Global Learning Seminars (GL Seminars) are faculty-led, credit-bearing courses that combine academic study with immersive travel experiences. Offered either after May commencement or during Spring Break within a spring Module A course, GL Seminars take students beyond the classroom and into diverse cultural settings. By engaging directly with global issues in another region or country, students expand their perspectives and critically examine their values, ideas, and assumptions about our interconnected world.
Spring 2026: Faculty are invited to submit their proposals for 2027 to the Global Education Office.
Why Students Should Choose Global Learning Seminars:
- Travel with a small group of 10–25 Allegheny students
- Learn from two experienced faculty members who specialize in the subject matter
- Earn 2 or 4 academic credits
- Great for first-time and experienced travelers
- Program timing allows flexibility for summer jobs, internships, or research
- One program cost covers hotels, excursions, activities, and more
Students on the EL to Japan in May 2018 spent the first week in Tokyo undergoing an intensive language and cultural education crash course in the mornings, and explored Tokyo in the afternoons and evenings. The rest of the trip they took the shinkansen (“bullet train”) and traveled west. A visit to Hiroshima was the last stop of the trip, where students had a deeply meaningful experience at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. It was a reflective day, and they were fortunate enough to even meet an old woman who lived on the outskirts of Hiroshima on the day of the bombing.
Descriptions of Past Seminars
Grün, Grüner, Deutschland? Sustainability in Germany Past and Present
Faculty: Julia Ludewig and Jesse Swann-Quinn
Dates: May 23-June 10, 2022
Credits: 4
Description: A study of environmental sustainability in Germany through a range of perspectives, including energy, agriculture, transportation, and waste. As the climate crisis and environmental degradation intensify globally, we investigate and even participate in models and solutions for mitigation and adaptation. Additionally, students learn about the cultural and political context that have led German cities, organizations, businesses, universities, and individuals to make environmentally sustainable decisions. Yet, students also look critically at past and present developments in Germany, asking where and why the country has faced sustainability challenges. Students apply lessons learned in Germany to other countries and contexts.
La Bella Figura: Italy Then and Now
Faculty: Mark Cosdon and Shannan Mattiace
Dates: May 22-June 15, 2022
Credits: 4
Description: An interdisciplinary exploration of Italy grounded in Italian language and culture, the Renaissance, and Italy’s evolving contemporary landscape. Amelia, an ancient and beautiful hill town, is the course’s starting point. Here, students live with families and study Italian intensively. Customs, mores, and manners are learned first-hand through a range of activities and field trips. Subsequent extended study in Capri, Florence, Naples, Pompeii, and Rome demonstrate humanism and the interconnectedness of the liberal arts through careful consideration of the historic past, the impact of tourism, the challenges of environmental responsibility, immigration, and the shifting Italian nation in an increasingly global economy.
Contemporary Art in New York City
Faculty: Paula Burleigh and Ian Thomas
Dates: May 23-June 4, 2022
Credits: 2 [please note that we previously stated 4 credits in error]
Description: Exploring a variety of art institutions in and around New York, NY, students learn about the multiple “art worlds” operating in this international nexus for the making, viewing, reception, and sale of contemporary art. Students visit museums, not-for-profit art spaces, commercial galleries, and artist studios. This EL emphasizes the relationships between art and its display, asking students to consider how context and institutional framing shape art’s meaning. Students meet with curators, museum educators, conservators, and preparators to learn about how exhibitions are a form of history writing. Likewise, students meet with artists to discuss navigating the professional demands of making and exhibiting art in a major urban center.