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Field schools

Peru field school teaches ecology, economy and spirituality

The Ring

Walking along the foothills of the northern Peruvian Amazon, 14 UVic environmental studies students—along with instructors Ana Maria Peredo and Kate Turner and mentors Murdith McLean and Frederique Apffel-Marglin—embarked on a unique learning experience this spring that wove together ecology, economy and spirituality in an Indigenous setting.

A coastal field school on Tl'ches

The Ring

More than 60 years ago, the last Coast Salish residents of Tl'ches—the Chatham and Discovery islands off the eastern coast of Oak Bay—left to live on the Songhees Reserve in Esquimalt. But this summer, Lekwungen Coast Salish Elder Sellemah/Joan Morris, who grew up on Tl'ches, helped UVic and Songhees students in a UVic field school see the islands through their eyes—superimposing past and present.

Stephens Family Undergraduate Research Award

The Stephens Family Undergraduate Research Award in Organic and Sustainable Food Systems gave Riley the means to expand the scope of her project from a rain catchment system to a water conservation initiative with lasting benefits to community partner Woodwynn Farms.

Where education meets emotion

The Torch

Helga Thorson is familiar with students feeling fazed at the end of four weeks of study of the Holocaust and its memorialization. Since 2011, she has led students at the I-witness Field School. Students are totally immersed in the material without distraction, which separates the field school experience from the classroom. Then there is the subject matter: the Holocaust and humanity’s immense responsibility to remember, even as those with first-hand knowledge are passing on.

Intercultural opportunities on campus

The Ring

Travelling abroad may sometimes seem the only way our students can enjoy international experiences. Here are some tips—just in time for International Education Week 2017 (Nov. 13-17)—on finding intercultural opportunities at UVic.

EU field school

The Ring

Students from the humanities, social sciences, fine arts and law—now back in Victoria after a transformative trip overseas and also in Winnipeg—came together for a powerful and challenging field school that brought them to historic sites in Europe and taught them valuable lessons about Canada.

New humanities field school

Media release

UVic students are currently visiting historic sites in Europe in a field school examining migration, the refugee crisis and memorialization of the Holocaust. And the learning doesn't stop in Europe: they'll be at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in mid August, then home to UVic for a symposium.

Cuba Ethnographic Field School

The Ring

How do you really live a field school experience? According to 23 UVic anthropology students, you start by going off the beaten track for 30 days in Cuba, the biggest island in the Caribbean. Some of our students created media projects about their experiences.

The Thinking Garden plants seeds of hope

The Ring

A new documentary, The Thinking Garden, about a unique farming collective in a small South African village carries lessons of hope and resilience. It was written and produced by UVic scholars Christine Welsh and Elizabeth Vibert and it officially launches on March 1.

Studies in shallow graves

The Ring

Forensic anthropology course conducts in-death investigations. All jokes about popular TV shows like Sherlock and CSI aside, real-world forensic anthropologists who assist in identifying and locating of missing persons share a desire for problem solving, critical thinking and a deep curiosity. Stephanie Calce’s forensic anthropology class exposes students to the huge field of forensic science through hands-on projects. Spoiler alert: the students live.

Mapping with the Stó:lō

The Ring

Sabina Trimble—who graduates this month with an MA in history—will don a mortarboard on Nov. 9, but her fondest memory as a student was being blanketed and given a hand-woven cedar hat, in a traditional Coast Salish honouring at her defence in August 2016.

On the road with new travel-writing field school

The Ring

Heather Clark, a veteran tour guide and former publications coordinator for the European Association for International Education, has spent upwards of six months a year for the past 16 years traveling the world. That's in addition to completing two degrees here at UVic: a BA in Hispanic studies and an MFA in writing. Now she's putting all that experience to work with her new company and a proposed travel-writing field school for the writing department.

International Plan (2017-2022)

The Ring

On Oct. 6, UVic released the International Plan: Making a World of Difference (2017-2022), bringing increased momentum to our ongoing commitment to welcome international students to an inspirational new home here and to foster intercultural learning and research for domestic students in Canada and across the globe.

Learning the human history of the west coast

The Ring

A six-week archaeology field school brought the promise and challenges of the Pacific west coast to life for 19 enthusiastic anthropology students this summer. The group traveled to the west coast of Vancouver Island to do research at ancient First Nations settlements, and to learn archaeological field techniques and environmental and cultural history from Tseshaht and Huu-ay-aht First Nations, professional archaeologists, and marine ecologists at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre.

Studying sea, learning land

The Ring

The Salish Sea is a vibrant international region, teeming with change—so it should come as no surprise that an international field school which puts dynamic learning experiences at the heart of sustainability leadership reflects those characteristics as well.

Galiano Island field school

The Ring

In July, under a blistering hot sun, 15 students and environmental studies professor Dr. Eric Higgs waited to embark on a unique learning adventure at the Galiano Island Land Conservancy Learning Centre. During the following week, as part of the Ecological Restoration field school, the students share meals together and work intensely on group projects—off the grid, with no internet, and with the outdoor environment of the island’s District Lot 57 as their principal classroom. The lot, owned by the Galiano Island Conservancy Association, was once an active logging and farming site. But now, it’s home to the Learning Centre, and Galiano Island residents want the land ecologically restored. That’s where the thinking, learning and labors of the students in the field school come in.

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