Penn Summer Abroad
Locales
Penn-in-Buenos Aires, Argentina
Main | Description | Curriculum
“Overall, this experience has been fantastic. I’m so appreciative of all that it’s had to offer. I particularly enjoyed the faculty – our professors were enthusiastic and greatly accessible throughout the program. I’m glad to have gained such an immense understanding and appreciation for a place I never dreamed I’d have the opportunity to visit.”
Penn-in-Buenos Aires is designed for students interested in the language, history, literature and culture of Argentina and other Latin American countries. Under the direction of Penn faculty whose interests cover a wide spectrum of disciplines, course offerings include intermediate Spanish, Argentine History and Contemporary Argentine literature.
Presented in partnership with the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Penn-in-Buenos Aires offers students the opportunity to expand their cross cultural views, fostering deeper cultural analysis and enhanced Spanish language skills while they explore the unique urban culture of this bustling and cosmopolitan metropolis. The internationally renowned Universidad Torcuato Di Tella is Argentina’s first private university and one of the best in Latin America. To maximize this distinctive cultural experience, students live with Argentine families to enhance their linguistic and acculturation skills.
Known for its tango, soccer and European-style architecture, no Latin American city has a more cosmopolitan tradition than Buenos Aires. Designed in the early 1900’s as the "Paris of Latin America,” contemporary Buenos Aires is a perfect case study of the cultural and social challenges, the complexities and contradictions of present-day Latin America. The city’s fiscal and cultural resilience were tested during the 2001 economic downturn, but the subsequent revival of its vitality is evident in its booming film and fashion industries; diverse neighborhoods and tango bars; 24-hour bookstores and art galleries; and on every busy corner of Downtown Buenos Aires.
Argentina offers a distinct variety of regional cultures and geographical settings, from the subtropical forests and the guaraní cultural substrata of the Northwest, to the high plateau of the aymará and inca culture in the North, from the gaucho culture of pampas of the East, to the rocky plains of Patagonia with a population of welsh, Irish and Scottish immigrants in the South. To give students an awareness of the cultural and geographical differences of the country, every year the program offers a three day trip to one of these regions.
For the 2008 program we plan a trip to Salta. Lying on the Lerma Valley, in the upper most Northern border of Argentina, Salta is the capital city of the homonimous province. It is situated in one of the most fertile and nicest sites ever created by nature in this region. It is located at 1,187 meters above sea level, at the bottom of Mounts 20 de Febrero and San Bernardo. he Hispanic architecture of the city outstands from the other cities in the country. The colonial spirit from the times of the foundation remains in its houses, streets, hundred-year-old monuments and narrow sidewalks surrounded by the mountains nearby.
In the outskirts, we will do different excursions, to a local “estancia”, to the wine country in Cafayate and "El Tren a las Nubes" (The Train in the Clouds), a train journey that goes through the clouds as it crosses The Andes at 4,220 mts. above the sea level.
The program also offers different cultural activities in Buenos Aires. They vary each year and are often hard to predict. Fixed features of the program are a night at the Teatro Colón, a national monument with a world class program of international opera, and a visit to a tango academy. Thus students are introduced to a very idiosyncratic mesh of Argentina’s “high” and “low” cultural production. An addition, a visit to the Exposición Rural, gives them a good insight into Argentina’s very important food industry and production.