Off-Campus January Term Courses
Explore Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and South America in January 2026.
Applications for J Term 2026 are now open!
Deadline for applications is May 1, 2025
Please note: Prices of Off-Campus J Term programs are estimates. If there are factors that affect the final cost of a program, such as fluctuations in currency exchange rates or fuel price increases, a fee adjustment will be announced. If there are factors that affect the final cost of the program, program participants will be notified about the adjustment as soon as possible.
Argentina, Cuba, England
PATAGONIA: NATURE, CULTURE & BUSINESS AT THE END OF THE WORLD
Applications Now Open!
Completely submerge yourself into Argentinian culture. This course offers a contrasting landscape experience between the crowded streets of cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, and trekking through the vast extensions of some of the most vibrant and remote lands in Patagonia, experiencing firsthand the terrain, the smells, the climate, and the everyday life of a local on both ends of the spectrum. Resting in-between treks will be time spent learning how business and culture relate in Argentina, through the history of the Tango, Argentinean cuisine, the tourism industry and an insider’s look at our cultural differences and similarities.
Course: BUSA or MUSI
Location: Buenos Aires and Patagonia, Argentina
Prerequisite: Required Practice Hikes in September, October and November 2025, and pre-departure class in January 2026
Program Directors: Ana Gonzalez, James Wyzykowski
Curricular Requirement: 4 credits
Cost: $5,500
Length of program: 19 Days Off-Campus
Tentative program dates: January 5 – January 23, 2026
Meals: 3 meals per day included
Accommodations: Hotels, inns & hostels
TRANSCULTURAL NURSING IN CUBA
Applications Now Open!
This course is designed to assist the student to recognize the myriad of health-related beliefs and practices that exist among and between different members of a diverse culture and how those beliefs and practices impact upon the health of its members. This four-week intensive experience is designed to expose the student to the social detriments of health and public health and transcultural concepts and theories. Students are exposes to different empirical frameworks to assist them in providing holistic, culturally competent care to individuals, families, populations and communities living in a foreign setting. Clinical experiences to meet course objectives occur in diverse rural and/or urban settings with an emphasis on therapeutic interventions, health promotion, disease prevention, risk reduction and health teaching.
Course: NURS 346
Location: Havana, Cuba
Prerequisite: Reserved for Nursing Students
Program Directors: Geneen Bolton, Travis Beebe-Woodard
Curricular Requirement: 4 credits
Cost: $5,500
Length of program: 17 days Off-Campus
Tentative program dates: January 8 – January 24, 2026
Meals: Most meals included
Accommodations: Dorm
THEATRE IN ENGLAND
Applications Now Open!
This course introduces students to theatre in London, with the aim of enriching their understanding of contemporary British theatre and theatre as a whole. Based in London and Stratford-upon-Avon, the students will attend seventeen productions offered by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, West End theatres and other companies. Understand how we as Anglophiles, as students of literature and theatre, and as tourists, value the remnants of England’s cultural past, and understand how residents of Britain might both respect and contest those values. Understand the place of theatre in contemporary English society.
Course: THEA 303 or ENGL 303
Locations: London & Stratford-upon-Avon, England
Prerequisite: None
Program Directors: Marc Shaw
Curricular Requirement: 4 credits
Cost: $4,200
Length of program: 22 Days Off-Campus
Tentative program dates: January 2 – January 24, 2026
Meals: 3 meals per day included
Accommodations: Hotel / Guesthouse
Greece, Hawaii, Japan
ANCIENT THOUGHT & POLITICS IN ATHENS
Applications Now Open!
This course offers an introduction to the ideas that shaped ancient political thinking and society. Focus on ancient understandings of justice, the role of individual habit, and virtue in a well ordered political society. One important view of ancient political thought on the whole, is as a conflict between “philosophy and poetry”. We will endeavor to understand what this might mean too. Finally we will also spend a good deal of our time thinking about what makes “ancient” political thought “ancient”. In other words, what makes it importantly different from political thinking now or at any other time?
Course: POLS 250 or PHIL 250
Location: Athens, Nafplion, Olympia & Delphi, Greece
Prerequisite: None
Program Directors: Matthew Chick, Jeremy Wisnewski
Curricular Requirement: 4 credits
Cost: $4,600
Length of program: 23 Days Off-Campus
Tentative program dates: January 2 – January 22, 2026
Meals: Some meals included
Accommodations: Hostel / Hotel
GEOLOGY & NATURAL HISTORY OF HAWAII
Applications Now Open!
Visit the islands of Hawai’i and study the geological and environmental aspects of island formation and evolution. Explore unique and breathtaking geological, biological, oceanographic, agronomic, and cultural destinations. Through a series of field and reflective assignments, students will compare/contrast the physical characteristics and environments observed on/around each island, paying close attention to the influence of geology on human society and the impact humans have had on the natural world. Expect a great deal of hiking, often in steep/wet/muddy conditions, and sometimes at high altitude. Other activities include scientific observation, basic field data collection, snorkeling among nearshore reefs, a lava watch (when accessible), and visits to historic Polynesian sites. Although most physical activity will be mild to moderate in intensity, we will be moving for much of each day – much more daily activity when compared to most on-campus course days.
Course: GEOL 275
Location: Hawaii, U.S.A.
Prerequisite: GEOL 274 (1-credit prep course meeting 2nd half of the semester) – Fall 2025
Program Director: Zsuzsanna Balogh-Brunstad, David Griffing
Curricular Requirement: 4 credits
Cost: $5,200
Length of program: 18 days Off-Campus
Tentative program dates: January 4 – January 22, 2026
Meals: 3 meals per day included
Accommodations: Dorm, Apartment
JAPANESE LANGUAGE & CULTURE IN TOKYO
Applications Now Open!
Study Japanese in Tokyo amid the dynamic cultural life of one of the world’s most globally connected cities. Immerse yourself in learning the language and contemporary society of Japan at Toyo University, where you can meet and interact with Japanese college students. Explore Tokyo’s vibrant urban neighborhoods and its historic shrines and temples. Get a hands-on introduction to distinctive Japanese traditions of calligraphy, paper-making, and even making mochi from scratch!
Course: JAPN 105
Locations: Tokyo, Japan
Prerequisite: None
Program Directors: Jennifer LaRose, Mark Wolff
Curricular Requirement: 4 credits
Cost: $5,000
Length of program: 21 Days Off-Campus
Tentative program dates: January 3 to January 25, 2026
Meals: None, meals are on own
Accommodations: Hotel
New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa
SCRIPTED BODIES: MĀORI TĀ MOKO & NEW ZEALAND
Applications Now Open!
Scripted Bodies: Māori tā moko and New Zealand Culture, History, Tradition” will afford Hartwick travelers the opportunity to study the art, practice, and cultural relevance of Tā Moko—“tattooing,” or body scripting. Student-explorers will study the salient differences between Western attitudes toward, understanding of, and devotion to tattooing and that of Māoris, indigenous Polynesians for whom tattooing is a sacred and ritualized practice. Student-explorers will visit a tā moko studio and will meet Tuhunga tā moko, highly revered tattoo artists who will explain how traditional Māori body-scripting practice weaves together storytelling, identity, and transformation. In addition to exploring, hiking in, or venturing to various geologically noteworthy sites (e.g., Maungawhau Mountain; Waitakere Ranges Regional Park; and Lake Taupō, to see the Ngātoroirangi Māori carvings), student-explorers will visit art centers and galleries (e.g., Māngere Arts Centre and Te Puia | Māori Arts & Crafts Institute) and Parliament. Sites of exploration will include Auckland, Rotorua; Taupō; Wellington.
Course: ENGL 250
Locations: Auckland, Rotorua; Taupō & Wellington, New Zealand
Prerequisite: Fall ’25: 1 credit half-term course
Program Directors: Noah Goldblatt, Susan Navarette
Curricular Requirement: 4 credits
Cost: $6,500
Length of program: 19 Days Off-Campus
Tentative program dates: January 5 to January 23, 2026
Meals: 2 meals per day included
Accommodations: Hotels
PORTUGAL: FERMENTATION AND THE RELOCALIZATION OF FOOD SYSTEMS
Applications Now Open!
Food is a shared part of the lived experience of all people; thus, food provides an ideal theme through which to understand the culture and history of another nation. This course provides a culinary tour through Portugal, a nation with a rich cultural history of small-scale artisan food production. Course content focuses on understanding the creation of fermented foods, including cheese and sausage, from a biological, economic, and social perspective and appreciating the value and challenges of local food systems and large scale commercial food production.
Course: BIOL-245 or ECON-145
Locations: Lisbon, Coimbra & Porto, Portugal
Prerequisite: None
Program Directors: Mary Allen, Carlena Ficano
Curricular Requirement: 4 credits
Cost: $3,750
Length of program: 23 Days Off-Campus
Tentative program dates: January 5 to January 26, 2026
Meals: 3 meals per day included
Accommodations: Hostels/Hotels
HUMANITY'S BIRTHPLACE: CULTURE, ECOLOGY, HISTORY IN SOUTH AFRICA
Applications Now Open!
The Indian Ocean in mid-summer! The last great herds of wild animals left on the planet! The only continent on which humans are indigenous! South Africa January 2024 will introduce you to African cultures, including its exemplary leadership during the covid epidemic; history, geology, ecology; and the miracle of nonviolent revolution as democracy replaced a whites-only dictatorship in 1994. Starting in the gorgeous Drakensberg Mountains, location of the world’s oldest art (80,000 years ago!), we travel from the Indian Ocean to the Kruger Park, visiting rural hospitals, the school of public health, game reserves, archaeological sites, native villages, squatter camps and glittering malls, museums, schools, orphanages, beaches and mountains in our quest to understand their continuing transition to a unified, multiracial, multicultural democracy.
Course: ANTH 335 or PUBH 335
Locations: Johannesburg, South Africa
Prerequisite: None
Program Directors: Constance Anderson, Barbara Kahl
Curricular Requirement: 4 credits
Cost: $3,950
Length of program: 25 Days Off-Campus
Tentative program dates: December 26 to January 19, 2026
Meals: 2 meals per day included
Accommodations: Shared apartment / Other
Spain
ART AND CULTURES OF SPAIN
Applications Now Open
Students will enhance their knowledge of the varied cultures of Spain, through exposure to cultural texts and artifacts (e.g., language, visual art, literature, food and foodways, architecture, music, and cultural traditions). Our explorations will take us to the cities of Sevilla, Granada, and Córdoba, where we will deepen our understanding of the history, values, politics, communication styles, economy, and social trends of Spanish cultures from the era of ancient Rome to the present day. Embracing this new experience will prepare us to meet the personal, intellectual, and social challenges of a rapidly changing and increasingly interdependent world.
Course: SPAN 285/385/485 or ARTH 385
Locations: Sevilla, Granada, & Córdoba, Spain
Prerequisite: HUMA 250: Art and Cultures of Spain Prep Course
Program Directors: Karina Walker, Doug Zullo
Curricular Requirement: 4 credits
Cost: $4,950
Length of program: 18 Days Off-Campus
Tentative program dates: January 9 to January 26, 2026
Meals: 2 meals per day included
Accommodations: Dorm / Hostel
Questions?
Contact the Center for Global Education ([email protected]) or visit our offices on the 1st floor of Clark Hall in 129 & 122.
Hartwick College and the Center for Global Education offer many scholarship opportunities for students who wish to participate in a J Term program.
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