Explore the complexities and paradoxes of gender and sexuality in the Netherlands and Morocco.
16
Relevant & demonstrated previous coursework
Dutch
English
Feb 6 – May 18
Netherlands
Morocco
Amsterdam
Identity & Human Resilience
Famous for its Red Light District, canals, and bicycles, Amsterdam is also an ideal city in which to explore the intersection of gender and sexuality with race, class, and religion. Meet with activists, academics, and professional sex workers and visit key places like the International Gay and Lesbian Archives and Information Center. In Utrecht and other Dutch cities, speak with sex educators, advocacy groups, and community organizers. Get a Muslim perspective on gender and sexuality during a two-week excursion to Morocco.
Previous college-level coursework or other preparation in sexuality and/or gender studies, as assessed by SIT for the novice track. For the advanced studies track, students must have a major or minor with demonstrated coursework in Women’s Studies, Sexuality, Gender, or Queer Studies.
If Amsterdam is New York, Rotterdam is Los Angeles. New, smooth, and flashy, Rotterdam is a cool, modern location for the study of gender and sexuality. You’ll visit queer activists, explore the city’s premier architecture, and see some exceptional art. Depending on the calendar, you might be able to march in Rotterdam Pride, attend a panel on gender visibility, or join a workshop with one of our partners.
Charming Utrecht is about 30 minutes by train from Amsterdam. Boasting the largest student community in the Netherlands, the city is home to Utrecht University, a large single population, and a vibrant nightlife. Here you will attend sessions on topics like sexuality and disability, sex education, or polyamory. There will be time for a visit to Savannah Bay, one of the oldest feminist/Lesbian bookstores as well as the kink/fetish shop Laced-Up.
Migration, particularly the immigration of Muslims, is the locus for tension all over Europe. In the Netherlands, much of the discussion focuses on Moroccans, one of the largest migrant communities, and often concerns issues of gender and sexuality. During the two-week excursion in Morocco, we’ll stay in Tangier, Rabat, Essaouira, and Marrakech, with visits to Tetouan, Chefchaouen, and Safi. We’ll visit NGOs, cooperatives, museums and historical sites, and attend lectures with Moroccan activists and academics. Students will also have an opportunity to visit the ocean and the desert, shop in centuries-old souks or modern malls, and experience Moroccan cuisine.
Please note that SIT will make every effort to maintain its programs as described. To respond to emergent situations, however, SIT may have to change or cancel programs.
Students have the choice between two tracks of academic study; novice and advanced. Students that major or minor in Women’s Studies, Sexuality, Gender or Queer Studies will take the advanced track. Students attend two thematic seminars: Theory and Application of Feminist, LGBTQI, and Queer Studies (novice track) or Advanced Theory and Application of Feminist, LGBTQI, and Queer Studies (advanced track), and Migration, Gender, and Sexuality (taken by both tracks). Each seminar is led by a professor who provides a strong theoretical basis for the course, and also includes presentations, workshops, and guided site visits from local researchers, practitioners, and activists. This combination of the theoretical with on-the-ground practice provides a broad range of perspectives on sexuality and gender in Dutch and international contexts.
The semester concludes with a month-long individual, in-depth exploration of a topic of particular interest to the student. Some students produce a traditional essay or a creative project, and others perform an intensive internship at a Dutch organization. Recent students have evaluated anti-sex work organizations, produced a photo essay, written a zine, published a podcast, prepped a year’s worth of tweets for a global sex education NGO, and worked with the director of an Amsterdam museum to write a draft of an article on a manuscript in the museum’s collection. Many students find their ISP to be one of the most rewarding experiences of their entire college career.
The following syllabi are representative of this program. Because courses develop and change over time to take advantage of dynamic learning opportunities, actual course content will vary from term to term. The syllabi can be useful for students, faculty, and study abroad offices in assessing credit transfer. Read more about credit transfer.
Students choose between the following two thematic seminars, one for novice learners and one for advanced.
Theory and Application of Feminist, LGBTQI, and Queer Studies – syllabus
(GEND3000 / 3 credits)
Queer theory developed in the 1990s, mostly in the U.S., as an outgrowth of feminist and gender studies. Building on the work of the structuralists (particularly linguistic structuralism), the post-structuralist deconstructionists, and scholars from all fields, turned intellectual lenses onto understudied populations. It has grown from what was essentially the study of hetero- and homosexuality into a more far reaching theoretical expression of liminal spaces and what can be considered abnormal. This course, suitable for students who are new to queer and feminist theory, examines the crucial principles of queer theory, particularly as they play out in the Dutch and broader European context. We will engage with fundamental queer and feminist ideas, and explore how they relate to our city, our country, and our continent.
OR
Advanced Theory and Application of Feminist, LGBTQI, and Queer Studies – syllabus
(GEND 3500 / 3 credits)
Queer theory developed in the 90s largely to analyze the gay community but has grown into something so much more. So much more, in fact, that is seems unmanageable. It is amorphous, its boundaries so fungible that they seem to disappear. Sometimes it gets desperately, vexingly hard to nail down what queer theory is. This course, suitable for students who have a solid grounding in queer theory, uses the lens of queer to explore these frustratingly elusive liminal edges of the field. We also explore some neighboring states, like trans, disability, and postcolonial studies in the Dutch/ European context. We aim to understand not only the theoretical possibilities, but also the lived experience, of the populations under study.
Migration, Gender, and Sexuality – syllabus
(GEND3005 / 3 credits)
The course examines gender and sexuality in the context of post-colonial and post-migration subjectivities in the Netherlands and around the globe. Integrating lectures, field visits to museums and grassroots organizations, readings, and reflection sessions, the course will focus on the international aspect of the overarching topic: migration, international issues, transnational encounters, postcolonial and postmigration afterlives. During a two-week excursion to Morocco, students study the interaction between Islam, gender relations, and sexuality in a predominantly Muslim country. The excursion and the lectures will allow students to draw a comparative understanding of how conceptions of gender and sexuality are constructed across cultures and societies. This course particularly prepares students for their two-week excursion to Morocco.
Dutch – syllabus
(DUTC1003 / 3 credits)
This course focuses on acquiring a working knowledge of the Dutch language related to sexuality and gender and to everyday life in the Netherlands. Students are almost always at the beginner’s level and during the semester acquire a basic understanding of Dutch, a vocabulary that is related to the program’s themes, and basic grammar. At the end of the course, most students are able to read news items and short articles in the Dutch language.
Research Methods and Ethics – syllabus
(ANTH3500 / 3 credits)
This seminar introduces students to the conceptual and practical tools essential to forming constructive relationships with organizations and/or individuals from other cultures, particularly those required for completing an academic project in the cultural context of the Netherlands. The course enhances students’ skills at building a network; initiating purposeful dialogue in the cultural context of the Netherlands; gathering, recording, and analyzing primary data; and writing an academic report. The course pays particular attention to the ethics of working, researching, and living as a cultural guest. The class situates these ethical issues specifically as they apply within the cultural context of the Netherlands and the program’s critical global issue: identity and human resilience. The course prepares students for their independent study project, and also gives students the intellectual tools to move about the world, learning and growing in an ethical manner.
In addition to taking the above courses, students will also need to enroll in one of the following two courses:
Internship and Seminar
Internship and Seminar – syllabus
(ITRN3000 / 4 credits)
This seminar consists of a four-week internship with a local community organization, research organization, business, or international NGO in the Netherlands. The aim of the internship is to enable students to gain valuable work experience and enhance their skills in an international work environment. Specifically, students will conduct an internship in the context of gender and sexuality issues in the Netherlands, and a focus will be on linking internship learning with the program’s critical global issues of migration, identity, and resilience. The seminar includes regular reflection and assessment meetings with the academic director or internship coordinator to review the progress of the internship and learning associated with the internship experience. Students complete a substantial academic paper in which they process their learning experience on the job, analyze an issue important to the organization, and/or design a socially responsible solution to a problem identified by the organization. Students also conduct an oral presentation of their internship experience and findings.
Sample internships:
OR
Independent Study Project
Independent Study Project – syllabus
(ISPR3000 / 4 credits)
The last four weeks of the semester will be devoted solely to the ISP, during which time you will pursue original research on a topic you choose that is related to the program’s theme. The ISP is most often conducted in Amsterdam, but another location is possible as long as it is relevant to the project. Sample topic areas: negotiating religion and homosexuality; interracial relationships in the Dutch postcolonial context; multicultural approaches to sex education; black feminist activism in the Netherlands; Dutch-Moroccan women’s conceptions of virginity; gay men and their experiences with HIV testing; vernacular expressions of women of color.
Sample ISP topic areas:
Browse this program’s Independent Study Projects / undergraduate research.
After a brief orientation, you will live with a local family in the greater Amsterdam area for the whole of the program. Commute times may vary, taking up to 45 minutes. Your homestay family can help you understand and navigate life in this thriving city of canals. You’ll stay with real Amsterdammers who come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and include LGBT households, single parents, young professionals, traditional families, and retirees. The homestay experience is often described as one of the program’s highlights, and one of the most rewarding experiences of the semester. All families offer unique insights into sexuality and gender from a Dutch perspective.
Your host family will help you navigate the city, culture, and language. Think of them as your insider’s guide and private Dutch tutor who will help you integrate into your new host country. They can introduce you to the best of their neighborhoods – outdoor markets, the perfect café, a local shop – and advise you on the small towns and big cities you ought to visit while you are in the country.
Hostels and modest hotels
Students on this program represent many different colleges, universities, and majors. Many have gone on to do work that connects back to their experience abroad with SIT. Positions recently held by alumni of this program include:
Associate director of college counseling and history at Mercersburg Academy, Mercersburg, PA
Birth doula at Birth Partners Doulas of Connecticut, Stratford, CT
Lead field organizer of the Alaska Democratic Party, Anchorage, AK
Project member at Love Matters, RNW, Hilversum, Netherlands
SIT Study Abroad is committed to making international education accessible to all students. Scholarship awards generally range from $500 to $5,000 for semester programs and $500 to $3,000 for summer programs. This year, SIT will award more than $1.5 million in scholarships and grants to SIT Study Abroad students.
See Full BreakdownSokhna Samb shares their experience interning with Diversity Rules.
