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July Session Pitt in Ecuador Summer Application Deadline January 20, 2018 Apply
Academics
All students take 2 classes for (6 credits):
Morning
Choose either
BIOSC 1220 Tropical Forest Ecology (3cr)
This 3-Credit course provides a solid foundation in tropical forest ecology. It is designed to prepare students to carry out research on the interaction of plant and animal communities and to engage the serious challenges facing neotropical forests. Students will learn to compare pristine to altered forests identifying key factors in forest decline and regeneration. Students will examine each of the diverse elevational zones that comprise the Amazonian watershed. The highlight will be a visit to Ecuador’s Yasuni National Park, an untouched area of the Amazon with the highest bio-diversity on earth.. Two Semesters of general biology required.
Or
Afternoon
ANTH Amazonian Religion and Nature (3cr)
Contact Hours: 45 Credits: 3
Instructor: Tod Swanson
Full Syllabus
Course Description
The course examines Amazonian cultural knowledge of water, weather, plant and animal life seeking to uncover underlying assumptions that constitute a systematic, if implicit, religious philosophy of nature. It also teaches students how to ask key questions and to carry out qualitative ethnographic research in the Cultural Anthropology and the Humanities. How do Amazonian people understand their relatedness to a natural world believed to be alive and human-like? How do they understand the hidden social lives of plants and animals. What is believed to cause new species to emerge or to become extinct? How are human emotions related to the seasonal cycle of rains? How is plant and animal ecology believed to serve as a model for understanding human society and vice versa. What aesthetic, emotional or religious practices were developed to create bonds of empathy or communication between human beings and the natural world.
Learning Objectives:
• Learn to analyze Amazonian narratives on plant and animal origins
• Understand the aesthetics of Amazonian engagement of other species.
• Understand how nature works as a pattern for organizing Amazonian social life and conversely, how social life works as a model for understanding nature.
• Learn to carry out qualitative research in Cultural Anthropology and the Humanities.
Photographs of animals in the Yasuni
Cost
Cost : In-State; $4,900; Out-of-State: $5,100 (Includes lodging, 3 meals per day 6 credits of tuition in country travel and excursions).
Itinerary
Saturday June 30
11:30 PM Arrive in Quito Shuttle to Real Audiencia
Sunday, July 1
8:00 AM Breakfast
9:00 AM Tour colonial Quito (founded 1535)
12:00 Lunch At Hotel Real Audiencia
1:PM Hike in the high altitude páramo polylepus forest.
6:30 PM Arrive at Yanayacu Cloud forest Station
7:00 PM Dinner
Monday July 2
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-4 Hike in the cloud forest
7:00 Dinner at Iyarina
Tuesday, July 3
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Introduction to the Ecuadorian Amazon. Swanson
7:00 Dinner
Thursday, July 5
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Friday, July 6
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
Afternoon: Free Time
7:00 Dinner
Saturday July 7 Free Day. No Class.
8:00 Breakfast
1:00 Lunch
7:00 Diner
Sunday July 8 Free Day. No Class.
8:00 Breakfast
1:00 Lunch
7:00 Dinner
Monday, July 9
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Tuesday, July 10
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Wednesday, July 11
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Thursday July 12
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Friday, July 13
8:00 Breakfast
Travel to Yasuni National Park
Saturday July 14 Yasuni National Park
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Class
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Class
7:00 Diner
Sunday July 15 Yasuni National Park
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Class
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Class
7:00 Dinner
Monday, July 16 Return from Yasuní National Park
Tuesday, July 17 Free Day
Wednesday, July 18 Free Day
Thursday, July 19
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Friday, July 20
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Free time
7:00 Dinner
Saturday, July 21 Free Day. No Class.
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Class
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Class
7:00 Diner
Sunday, July 22 Free Day. No Class.
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Class
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Class
7:00 Diner
Monday, July 23
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Tuesday, July 24
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Wednesday, July 25
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Thursday, July 26
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Friday, July 27
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology Wind up
1:00 Lunch
Travel to the airport
Saturday July 28
Arrive home.