OFFSPATAGO

OFFS

PATAGO

PataGOnia: Argentina

OFFS-PataGOnia is an inter-disciplinary, collaborative course designed to familiarize students with the dynamic historical, political, cultural, and geographical milieu of Argentina from Buenos Aires to the Pampas and Patagonia and even some of Charles Darwin's discoveries traveling on board of the HMS Beagle around the Southern Cone. This program will allow the students to experience the unique mixture of culture, biodiversity, and beauty of this exceptional part of the world. During this trip, we want our students to see and explore the multicultural mosaic that makes Argentina a very different, and perhaps unique country in Latin America. Because of Argentina's rich legacy of immigration, and its positive impact on the culture, it is an ideal country to visit and study for multi-cultural and cross-cultural components. This trip will provide lenses through which students can re-examine their values and their place as citizens of the USA and the world. Our itinerary will expose our students not only to the Argentineans of European descendants that currently live in major cities, but also people with indigenous ancestry in the Pampas and Patagonia regions, providing a greater cultural exchange with Argentina's diaspora. Porteños, or city-dwellers in Buenos Aires, have more of a cosmopolitan "New York" state of mind, whereas the gauchos of the estancias exhibit Midwestern and Western values; although there are differences even between gauchos of the Pampas and Patagonia. We will also emphasize through the course work, travel, fieldwork, service project, and reflective components the importance of a series of "relatively recent" events related to the dictatorship of the '70s and '80s that still influence Argentina's current socio-political climate. 1 SH CC: Cross-Cultural.

Standard (STAND), Cross-Cultural Experience (XCEXP)