Discovery Field Schools
Global Arts + Humanities' Discovery Field Schools are faculty-led, interdisciplinary, experiential-learning programs offered as one-credit undergraduate courses that take students to domestic destinations to learn about the transformational value of the humanities and the arts. By immersing students in learning environments, field schools aim to close the gap between knowing and doing.
Upcoming Field Schools
(More information forthcoming)
Faculty leaders: Dionne Lee (WGSS and Art) and Dani ReStack (Art)
Student resources
- Department of English | Shapiro International Scholarship
- College of Arts & Sciences | Study Abroad Funding Application
- Office of International Affairs | Wolfe Study Abroad Scholarship
- Office of International Affairs | Other scholarship information
Livable Futures Louisiana Field School
Spring 2019
Vince Bella, Education
What stood out to me most about the work that I did in the wetlands is that I likely won’t ever see the results of my labor. I just have to trust that my work was good and that the plants will continue to grow without my aid. A metaphorized version of these lessons is a large part of the reason I want to teach young people.
- Genevieve Wagner
At the end of our excursion through marsh and water, I felt a greater connection to nature. The beauty of the space we were working in humbled me, as I found myself in awe of the strength and cyclical nature of the marsh. The way each water beetle, splotch of sea-weed, and bulb of grass worked in harmony with one another further engrained the importance of protecting these coastal marshes.
Defining the Color Line: Race, Democracy and the Enslaved Community at James Madison's Montpelier
Autumn 2018
- Anna Glavaš, Political Science + International Studies
...the work that the Montpelier team is doing [at the Montpelier house] really gives people the inability to separate the foundations of this country, notions of freedom and democracy, from the enslavement of an entire race of people. - Malina Ronet Ransom, Theatre + AAAS
We had the opportunity to take a tour of the archeology labs at Monptelier... it’s amazing to think that a single object has the power to put someone’s story in history and to bring them back and not let them be forgotten. - Kyle Huffman, Neuroscience
Walking around the site at Montpelier, we chronologically dove through the history, the archaeology, the power of place. And then driving down that winding road to Charlottesville, that was a portal hundreds of years into the future where you could see that direct connection.
Email questions about Global Arts + Humanities field schools to Associate Director Puja Batra-Wells (batra-wells.1@osu.edu).
"What stood out to me most about the work that I did in the wetlands is that I likely won’t ever see the results of my labor. I just have to trust that my work was good and that the plants will continue to grow without my aid. A metaphorized version of these lessons is a large part of the reason I want to teach young people."
Vince Bella (Education major)
Livable Futures Louisiana Field School
Past field schools
Human Rights on the Ground explored a variety of human rights cultural practices, monuments and archives — from Ground Zero to neighborhood cultural movements and events — including the Ground Zero Museum, the African Burial Ground, the Tenement Museum, the Columbia University Human Rights Archives and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.
Course leader: Amy Shuman (English)
Border Issues and Activism in Ohio introduced students to sites of immigration enforcement and immigrant rights activism and encouraged them to consider how border control functions not only in the Southwestern United States, but also in Ohio.
Course leaders: Stephanie Aubry (Spanish and Portuguese), Katherine Borland (Comparative Studies and Center for Folklore Studies)
Thomas Davis, associate professor in English, led a field school to Louisiana to explore the issue of changing environmental conditions and resilience. This program was linked to the Livable Futures project, which engages environmental conditions of crisis and generates integrated creative, intellectual and pedagogical approaches to foster transformative relations on Earth. This first Livable Futures Field School took ten undergraduate students to southern Louisiana. Over the course of a week, students learned about coastal land loss, indigenous politics and cultures, environmental racism, climate change and the ecosystems of the Gulf Coast. During their time in Louisiana, students:
- Assisted Common Ground Relief as they helped rebuild Louisiana’s wetlands.
- Collaborated with Louisiana based artists and art collectives to learn about and engage with creative practices that grapple with a range of environmental justice issues.
- Worked with Houma nation member, artist, activist and documentary filmmaker Monique Verdin to learn about indigenous politics, histories, lifeways and the current struggle against oil and gas pipelines in Louisiana.
To learn more about this experience, read student testimonials and view photos, visit the Livable Futures blog.
How do Ohians create a sense of place in a changing environment? Students enrolled in the Ohio Field School course had the opportunity to answer this question by conducting service-learning projects in collaboration with community partners in Perry County, Ohio. The area is home to expansive forestland, rolling hills, incredible biodiversity and rich and complicated histories of migration, labor movements and social activism. It is a place where hardworking activists and grassroots groups struggle daily to create a future for their communities after the departure of coal companies and extractive industries.
Course leaders: Katherine Borland (Comparative Studies) and Cassie Patterson (Center for Folklore Studies)
The Dancing Connections and Communities field school positioned dance as a lifeline for human connection and dances of the African diaspora as a conduit for understanding traditions of moving a people together as a community. Through cross-cultural connections, students embarked on a two-part experience in Columbus, Ohio.
Course leader: Nyama McCarthy-Brown (Department of Dance)
New York City is home to dozens of new institutions of all sizes and provides a range of alternative venues for the production, distribution and exhibition of experimental media. Over the course of this three day field school, students were immersed in this artistic community and experience an entire gamut of institutions that make up the film and art world in New York City — from small gallery spaces to major museums.
Course leaders: Roger Beebe (Department of Art) and Erica Levin (Department of History of Art)
"Defining the Color Line: Race, Democracy and the Enslaved Community" was the theme of Professor Hasan Kwame Jeffries' field school at James Madison's home, Montpelier, and Charlottesville, Virginia.
Hasan Kwame Jeffries: "Part of the reason why I wanted to take students down to Montpelier and to explore Charlottesville is because I wanted them to know the past, to prepare them to make sense, and better sense, of everything that it going on in the age that we live in today because I see in each and every one of them the potential for really making change in in this society. I truly felt that this experience would arm them and prepare them to be not only good people and deep thinkers, but really changemakers."
To learn more about this experience, read student testimonials, view photos and video, visit the Defining the Color Line webpage.
(More information forthcoming)
Course leaders: Mindi Rhodes (Teaching and Learning) and Gloria Wilson (Arts Administration, Education and Policy)
This field school revolved around a community-engaged training in anti-racist praxis based on dance theater. The dance company that led the training is based in Brooklyn, New York City.
Course leader: Crystal Perkins (Dance)