Faculty-led study trips

Agents of Change

Taught by Scott Peters and Mary Jo Dudley

This class is designed to support the growth and development of students as agents of change. It’s centered on the study of community organizing and development, a multidimensional craft with many situational and cultural variations. We’ll explore different theories, models, and practices of community organizing from many cultures and contexts through a mix of readings, discussions, skills-based workshops, guest speakers, and a week-long engaged learning field trip to Uruguay. The trip will include hands-on work with community partners and students from the Universidad de la República during Cornell’s spring break. Students from Cornell and the Universidad de la República will co-design the engaged learning experiences in collaboration with community partners. As we move through the semester, we’ll pose and answer two key questions that relate to the work of being an effective agent of change: What do we need to know? What do we need to know how to do? We’ll take these and other questions up together, using tools and processes from many disciplines and fields. In doing so we’ll join and contribute to a long history of debate about the theory and practice of democracy as a way of life.

Evolving Concepts of Food System Transformation and Rural Development in a Changing China

Taught by Terry Tucker

This faculty-led study trip is designed to acquaint students with major issues, challenges and promising innovations in agriculture and food systems in China, a country that has experienced profound social, economic, environmental and technological changes in the past quarter century. In partnership with China Agricultural University, students will learn about transforming food systems in ways that promote more equitable access, strengthen resilience to shocks, advance human nutrition, and/or mitigate negative environmental impacts. Conversations with farmers, entrepreneurs and innovators across the food system will provide insights into their views on the nature of food system change and challenges, the factors driving system change, and the social, economic, environmental and political consequences of change. Rural visits will expose students to China’s experiments and experiences related to rural development and agrarian change.

Climate Change and Socio-Environmental Transformation in the Mekong Delta

Taught by Jenny Goldstein and Thúy Tranviet

This course examines climate change adaptation and socio-environmental transformation in Vietnam's Mekong Delta through engaged learning and participatory international field research. Students analyze how environmental challenges—including flooding, subsidence, and saltwater intrusion—intersect with agricultural production, local livelihoods, and food security in this crucial rice-growing region. Through a two-week field experience in Vietnam hosted by Can Tho University in the Mekong Delta region, students interact with farmers, ethnic minority communities, and local experts to understand indigenous agricultural practices, renewable energy initiatives, and adaptation strategies. The course explores how climate change reshapes traditional agrarian systems and socio-economic development, with particular attention to marginalized communities. Students gain practical international experience while investigating the implications of Delta transformation for global food systems. Through hands-on research and community engagement, students enhance their global awareness and develop critical perspectives on climate adaptation in rapidly changing agricultural landscapes.

Chasing the Celtic Tiger: Development Challenges in Ireland

Taught by John Sipple

The “Celtic Tiger” was a period of rapid economic development across Ireland from 1995-2008. In this time, Ireland transformed from a poor (by western standards), rural nation that had experienced tremendous out-migration over the previous 150 years to a surprising hub of technology and growth. This course will examine the growth and infrastructure investment (e.g., transportation, schools, healthcare), including social and economic development activities. We will examine and experience the uneven development and residual hope that followed the global financial crisis of 2008. This course will examine the history of development in Ireland in pre-, mid-, and post Celtic Tiger, embedding our study in a small number of communities including Dublin, Galway, Gaeltacht islands (Inis Meain), and Kilbeggan.

Social Inequalities in Africa 

Taught by Parfait Eloundou-Enyegue 

This course will explore the manifestations, depth, and reproduction of inequality in sub-Saharan Africa, a region that is becoming a global epicenter of inequality. Throughout the course and fieldwork in Cameroon, the students will examine the myriad of manifestations of inequality across various institutions across an individual’s life course, from cradle to grave. It will cover access to maternal health care (at birth), adequate nutrition (in early childhood), schooling and extracurricular cultivation (in childhood and adolescence), employment and adequate housing (in adulthood) and social security (in old-age). For each of these outcomes, students will visit and contrast people and institutions at both extremes of the distribution. More importantly, they will analyze the importance of discrete life experiences and various institutions in maintaining and reproducing inequality.  The field experience will be facilitated by IFORD and PICHNET.

Agroecology: Theory and Practice

Taught by Rachel Bezner Kerr

Agroecology is a holistic approach to food systems that applies social and ecological principles and adapts to the local agroecosystem and cultural context. Students will be hosted by the non-profit, farmer-led organization Soils, Food and Healthy Communities organization (SFHC), who has long-term experience carrying out participatory research and training on agroecology, alongside gender, nutrition and climate change adaptation. Most of the time the students will stay at the SFHC Farmer Research and Training Centre, in northern Malawi. They will learn and collaborate with local farmers, communities, students and researchers to learn about agroecology in practice, including farmer experimentation, indigenous knowledge, and gender issues in agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Activities will include visiting a community seed bank, participating in implementing agroecological practices alongside farmers, helping to cook local recipes as part of community recipe days, attending agroecological farmers’ markets, and meeting with policy-makers, extension workers and academics involved in agroecology. They will, in conjunction with Malawian collaborators, reflect on their own relationships with food systems, and consider how agriculture and food systems can support food security, nutrition, rural livelihoods, community and ecosystem health.

Culture, Communities & Development: From Upstate NY to Quito, Ecuador

ECUADOR | SPRING 2024

Faculty: Julie Ficarrra and Sofia Villenas

Developed in partnership with Universidad San Francisco de Quito, this course invites students to explore the complexities of culture and community and their impact on the practice of development, with students and faculty from Universidad San Francisco de Quito, and community partners in Upstate New York and Quito, Ecuador. Together, we will apply theories of cultural change, intercultural communication, and community empowerment to the geographic contexts of Upstate New York and Quito, Ecuador. USFQ student and faculty collaborators will come to Cornell for in-person collaborative work and will learn from and with community partners off-campus in both Ithaca and Buffalo. We will then all travel together (USFQ and Cornell students) from Syracuse to Quito, to continue our collaborative learning.

In Quito, Cornell students will learn about community-based development in the areas of: poverty alleviation, food security, education, and elder inclusion from USFQ faculty and community experts. They’ll then spend time with community-based organizations that address these development challenges in and around Quito. Cornell students will return to NY and the remainder of the course will be focused on critical reflection of the community-based global learning experience and a final collaborative solution-focused project with our Ecuadorian partners.    

Learn more about the Ecuador study trip and USFQ exchange in the CALS Newsroom.

Agriculture & Food Systems of Costa Rica

COSTA RICA | FALL 2023-WINTER 2024

Faculty: Marvin Pritts, Terry Tucker, Justine Vanden Heuvel

This course will expose students to the organizations, labor conditions, trade policies, and gender considerations that impact value chains in Costa Rica, with a focus on specialty crop production such as flowers, pineapples, bananas, and coffee.

Learn more about this trip in the Cornell Chronicle photo essay and Instagram reel.