Location:

Havana, Cuba; Managua, Nicaragua

Program Type:

Study Abroad

Degree Level:

Undergraduate

Term:

Fall Semester, Spring Semester

Program Overview

Program Description:

Explore Nicaragua a generation after the revolution and investigate how young people are creatively advocating for change. Gain comparative perspectives on youth issues during an excursion to Cuba.

A generation ago, the Nicaraguan Revolution ushered in new conversations about human rights, religion, politics, and gender roles. In particular, the National Literacy Campaign, launched in 1980, empowered underprivileged Nicaraguans to become knowledgeable about their rights and to imagine — and demand — a better world for themselves. Important movements in politics, literature, and the arts accompanied these changes, and new voices emerged as protest and hopes were expressed in myriad creative genres. For today's youth, life is more peaceful, but these complex conversations — around literacy, rights, access, information, and expression — have continued to deepen and evolve. With the advent of new forms of media, concepts of literacy have even broader implications and impacts. Therefore, the program considers multiple “literacies,” including civic literacy, digital literacy, sexual literacy, and cultural literacy. Students will delve into how young Nicaraguans access and communicate different sorts of knowledge: they will learn how youth are speaking up, speaking out, connecting with others, and participating in different dialogues about social change. In this 16-credit program, students critically examine youth culture, advocacy, social change, and expression, across two generations in Nicaragua and to a lesser degree in Cuba. All coursework is delivered in Spanish. Key topics of study: How is Nicaragua — particularly its youth — grappling with issues of access, rights, and difference? How is youth culture considering questions of access (to education, healthcare, and digital media) and issues of difference (ethnic, sexual, class, and religious)? How are today’s youth rewriting and re-imagining Nicaragua? How are youth expressions and articulations building upon the theme of literacy introduced during the revolution? What forms of new media are being employed? How does the Cuban experience compare to Nicaragua? What is the legacy of these Revolutions for today’s youth in Nicaragua and Cuba? Through the program’s advanced Spanish seminar — focused on reading and writing — students immerse themselves in the politically charged poetry and literature of these fascinating countries, dialoguing these with popular and political texts. Students are completely immersed in Spanish throughout the program. The Research Methods and Ethics seminar provides students with qualitative skills and introduce them to arts-based research techniques; the seminar covers a range of digital media (visual and audio). Through an Independent Study Project, students explore a specific issue relating to Nicaragua’s social movements, politics, and/or youth culture and expression. Throughout the program, students engage with a wide range of Nicaraguan and Cuban academics, historians, advocates, community members, and youth.

Please inquire for costs: Fees include tuition, full room and board, all field trips and related fares, health and accident insurance, and other direct program expenses. Participants pay for international airfare and domestic travel to the point of departure from the USA.

Setting Description:

The SIT Nicaragua program treats the literacy campaigns of the Nicaraguan and Cuban revolutions as points of origin for the expansion of awareness of human, health, and educational rights, and as a backdrop to current demands and achievements — particularly by youth — in terms of information and expression. Program highlights: Engage in writing workshops with community members. Interact with Nicaraguan and Cuban youth who are assuming roles as political protagonists, artists, writers, and media producers. Visit women’s centers and interview architects of Nicaragua’s autonomous feminist movement. Work on projects with local radio stations in rural and urban settings. Engage with a range of people with simple technology to both elicit and share dialog. Visit a university on the Caribbean coast dedicated to working with students from different ethnic groups. Live in Managua (program base). During the first seven weeks of the program, students live with host fami

Additional Program Information

Scholarships:

Yes

Scholarships Description:

Please see our website for more information.