Indigenous Language Summer Programs 2012

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Tulane University Kaqchikel Summer Program
FLAS Eligible

Location: Antigua, Guatemala

Dates: June 25 – August 3, 2012

Program Summary
The Stone Center for Latin American Studies offers an intensive six-week course in the vital Kaqchikel language and its culture, providing a unique opportunity to observe and study the complex process as a traditionally marginalized language is standardized for use in education and publication. Judith M. Maxwell, full professor of anthropology and director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Linguistics at Tulane, is director of the program and serves as a resource and guide for students. Walter E. Little, associate professor of anthropology at SUNY at Albany, is co-director of the program and a cultural anthropologist who focuses on the interrelationships between livelihood and identity among Kaqchikel Mayas. With the assistance of Kaqchikel teachers, they plan cultural activities, guide discussions about Maya life, and invite noted Maya scholars, activists, educators, health professionals, and spiritual guides to speak to students. The program is open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates with appropriate academic backgrounds and a working knowledge of Spanish. Students have the option of taking a three-credit version of the program by choosing either Beginning, Intermediate, or Advanced Kaqchikel Language or the six-credit version including one of the referenced language courses plus a Kaqchikel Mayan Culture course for the additional three credits. This year – in celebration of twenty-five years of this interchange – we hope to highlight the contributions of alumnae and instructors to Mayan scholarship, communities, people and policy. Prerequisites: Certification of Spanish competence.

Program Fee: $4000. Transport to and lodging in Antigua must be arranged individually.

Application: Please visit http://stonecenter.tulane.edu/pages/detail/104/Summer-Programs-2012.

Contact: Dr. Judith M. Maxwell at maxwell@tulane.edu or Natalia Porto at nporto@tulane.edu.

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Intensive Summer K’iche’ Maya Program
University of Chicago Center for Latin American Studies
Vanderbilt University Center for Latin American Studies
University of New Mexico Latin American and Iberian Institute
University of Texas Teresa Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies
FLAS Eligible

Dates: June 18 – July 27, 2012

Location: Nahualá, Guatemala

Program Summary
The goal of the Institute is to help students develop proficiency in modern spoken K’iche’. Instruction is offered for Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced speakers. Beginning students will spend weekday mornings with linguistics and anthropology faculty from the Vanderbilt University, the University of Kentucky, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Texas in a classroom setting in order to develop a strong foundation in K’iche’ grammar and vocabulary. During the afternoons, each student will work one-on-one with a native K’iche’ speaker in a conversation workshop. Each student will be placed with a local home-stay family during weeks 2-6 of the program, for a genuine immersion experience. Weekly cultural demonstrations, including wood-carving, backstrap weaving, foot-loom weaving, and metate fabrication, will compliment the formal instruction. During the first week of the program students will stay in a retreat house and meet with faculty to prepare for living in Nahualá, including practice of basic K’iche’ phrases. At the start of week 2, the course will move to the town of Nahualá, where K’iche’ is the primary language used by the majority of residents. Nahualá has a laundry service, an ATM machine, a U.S.-trained physician, and several locations for using the internet. All students will receive 3 credits from the University of Chicago. Full class attendance is required.
For a full description of the program, please click here.

Program Fees: A $50 application fee is required (see below for details). For students on FLAS Fellowship, tuition is $5,000 (students not planning to enroll with a FLAS Fellowship should contact Josh Beck, or 773-702-8420, for tuition details). All students must pay a $1,300 program fee. The program fee covers local accommodations (including one meal/day with the home-stay family) and local travel. Students are responsible for covering their own airfare.

Application Deadline: March 30, 2012 Enrollment is limited to 12 students. Undergraduate students will be admitted only with consent of instructor. To download the 2012 Application, click here.

Contact: Avery Dickins de Girón, Center for Latin American Studies, Vanderbilt University at avery.dickins-degiron@vanderbilt.edu or Joshua Beck, Center for Latin American Studies, University of Chicago: jpbeck@uchicago.edu

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Yucatec Maya Institute
Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University
FLAS Eligible

Location: UNC Chapel Hill, Mérida, Mexico, and Valladolid, Mexico

Dates: June 11- July 20, 2012

Program Summary
The 20th Yucatec Maya Summer Institute offers intensive language instruction in Beginning (Level 1), Intermediate (Level 2), and Advanced (Level 3) Yucatec Maya. Students will have the opportunity to take a comprehensive look at the Yucatán through a combination of classroom and field activities. Students visit a range of important historic and cultural locations. Trips to archeological and colonial sites as well as other Mayan villages are led by Mayan scholars, who will introduce them to the cultural importance of each site. Students work in small groups with native-speaking Mayan university students and professors. In addition to classroom instruction, Levels 1 and 2 also meet in the village of Xocen where they share in the daily activities of Mayan families and communities. Level 3 students prepare fieldwork project on a site selected following students’ academic interests. All three courses are FLAS eligible (6 weeks, 140-160 contact hours). Level 1 meets in Chapel Hill the first three weeks and in the Yucatán the final three weeks. Levels 2 and 3 meet in the Yucatán only.

Program Fee: $4500 (cost does not include travel and some personal expenses).

Application: For applications contact the Study Abroad Office at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: http://studyabroad.unc.edu/programs.cfm?pk=1883.

Contact: Beatriz Riefkohl Muñiz at riefkohl@email.unc.edu or visit: http://isa.unc.edu/language-programs/yucatec-maya-institute.

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Summer Mixtec Language Program
San Diego State University Center for Latin American Studies
FLAS Eligible

Location: Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, Mexico

Dates: June 18-July 27, 2012

Program Summary: Language instruction is provided by native Mixtec speakers and scholars Juan Julián Caballero, and Marcos Cruz Bautista through the Welte Institute in Oaxaca City. The program is coordinated by Dr. Ramona Pérez, Director of the Center for LAS and a scholar in Oaxacan Studies from the Department of Anthropology at SDSU. The course offers 140 hours of instruction plus local weekend fieldtrips over a six-week period. Intermediate Spanish proficiency is required to participate.

Program Fee: $4,500, which includes all language instruction, SDSU registration fee, and transportation for weekend trips. The fee does not include housing, airfare, or daily transportation. The average cost for an apartment in Oaxaca City is $400 USD. Students in the Zapotec program will pay an average of $20 USD per day for food and lodging.

Programs qualify for the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship and the Less Commonly Taught Language (LCTL) Scholarship. The FLAS Fellowship is available through National Research Centers, students should check with their Latin American Studies centers in their respective institutions.
The LCTL Scholarship is available to SDSU students and community members working with Mixtec and Zapotec communities.

Application: Please visit http://latinamericanstudies.sdsu.edu.

Contact: Summer Abroad Coordinator, Dr. Ramona Pérez at perez@mail.sdsu.edu or (619) 594-1155
For more information, please click here.

Summer Zapotec Language Program
San Diego State University Center for Latin American Studies
FLAS Eligible

Location: Juchitán, Mexico

Dates: June 18-July 27, 2012

Program Summary
This intensive program is taught by native Isthmus Zapotec speaker and linguist Tomás Villalobos Aquino through the Casa de la Cultura in Juchitán. Professor Villalobos Aquino coordinates the program with Dr. Pérez. The course offers 140 hours of class instruction plus local weekend fieldtrips over a six-week period. Participants will be fully immersed in the culture and language through homestays with Zapotec speaking families. Intermediate Spanish proficiency is required to participate.

Application: Please visit http://latinamericanstudies.sdsu.edu.

Contact: Summer Abroad Coordinator, Dr. Ramona Pérez at perez@mail.sdsu.edu or (619) 594-1155
For more information, click here.

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2012 IDIEZ Summer Nahuatl Institute in Los Angeles
FLAS Eligible

Location: California State University Los Angeles (CSULA)

Dates: July 2 – August 10, 2012

Program Summary
The Zacatecas Institute for Teaching and Research in Ethnology (IDIEZ), Macehualli Educational Research (MER), la Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas (UAZ) and California State University Los Angeles (CSULA) are partnering to offer Classical and Modern Nahuatl at the beginning and intermediate-advanced levels in a summer intensive course. The course seeks to: 1. develop students’ oral comprehension, speaking, reading, writing and knowledge of language structure, as well as their cultural wisdom and sensibility, in order to facilitate their ability to communicate effectively, correctly and creatively in everyday situations; 2. provide students with instruments and experiences that demonstrate the continuity between past and present Nahua culture, through the study of colonial and modern texts, and conversation with native speakers; 3. penetrate into the historical, economic, political, social and cultural aspects of Nahua civilization; and 4. prepare students to take university level humanities courses taught in Nahuatl alongside native speakers.

Activities and schedule: All students will have class approximately five hours per day, Monday through Friday for a minimum total of 145 contact hours: two hours and fifteen minutes of Modern Nahuatl immersion and introductory grammar with native speaking instructors; two hours of Classical Nahuatl taught by John Sullivan; and an additional three hours of individual work per week on a research project of the student’s choice with a native speaking tutor. Intermediate-advanced students will study specific topics drawn from Older and Modern sources, using Nahuatl as the sole language of class discussion, and continue to work with individual tutors. Optional extracurricular activities include traditional dance, song, and embroidery, as well as public presentations given by students on their research projects.

The full course description is available at http://www.macehualli.org.

Instructors: John Sullivan, Victoriano de la Cruz Cruz, Delfina de la Cruz de la Cruz, Sabina Cruz de la Cruz, Ofelia Cruz Morales, Catalina Cruz de la Cruz, Eduardo de la Cruz Cruz, Abelardo de la Cruz de la Cruz, Ana Delia Cruz de la Cruz. Credit: The Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas will register students, issue grades and grant 145 hours of course credit.

Tuition: $5,000. Financial aid: IDIEZ will make every effort to ensure that financial constraints are not an obstacle to participation in the program. If you are in need of financial assistance for the Summer Nahuatl Institute, please contact John Sullivan at idiez@me.com. Financial aid may also be available in the form of FLAS fellowships through your own institution or another Title VI funded National Resource Center for Latin American Studies.

Contact: John Sullivan at idiez@me.com, +52 1 492 103-0195 or +52 492 768-6048.

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University of Pittsburgh: Ecuadorian Quichua at the Andes and Amazon Field School
FLAS Eligible

Location: Amazonian region of Ecuador and Ivarinapamba on the Napo River near Tena

Dates: June 5-30; July 5-29, 2012

Program Summary
140 hours of intensive Quichua classroom instruction during afternoon and evening sessions meet the requirements for FLAS Fellowships established by the US Department of Education. All students receive grades for Quichua courses and are evaluated upon entry and again upon completion of the course using the testing instruments provided by the USDE. During the first half of the afternoon the class is taught in English by Tod Swanson (Associate Professor, Arizona State University) alternating with lectures by Janis Nuckolls (Associate Prof. of Linguistics and Quichua specialist, Brigham Young University). During the second half of the afternoon students break into smaller groups to practice speaking and language learning exercises with native speakers.
During the morning students may participate in an Ethnobiology – Ethnobotany course sequence in which Quichua is used extensively as a window into Amazonian philosophy of nature. Each morning (weather permitting) the class goes out into the forest to learn about plants and animals from traditional elders or shamans. Origin stories and songs to species are recorded in Quichua. Professors Swanson and Nuckolls translate the interviews into English for the class while analyzing Quichua terms and linguistic forms. As ability in Quichua improves students increasingly begin to formulate their own questions in Quichua. Also, during the morning session graduate students may also take a medical anthropology class taught by Professor Kathleen DeWalt (Director, Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh), or work on their own research. For more information, please visit: http://www.andes-fieldschool.org

Program Fee: $5000 (includes 6 credits of graduate tuition from the University of Pittsburgh);
Board and room costs including 3 meals per day: $2300 paid from FLAS stipend
See program website for undergraduate costs and details.

Application Deadline: April 12, 2012

Contact: Tod Swanson, Program Director
T: (480) 361-9289
E: tod.swanson@asu.edu
For more information, please click here.

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University of Michigan: Summer Quechua Language Study in Cusco
FLAS Eligible

Location: Cusco, Peru

Dates: June 25-August 10, 2012

Program Summary
For more than a decade, the University of Michigan Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies has cosponsored the Summer Quechua Study program in Cusco, Peru, and this is our sixth year collaborating with Centro Tinku, directed by Dr. Jean-Jacques Decoster. The program is open to all college and university undergraduate and graduate students who wish to learn Southern Quechua. This unique program offers high-quality intensive language instruction through the experienced faculty at Centro Tinku along with the extraordinary experience of living and learning in the ancient Inkan capital of Cuzco.

Three levels of intensive Southern Quechua are taught at Centro Tinku: Intensive Beginning Quechua, Intensive Intermediate Quechua, and Intensive Advanced Quechua. Classes meet for seven weeks. The courses meet daily for four hours per day, a total of 140 language instruction contact hours per course. Each class is the equivalent of a full academic year course.

Enrollment will be limited to ten for each of the five levels. The program is open to all graduate and professional school students. A series of lectures on Quechua culture and history and an extensive program of excursions and cultural events supplement the courses. The Quechua courses are taught using the immersion method, so previous knowledge of Spanish is not required (though some familiarity with Spanish is useful for getting around Peru). For an additional tuition fee, students may opt to take the course for University of Michigan credit by enrolling in the corresponding courses (LACS 471/472 and 473/474). For more information click here.

Prerequisites: Inquire within about prerequisites and application deadlines.

Program Fee: Academic tuition: $2470 plus a processing fee of $20 or $50 wire transfer

Contact: Lenny A. Ureña Valerio, Coordinator at lurena@umich.edu
Quechua Language Study Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS)
University of Michigan
1080 South University, Suite 2620, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106

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Huaylas Quechua
Center for Social Well Being
FLAS Eligible

Location: Cajamarquilla, Peru

Dates: June 5 – July 13, 2012 (please contact for dates for 3-week programs)

Program Summary: The Center for Social Well Being offers a 6-week Intensive Quechua Language course in the north-central Peruvian Andes. The program is designed for students who require class instruction and Quechua immersion contexts to develop language proficiency. FLAS Foreign Language and Area Studies grantees are eligible to apply.

Course Content, Structure and Activities: Beginning, intermediate and advanced courses are offered that provide concentrated class hours focused on grammar, vocabulary and the development of speaking skills and listening comprehension of Huaylas Quechua, native to the region. The Center for Social Well Being is affiliated with the Regional Academy of Ancash Quechua, an association composed of bilingual school teachers, historians, writers, folklorists, musicians, poets and other professionals dedicated to the preservation and revitalization of the Quechua language. All university-trained in intercultural education, our team of Quechua instructors offer an academically rigorous program, complemented with an orientation to Quechua creative expressions of local myths, legends, songs and poetry. The program is structured into 4 hour classroom sessions each morning, and a 2 hour workshop of conversation, songs and poetry every afternoon. The 6 week session provides 180 contact hours with native speakers, equivalent to 1 year of university study. Our teachers guide students to their home communities and the schools where they teach for in-context language practice and skills acquisition. A highlight of the program is student participation in fiestas and the revitalization of Andean rituals in honor of the spirits of the earth and cosmos.

The Center for Social Well Being is located on an ecological ranch in the Quechua-speaking community of Cajamarquilla, nestled in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range of the Callejón de Huaylas, 7 hours northeast of Lima. Students lodge here for the duration of the program to fully engage in rural activities where there are plenty of opportunities to practice Quechua conversation. Excursions to archaeological sites, glacial lakes, hotsprings and impressive mountain passes are available. The program is under the direction of Applied Medical Anthropologist, Patricia J. Hammer, Ph.D., and Ecologist, Flor de María Barreto Tosi.

Program Cost: $6,000 US dollars that includes all program tuition and fees, food and accommodations at the rural center, and course materials.

Contact: phammer@wayna.rcp.net.pe

Further information and application available at www.socialwellbeing.org
Application deadline: March 30, 2012.