As an Ethnic, Gender, and Women's Studies student, it is encouraged for you to take an in-depth, first-hand look at the world around you and to take advantage of St. Cloud State's education abroad programs. Abroad experiences complement your classroom studies and give students a global perspectives develop diverse global and cultural experiences.
The Ethnic Studies Program, in conjunction with the African Studies Committee and the Office of Multicultural Student Services, offers several options for students seeking an opportunity to examine South Africa society and culture. These programs provide a comparative analysis of race and ethnicity in South Africa and the United States. Students have the opportunity to study developments in race relations in post-apartheid South Africa and in the post-Civil Rights era of the USA.
We offer a short-term, spring break trip to historic sites in South Africa as part of a course on South Africa-US race relations.
We have a First-Year Experience program where freshmen students study about South Africa society and U.S. race relations in general education courses at SCSU in the fall, and then spend the spring semester of their first year at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU). These students enroll in classes at NMMU, which satisfy SCSU requirements and can be involved in service learning in a South African community.
Students have the option of participating in our exchange program with Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa, taking classes at this university and being involved in service learning in a South African community.
Ethnic Studies is currently developing an Education Abroad program with El Colcgio de San Luis in the city of San Luis Potosi, Mexico. This program is part of a broader Study Abroad in the Americas initiative which is to include indigenous communities in Canada.
This short–term Education Abroad Program to China is a collaboration with the East Asian Studies Program and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. The aims of this program is to deepen student’s comprehension of international affairs and different worldviews. Students will gain an understanding of Asian ethnicity in China and how it relates to Asian American communities in the United States. In addition, students will investigate the historical, economic, sociocultural, and political impact of colonialism and westernization in Asia. This study tour is offered from late May to mid-June in every even year.
Since December of 2003, the Ethnic Studies Program, in collaboration with the Office of Multicultural Student Services at St. Cloud State University, has developed a foreign study/travel program to Southeast Asia and has taken students to one of the most colorful and intellectually stimulating regions of the world. Every winter break, faculty and staff escort a group of students to Thailand and Laos to interact with area colleagues, as well as with other people of the region ranging in occupation from village farmers to erudite scholars.
The Gender and Women’s Studies Program offers a three-week Summer Study Abroad Program to Tanzania entitled “Women, culture and development in Tanzania. The program offers opportunities for in-depth first-hand knowledge and experience of how gender, culture and globalization impact the lives of people (particularly women) in Tanzania and underdeveloped countries in general.