Poland: From Occupation to Resistance (Closed)
Warsaw, Poland
Dates
- Summer 2 Semester - July 7 to August 9, 2013
Application Deadline
- Summer 2 Semester - Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and program may fill at any time. Final deadline – January 24.
Description
Information Sessions: November 1, 10:45am, 206 Meserve and November 7, 11:00am, 291 Ryder
Faculty Leader: Jeffrey Burds (j.burds@neu.edu)
Study Abroad Coordinator: Daisy Biddle (d.biddle@neu.edu)
Term: Summer II
Courses: HIST4946 Central Europe Abroad and INTL4944 Dialogues of Civilization/Regional
Dialogues of Civilization/Regional
Description:
Warsaw is rapidly becoming a second Prague in Europe—safe, negotiable in English, a beautiful and haunting 1200-year old city that represents the very best of several European cultures.
This Summer II Dialogue will examine the history of the Second World War in Poland--from the German invasion in September 1939, the Polish national resistance, the Holocaust, the Warsaw Uprising, the Soviet occupation of Poland from autumn 1944, and the Solidarity Movement that brought Polish independence in the 1980s. Based at Warsaw University, the program includes regularly scheduled classes with lectures by the Dialogue leaders and local scholars, plus visits to relevant historical and cultural sites around Poland. Excursions are planned to the concentration camps at Auschwitz; Krakow (the site of the main school for training Nazi collaborationist police and prison guards); and Gdansk, the site of the Solidarity Movement that brought liberation of Poland from Soviet power in the 1980s. The program will include a visit to Zelazowa Wola, the birth place and museum of Chopin, and attendance of a performance of his music. More than any other, Chopin is the Polish composer who created the soundtrack of the Polish national resistance struggle.
The Program leader is Professor Jeffrey Burds, an award-winning teacher and scholar whose work on the history of the Soviet secret police throughout Eastern Europe has earned him an international reputation. Program co-leader is Izabella Truszczynska-Burds, a native of Warsaw, with an advanced business degree and more than 20 years of experience in Polish corporate life during the transition from Soviet satellite to one of the most successful of all post-Soviet economies. The program Resident Assistant is a member of the cultural section in the U.S. embassy in Warsaw, Miss Paulina Sieradzan.
Courses
- HIST4946 Central Europe Abroad
- INTL4944 Dialogues of Civilization/Regional
Host University
Institute of History, University of Warsaw
Eligibility Requirements
Minimum 2.5 GPA
Application Procedure
- Online Dialogue of Civilizations application (available on OISP website)
- Unofficial transcript which you can download and print from MyNEU
- One copy of passport ID page – To be given directly to your faculty leader after acceptance.
- 2-3 page essay answering the following questions:
- What are your personal and academic reasons for wishing to participate in this Dialogue of Civilizations program?
- How will the program further your academic and career goals?
- What is your previous travel and language experience, if any?
- What courses have you taken which are directly relevant to the program?
**Faculty may require additional information and/or interview (after application deadline)
**Please note that prior to 11/15/12 your unofficial transcript and essay should be handed in to OISP. After 11/15/12, please send them directly to your faculty leader
Cost
Tuition: $9,830
DOC Fee:$2,000
Tuition and DOC Fee cover 8 Northeastern credits, round-trip airfare from Boston, housing for program duration, International SOS assistance, as well as some local transport, excursions and group meals.
Accommodations
Intercontinental Hotel-WARSAW (Josefow)[Operated by Holiday Inn]
Students will share rooms (double-occupancy) in this internationally acclaimed 4-star hotel, rated “Excellent” by hundreds of reviewers, located on nearly 30 acres just 15-20 minutes from the center of Warsaw. Each room is air-conditioned, with two full-size beds, two desks, telephone, flat-screen satellite television, refrigerator, hair dryer, coffee-maker, and wifi. The hotel offers free access to a large swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna, basketball court, and fitness club. Reduced fee services for access to the hotel’s paintball, a rope/obstacle course, an 18-hole golf course, tennis courts, bicycling, and spa services.
All classes will take place between 10 am and noon on the grounds of the hotel in a modern facility with full electronic wifi access and electronic screens for power point lectures.
The program also covers three meals a day in the hotel’s gourmet kitchen: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Laundry services are available for extra fees, though most program participants will probably prefer to hand wash.
Destination
Three weeks in and around Warsaw with day-long or afternoon visits to the following sites: A tour of the political prison at Rakowiecka 37, a notorious torture prison of the Soviet KGB; a tour of Jewish Warsaw and the haunted Warsaw Ghetto; a tour of Warsaw’s Old Town; visits to the Jewish Historical Institute, the Warsaw Uprising Museum, the Katyn Museum, the Lech Walesa Institute, and the world-famous Warsaw University Library Garden. There will also be tours of the Institute of National Remembrance and Trakt Krolewski.
One week visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Krakow (Wawel Castle, Wieliczka Salt Mines – on UNESCO’s list of the World’s Heritage Sites; Kazimierz Old Jewish Quarter [setting for Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List;”] etc. ), Rabka’s Villa Tereska—the site of an SS Training Camp/School for camp guards and policemen; Zakopane, a famous ski resortamd the “Winter Capital of Poland” that was also the site of the Abwehr German Military Intelligence elite school for spies; and a rafting trip down the Dunajec River.