Interstudy Locations Featured on The Amazing Race

We don’t know about you, but here at Interstudy, we LOVE The Amazing Race! There isn’t anything better than a show about travel, culture, and competition! For those of you who have been living under a rock and don’t know about this “amazing” show, The Amazing Race is a reality game show where eleven teams of two race around the world against each other in hopes of winning one million dollars. The race is split into twelve legs. Two of the twelve legs take place at Interstudy program locations: Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Titanic Belfast

Even if you’re not reliving your favorite “my heart will go on” moments at the Titanic 3D movie this season, you’ll be interested to hear about a new museum, Titanic Belfast, recently opened in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The museum, which opened on March 31st and is the exact height of the ship, takes visitors through the story of Belfast in the 1900’s and the citiy’s contribution to the most iconic cruise liner in history. It was in Belfast that the ship was built before it’s fateful cruise in 1912.

Alumni Spotlight: Climbing Out of Your Comfort Zone

For months you plan ahead for your semester abroad – what courses to take, what to pack, where to travel. After a successful (though possibly emotional) departure from the US, you arrive at your destination. The first days are a whirlwind of excitement and new experiences but somewhere around week two, it might hit you…what now? Getting involved in campus activities is one of the best ways to fill that time between class and homework while abroad and meet new people at the same time.

Here’s how one Interstudy Alum, Andrea Fasen, from Colorado State University, got involved on the Queen’s University, Belfast campus during her Fall 2010 semester abroad. Andrea’s involvement in the Mountaineering Club shaped her time abroad and shows the importance of “climbing” out of your comfort zone in more ways then one!

Nature and Nightlife

This Saturday, I had the opportunity to experience some of the attractions that really define Belfast and Northern Ireland for me. First, Queens led an excursion to the highest peak in Northern Ireland, Slieve Donard, and I was completely blown away by views. After seeing Giant’s Causeway and the Antrim Coast, I didn’t think this country could get anymore beautiful but even on a cloudy day, this hike served to epitomize the natural beauty of Northern Ireland.

Celebrating Women

Today is International Women’s Day, a global day to celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. Along with this day, the entire month of March is Women’s History Month. In honor of the two, we’ve put together a list of course offerings for Women’s and Gender Studies at some of our interstudy programs. Contact us if you have any questions, and remember to hug your mom, grandma, aunt, sister, professor, or any other woman that you admire!

Women’s Studies Offerings:

University of Cape Town African Gender Institute
Example Course: AGI2002F Gender, Sexuality, Politics:

Gender Studies Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Durban)
Example Course: GEST202 H2 Introduction to Gender Studies: The development of an understanding of the critical vocabulary on gender and related issues; An understanding of the instability of the concept of gender; the critical evaluation and presentation of arguments in relation to gender

Global Women’s Studies at NUI Galway

Example Course: Introduction to Women, Culture, Media and Society

Women’s Studies at the University of the Limerick

Example Course: WS 4018 Gender, Identity, Culture, Society:

The aim of this inter-disciplinary course is to examine the historical, literary and social construction of identity and citizenship as this relates to women in contemporary society. It will examine the extent to which the sense of self, of home, of community, of nationality are gendered notions and their consequences for women.

Gender Studies at Queen’s Belfast

Gender Studies Courses at King’s College, University of London

Example Course: Gender and Identity:

For over three centuries a diverse group of American women have engaged in the act of autobiographical writing. Whether living on western frontiers, southern plantations, impoverished tenements, or middle-class homes they have felt a compulsion to record in written text stories about their lives. This course will use autobiographies to interrogate the cultural history of American women. Central to the course are issues of gender, identity, and selfhood…