Spring Term Abroad 2026

Course Offerings

Firenze

Application Information

Please check this page in mid-September to read more about the 2026 Spring Term Abroad course offerings. Applications open on October 7, 2025, and will be accessible from this webpage. Applications are due by 5 pm on October 21, 2025 (extended). Students can apply to two STA courses – the application will ask you to indicate your first and second choice programs. 

General Information Meeting for Spring Term Abroad

This session occured on September 30, 2025. Watch the recording.

Course Specific Meetings with Faculty Program Directors - October 6, 2025, 7 pm*

Learn more about the course specifics by attending a site-specific “breakout” session where you can ask questions and meet the professor(s). *Nearly all meetings will be held on October 6, 2025, at 7 pm, however a few courses will hold meetings on October 2 and 7. Please closely review the "breakout session” schedule. Breakout sessions are not recorded!

AFCA 287 and CHEM 158 – Bitter Grapes

South Africa
The history and chemistry of wine and black cultural studies in South Africa.

ARTS 238 – Sculpting Sustainability in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe
Centered at the Mbare Art Space (MAS) in Harare, students will collaborate with MAS founder and renowned Zimbabwean visual artist Moffat Takadiwa and other MAS resident artists to learn and experiment with techniques for repurposing materials from the global waste stream.

ARTH 268 – Modern Art in Barcelona: From Gaudí to Dalí

Spain
Explore internationally renowned modern artists, architects, and designers who defined Spain’s unique take on 20th-century art in two of the country’s most colorful and cosmopolitan cities: Barcelona and Madrid.

ARTH 356 – Technical Examination of 17th Century Art

The Netherlands
This course involves a survey of 17th-century Dutch history, art history, etc., which links the scientific analysis to the art and culture of the time.

BUS 363 – Global Issues in Business Ethics

Japan
Through business visits, cultural experiences, and real-world conversations in Kyoto and Tokyo, students will explore how Japanese companies respond to major global challenges — especially in sustainability and tech.

BUS 366/ENGL 267 – Social Enterprise Storytelling

Scotland
An opportunity for international, interdisciplinary, and experiential learning with a focus on the techniques of storytelling in a unique context for social impact businesses: the Orkney Island

GERM 304 – Layered Berlin

Germany
A four-week course that offers students a true immersion in German language, culture, and business environment

BUS/SOAN 368 – Tech for Good

Ghana
Blending insights from sociology, economics, and business, students examine how colonial legacies have shaped institutions and trust, and how digital tools-from mobile money to online marketplaces-interact with deeply rooted social networks.

CBSC 230 – Emotion Valuation and Well-Being

Denmark
Explore emotions and the meaning we ascribe to them. Drawing from theory and research in cognitive, affective, social, and behavioral science, consider how emotional experiences are defined, valued, and pursued or avoided.

CHIN 105, 115, 265, and 365 – Chinese Language

China
Attend rigorous language courses in the morning and participate in immersive cultural activities or workshops in the afternoon.

CLAS/ARTH 295 – Landscapes and Monuments of Ancient Greece

Greece
Explore the vibrant landscapes and the artistic and archaeological remnants of the ancient Greek world.

DANC 202 – Dance Europe

United Kingdom
Experience world-class dance and musical theatre performances at large theatres, small black box venues and pop-up spaces.

ECON 288C/ FREN 285A – Exploring European Policy, Business, and Culture

Europe and United Kingdom
This Europe-based course looks at how culture affects the economy, businesses, and policies by contrasting France and its relationship to the European Union to the UK’s decision to withdraw.

ECON 288D – Buddhist Economics

Costa Rica
An exploration of self and society. Why do we organize and interact the way we do? What is an economic system and what is its purpose? What do we crave, why do we crave it, and how do we get it?

ENGL 386/THTR 286 – Shakespeare in Performance

England
An exploration of the life and art of the most recognized playwright in the English language.

FREN 285C – Tissu Urbain: Narrating Cityscapes in Occitanie

France
Take intensive French language classes at a local language school, live with host families, and hone oral, written, and cultural proficiency; Tissu Urbain: Urban Storytelling in Occitanie, invites you to explore what the city’s urban fabric reveals about its past, present, and future, and encourages you to tell your own stories inspired by Toulouse’s rich cityscape

HIST 269 – Between Paradise and Terror: Caribbean Slavery and Colonialism

Barbados
By juxtaposing Barbados’s dual significance as a site of paradise and terror, students will examine histories of slavery and colonialism in the Caribbean, as well as the strengths and limitations of public history.

JOUR/AFCA 295 – Media, Culture and Society in Tanzania

Tanzania
An intensive exploration of culture and society in East Africa.

MATH 165/DS 165 – Exploratory Data Analysis in Global Contexts

South Korea
An introduction to the principles and practice of exploratory data analysis (EDA) through immersive, real-world applications in South Korea.

MUS 238 – The Music, Folklore, and Literature of Ireland

Ireland
This course will engage the music, folklore, and literature of Ireland and ways that the creation of these art forms is related to the places in which the art was created.

PHIL 261 – The Meaning of Life

France
Thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus contemplated life’s meaning against the backdrop of World War II, death camps, and the development of the atomic bomb. Spend four weeks following in the footsteps of Parisian existentialists contemplating questions of the human condition.

PHYS 125 – Big Science in Twenty-First Century Europe

Italy
Learn about particle physics and gravitational wave astronomy as we travel to two of the premier “Big Science” sites in Europe: the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva and the VIRGO gravitational wave detector in Tuscany.

POL 288 – Food, Shelter, Space, Voice

Italy
Examine the nature of civic life in contemporary Italy, primarily through field study in Bologna.

ROML 296 – From Faith to Flesh: Power/Crime in Renaissance Rome

Italy
Experience Rome not merely as a tourist destination, but as a historical laboratory where the sacred and the profane coexisted – and often clashed – in every cobblestone street and every shadow cast by its basilicas and palaces.

ROML 297 – Walking the Portuguese Caminho de Santiago

Portugal and Spain
Study the Portuguese route to Santiago de Compostela and the cultural history of the Camino de Santiago and then walk the 144-mile route from Porto, Portugal to the shrine of Saint James.

Center for International Education

Mark Rush

Director

Hunter Swanson

International Student Advisor

Cindy Irby

Associate Director and Study Abroad Advisor

Jillian Murphy

Assistant Director of International Education and Study Abroad Coordinator

Kristy Reed

Center for International Education Office Manager

Center for International Education

  • Campus Address
    Ruscio Center for Global Learning
    Room 145
    Mailing Address
    Center for International Education
    204 W. Washington St.
    Washington and Lee University
    Lexington, Virginia 24450