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Courses for January Term 2009
PSYC 315: Language of the Traveler: A Psychological/Psycholinguistic Perspective [3]
Domestic course taught in:
St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands (plus day trip to St. John and day trip to St. Croix)
Additional fees required
Beverly Adams, Assistant Professor
Dates: Monday, December 29, 2008 - Sunday, January 11, 2009
“A friend visiting relatives in Barbados said they didn’t understand why he wanted to go and lie on the beach like a dumb tourist” (Gwyn Topham, The Guardian, 3 June 2005).
In the course, The Language of the Traveler: A psychological/psycholinguistic perspective, the goals are two-fold. Firstly, the course will cover topics that are considered relevant to the academic and theoretical literature of “tourism” from a psychological perspective. We will examine these topics/issues through reading journal articles, book chapters, and the daily newspaper – before, during, and following the J-term trip to the US Virgin Islands. Each topic will be considered from a psychological and psycholinguistic viewpoint. Each class meeting will consist of an opportunity to explore the culture/life of the US Virgin Islands from a bottom-up as well as a top-down theoretical perspective. UVA student-travelers will learn more about the cultural identity of the US Virgin Islands’ inhabitants who share citizenship with the mainland Americans.
Secondly, in the course, we will examine how language is used to frame the experience of the traveler vs the tourists—as I coin a new psychological/anthropological term, student-traveler. In the anthropological literature, the study of “tourism” reveals few, if any, positive associations with the term, tourist. A traveler, on the other hand, is held in much higher regard. Even the lay use of the term, tourist, as illustrated in the above quote, provides a realistic sense of how native inhabitants perceive tourists, even when they understand the value of the tourist industry to their country. The student-traveler is a non-native student (graduate or undergraduate) who holds value not necessarily monetarily as a visitor, but as a promoter of the culture of the country. Student-travelers will be valued by their native lands because they will return with cultural knowledge from hands-on (or at least hands-closer) experiences. We will discuss how the selection of individual words or phrases can change behavior and perception.
The reading list will include an historical review of the US Virgin Islands from peer-reviewed research articles and book chapters in the psychology literature, and the US Virgin Islands daily newspapers(s).
An additional program fee of $2,030 is required for this course. This fee includes meals and lodging but does not include airfare or tuition.
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