Urban Social Processes

Overview
Scope and Purpose: The aim of this program is to facilitate research and studies for selected graduate and undergraduate students, professional journalists, and researchers who are studying some aspect of Cuba. We address a wide array of social, economic and political issues unfolding in contemporary Cuba. In particular, we employ an interdisciplinary approach to understand how the built environment in both design fields and in a broader cultural context is interpreted. All curious participants are welcome and should not feel that this program is only for planners, architects or students of the humanities.

In addition to a course-pack of diverse readings, the main social science and design reading will be:

Segre, Roberto, Coyula, M., and Scarpaci, J. 2002. Havana: Two Faces of the Antillean Metropolis. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. This book is required reading and can be purchased at the university bookstores.

Location: This study abroad is located in Cuba, where the students will travel to Havana, Trinidad, Santa Clara, and Varadero. The program includes ground transportation on air-conditioned buses. We will meet largely “outside the classroom,” which includes meetings with community organizations, government offices and NGO headquarters. This will be the eleventh organized trip to Cuba. This will mark Professor Scarpaci's 30th visit to the island. In August 1999, the program received an institutional license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control, US Treasury, to conduct educational trips to the island. This institutional license, one of the first granted to an institution of higher education in the U.S., means that the program coordinator can license appropriate individuals to travel to Cuba. This greatly streamlines the paperwork process.

Academic Focus: The thematic focus remains: Urban design and planning under colonial, neo-colonial, and revolutionary rule; housing; the role of NGOs in Cuba's changing political economy; and the new private/mixed market. However, this year we will rely more heavily on the novel and short story to understand contemporary and historical accounts of the Cuban city.

Video: A video, in both English (Urban Design and Planning in Cuba: An Historical Perspective) and Spanish (Diseño Urbano y Planificación en Cuba: Una Perspectiva Histórica en Cuba) are available on this topic. The videos run 33 and 39 minutes, respectively. Also, students have worked on a Service Learning Grant in Cuba. Their community development project in an Afro Cuban neighborhood in Havana (Atarés) is described here.

Venue: The trip consists of a total of 12 days (5 days in Havana May 26 - 30, with a day trip to Pinar del Río) and then traveling to and staying in Trinidad (May 30 - June 1), and Santa Clara (June 2). We return to Havana for the balance of the trip. Trindad and Old Havana are UNESCO declared World Heritage Sites. In Havana we will meet with scholars from the José Antonio Echeverría Polytechnic Institute and in Santa Clara we will hold meetings with the Central University of Santa Clara.

Dates: 12 days, May 23-June 7, 2004. The program officially begins and ends in Miami. We shall clarify the departure point when the program date draws near.

Daily Activities: On class days, lectures or meetings with Cubans will be in the morning and in the afternoon students will go to a site that corresponds to the morning lecture. Trips are planned to museums, architectural landmarks, public agencies, NGO’s, and universities. There will be a fair amount of city walking, and participants should plan accordingly. Students maintain journals throughout the course.

Cost from Miami: $2,400 plus $100 application fee(5% discount if paid by February 1st, 2004). All participants must register for 3 credits and will pay tuition directly to Virginia Tech. Final payment must be made by April 1, 2004. The cost includes round-trip charter flight from Miami to Havana, lodging, 2 meals daily, lectures and daily field trips, visas, bus travel, and lodging (double accommodations) to and from Trinidad, course reading packet, and lectures in Havana, Trinidad, and Santa Clara by architects, geographers, planners, writers, community organizers, common folk, and social scientists.

Instruction: The academic focus will be urban design and planning under colonial, republican, and revolutionary rule; housing; the role of non governmental organizations in Cuba's changing political economy; and the new private/mixed market; the use of the novel and short story in illuminating social and political life in Cuba..

Field Trips: The field trips will correspond to the lectures. This way, students will see first hand some important concepts discussed in meetings and lectures. There will also be a pig roast at a small farm outside Havana. Participants should anticipate a great deal of walking in the study sites.

Non-Virginia Tech students must complete a "Non-degree seeking application form" as part of the application process, which is available on the Virginia Tech admission offices' home pages.

Three (3) credit hours will be given for the program. However, an additional three credits is also available; please contact Professor Scarpaci for more details. Both graduate and undergraduate credit will be offered under GEOG (Geography) 4984 and GEOG 5984. Only a letter grade option is available.

Eligibility: The course is open to any student, professor, journalist or professional studying some aspect of Cuba or comparative aspects of urbanization, planning, social sciences, literature, architecture or community development. Students from other universities or persons enrolling as special students in Virginia Tech summer school may receive transfer credit. However it is their responsibility to arrange for the credit transfer.
Most of all, this program requires flexibility and good social skills, in addition to intellectual curiosity. If you do not think you will be comfortable in a developing country, do not like traveling with small groups, are not a 'team-player,' are a picky eater or vegetarian, then you consider an alternative study-abroad venue.

Student Housing: The students will stay in 3-star bed and breakfast lodgings and some of the time in student boarding housing. Students should anticipate brief power outages in Havana. Participants are advised that this is not a luxury trip and that food and lodging conditions vary widely. Flexibility, to be sure, is the key to a successful program.





Student Evaluations from previous trip: page 1, page 2 Here are the unedited open-ended evaluations from an earlier group. In addition, Professor Scarpaci will provide anyone with a list of e-mail addresses should they wish to contact program participants directly.

See Pictures from the 2002 trip

Application Form: The following form is not interactive, you may either print it out or save it as source and then pull it up in any word processor. The application form must be accompanied with a $100 non refundable application fee.