Study Abroad 2025: British Study Abroad Program

This program is for students interested in directly exploring other places and cultures, especially through visual and broadcast media and direct experience with the natural environment. Our sense of who we are, our identity, our culture, and our relationship to the environment are shaped in several ways. Art, music, photography, and video have had an enormous influence on the construction of cultures worldwide, and the internet has made that easier than ever. 

Over the last century, for instance, cultural attitudes have been represented and re-envisioned through the available forms of media. Additionally, how these cultures have developed is directly shaped by the natural environment people live in. This includes not only the overall ecosystems that surround the built landscape, but also the natural areas that people construct for their own enjoyment. This study abroad program will examine historical and contemporary ways that people have interacted with their built and natural environments through the study of media and natural history. 

In addition to our base of study at Harlaxton Manor in Grantham, we will take students to the capitals of England, Wales, and Scotland to study how their respective cultures have been shaped by local mass media and natural environments. In doing so, this program will help students better understand how culture, media, and environment interact with and influence each other.

This program also offers students the opportunity to analyze their own cultural perspectives and ideological assumptions. Living abroad, even briefly, allows us to break from the norm long enough to try new ways of seeing, new ways of expressing ideas, and new ways of understanding ourselves in relationship to each other and to the environment.

The program offers two 3-credit hour courses. Students may take one or both:

• AMEC 3093C | Media, Culture, and Communication
• BIOL 1027 | Natural History and Conservation of Britain

**No prerequisites required**

• Location: Grantham and London (England), Edinburgh (Scotland), Cardiff (Wales)
• Dates: May 18th – June 11th
• Estimated Cost: $5,000

Program Cost Includes:

• International airfare
• Housing / accommodations
• In-country transportation for program-planned activities
• Cultural excursions/entrance fees
• International emergency and evacuation insurance

Not Included in Program Cost:

• Tuition – (at your standard tuition rate)
• Passport application/renewal fees (~$165)
• Some meals (~$)
• Personal spending/souvenirs (~$)
• Visa application/processing fees if applicable(~$)

AMEC 3093C - Advanced Special Topics in Media

• 3 credit hours 
  
• Professor Eric Anderson

Media, Culture and Communication

This course will examine the connection between communication and culture, increase media literacy, and teach visual communication skills. Students will come to a deeper understanding of the history and power of broadcast media by studying the largest broadcaster in the world—the British Broadcasting Corporation.  They will study examples of past and current British television and radio programs, tour BBC and independent television and radio facilities, and be in the audience during the recording of a television program. Some important themes include examining the relationships between governments and media outlets and how funding models directly affect programming decisions. This will be illustrated by comparing the state funded BBC programming model of giving people programming that is “good for them” against the American commercial programming model of giving people the kind of programs that they want. 

The course will also examine how the internet is disrupting traditional broadcasting and how sites like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok are creating a generation who rely on visual communication more than written words. To learn the skills necessary to be 21st century communicators, students will learn practical photography and video techniques through a series of hands-on workshops and creative assignments. Students will also maintain personal blogs that will showcase their photography and reflective writing.

BIOL 1027 - Study Abroad Biology

• 3 credit hours
• Fulfills the UC General Education BoK requirement for SCE, NS, DC
• Professor Patrick Owen, PhD

Natural History and Conservation of Britain

This course focuses on biodiversity, its conservation, and the history of its study in Britain. We will learn how humans have interacted with British ecosystems and their characteristic species through history. We also will examine current threats to these ecosystems, and how humans may help to protect and restore them. We will look at the foundations of natural history through British historical figures like Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin, and we will study how the major ecosystems of the British Isles have changed since the end of the last Ice Age until the present day. Although course material will primarily be rooted in biology, we will also connect our study of natural history with relevant work in geology, anthropology, and psychology. An important part of the exploration of our course material will be through hands-on nature walks and field trips. Through these excursions, but also through independent observation, we will learn to think critically and creatively about British natural history and how its study can inform modern conservation and sustainability. 

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UCBA Study Abroad
ucbastudyabroad@uc.edu