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Foreign Study

The Department of Anthropology offers a foreign study program (FSP) at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. It is the only off campus program in the South Pacific, and is held during winter term in Hanover, which is of course summer in New Zealand. Themed around an exploration of "Colonialism and its Legacies," the program offers students intensive introductions to anthropology of the region, and to Maori studies, the Maori being the indigenous people of New Zealand. 

  • Anthropology FSP Trip to New Zealand 2020 - Faces

    Anthropology FSP Trip to New Zealand 2020 - Faces (courtesy of Sienna Craig)

  • Anthropology FSP Trip to New Zealand 2020 - Students Dancing

    A light and playful moment with Kevin Donohue taking the lead and dancing. From left to right, you also see Muriel Ammon, Hayley Divers, Becky Milner, and Mac Galinson (courtesy of Uyen Dang '21)

  • FSP New Zealand 2020 Group Photo Sienna Craig

    FSP New Zealand 2020 - the sky, air, the land were bathed in orange (courtesy Sienna Craig)

  • Alexandria Casteel, our trip's graduate student, during our trip to Cape Reinga

    Alexandria Casteel, our trip's graduate student, during our trip to Cape Reinga (courtesy Uyen Dang, '21)

  • Anthropology FSP Trip to New Zealand 2020

    FSP New Zealand 2020 Group Photo (courtesy of Sienna Craig)

Anthropology FSP Overview

Experiential Learning

Students engage in a deep exploration of New Zealand's past, present, and future through experiential learning opportunities, including

  • living in an international student dorm and in home stays with Auckland families
  • Kapa Haka (Maori song and martial arts) intensives
  • excursions across the North Island
  • classes during the University of Auckland's summer school
  • a course on colonialism and postcolonial societies taught by a Dartmouth faculty member.

Curriculum

The academic program is nine weeks long and comprises the following: (a) various excursions in the Auckland area; (b) seven weeks of classes in Maori studies and Anthropology at the University; (c) a four-day tour of significant Maori and colonial historical sites north of Auckland; (d) a four-day cultural immersion at a Maori meeting house on the Eastern Cape, including instruction in Kapa-Haka, Maori song and dance; and (e) a three-day stay at a Maori meeting house on the coast north of Auckland. The program begins the first of January and finishes in early March.

Anthropology students must complete a prerequisite of two courses in Anthropology, one of which must be a course in cultural anthropology, before the program begins. Students may apply for the program before the prerequisites are completed.

All participants take the Dartmouth course, Anthropology 51, "Colonialism and Its Legacies in Anthropological Perspective," which is taught by a member of the Dartmouth faculty. In addition, those students concentrating in anthropology take two courses from local faculty, Anthropology 52, "Introduction to Maori Society," and Anthropology 54, "Foreign Study in Anthropology."