklore, and cultural history in the Irish countryside. Participation in this trip is a mandatory part of the course and Study Abroad scholarship assistance is available.
Meets TR 9:30-10:50 a.m. M268 School of Music.
Open to undergrads and grad students from across the TTU campus. Permission of instructor required. Fulfills upper-level Music History requirement for music majors.
Requirements include mid-term and final essay exams, a research or creative project, attendance, and participation.
Cost of the trip, which includes air-fare, accommodations, all transport (coach, ferries, rental vehicles, etc), all event fees and tickets, and 1 meal per day, is estimated at $3300 maximum. This cost is assessed as a course fee (like a lab fee) by SBS and can be paid using financial or other monies. Any surplus not spent on the trip is returned to students during the course of the trip.
Additional funding is available through the Study Abroad Competitive Scholarship.
Priority for enrollment in the course is given to (1) graduating seniors and graduate students and (2) music majors.
