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Field Experiences & Trips

In pursuit of a true liberal arts education, the Division of Humanities seeks to combine coursework at YHC with opportunities for learning across subjects and across the world. The Division of Humanities sponsors trips within the United States and abroad in which students can both travel and receive class credit. 

Conferences

Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion Annual Conference

Seniors presented their original research at both the 2014 and 2017 conference. It rotates among cities around the region, from Atlanta to Greenville, S.C., to Nashville, Tenn.

Georgia Philosophical Society Annual Conference

This meeting rotates among cities throughout the state of Georgia.

Georgia Association of Historians Annual Meeting

Faculty and students served on a panel titled “Faith in the Secular World: Religion, Gender, and Identity in the Epoch of Modernity” at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Georgia Association of Historians held at the University of Georgia in Athens.

Fourth Annual Popular Culture Association of Canada Conference/Cultural Studies Association Annual Conference

In 2012, YHC's Media Studies Research Collective (MSRC) was formed to facilitate and support collaborative student-faculty scholarship. The MSRC examines the intersections of culture, politics and information technology to better understand the key issues that affect our mediated world today. Working with honors students in Communication Studies, Dr. Chris Richardson directs large-scale research initiatives that aim to be presented at international conferences and published in peer-reviewed academic journals.

In 2014, students co-authored several papers that examined stereotypes in Google’s algorithmic search techniques. Their research was presented at Kennesaw State University and the Fourth Annual Popular Culture Association of Canada Conference in Calgary, Alberta. The MSRC students also travelled to Salt Lake City, Utah, to present their work at the Cultural Studies Association Annual Conference at The University of Utah.

These trips have allowed promising undergraduates to experience an intensive professional academic environment, exposing them to cutting-edge work in the field and demonstrating how their research can be applied in practice. The MSRC hopes to continue this practice in the years to come, building YHC’s reputation internationally for outstanding research, enriching undergraduate experiences and excellence in teaching.

TRIPS, TOURS & STUDY ABROAD

Trips to Great Tree Zen Temple - Asheville, N.C.

Students attended a half-day “Intro to Zen” course, facilitated by the temple’s abbess, Rev. Teijo Munnich. The group discussed many key Buddhist insights and Rev. Munnich instructed the group regarding proper meditation postures and breathing exercises. In 2013, students visited multiple Buddhist temples and cultural events in Asheville, N.C. The group visited the Urban Dharma center, attended a lecture by Buddhist nuns at Malaprops Bookstore and participated in a Sunday Sangha service at Great Tree Zen Temple.

Tibetan Mandala Exhibit at Emory

Students visited Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum to explore the special exhibition “Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism.” Students witnessed Tibetan monks patiently constructing a sand mandala which they were working on for over a month.

Study Abroad in Ireland: Finding Our Roots - 2013

Study Abroad in Ireland: Finding Our Roots," a new interdisciplinary cluster designed to fulfill a variety of students’ needs, had a very successful first run in May 2013. We pored over the Book of Kells in Trinity College Library; got a behind-the-scenes tour of Ireland’s National Theatre, the Abbey; learned to surf on the West Coast in the small village of Strandhill; hiked up to Carrowkeel, the Neolithic cairns in County Sligo; and watched the seals play off the coast of the Aran Islands. It was glorious.

Students earned from three to ten credits by taking the appropriate combination of courses available in this cluster: English 1102; English 2220; English Special Topics in World Literature--The Irish Literary Revival; English Special Topics in World Literature--Irish Poetry: From Yeats to Heaney; Biogeography for the Biology major and non-major, a new course that explores the relationships between the environment and biodiversity; and Humanities 2298, an introduction to Irish Literature and biogeography. Students explored the biogeography of Ireland’s storied landscape with Brenda Hull and then made connections between the landscape and the literature in Louisa Franklin’s classes, explorations of emigrant literature—the works of both the Irish in America and Irish-Americans—and in Ruth Looper’s upper-level English classes. These courses introduced students to the rich texture of Ireland, the country and its literature. Building bridges across cultures and disciplines, this program fulfilled Young Harris College’s mission to educate and inspire.

Click here to view more photos of the trip.

Art Tour of Italy - 2012

Students studied Italian art, literature and culture while touring museums, cathedrals and historical monuments in many of Italy’s cultural and historical centers including Florence, Rome, Venice, Lucca, Pisa, Siena and Cinque Terre. To prepare for the excursion, students enrolled in a comprehensive course that enhanced their experience abroad. Through lectures, selected readings, class discussions and hands-on activities, the course provided students with an introduction to many aspects of Italian culture and history as well as helpful tips about traveling abroad. As part of the course, students learned to identify and evaluate important works of art and architecture of ancient Rome, the Italian Renaissance and the Baroque Period. Students also gained an appreciation of the value and influence Italian authors have had on literature by reading selections that directly related to the cities the group visited. Students studied works by a variety of American and Italian authors including Dante, Boccaccio, Virgil, Keats, Browning and Twain.

Click here to view more photos of the trip.

A New England Tour of the American Renaissance - 2011

In our tour of New England, we visited the homes, archives and hang-outs of literary giants including Henry David Thoreau, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. We explored the location that nurtured American Romanticism, Transcendentalism and reform movements, such as Abolition and Women’s Rights. To understand the world which produced some of this nation’s most enduring authors, we wandered the shores of Walden Pond, combed through manuscripts at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester and roamed the Boston campus of influential Harvard University.