SUMMER COURSE – URBAN AGRICULTURE AND CIVIC ECOLOGY 

IMG_5297July 2 – 30, 2016 
Lisbon, Portugal
Study in Portugal Network
 
Application deadline: March 30, 2016.  
Students should apply through their school’s study abroad office to ensure that credits will be transferred.
To be team-taught by Prof. Jorge Cancela (Faculty of Landscape Architecture, UL) and Krista Harper (Anthropology and Public Policy, UMass Amherst) 
Course Description: This course will introduce students to the world of urban agriculture viewed through two lenses: cultural anthropology and landscape architecture/design. The Lisbon metropolitan area, with its rapid urbanization and temperate climate, is the perfect place to study the growth of this global phenomenon. Through readings, field trips, and hands-on research, we will learn about the history of growing food in the city and how the urban food system has changed in the past century. The course will examine urban agriculture as an emerging “civic ecology”: an amalgam of social movements working to change the food system and formal institutions’ efforts toward achieving urban environmental sustainability. The course will use Lisbon as a living laboratory for understanding the growth of urban gardening. Field trips will take students to urban gardening initiatives and Lisbon’s hidden azinhagas (country lanes), olive orchards, and gardens–remnants of the city’s historical food system. Students will gain in-depth cross-cultural experience through community service learning and a design/build studio project in a local urban garden.
No Portuguese language skills required–however, the class will provide excellent opportunities for students to practice conversational Portuguese in the community service placement if they wish and the SiPN program allows you to add on other classes.
Cost: $2,500 (3 credits, 24/7 on-site support, housing, public transportation pass, local cell phone + SIM card, weekend field trips are included. Food and airfare is not included) There are partial scholarships and other courses available in June and August as well!

See flyer here!

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