Global Education Oregon Menu

Four quarter credits.Readers of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities experience characters going to and fro, from London to Paris. You will do the same as you examine two cultures, with distinct languages, histories (sometimes as enemies), architecture, and cultural ethos. Walking the footsteps of those who did “study abroad” in London and Paris, you see the two cities as incubators of genius—and Oxford as a meeting place of genius loci in new literature, science, and arts.

Four quarter credits.Challenged in a different environment where one does not know it all, one can become new and different to oneself; such change leads to new thoughts and possibilities for what can be created and known. In this course, taught both online and on-site, we learn from models across disciplines how study abroad can be the agency of transformational learning.

Italy has a long history of fostering creativity and innovative art forms that build on the past but look toward the future. This studio class utilizes access to important historical artworks as an inspiration for creating art from a contemporary point of view. Through firsthand study of Italian masters and the practice and understanding of a variety of painting techniques, compositional devices and color mixing, students will develop a personal body of work that applies both traditional and innovative studio practices.

For centuries, artists and writers have created sketchbooks and journals inspired by Italy’s rich culture, physical beauty and history. Through direct observation and engagement with the natural landscape, architecture and culture of daily life of Tuscany and its surrounding regions, students will record their impressions and create personal travel journals that capture the “zeitgeist” (spirit) of Tuscany. We will explore a variety of writing, sketching, and mixed‐media techniques, both traditional and experimental, to help students find their personal voice.

This is an introductory course to Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). In the first part of this course (about two weeks), you will learn the Arabic alphabet (both the script and the sound system). You will learn it through some basic vocabulary and situational dialogues. In the second part of the course, you will expand your vocabulary and use it to understand some basic structures of Arabic grammar. The course will enable you to develop both the linguistic and communicative competences at an early stage, which will help you confidently pursue subsequent Arabic study.

This course aims at expanding vocabulary and introducing some complex grammatical structures. This course will allow you to further develop the four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. More focus will be placed on reading comprehension and structure recognition. In this course, you will learn the next eight chapters of Al-Kitaab Part I. You will learn vocabulary related to hobbies, studies, jobs, telling the time, daily schedules and so on.

This is a lower intermediate course in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). In this course, you will be able to study the last six chapters of Al-Kitaab Part I. You will develop your lexical competence by learning new vocabulary and learning more about the Arabic morphological system. Thus, you will be introduced to the meanings of some verb forms in Arabic. You will also use your vocabulary knowledge to process difficult reading and listening passages and to guess the meaning of never-seen-before words from context or using morphological rules.

This course further expands your vocabulary base to permit reading of increasing authentic texts from newspapers, journals and other sources while introducing controlled writing assignments. It also focuses on listening comprehension and reading to facilitate interactive conversations on complex subjects.

This course prepares you for independent study in MSA by focusing on stylistic devices, vocabulary refinement and communicative skills. It is ideal for those who wish to hone their ability to comprehend Arabic university lectures and to express themselves on technical subjects in speech and in writing. This course also makes use of additional texts in order to reinforce your ability to read and comprehend complex writings.

This course prepares you for independent study in both MSA and Classical Arabic focusing on stylistic devices, grammar and reading and writing skills. Ideal for those wishing to hone their ability to comprehend Arabic university lectures and to express themselves on technical subjects in speech and writing. This course also makes use of additional texts and short stories from various sources in order to reinforce your ability to read and comprehend complex writings.