Off-Campus Programs

Simon’s Rock offers a range of study trips abroad during the January intersession and in the spring. Simon’s Rock students may also participate in Bard College’s various study-abroad programs, described in this catalogue (see the Study at Bard College section). The College has arrangements with foreign universities and foreign study programs that enable Upper College students to spend a semester or a year away as juniors. In recent years, Simon’s Rock students studied at Oxford University, the Prague Center for Further Education, University of Malta, Chinese Center of Language and Culture at the National Taiwan Normal University, Siena School for Liberal Arts (Italy), Trinity College (Ireland), University of Cordoba (Argentina), University of Bristol (England), and at the University of Edinburgh. A listing of the most recent study trips offered by Simon’s Rock follows. Additional charges apply.

Cultural Perspectives
Sacred Landscapes and Nature Conservation in China and the Tibetan Borderlands: Trekking, Research, and Service-Learning This course introduces students to the physical and cultural diversity of the coastal plains, interior plateaus, and mountain ranges of China. Through readings, talks, personal observation, and service work, students gain an appreciation of the biogeography and culture history of the subtropical Southeast Uplands, the Yellow River Valley, the loess plateau, the North China Plain, and the snowcapped Hengduan Mountain region of the Sino-Tibetan borderlands. The course focuses on human-land relationships, nature conservation efforts, and the social geography of sacred sites in rural mountain regions. We work from two bases, first the Meihuashan Nature Reserve, in Fujian Province, home of the South China Tiger Recovery Program (where conservation officials are training captive tigers for reintroduction to the wild); and second, the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of NW Yunnan Province, where Tibetans and other indigenous peoples are actively engaged in local and region-wide efforts to conserve nature and maintain distinctive cultural identities in the face of radical change, globalization, and commercialization. At both sites we work closely with village communities on projects initiated by our hosts, focusing on socio-economic development, environmental protection, or both. En route to our main sites, we visit several major cities, including Hong Kong, Beijing, and Xi’an, where we observe pre-modern relicts in the urban landscape, the impacts of colonialism, and the changing urban morphologies associated with the post-reform period. We also pause for a two-day hike in Huashan, one of the five sacred mountains of Daoism. In Meihuashan villages, resident experts interpret the cultural landscapes associated with Feng shui and its sacred trees and forests. In Diqing Tibetan villages local people explain the relationship between everyday life and the God Mountains, sacred springs, and groves associated with a range of presiding deities. The course can also serve as a foundation for continuing research and writing for additional classes, tutorials, and independent studies.

England in Myth and Stone This spring course abroad combines scholarly field research with the spirit of a pilgrimage. Since the explosion of what author John Michell calls “megolithomania” in the late Victorian age, the sacred sites of Britain have been among the most studied and documented artifacts in the world. After spending a couple of days in London, we traverse the mythic landscape of Britain, from Stonehenge to Avebury, from Arthur’s birthplace, Tintagel, to his resting place, the Isle of Avalon (modern Glastonbury). Our goal is to attempt to make sense of some of the questions that have long puzzled archaeologists, historians, and mystics. How could a supposedly prescientific culture create a solar and lunar calendar, an astronomical observatory, and an accurate key to the dimensions of planet Earth — all in one structure (Stonehenge)? Why were the pre-Celts identified as giants? Was King Arthur a war chieftain, a romance hero, or a zodiacal god? What is the secret of the Grail? Topics will include ancient astronomy, megalith construction, sacred geometry, geomancy, and the absorption of pre-Celtic and Druidic wisdom by early Christian spirituality and Hermeticism. Guest speakers have included authors John and Caitlín Matthews, Geoffrey Ashe, Michael Dames, John Michell, and Paul Devereux. Students read a variety of critical models for interpreting the ancient world, keep a daily journal, and complete a substantial final project and process essay upon returning from England.

The Mayan Pyramids In some ways the ancient Maya culture was very like our own: they chewed gum, ate chocolate, and tended to deify their ball players. Their ball courts, however, reflected time in the movements of the sun (the ball); and losing teams might be sent directly to the Underworld instead of a locker room. Also the score would have been kept vigesimally (that is, counted in base-twenty). Combining their powerful mathematics with sophisticated astronomy, the Maya reckoned time in a Calendar Round in which every single day is uniquely connected historically and prophetically with every other day. All aspects of Mayan life—farming, diplomacy, trade, religious observance, all decisions individual and communal, and yes, sports—were (and still are) not only conducted in the context of the Calendar Round, but also expressed in art and recorded in story. Fortunately for Simon’s Rock pilgrims, that art and those stories are on display in architecture that rivals the Egyptian pyramids. Participants in this study-abroad program visit some of the most magnificent, archaeologically rich sites in Mesoamerica—indeed in the world—in a hands-on exploration of this complex ancient culture, perhaps the oldest surviving culture in the Americas.

The Ghana Project Initiated as part of an effort to increase recognition of W.E.B. Du Bois in the Berkshire area, the birthplace of Du Bois, this intersession trip includes selected readings and discussions both before, during and in the spring semester following the trip, when students attend a weekly seminar-style modular course at Simon’s Rock. During the three weeks in the country students receive basic instruction in languages, history, archeology, political science, and the creative and visual arts that are essential to Ghanian culture. Course work takes place on the campuses of the University of Ghana at Legon and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in Kumasi. Travel for research will take us to areas of rainforest, important sites along the North Atlantic and Domestic African Slave trade, and the Du Bois Center for Pan-Africanism in Accra. Limited financial aid is available for this trip.

Bards of Eire: Reimagining Mythic Ireland Storytelling is in the water of Ireland, and no less in her land. As the Irish writer T.W. Rolleston put it: “Poetry and myth are [in Ireland] still closely wedded to the very soil of the land—a fact in which there lies ready to hand an agency for education, for inspiration…if we only had the insight to see it and the art to make use of it.” Such a mythologized landscape is recognizable (to borrow terminology from the aboriginal peoples of Australasia) as the Dreamtime, with its lines of songs, embodying all at once myth, ritual, and topography. It is these lines of songs in Ireland that we investigate, plumb, explore, and imaginatively render. We aspire to become contemporary bards: steep ourselves in the roots of Irish tradition; familiarize ourselves with the lakes, hills, and boulders of the Sidhe (fairy-folk); and write and tell heroic tales. There is a predeparture reading assignment of Irish myths, as well as daily readings on the subjects of landscape, mythology, and ancient Irish social history. Each student will keep a journal of notes, reflections, and creative writing, which may take the form of poetry, fable, fiction, creative nonfiction, and /or drama. From the journal writing will stem group discussions and live storytelling. The final project is a culminating work of creative writing, with process notes.

In the Footsteps of the Greek Gods How tantalizing that the site of ancient Troy, where Paris and Helen loved and Achilles and Hector fought, was actually uncovered in the late 19th century. Archaeologically speaking, Troy (the modern village of Hisarlk, Turkey) is a historic site, yet two-thirds of its construction was supposedly accomplished by the gods Apollo and Poseidon. The Trojan War marked the devastation of the heroic age nearly half a millennium before Homer, and the ruins there sit Sphinx-like on the very threshold between history and prehistory. In this spring course abroad we will walk into Priam’s Troy, as well as Artemis’s temple at Ephesus (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), Agamemnon’s citadel at Mycenae, the oracle at Delphi, ancient Olympia, the Labyrinth at Knossos, and the Parthenon in Athens. Through readings and on-site discussions we will consider how cities were situated and temples constructed in response to a divine sky and landscape. Our goal will be to rediscover the Greek myths as telling the story of that landscape and the gods and heroes who once walked it. Academic requirements: active participation; a detailed trip journal; a final project based on readings and field work; substantial process paper based on all of the above. Prerequisite: INTC 242 Greek Mythology or INTC 315 The Mythic Imagination.