Bates Fall Semester Abroad

Professors Baker (Biology) and Maurer-Fazio (Economics)

During the fall semester of 2010, Bates students, including entering first-year students, can explore China and its health care systems in Kunming. The program focuses on the study of Chinese language study, traditional Chinese medicine, the biology of world health, and the economics of health care in China. A feature of the program is extensive travel in China (Beijing, Xi'an, and northwestern Yunnan) and Vietnam. No prior knowledge of Chinese is required.


Kunming is the political, economic, and cultural center of Yunnan Province and home to twenty-five of China's fifty-six recognized ethnic groups. Once one of the gateways to the ancient Silk Road, Kunming remains a trading hub and is now a city of over five million people. Traditional Chinese medicine and its many ethnic variants remain in use in Yunnan, making it a prime location for the study of health care in China.


Following a program orientation in Tonghai, students begin classes in Kunming with Bates faculty and at the Center for Cultural Learning and Development at Yunnan Nationalities University, where they study Chinese. A week of independent travel within Yunnan Province is an integral part of the program in September, as are the three-week practicum in traditional Chinese medicine at the Yunnan Provincial Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital and a rural health field trip. A practicum in traditional Vietnamese medicine takes place at the Vietnamese Academy of Traditional Medicine in Hanoi. The program ends in mid-December. The program fulfills the requirements of General Education concentration C081 (Health Studies in China).

Professors Decker (German) and Associate Professor Browne (Russian)

During the fall semester of 2010, Bates students, including entering first-year students, can experience the excitement of living and learning in Austria. The program is based in Vienna and includes extensive travel in Austria and the Balkans. Courses consider political and cultural developments in Austria during the last century and the legacy of empires and superpowers in Eastern Europe. No prior knowledge of German is required.


The city of Mozart, Schubert, Freud, and Klimt, Vienna has a rich intellectual heritage and remains a center for the arts in Europe. The former seat of the multi-ethnic Habsburg Empire, today Vienna's close proximity to Budapest, Prague, and Sarajevo has given the city a unique role in the post-cold-war emergence of a new Europe.


The program begins in late August with a month-long intensive German language immersion at Cultura Wien in the center of the city. In late September students begin their regular classes in German and their courses with Bates faculty. The program ends in mid-December. The program fulfills the requirements of General Education concentration C082 (German in Vienna).