ENG 146 - Ireland's Literary Landscape

Myths, legends, epics, ballads, keens, fairy tales, folklore, poetry, plays, fiction, satire. Cliffs, dolmens, battlefields, passage tombs, ruined monasteries, ring forts, round towers, manor houses, cathedrals, colleges, modern cities. Designed as a study-abroad exploration of Ireland, this course maps the relationship between the spectacular Irish landscape and great literature. Ireland boasts one of the world’s richest and most influential literary traditions. Reading both classical and modern Irish literature provides opportunities to survey elements of its vital and at times troubled social and cultural history. Site visits buttress readings, illustrating the resonances of the landscape in the literature.

HIS 206 - Religious Transition in Early Christian Ireland

This course will combine assigned readings, class discussions, and visits to historic sites in Ireland to explore how the sacred was defined in pre-modern Irish civilization. Beginning with the groundbreaking work of Mircea Eliade, the sense of the sacred has been an important element in understanding past societies, and even our own. Eliade refers to the sacred as that which is set aside from everyday or “profane” existence. The sacred can be be reserved for a particular place, time, or event. A shared sense of the sacred helps to unify and define a society, and undergirds the entire social and political order. Thus, understanding how the sacred operated in a society opens a valuable insight into the past and into the world today. Ireland will be a particularly appropriate setting for this subject because of its marginal role in pre-modern Western history. This course will also be an opportunity to explore the process of religious syncretism, in which new religions adopt elements from previous belief systems.

PSY 115 - Self and Social Identities

Who am I? How does my family and culture influence me? How does my identity change over time? This course will use the Irish background to investigate and understand our personal selves and social identities. At each locale, we will utilize local resources (e.g., museums, historical sites) and the associated region to better understand what it means to be Irish. We will utilize reading, discussion, and writing to assess the psychological nature of self and identity, and apply this information to examine the Irish identity and our own self and social identities. We can examine how rural/urban landscapes, religion, social lives, and the interactions amongst these and many other factors affect the identities of those local citizens. Additionally, this understanding of self and identity will be varied and nuanced as we experience cities of varying sizes and regions across Ireland and Northern Ireland.

KU - Ireland Summer Program - kuirelandtrip@gmail.com