study abroad in Cuba

After a six-year hiatus due to stringent U.S. government controls on travel to Cuba by American citizens, MTSU's Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures has revived its successful Cuba study-abroad program for summer 2011.The new program, called Project Cuba, has been retooled to fit new laws and is one of only a few such programs in existence nationwide, according to an MTSU news release.It's a shame to wait out political changes that might never come,said Dr. Ric Morris, professor of Spanish and linguistics at MTSU, who is serving as program director.There has never been greater urgency for Americans to get behind the Iron Curtain and see for themselves what Cuba is all about.

Because of the trade embargo, visiting Cuba without U.S. government permission can incur fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and up to 10 years in prison. As a result, very few Americans go there. The 2011 Cuba program is covered under an academic license, however, and is 100 percent legal for all qualifying participants.The program will be open to three classifications of participants: undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty. All three groups will depart Nashville together on May 20, 2011, but will return at different times. Faculty and graduate students will stay two weeks and return on June 3. Undergraduates will stay 10 weeks and return on July 31.

The undergraduate program is longer because U.S. law requires undergraduate study in Cuba to be at least 10 continuous weeks, no exceptions,Morris explained.Graduate study falls under the category of research and is not durationally restricted.While in Cuba, undergraduates will earn nine hours of Spanish credit taking language classes at the University of Havana. They also will take a custom-designed course,Global Production Engineering,and Cultural Encounters Anthropological History of the Cuban People,to be taught in English at the Montané Anthropological Museum in Havana. On return to MTSU, the course may be equated to three hours of credit either in ANTH 3710, Special Topics in Anthropology, or GS 3010, Global Studies: Study Abroad.