India – August 2024
India Overview
Travel to Chennai, India with Dr. John Boopalan in August 2024 to gain first-hand insight into Indian society and today’s multicultural global reality. The course enables students to have a lived and learned sense of how geographical spaces like “Asia” and “North America” constantly influence each other in migratory patterns and social politics. Students will be inspired to consider how multiculturalism is best understood as having multiple theological and social models.
In engaging with different religious and communitarian perspectives, the course prepares students to think critically about their own social locations and perspectives on life together across various kinds of difference. In taking the social category of “multiculturalism” and bringing it into conversation with “theology,” students will engage with an area of common concern from across disciplines.
Highlights of places students will visit:
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu (homebase; Chennai is a major cosmopolitan city in the south of India with some a major coastline; home to major religious and social movements)
- Kanchi (major textile cottage industry location for silk production)
- Mahabalipuram (major destination for ancient Hindu temples)
- Pondicherry (coastal city and former French colony and site of significant spiritual movements)
- Vellore (location of a major Christian hospital with missionary history called Christian Medical College and Hospital)
All programming will be translated into English so that there is no language requirement to participate.
Academic Overview
Credits
BTS/RLGN/SOCI-3995 – Multiculturalisms: Social and Theological Models
Given how the language of "multiculturalism" marks the religious and political life of India and Canada, this travel course to the south of India will enable students to learn about real and perceived religious and social differences by looking at the following dyads: majority and minority; centre and margin; secular and religious; global and local. Through embodied encounters and accompanying learnings, students will have the opportunity to synthesize cross-cultural learning and better engage in an increasingly and mutually affective multicultural global reality.
This course may be used to fulfill the following program major requirements:
- Ways of Knowing II requirement in common curriculum
- Theology requirement in the Biblical and Theological Studies major
- Area course requirement in the Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies major
- Group B Concentration Course in the Social Science major, Intercultural Studies concentration
Prerequisites
24 credit hours of university-level studies
Itinerary
Dates and itinerary subject to change.
- August 8, 2024 – Departure for India
- August 9 – Arrival in Chennai
- August 10-11 – Introduction to Indian culture, society, and religious practice
- August 12 – Pondicherry tour
- August 13 – Debrief and local resourcing to analyze course themes
- August 14 –Kanchi tour
- August 15 – Debrief and local resourcing to analyze course themes
- August 16 – Visit to Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore
- August 17 – Tour of ancient religious temples in Mahabalipuram
- August 18 – Local resourcing to analyze course themes
- August 19 – Local sightseeing
- August 20 – Debrief
- August 21 – Depart from Chennai
- August 22 – Arrival in Canada
Tuition & Fees
Estamos offers students a rich intercultural education and travel experience at a reasonable cost. The costs below cover the entire student experience, from departure from Canada to return, and everything in between. Canadians and Canadian Permanent Residents will receive up to $5,000 in financial support from Global Skills Opportunity. Canadians and Permanent Residents who identify as low income, having a disability, or Indigenous may qualify for up to $5,000 beyond that, for a total of up to $10,000 in financial support (see notes below). Students will be charged a minimum of $800 to participate in Estamos programming, thus GSO funding will only be awarded up to that point. If that cost is still inaccessible, students may make requests for additional funding to the Director of Estamos.
CMU scholarships and bursaries may be used towards Estamos program costs, excluding the Athletic Merit which will not be awarded for any semester that a student is participating in Estamos. Students may use government student aid and RESPs towards Estamos program costs.
| Estamos India Program Costs (August 2024) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Canadian Citizens & Landed Residents | International Students | |
| Tuition | $777 | $1,204 |
| Field Study Fees1 | $4,464 | $4,464 |
| Accommodations and Food2 | $900 | $900 |
| Student Fees | $85 | $85 |
| Administration Fees | $574 | $574 |
| Sub-total | $6,800 | $7,227 |
| Grant from Global Skills Opportunity3 | ($5,000) | – |
| Grand Total | $1,800 | $7,227 |
| Additional grants up to $5,000 for Canadian citizens and Canadian permanent residents may be available to those identifying as low-income, Indigenous, or having a disability.4 | ||
1 Program Fees include flights, insurance, carbon offsets, local travel, entry to any museums and attractions. Flight costs will be finalized upon purchase of airfare. The airfare portion of this figure is for a roundtrip flight to/from Winnipeg. Students flying from other locations may face different flight cost.
2 This covers all food and accommodations in India. Students will need to pay for meals while in transit to and from India.
3 A grant from Global Skills Opportunity allows all Canadian citizens and Canadian permanent residents discount up to $5,000, with additional funding available to students in the target groups.
4 The Global Skills Opportunity grant provides additional support up to an additional $5,000 for underrepresented students, using the following definitions:
- Low-income students: students who report to be in receipt of Canada Student Grants, or similar non-repayable student financial assistance offered by provinces and territories, or, in the absence of receiving non-repayable student financial assistance, can provide information to demonstrate that they require financial support to study or work abroad.
- Indigenous students: students who report being an Indigenous person, that is, First Nations, Métis, or Inuk (Inuit).
- Students with disabilities: students who report to have a difficulty or impairment due to a long-term condition or health problem and/or experience a limitation in their daily activities.
Important Dates
- February 29, 2024 – Application deadline
- March 31, 2024 – $500 non-refundable deposit due
- July 15, 2024 – Remaining student payment
If you have questions about the Estamos Colombia program, please contact Tim Cruickshank, Director of Estamos, at tcruickshank
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