Important Dates
Tentative Travel Dates: May 14 – May 30, 2025
Interest Meetings: View on Office of Education Abroad event calendar here.
Scholarship Application Deadline: October 15, 2024
Application and Deposit Deadline: January 15, 2025
Program Description
The UCA British Isles 2025 program aims to provide students with a three-week study abroad experience that deepens their understanding of the complex history and culture of England and Scotland. Students will primarily lodge in the countryside of both nations, wherein they will reflect upon two of the deepest, most complex, dyads of human history: faith/reason and rural/urban.
With this in mind, the 2025 program will take students from the Neolithic ruins of Stonehenge to the hallowed halls of Oxford University and contrast the mystical Highlands and Lochs of Scotland (inspirational to myth and legend, but also the site of the Clearances, a pseudo-scientific deforestation of the region and a forced migration of its people in the name of industrial progress), before experiencing the often uneasy merger of faith and reason at the medieval episcopal seat and university of St. Andrews.
Health and Safety
Students registering for programs should carefully read through all health and safety information provided during the application process. In addition, students should honestly complete the ‘Health and Safety Form’ so that any health related concerns may be adequately accommodated on study abroad programs.
Participants will be enrolled in comprehensive international insurance for the duration of programming. It is the student’s responsibility to extend insurance cover if they stay abroad beyond UCA’s planned program dates. For information about international insurance coverage: https://uca.edu/globalstudy/health-and-safety/
Students must attend one health and safety meeting during the spring semester. Meeting dates will be announced after the application deadlines.
Faculty Leaders and Course Offerings
I’m Vaughn Scribner, an associate professor of early modern British history at the University of Central Arkansas. I have led multiple study abroad trips to Great Britain and have travelled extensively otherwise. I love traveling and learning, and can’t wait to introduce you to the life-changing experience that is study abroad!
Courses offered by Dr. Scribner:
- HIST 4334: Topics in European History – Rational Questioning and Assertive Faith in Medieval and Early Modern Britain
Humans have frequently dedicated the works of their rational minds–art, architecture, literature–to the Divine, often in spite of tensions between humanity’s increasing ability to shape the world and their belief in its government by supernatural forces. This course covers the interplay of religion, science, and rationality from the fall of Roman Britain at the beginning of the 5th century, through the rise of Christianity, and into the post-Reformation world of the scientific revolution and the 18th century philosophes.
- HIST 4334: Topics in European History: Urban Cosmopolitanism and Rural Splendor in Medieval and Early Modern Britain
This course explores the changing views of peoples in Britain regarding the role and importance played by concentrated populations (Urbanism) connected with one another and to some extent controlling and dependent upon the resources of the countryside. The shifting nature of economic and political power placed frequently changing importance on both urban populations and rural resources–often creating tensions among the opposing ends of society: the very rich and the very poor. The results are an on-going dialogue between the value and dangers of cosmopolitanism and desires to both exploit and idealize the natural world.
Hello–I am Dr. Chris Craun, a native Arkansan from a small town in Southwest Arkansas. It was very intimidating for me to consider going abroad my first time. However, it was a life-changing experience. I completed my PhD in Medieval History at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland and have co-led multiple study-abroad trips to the UK and France. I have experienced the process as a student, a parent, and an educator.
Courses offered by Dr. Craun:
- HIST 4334: Topics in European History – Rational Questioning and Assertive Faith in Medieval and Early Modern Britain
Humans have frequently dedicated the works of their rational minds–art, architecture, literature–to the Divine, often in spite of tensions between humanity’s increasing ability to shape the world and their belief in its government by supernatural forces. This course covers the interplay of religion, science, and rationality from the fall of Roman Britain at the beginning of the 5th century, through the rise of Christianity, and into the post-Reformation world of the scientific revolution and the 18th century philosophes.
- HIST 4334: Topics in European History: Urban Cosmopolitanism and Rural Splendor in Medieval and Early Modern Britain
This course explores the changing views of peoples in Britain regarding the role and importance played by concentrated populations (Urbanism) connected with one another and to some extent controlling and dependent upon the resources of the countryside. The shifting nature of economic and political power placed frequently changing importance on both urban populations and rural resources–often creating tensions among the opposing ends of society: the very rich and the very poor. The results are an on-going dialogue between the value and dangers of cosmopolitanism and desires to both exploit and idealize the natural world.
HONC 3310 credit may also be offered to students currently admitted to Schedler Honors College.
Program Cost
Once available, the 2025 program cost for ‘UCA in the English and Scottish Countryside’ will be linked here.