LFU:online

The examination of selected societies, culture areas, or social institutions, or theoretical topics to illustrate the anthropological perspectives to problems of applied anthropology, culture process, change, and development. Topic will vary from semester to semester. May be repeated for credit.

This course on the Roma/Traveler/Sinti peoples engages UNO Innsbruck students, who encounter people vilified as “Gypsies” in their travels across Europe, in a critical examination and deconstruction of cultural stereotypes. The course materials move students through and beyond a discussion of the social and economic marginalization of Roma in Europe to a “thick” ethnographic understanding of their history and culture, (e.g. purity beliefs, the importance of family), without romanticizing or essentializing them. Ethnographic works on the various Roma populations in Europe and the US will track the Roma migration from India to Europe and then on to the Americas.

Fieldtrip & Local Service Learning:
1. Dachau, Germany fieldtrip to study the typical experience of Roma internees at Nazi concentration camps. I will personally lead my students on a tour that allows them to experience the camp from the perspective of the Roma who were used extensively in medical experiments at Dachau and were disproportionately targeted for the most punishing tasks that most often proved to be fatal.
2. This year I collected and distributed non-perishable food (discarded after various fieldtrips) to the Roma on the streets of Innsbruck. In collaboration with Vera Merkel of the community of Sant´Egidio in Innsbruck, I would like to involve students in this activity to give them the opportunity to a) interact with the Roma as individuals using the basic Romanes phrases that I will teach them and b) develop transversal skills based on curiosity, empathy, and tolerance of differences.

The University of New Orleans International Summer School program has a mandatory class attendance policy. All students are required to attend class for all morning classes and any required afternoon and/or weekend fields trips and lectures. No unexcused absences are allowed. However, LFU students who have to miss a UNO class due to LFU examinations in the first two weeks of our program, can receive one excused absence for this. Any further unexcused absences will result in an academic penalty. Each faculty member determines the penalty for missed classes. Most professors deduct a letter grade for each additional missed class day. For details, please refer to your course syllabi, which will be distributed on the first day of class. Mail: Center-New-Orleans@uibk.ac.at

Die Anrechnung der Kurse der UNO-IBK International Summer School muss von den Studierenden selbst vorab mit den zuständigen StudiendekanInnen geklärt werden. Diese allein entscheiden über die Anerkennung der belegten Kurse für das jeweilige Studienfach. Es wird empfohlen, sich einen Vorabbescheid über die Anerkennung der Kurse ausstellen zu lassen.