Canada

Associate Professor: McCormick (Psychology) and Ms. D'Angelo (French)
During fall semester 1999 Bates students, including entering first-year students, can study language, culture, and identity in Montréal.

Montréal, the second-largest French-speaking city in the world, celebrated its 350th anniversary in 1992. In addition to its rich French cultural heritage, Montréal is a multicultural mosaic, home to immigrants from more than eighty countries. The program highlights the history, politics, and culture of the city of Montréal and the province of Québec. An important focus of the courses is the struggle to maintain the French heritage and identity in Québec and the tensions between Québec and the other Canadian provinces.

Between September and December, students live with local host families. The first two weeks of the program feature a series of lectures by Montréal scholars on the history and politics of the province of Québec. The lectures are supplemented with trips to relevant local historic and cultural sites. In October students travel to Québec City, and in November, to Ottawa.

Courses

001. The Psychology of Bilingualism. The topic of bilingualism is approached from many levels, from the neurological to the sociopolitical, using, where possible, examples drawn from Québec and the rest of Canada. Questions raised include: What are the cognitive advantages linked to bilingual development? What is the relevance of the sociocultural context for the development of bilingualism? How is bilingualism related to in-group favoritism and identity? Open to first-year students. C. McCormick.

002. Québec Literature and Identity. Québec's Franco and Anglo novelists, playwrights, and poets are read to explore the Québécois identity and the contribution of Québec's authors to literature. Authors may include Michel Tremblay, Anne Hébert, Mordecai Richler, Hugh MacLennan, Gabrielle Roy, and Roch Carrier. All texts are read in English. Open to first-year students. L. D'Angelo.

003. Intensive French I. Open to first-year students. Staff.

004. Intensive French II. Open to first-year students. Staff.

Croatia

Professor Jones (History) and Associate Professor Browne (Russian)
During fall semester 1999 Bates students, including entering first-year students, study history, language, and culture in Croatia. No prior experience with Croatian language is required.

Contemporary Croatia and its neighbors are a historical laboratory where a number of processes shaping world history are vividly and obviously at work. How modern Croatia negotiates the multiple layers of its tumultuous history and addresses its place in Europe and the world is still very much an experiment in progress. The program concentrates on five key themes: empire, ideology, ethnicity, migration, and identity.

The program begins in mid-August with two weeks of intensive Croatian language study in the Baroque town of Varazdin, an ancient Pannonian city near the Croat-Slovene border. After a brief visit to Zagreb, capital of the Republic of Croatia, students travel to Zadar on the Adriatic coast for the ferry ride to Split. In September students begin the full academic program in central Dalmatia. Trips to Istria, Venice, Dubrovnik, and the island of Hvar take place in September. October excursions are scheduled to the cities of Sarajevo and Mostar in Bosnia-Hercegovina, and in November to Montenegro. In addition to program-related travel, students have several weekends and sufficient time at the end of the program for independent travel in Split or the nearby islands.

Courses

001. Medieval Croatia. The program is situated in the Adriatic port of Split, one of the political centers of the Late Roman world. Students trace the history of this region and its peoples from late antiquity to the Ottoman conquest (200-1500 C.E.). For Romans, Byzantines, Slavs, Hungarians, Venetians, and Turks, Croatia was a vital frontier, the setting for the clash and assimilation of Eastern and Western cultures. Open to first-year students. D. Browne, M. Jones.

002. Modern Croatia. The Republic of Croatia is one of the world's newest independent countries. The creation of the country's identity involves a complex and at times painful conversation with the region's past. In the last 200 years alone Napoleon, the Habsburgs, fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Tito's communist partisans sought to shape the political landscape of the Dalmatian coast and its hinterland, and all left their mark on the Croatian collective psyche. Open to first-year students. D. Browne, M. Jones.

003. Intensive Croatian I. All participants study Croatian, a Slavic language that uses an alphabet similar to that in Western European languages. Students with particular interest in the region may petition the program faculty to study Croatian intensively for two course credits (003 and 004). Open to first-year students. Staff.

004. Intensive Foreign Language II. Each student takes another language based on individual preferences and appropriateness to the student's field of study; Latin, German, and French are offered. Alternatively, a student may take a second course in Croatian. Open to first-year students. Staff.

© 1999 Bates College. All Rights Reserved. Last modified: 8/12/99 by Ngan Dinh