Students and Faculty Set Sail

Bruce Holsinger, Anna Brickhouse, and their sons Malcolm and Campbell in Machu Picchu, Peru
Photo courtesy of Anna Brickhouse

In the summer of 2007, the English Department’s very own Anna Brickhouse boarded the MV Explorer, a 24,000 ton cruise ship, with her family — Bruce Holsinger, also a member of the Department’s faculty, and their sons Campbell (7) and Malcolm (4) — for eleven weeks of travel and study. With approximately 400 undergraduate students from all over the country, Professor Brickhouse sailed from San Diego to explore the West coast of Latin America, stopping for days of touring in Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.

Beginning with the summer 2007 voyage, UVA became the official academic sponsor of the Semester at Sea program. This unique study abroad program provides students and professors the opportunity to study far-off cultures through an exceptional classroom environment and first-hand experience of people and places around the world. Semester at Sea offers an nontraditional campus experience. The mid-size, 6-deck ship becomes a campus, with fully technologically equipped classrooms and lecture halls. The ship also boasts study rooms, a pool, faculty lounge, library, Internet-café: everything that one would find on a typical college campus.

While at sea, students attend classes that focus on the countries visited. Most of the faculty members involved in the program lived, worked, or traveled in the countries visited. Professor Brickhouse taught Modern and Contemporary Latin American literature in translation. It was her background in American and Latin American studies that prompted David Geis, the Academic Dean of the voyage, to extend to her the invitation to teach aboard the Explorer. Other Semester at Sea courses offered examine issues in context of the nations visited, such as global crisis concerns, environmental issues, population, foreign policy, economics, engineering, literature, etc. In addition, the program also makes use of “interport lecturers,” that usually board the ship at a particular port to give a more personal introduction to a specific country, to which they act as representative.

For the summer 2007 voyage, a Global Studies course, taught by a faculty member, was offered to the entire student and faculty body. By living and learning together in such close quarters, this course “really held the voyage together,” remarks professor Brickhouse. Taking a course together was an unusual, albeit, rewarding experience for both students and professors.

After landing at a port, classes are suspended while students and faculty members embark on tours of important cities and sites that are often associated with classroom assignments. Students also have the option of independent travel, and time is also allotted for personal entertainment, such as trips to the beach and skiing. These short, 4-5 day trips on land were often “exhausting,” remarks Brickhouse, whose most memorable moment was coming back from Machu Picchu on a small train, surrounded by her family and students. “It was nice to be traveling and be able to share observations and thoughts with students,” while at the actual sites of study. It provides a closer, more immediate connection with the students and the materials taught.

“It can be a very intense experience,” shares Professor Brickhouse, because of the closeness developed by being together almost all day. It is especially rewarding for a professor with a family, she comments, “because it combines two very important aspects of my life — family with teaching.” Professor Brickhouse, in fact, expressed reservations about embarking on the 10-week journey until she discovered that she could bring her husband and children along with her.

When asked about her advice for faculty and students who are contemplating entering into this extraordinary experience, her recommendations contained no hint of reservation. Her memories of the trip are imbued with a sense of adventure and a lasting feeling of great unity with the individuals on board. The time aboard the ship and in each country fostered close relationships between the faculty and students that simply does not occur as naturally and quickly during a regular class experience.

With great optimism, Professor Brickhouse recounts hearing about earthquakes and a tsunami warning off the coast of Peru, after they had just set sail from that port. “The leadership of the crew and their swift response was so strong and re-assuring” that it only improved the feelings of safety of the individuals on board.

Although teaching while sea sick was also a potential dilemma, for faculty members on board, overall, the Semester at Sea program provides a great opportunity for professors to fuse their family life and teaching, with the adventure of sailing to and exploring exotic locals. The program is offered in the fall, spring, and summer. The Spring 2008 voyage will be departing in January, and sailing to countries in South America, India, South Africa, an Asia. The UVa English Department will once more be represented, this time by Mark Edmundson, Elizabeth Denton, and Gregory Orr. And Gordon Braden will teach on the Summer 2008 voyage, scheduled to travel to the Baltic and Mediterranean. For more information on the program, visit www.semesteratsea.com.