College of the Atlantic
AC-5: Immersive Experience

COA offers several immersive, sustainability focused programs each year. One recent example was a term-long program in Vichy, France during spring 2015, which focused on the politics of food and water and was co-taught by COA faculty members Ken Cline and Doreen Stabinsky. Students participating in the program received credit for a full trimester, with one course focused on the politics of sustainable food and agriculture, another on the culture and politics of water use, and a third on French language immersion. Topics covered in this program directly relevant to food included Genetically Modified Organisms; laws protecting seeds, cheese, and wine; the links between agriculture and climate change; the lead-in to the 21st Conference of the Parties in Paris; and elements and implications of European Union Common Agricultural Policy. Topics covered directly relevant to water included Europe’s continent-wide attempt at holistic water management; the conflict between efforts to commodify water globally; citizen efforts to build a “water democracy” around the idea of access to water as a human right; the marketing of Perrier that started the global bottled water craze; and the mythology and current practice of thermal medicine. Another immersive program during the last two years was a collaboration with the European College of Human Ecology for a summer course in Emmedingen, Germany, focused on sustainable food business. The 2015 program was led by COA faculty member Molly Anderson and the 2016 program was led by COA faculty member Jay Friedlander.

Course description for the water-focused aspect of the France program: http://www.coa.edu/live/profiles/1773-taking-the-waters-the-politics-culture-of/templates/details/courses.php German Summer University program on sustainable food business: http://www.coa.edu/summerprograms/german-summer-university/