Greece Study Tour

For those interested (whether for this year or for an upcoming year), some information sessions about the 2026 tour will be held, in Montgomery Hall 101, for 45 minutes or so (join or leave in progress if you have to):

• Friday, September 19, 11:45-12:30
• Monday, October 20, 11:45-12:30
• Tuesday, December 2, 11:30-12:10

A fourth info session will be held during winter break via Zoom: Monday, December 22, 1:00 p.m. (ET). Here’s the info: https://smcm.zoom.us/j/435076247

Passcode: 019610

First, for those needing something of an overview of sights in Greece, here’s a 10-minute video by a travel writer–someone named Cody. We’ll be going to some of his “top 8” places, and many other cool sites besides.

A study tour is not simply an off-campus course. Not only do we get to see sites, structures, and landscapes that directly relate to our readings, like those mentioned below, but we learn that our image of Greece must extend beyond silent, weather-worn limestone foundations and pages in literally inanimate books. Greece has lived in dozens of centuries, and is still very much alive.

Greece, like the rest of southern Europe, gets its summer wind prevailing from the south. This means from the Sahara, though cooled some by the Mediterranean. It is hot, with summer highs in the 80’s and 90’s, and in a heat spell, the 100’s. Summer rains are rare, and summer humidity a mere story (myth?) Greeks have heard about. Accordingly, Greeks take seriously the siesta time, which extends from about 1:00 to about 5:00 every afternoon. (The fact that precision is not possible here is part of the charm, and sometimes the frustration, of the land.) Hence, they start their days early, and extend them late. The Greeks consider anything eaten before 9:00 p.m. to be a pre-dinner appetizer.

Napping, however, is but one option for siesta. It is also good time for swimming at an area beach, for catching up on some reading or writing, for strolling to one of the occasional shops or cafes that does not close for siesta. However, this is a credit-bearing academic course. Those interested in three-plus weeks of Greek beaches, punctuated only by gift shopping and evenings in cafés, are advised that this study tour is not for them.

We’ve had majors from Anthropology, Art, Art History, Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, Education, English, Environmental Studies, Foreign Languages, History, Math, Performing Arts, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Theater, Film, & Media Studies, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality.

So among the reasons not to consider this trip (“Not into flying”; “Olives scare me”; “Water just shouldn’t be THAT blue”), having a given major is not a good one. Nor is not having that much money stashed under your mattress. See the Costs and Aid page for why you can apply and then cancel without penalty if you find out you didn’t get enough of the College’s dedicated study abroad aid to make it work for you this year.

So a typical day might look like this:

• 7:00 Breakfast in hotel restaurant (provided)
• 8:00 Depart (by foot, by taxis, by bus) to the historical site or museum of the day
• 1:00 Break for lunch either all together or in small groups, after which people can relax, nap, read, write homework assignments, or go in small groups to a local beach.
• 6:30 Meet at a pre-arranged location for a seminar
• 9:00 Dinner either all together or in small groups
• 11:00 In small groups, visit a café or stroll the village square

Our long-time Greek travel agents, the Cocconi family at Educational Tours and Cruises, have arranged for us to stay in some memorable inns and hotels, all with standard amenities. See our Itinerary page for more details.

How to decide which course to take this as? A student’s major or minor sometimes decides that matter. Apart from that, ask yourself which broad category you’d like to write your 8-12-page term paper on (due on August 1, well after the trip). Which course the student takes this as should determine the content and methodology of the student’s term paper. Where possible, it should also determine the student’s selection of a site paper and site report, and of the two Who’s Who oral reports. After their initial registration, students can change which course they are registered for, even while we are on the study tour, by informing Michael Taber. After all, sometimes one discovers on the study tour new directions for a final paper. Discovery is what study tours are all about.

Because the course is numbered 330, it counts as four credits  toward the 44 upper-division (300- or 400-level) credits that are required of all St. Mary’s students, regardless of major.

Students from other institutions should contact Professor Taber to get information from him relevant to getting pre-approval from their home institutions for transfer upon completion.

The course learning outcomes for INTL 330 are that by participating in this course abroad:

1. Students will be able to articulate their own cultural values and biases and how these might impact their relationships and collaborations with others. (Personal Awareness).
2. Students will observe a new culture first-hand, which will help them to develop an increased capacity to analyze global and local issues with consideration for diverse perspectives. (Global Citizenship).
3. Students will gain the confidence and expertise to communicate more effectively and respectfully with diverse groups of people.  (Intercultural Competence)

This course will be listed as INTL 330, satisfies the college-wide Cultural Literacy requirement, and can be taken as equivalent to any of the following St. Mary’s courses (4 credit-hours):

• English 380–Studies in World Literature
• Environmental Studies 380
• History 393–Topics in European History
• Museum Studies 390–Topics in Museum Studies
• Philosophy 380–Topics in Philosophy
• Theater, Film, & Media Studies 405–Topics in Performance Studies
• Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies 350–Advanced Topics in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

The course can also be used to satisfy the requirements of the Democracy Studies area, in consultation with the Coordinator of Democracy Studies, by using it as equivalent to HIST 393  (which is on the list of DMST-satisfying courses).

 

Take any play. Take any short story. Take any thick novel. They are peopled with protagonists and antagonists, as is, one might say, life itself. Protagonists and antagonists are both agonists, and really fat dictionaries will confirm this for you. But what is an agonist?.

The classical word agōn (in Greek, αγών) means “contest, struggle.” This is a powerful concept, for three of the major contributions of classical Greece—athletics, drama, speech-making in the law courts and political assemblies—are all examples of agōnes. It is what ties together Medea vs. Jason, Agamemnon vs. Clytemnestra, Odysseus vs. those who would steal his wife and estate, Athens vs. Sparta, Socrates vs. just about everyone, St. Paul vs. those who hold to pagan practices, and all those foot-racers, wrestlers, and discus-throwers. Even more interesting, the agōn is nothing on which the Greeks had a monopoly; it famously has its counterparts elsewhere in the world, as in German (der Kampf) and in Arabic (jihad).

For this word, and the process named by it, to be so long-lived and so widespread, struggle must be multi-dimensional. In our readings and our travels, we will encounter a range of human struggle. We will read of struggles within families (the Oresteia), between warring states (Thucydides), between political dictates and religious principles (Antigone), between legal dictates and a moral mission (Socrates), between cultural realities and a religious mission (Paul), and between an individual’s life and aspirations (Marcus Aurelius). We will visit sites of struggle: a number of theaters and odeons, all four of the pan-Hellenic athletic sites, and the site of Athens’ budding democratic debates and trials.

The meaningfulness of agōn lies not, or at least not exclusively, in winning. The theme of this course, therefore, will not be “Look at all the ways to be a winner and be a loser!” Matters are more complex. Rather, the agōn challenges us to muster determination, to endure, and sometimes even to compromise. The range of these challenges will be the focus of this memorably situated course.

The Greek economy had a shock in 2011, and this has, predictably, been worst for those who are least able to afford any of the cushioning that can soften the effects of any recession anywhere. (Witness the U.S. in 2008.) The Greek unemployment rate peaked at 28% in 2013, and has modestly improved since then—but is still around 10% as of 2024. They still have a ways to go, but their trend lines are going in the right direction.

One element of Greece’s economy the importance of which is agreed on by the likes of the governments of Greece and of Germany, as well as the IMF and the European Central Bank, is that tourism reliably constitutes 15% of Greece’s economy. And no party to the on-going economic negotiations wants to jeopardize that. In fact, tourism has been growing so much since 2015 (excluding the Covid pause in world travel) that our travel agents have had difficulty finding hotels and charter buses to reserve for their study tours from U.S. universities.

Since 2011, I have led many study tours to Greece (2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2023, 2024), and each time we have been warmly welcomed—if anything, even more warmly as their economic doldrums used to drag on. The Greeks are fond of Americans—and not just because of our money. They like our friendliness and lack of pretension. Plus, many of them have at least one family member who lives or has lived in the States.

Contact Micheal Taber

mstaber@smcm.edu