Culture On Harvard’s Dime

At Harvard, bells may toll the hour instead of buzzing you from class to class, but one of the greatest perks of yesteryear persists: the class field trip.

Departments as diverse as History of Art and Architecture (HAA) and Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) offer paid field trips to help their students learn outside the classroom.

Caitlin S. Bergin ’06, an EPS concentrator, has reaped the benefits of this little-known perk. This past summer, she was studying geology in the Italian Alps for six weeks, an experience that was both “awesome” and fully funded by her department. EPS encourages all its concentrators to apply for these opportunities, then they “magically pay for everything once it’s approved,” according to Bergin. There are also concentration-wide field trips during move-in week that whisk students away to such distant locales as the Rocky Mountains. Bergin explains that EPS emphasizes fieldwork because it is a discipline where “you have to physically be there.”

Erika T. Hamden ’06 didn’t have to become an Anthropology or EPS concentrator to get Harvard to take her on a mini-break. Last spring, Hamden took the Freshman Seminar “‘Sin and the City’: Tales of Historic Kyoto.” While the course description stated that there was a possibility of a class trip, Hamden remembers being unclear whether that meant “a trip to Japan or a trip to the MFA.” Her professor, Mikael Adolphson, funded the trip through grants.

Students say that travelling with their classmates made for a more cohesive discussion group. Hamden’s Kyoto trip was enriching in large part because “everyone wanted to be there, exploring,” she says. “Class was a lot more fun afterwards, as we all knew each other.”

David Y. Kim, a third year GSAS student in the HAA and TF for History of Art and Architecture 152v., “Leonardo da Vinci: Art, Technology, and Science,” has already been to Brussels as a part of a graduate seminar and is travelling to Madrid with another class. These classes are open to undergraduates. Kim says, “Sometimes the undergraduates feel intimidated by a being in a graduate-level seminar. An excursion, especially one over several days to a foreign country, helps the class to bond.”

Students justify the trips by emphasizing the importance of direct interaction. Kim explains, “Travel is an essential part of what art historians do. Seeing an object in person is just as important to an art historian as attending a concert is to a musicologist.” Lest students rush to sign up for HAA and ESP courses, Kim cautions, “Travel can also be hard work. The late Harvard professor John Shearman used to tell his students that when in Rome they should see five churches before breakfast.”