SIT: Indonesia - Arts, Religion, and Social Change 

Explore Indonesia’s flourishing arts, diverse and historically tolerant religions, and contemporary social change that shapes sociocultural discourses on the side-by-side islands of Java and Bali.

Discover social change and the astounding dynamics of a highly pluralistic society in one of the most visually arresting, culturally diverse, and biodiverse parts of the planet. Bali, the program base, is known for its beautiful rice terraces, captivating beaches, lively temples, and distinctive art forms. Attend classes in an ancient palace, Puri Kerambitan. Then travel to witness Bali’s arts and religious ceremonies, including purification under the sacred fountains, processions to the river or ocean, the making of delicate artistic Hindu offerings, and dance performances lasting late into the night.

Explore Java’s religious sites, temples, and mosques; view street art with Javanese peers; and roam mountains. Java is the original home of tempe, fermented soybeans, and batik textiles, where culinary and fabrics have played a significant role in influencing the renowned Silk Road. In a simple village in Bali’s Tabanan district, study the local agriculture and unique practices of the subak societies, which govern rice field irrigation. Plant rice, cook traditional dishes, and make brown sugar and handicrafts. Meet healers and make traditional medicines. Hear and play Indonesia’s peculiar and widely influential traditional gamelan music that have entertained even the ancient kingdoms of Bali and Java. Attend visual arts and ballet performances, as well as Hindu and Muslim ceremonies in Bali and Java.

SIT/IHP - Death & Dying: Perspectives, Practices & Policies in New York, Ghana, Mexico, and Indonesia 

Through a life-affirming exploration of the meanings of death, examine how this “taboo” topic inspires artistic expression and social movements and reinforces cultural identities.

The subject of death is so taboo in American culture that people use metaphors to avoid talking about it while also using death-laden language in everyday communication. This contradiction leaves many Americans death illiterate, with limited functional knowledge of the process of death and dying, the psychology of bereavement, or end-of-life planning. Our heightened death avoidance also stilts our ability to engage each other past the boundaries of culture. Death is not only the grim and the grisly (though it can be that too). Death can also be a love story, a community story, a social and economic contestation, or a call to action. Studying death brings into view these wider aspects of the social experience. Travel to New York City and three countries with higher levels of death acceptance, Ghana, Mexico, and Indonesia, to understand how cultural practices, social policies, and creative communities confront and celebrate death.

Start in New York City where you will meet deathcare workers, dark tourism operators, community organizers, and spiritual leaders to understand death and dying on a neighborhood and national scale. In Ghana, explore how death may be viewed as a celebration of life, while investigating the ethics of dark tourism and how historical traumas impact Ghana and the U.S. Your next stop is Mexico where you will witness how Indigenous beliefs and Catholicism contribute to contemporary attitudes, rituals, and practices and how grassroots organizers advocate for people preparing to die. Lastly, in Indonesia learn about perspectives on death where the line between life and death lies in a gray area as shown through contemporary practices and traditional art.

Introduce yourself to death studies and explore death and dying around the world. Comparative death studies may expand or define new contours for your goals in public health, anthropology, sociology, mortuary science, philosophy, psychology, medical humanities, and more.

CIEE: South Korea - Arts + Sciences, Seoul 

Your Arts + Sciences program in Seoul lasts a full semester and is designed for students from all academic backgrounds. You will enroll in a combination of CIEE courses, host institution courses, and courses taught online through CIEE's global academic partner, ASU. Enhance your experience with co-curricular and extracurricular activities while immersing yourself in Korean culture. Live and learn in Seoul!

Carleton Global Engagement: Buddhist Studies in Bodh Gaya, India and Thailand 

Explore Buddhism in India through interdisciplinary courses and Buddhist meditation traditions while living in a monastery near the site of Buddha Shakyamuni’s enlightenment.

Orientation for Buddhist Studies in India and Thailand takes place in Chiang Mai, Thailand! After an introduction to Buddhism in Thailand, faculty, staff, and students travel to Bodh Gaya, India, and take up residence in the Burmese Vihar.

Carleton’s Buddhist Studies in India and Thailand invites undergraduate students to study in Thailand and India each fall for 13 weeks. The Burmese Vihar in Bodh Gaya has hosted Buddhist Studies in India and Thailand for 45 years. The program offers meditation practice and the study of philosophy, anthropology and the history of Buddhism in a safe and authentic environment.

SIT/IHP: Health & Community: Globalization, Culture, & Care in Washington, DC; India; South Africa; and Argentina

Explore how healthcare is accessed in four different countries and how health systems are influenced at global, national, and community levels. Compare metadata from epidemiology with health-seeking paradigms of ordinary people.

Healthcare practices differ widely around the globe, but health inequities—between economic divides, urban and rural—are increasing everywhere. Across four continents, compare healthcare systems and strategies, community well-being, and multiple factors affecting human health in different contexts, on both local and global scales. Travel to Washington, DC, India, South Africa, and Argentina, journeying from mega-cities to rural villages, to take a holistic, interdisciplinary look at how communities around the world define what it is to achieve and maintain health, comparing health systems in different contexts.

With this scope of experiences, you will learn to critically analyze some of the most pressing health issues of this global moment such as social inequities, chronic and infectious disease, climate change, and the economic drivers of healthcare. Through site visits and research training with an array of health practitioners, government officials, and activists, you will explore health at both individual and population-wide levels, and witness how positioning health as a human right impacts policy and health outcomes at all levels. Finally, you will explore the challenges all citizens face amid mounting obstacles to healthcare access, while strengthening your ability to understand, interpret, and compare the socio-cultural, ecological, economic, political, and biological factors that shape and predict human health.

SIT/IHP - Death & Dying: Perspectives, Practices & Policies in New York, Ghana, Mexico, and Indonesia 

Through a life-affirming exploration of the meanings of death, examine how this “taboo” topic inspires artistic expression and social movements and reinforces cultural identities.

The subject of death is so taboo in American culture that people use metaphors to avoid talking about it while also using death-laden language in everyday communication. This contradiction leaves many Americans death illiterate, with limited functional knowledge of the process of death and dying, the psychology of bereavement, or end-of-life planning. Our heightened death avoidance also stilts our ability to engage each other past the boundaries of culture. Death is not only the grim and the grisly (though it can be that too). Death can also be a love story, a community story, a social and economic contestation, or a call to action. Studying death brings into view these wider aspects of the social experience. Travel to New York City and three countries with higher levels of death acceptance, Ghana, Mexico, and Indonesia, to understand how cultural practices, social policies, and creative communities confront and celebrate death.

Start in New York City where you will meet deathcare workers, dark tourism operators, community organizers, and spiritual leaders to understand death and dying on a neighborhood and national scale. In Ghana, explore how death may be viewed as a celebration of life, while investigating the ethics of dark tourism and how historical traumas impact Ghana and the U.S. Your next stop is Mexico where you will witness how Indigenous beliefs and Catholicism contribute to contemporary attitudes, rituals, and practices and how grassroots organizers advocate for people preparing to die. Lastly, in Indonesia learn about perspectives on death where the line between life and death lies in a gray area as shown through contemporary practices and traditional art.

Introduce yourself to death studies and explore death and dying around the world. Comparative death studies may expand or define new contours for your goals in public health, anthropology, sociology, mortuary science, philosophy, psychology, medical humanities, and more.

SIT/IHP: Climate Change: The Politics of Land, Water, and Energy Justice in Ecuador, Morocco, Nepal, and U.S.

Witness the causes of climate change and its social-ecological impacts in hotspots across four continents and examine possibilities for local and global environmental justice.

Explore some of the world’s most productive, unique, and vulnerable landscapes to witness how climate change impacts regions differently and how communities are responding to the climate crisis. In four profoundly different cultural, historical, and socioecological contexts, three of which have UNESCO World Heritage status, you will analyze the challenges of working toward more equitable food, water, and energy systems. Examine the problems and possible solutions for environmental justice with researchers, farmers, renewable energy producers, water managers, activists, non-governmental organizations, government officials, and policymakers.

In Ecuador, you will explore resilience strategies in and around Quito and travel to the Amazon Basin to understand the threats of climate change and efforts to protect this extraordinary region from ongoing mineral and fossil fuel extraction. In Morocco, you will meet farmers striving to preserve and maintain their agricultural and water management practices and understand how the country, which has few fossil fuels, is navigating the transition to renewable energy. In Nepal, you will witness the accelerating impacts of climate change on high mountain ecosystems and explore numerous initiatives to tackle these challenges. Interact with renowned experts, see protected wildlife in Chitwan National Park, participate in an overnight trek to Kapuche Glacier Lake, and learn about successful community forest conservation initiatives.

SIT/IHP: Human Rights: Movements, Power, and Resistance in Chile, Jordan, Nepal, and U.S. 

Investigate the historical and social contexts of human rights movements, including the roles of culture, identity, political economy, and international law.

Go beyond the halls of power to learn how individuals and communities are giving momentum to grassroots, human rights movements across four countries. Connect with groups working for immigrant and gender rights and against structural racism in New York City, and critically examine the deep roots of human rights movements throughout the United States. Travel next to Nepal, Jordan, and Chile, where you’ll meet with scholars, members of Parliament, feminist leaders, staff of grassroots and international non-governmental organizations, United Nations officials, Indigenous community members and leaders, and refugees. Gain deeper insight into multilayered perspectives on human rights, often against the backdrop of governments in tectonic shift, and understand pathways to enacting human rights-based change. Along the way, you’ll explore how to live, act, teach, and learn in ways that affirm human dignity, uproot oppression, and advance collective struggles for rights and social justice everywhere.