Yucatan Trip

The Department of Geography offers majors a number of off-campus learning opportunities. The department conducts a biennial field trip to Yucatan, Mexico that can be taken for course credit. Students visit major archaeological sites, tour a U.S. manufacturing plant, and observe changing land use patterns as exemplified by haciendas/ejidos. Additional field trips are being planned. Undergraduate participation in faculty research/field work is encouraged. As such, in the past students have studied global warming in Alaska and the tourist industry in Mexico.

For the past ten years the Department of Geography, in collaboration with the Latin American Studies Program, as run on a biennial basis a filed trip to the Yucatan. The trip is usually scheduled during the break between fall and spring semesters. There are courses related to the trip: Geog 6050 (International Field Work) for Graduate students and Geog 1073 (Frshman Seminar:Yucatan) for Undergraduate students. The trip lasts one week, during which time students typically visit five archaeological sites (including Chicehn Itza, Uxmal, Coba, Ek Balam and Izamal), several colonial towns, churches and haciendas, traditional markets, a living Mayan community, a cooperative henequen robe factory, a community run monkey sanctuary and a modern maquiladora. The trip finishes with a free day in Cancun. The trip is run by experienced University of Cincinnati faculty and their Mexican colleagues. Every effort is made to have a physician or nurse as part of the tour group.

Course credit can be arranged through Geography or Latin American Studies. Cost per student is typically under $1,000, including airfare. $500 scholars are usually available for most students.

Publicity regarding the trips and availability of scholarships is circulated in courses in Geography, Latin American Studies, and Romance Languages during the fall semester. Posters announcing the trip are also displayed on the fourth floor of Braunstein Hall.

Geography Department and Latin American Studies faculty, in cooperation with Planning faculty, are exploring the possibility of future additional field trips to other sites in Latin America.

For further information regarding the Yucatan Filed trip, contact:

Dr. Robert South
Department of Geography University of Cincinnati
ph: 556-3427

or the Director of the Latin American Studies Program

Dr. Nicholas Dunning
ph: 556-3436

Other study abroad opportunities may be available. Students should check with the University's Institute for Global Studies and Affairs (ph: 556-4402) or the Department of Romance Languages (ph: 556-1950).

Please visit UC's Global Studies for more information