Students encountered many celebrities during their trip to the Cannes Film Festival, including actor Benicio del Toro. Pictured (l-r) Caroline Mundt, Meredythe Heaton, del Toro and Lauren Failla.

by James Doyle

In one of the largest expanses of rainforest in Guatemala, Francisco Estrada-Belli, assistant professor of anthropology, teaches in a classroom rich in tropical birds, howler monkeys, snakes and other unusual animals. Estrada-Belli’s Maymester course, “Archaeology of the Ancient Maya,” provides students with a hands-on experience in the archaeology of the ancient Maya at the city of Holmul. This year, students stayed at the rustic and remote Holmul field campsite for three weeks, living as the Maya have for generations on traditional Guatemalan foods such as fresh maize and flour tortillas, black beans, chicken and fresh vegetables.

They weren’t the only Vanderbilt students to travel south of the border. Another group traveled to La Universidad de Las Americas in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico, to study Pre-Columbian culture for the Maymester course “The Aztecs.” The class was taught by William Fowler, associate professor of anthropology.

Europe also was a popular destination, with students attending the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in France for the “Contemporary World Cinema” class taught by Professor of Art David Hinton, while others spent two weeks in Amsterdam for the “Art and Culture of Amsterdam” class with Associate Professor of Art History Amy Kirschke.

Maymester classes, which run from the end of spring semester finals until the beginning of the regular summer session, typically meet for three hours a day, five days a week. Many of the classes include the opportunity to travel abroad, from Central America to Europe, while some classes stay closer to home.

Peabody junior Michael Wax traveled just four miles west of Nashville to visit the Riverbend Maximum Security Facility’s death row for the Maymester sociology class “Prison Life” taught by Mary Altani Karpos.

“I had seen all these movies showing what death row was like, but when I actually got there, all those images were shattered,” said Wax. “It was a place that was horribly depressing, and I came away with a new respect for freedom.”

In the American Studies class “Baseball in American Life” taught by Bruce Oppenheimer, professor of political science, students were exposed to an in-depth look at the role of baseball in American culture. A similar English class, “America on Film,” taught by Professor of English Sam Girgus, looked at the way American culture has been reflected or created on film.

“I was really surprised by how many of the movies I had already seen and how differently I looked at them through the class,” said Brett Pacis, a Peabody College junior. “A lot of ideas in the films were political commentaries that I had never noticed before.”

A new Maymester offering this year, “Selected Policy and Civic Engagement Challenges Since 1980,” taught by Mark Dalhouse, director of the Office of Active Citizenship and Service, took students to Vanderbilt’s Washington, D.C., office.

According to the course description, the class is designed to provide “a unique opportunity for students to explore and critically assess the historical and current context of selected policy and public service issues since 1980.” Students learned about citizen activism and grassroots politics, the federal government and higher education, America’s role in the world focusing on its relationship with conservative Islam, and the nature of the U.S. presidency.

“This class underscored once again how many resources Vanderbilt has in Washington, such as influential alumni, and it also emphasized again how Vanderbilt could easily put together a semester-long Washington internship and academic program, as so many other schools with lesser resources are now doing,” said Dalhouse.

Dalhouse coordinated the effort with Jeff Vincent, assistant vice chancellor for federal relations. Dalhouse hopes that this newly forged partnership will be an important part of the undergraduate academic experience.

“We’ve had a wonderful time and look forward to offering the class again next year,” said Dalhouse.

Posted 06/27/05