Requirements Fulfilled:
General Education - This program fulfills the Global Perspectives general education requirement for students who successfully complete 8 or more semester credits. IS 268 or IS 269 fulfills the Culture, Power and Identity general education requirement. IS 270 fulfills the Creative Arts general education requirement.
Major Requirements: PSY 345 may be applied to the Psychology major.
Credits: 16 credits (4 courses)
Curriculum:
IS 268: Irish Life & Cultures (4 credits)
This course introduces the traditions and values of Irish culture and society, as well as the key currents underpinning social change in Ireland in the 21st century. The course begins with a profile of Irish society and a historical overview of its core features in the latter half of the 20th century. The course then examines continuity and change in some of the key categories of Irish society such as religion, culture, economy and politics via their encounter with modernity.
IS 269: The Irish Welfare System (4 credits)
Students examine central questions about the Irish welfare system: Where can we find social welfare policies? Where do social welfare policies come from? How and by whom are they implemented? The course will help students to understand how the welfare system and its component institutions work, how they are interrelated, and how they are influenced and constrained by surrounding factors.
IS 270: Irish Literature and Theatre (4 credits)
This course provides an introduction to a number of great classics of Irish literature and theatre and gives students the opportunity to explore the important role that Irish writers have played in the shaping of Irish history. Close reading of texts from the 19th century to the present will reveal common and unifying themes: history, violence and cultural memory, the relation between the individual writer and the nation state, the conflicts of allegiance called forth by the claims of self and place, radical aesthetics, and a unifying tradition.
PSY 345: Overseas Internship: Dublin (4 credits)
This course takes place alongside participants’ community placement and explores current issues in social welfare provision particularly in the nonprofit, non-governmental sector. Such issues include education, HIV/AIDS, youth unemployment, homelessness, family life, mental health, aging, and environmental problems.
Excursions: The program includes three group excursions. Students travel with local faculty to Western Ireland to explore ancient Irish culture, learn about traditional ways of living, and see diverse and lush landscapes along the western coast. The group also visits Northern Ireland (Belfast and Derry) to learn about the tumultuous political history of Ireland. Students gain context and perspective of contemporary Irish politics by visiting Parliament to understand the political structure of Northern Ireland, touring the city with local activists, and visiting important sites and monuments. This excursion allows students to learn about and remember the violence and pain that this region of Ireland in particular has experienced, while seeing firsthand how divided communities can come together with the mutual desire for peace. The final excursion is a theater workshop in Mullagh, Co. Cavan led by the group’s theater professor. This weekend workshop provides a special opportunity for the group to work with a local Irish theater group in a small Irish town outside of Dublin and put their academics studies in practice.
