Off-Campus Summer Term Courses 2025
St. Lawrence University offers an array of dynamic off-campus summer courses around the world. Explore this page to learn more!
France Ghana India/Hong Kong Ireland Nepal United Kingdom
Application links are provided below.
Summer 2025 course application deadline: December 6, 2024
Tentative Course Fees:
1 SLU Unit - $4,635* + airfare
1.5 SLU Units - $6,180* + airfare
(*Summer 2025 course fees, pending Board Approval.)
Students will be billed an application fee after submission of their application.
Selected students are required to pay a $250 program deposit by January 20, 2025.
Students are required to submit the full summer course payment via the instructions provided on Studio Abroad by February 17, 2025.
All courses are contingent on sufficient enrollment and course fees are subject to change. Course fees do not include the cost of airfare.
Note: Seniors intending to graduate in May 2025 may apply/participate on summer courses with the permission of the instructor, but will be ineligible for financial aid. Priority in admission will be given to current students.
If you have questions about any of these programs, please contact the program instructor(s).
The European Union: Past, Present, and Future
Students should verify that they are eligible to travel to GERMANY, FRANCE, BELGIUM, and LUXEMBOURG before applying.
Instructor: Professor Mert Kartal
Dates: July 8, 2025 - July 22nd, 2025
Listing: Government; Approved to count toward the European Studies minor
Units: 1 SLU Unit
Pre-requisites: None
Course Length: 2 weeks
Course description: This two-week off-campus course is designed for those of you who are interested in a hands-on exploration of what is arguably the most ambitious form of inter-state cooperation in the world, the European Union (EU). When learning about the cultural, historical, and political factors that have shaped the EU, we will visit several sites of key importance for Europe. This course will also feature lively discussions on current issues before the EU (such as the Russia-Ukraine war, the rise of right-wing populism, and refugee flows) and the role of culture, diversity, and human rights in Europe facilitated by prominent scholars as well as current and former policymakers. From exploring historical landmarks to savoring diverse cuisines, our journey promises to be both educational and culturally enriching.
Apply to Study in France, Germany, and Luxembourg
Urban Environments and Public Health in the Global South
Students should verify that they are eligible to travel to GHANA before applying.
Instructors: Dr. Madeleine Wong and Dr. Joseph Braimah
Dates: May 18, 2025 - June 8, 2025 (tentative)
Listing: Global Studies, Public Health
Units: 1 SLU Unit
Pre-requisites: None
Course Length: 3 Weeks
Course description: Where we live, where we work, where we go, and how we get there may all impact our behaviors and ultimately our health and well-being in positive and challenging ways. Urban environmental features – such as exposure to environmental pollution, inadequate sanitation and waste disposal, urban flood risks, employment and livelihood challenges, informal settlements and activities, and everyday human–environment interactions and conflicts – influences individual and public health, safety, and wellbeing. Rapid urbanization has compelled state and non-state actors to address the infrastructural, service and health challenges of growing urban populations. This interdisciplinary course offers students the opportunity for intellectual and experiential engagement with the broad range of factors affecting public health in urban environments in a bustling capital city in the Global South - Accra. The course will expose students to histories, political-economy and socio-cultural norms that have shaped health outcomes. It will emphasize the social and public health consequences of globalization, North/ South power relations and structural adjustment programs. Finally, it will challenge students to propose contextual and sustainable solutions to complex health problems urban populations face.
Course activities include:
- Guided Accra city tour – visiting different urban neighborhoods, hospitals, research centers, schools, amongst other sites on topics presented in lectures.
- Instructive interactions with course faculty and Ghanaian Public Health academics and professionals on social determinants of health.
- Visits with representatives of NGOs and governmental agencies developing interventions to address global and urban public health challenges.
- Experiences of local markets, urban gardens, foods, and cuisines that shape public health outcomes.
- Engagement in local cultural and social activities with university peers.
- Cape Coast and Elmina exploration of the history of the slave trade and Atlantic slave crossing and the health and spiritual journeys of contemporary Diaspora Africans returning to Ghana.
Matcha to Masala Chai: Indo-Chinese Connections and Eco-Historical Perspectives
Students should verify that they are eligible to travel to INDIA and HONG KONG before applying
Instructors: Dr. Aswini Pai and Dr. Yanqiu Zheng
Dates: May 19, 2025 – June 5, 2025 (tentative)
Listing: Public Health, Asian Studies, Anthropology, and accepted toward the Sociology/Environmental Studies Combined Major
Units: 1.5 SLU Unit
Pre-requisites: None
Course Length: 2.5 Weeks
Course description: We invite students to learn about the diverse culinary, medicinal, and other uses of spices and tea native to India and China. We will examine the historical, ecological, and economic impact of these plants in connecting the world’s two most populous countries. Our site visits mainly in Cochin, South India and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China will include ports, markets, plantations, and traditional medicine hospitals. Together with the preparatory readings, the course will explore how commonly cultivated and consumed spices or tea affect landscape and climate, fuel international trade, and humanize intercultural encounters. The multivalent significance of spices, tea, and medicine and the wide geographical coverage will appeal to students in diverse majors and minors, including Asian studies, (conservation) biology, anthropology, environmental studies, global studies, government, history, and public health.
Apply to Study in India/Hong Kong
Memory and Place in Ireland and Northern Ireland
Students should verify that they are eligible to travel to IRELAND before applying.
Instructor: Dr. Val Lehr
Dates: June 3, 2025 – June 20, 2025 (tentative)
Listing: Government, Gender Studies, History, Peace Studies
Units: 1.5 SLU Units
Pre-requisites: None
Course Length: 2.5 weeks
Course Description: The theoretical focus of 'Memory and Place' is on issues of popular memory, memorialization, and the formation and maintenance of national identity. Students read theoretical articles on popular memory, revisionist historiography, and geography as contexts for the stories they hear and the texts they read. This study in the Republic of Ireland provides a background for shifting our focus to peace and conflict in Northern Ireland as we travel to Derry and Belfast and focus on how difference has been constructed and experienced among white, European, Christian people, people who by U.S. standards seem to be very similar. Students will also learn about the Northern Ireland Peace Process and how people from different communities are learning to work together across deep divisions to create a better society. Finally, in the wake of Brexit, Sinn Fein’s electoral successes in both the Republic and Northern Ireland, and the changing demographics in Northern Ireland, we will talk with people in both societies about how they envision Irish identity in future.
Himalayan Odyssey: Culture, Environment, and Change among the Sherpa of Shar Khumbu, Nepal – An Everest Adventure
Students should verify that they are eligible to travel to NEPAL before applying.
Instructors: Dr. Joe Erlichman and Garrett Sopko
Dates: May 19, 2025 – June 14, 2025 (tentative)
Listing: Outdoor Studies, Biology
Units: 1 SLU Unit
Pre-requisites: None
Course Length: 3.5 Weeks
Course description: The Khumbu region of Nepal contains over a dozen of the highest peaks in the world, including Mt Everest. It is home to indigenous ethnic Tibetans, as well as many Buddhist temples and small villages. With more than 10,000 western tourists, trekkers, and climbers traversing the Khumbu per year, the region is also of particular interest due to the rapid local cultural and environmental impacts associated with the onslaught of visitors. Sleeping in tea houses, you will spend 3 weeks trekking through the region, ascending mountain passes as high as 18,000 feet in elevation. In addition to immersing yourself in Tibetan and Nepali culture and history, the course will emphasize how certain human populations (such as the Sherpa) have evolved to become genetically adapted to life at high altitude, as well as how the bodies of non-adapted individuals change physiologically in order to acclimatize to high altitude. Of particular interest will be understanding how different organ systems (e.g. respiratory, cardiovascular, renal, and endocrine) interact with one another to promote homeostasis during normal altitude acclimation, and also how a failure to acclimate properly can lead to altitude-related pathologies such as acute mountain sickness (AMS), high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE), and high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE).
The Neuroscience of Fear
Students should verify that they are eligible to travel to THE UNITED KINGDOM before applying.
Instructors: Dr. Bill DeCoteau and Dr. Adam Fox
Dates: July 4, 2025 – July 26th, 2025 (tentative)
Listing: Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology
Units: 1 SLU Unit
Pre-requisites: BIO102 or PSYC101
Course Length: 3 Weeks
Course description: Brain structures that govern the fear response are shared across humans, mammals, birds, and reptiles. These structures have been evolutionally preserved because fear helps to protect us from danger, injury, and death. Though the dangers of modern society differ substantially from those of our ancient past, aspects of our primal fear instincts remain. Are such emotions merely intrusions from another time or do they still have a function in our consciousness today? With a focus on the fear response, this course will examine the evolutionary foundations of emotions, how they can be defined and measured, what role they play in the development and treatment of psychological disorders like anxiety and PTSD, and their role in perception, cognition, and everyday decision-making. Students in this course will examine this issue from a multidisciplinary perspective, synthesizing work from the fields of biology, psychology, and neuroscience.