Off-Campus Study

The School for International Training, Peace and Conflict Study Abroad Programs

For those not familiar with The School for International Training (SIT), we have as our mission the promotion of peace and social justice through education at both undergraduate and graduate levels. We have been operating study abroad programs for over thirty years, and we offer programs in 46 countries. Each program focuses on an interdisciplinary theme reflecting some aspect of this mission, ranging from environmental studies to development to social justice.

The following programs are centrally focused on peace and conflict: 

  • Balkans Gender, Transformation and Civil Society
  • Central Europe Nationalism, Ethnicity and Culture
  • Ireland Peace and Conflict Studies
  • Nicaragua Revolution, Transformation and Civil Society
  • South Africa Reconciliation and Development

Each of these programs is built around its individual theme, with additional coursework in the local language (if appropriate) and the dynamics of the host culture. In addition, students take a field study seminar to prepare each of them for (in the case of our semester-long programs) a month-long independent study project that students carry out under the guidance of our local academic director and an advisor in the student's particular area of interest.

Many of our alumni return to their home campuses eager to build upon the work they have done abroad. SIT Study Abroad experiences, in conjunction with home campus academics, have become the basis for senior these, graduate study and fellowships.

If you have questions, please email studyabroad@sit.edu so that your inquiry can be directed to the best person.

For questions about programs in the Balkans, Central Europe, Ireland or Cyprus, please email David Shallenberger, PhD, Director of European and Middle Eastern Studies.

The International Honors Program

The International Honors Program, founded as the International School of America in 1958 by Karl Jaeger, gives students an unequaled opportunity to study overseas in multiple countries for a semester or a year. The global itinerary of each Program involves comparative study in several contrasting societies. IHP is unique in terms of both its intellectual content and its challenge for motivation and self-discipline of its students.

Students carry a full course load (16 credits per semester), with courses taught by a team of travelling IHP faculty paired with distinguished coordinators from each country on the itinerary. IHP takes maximum advantage of its presence in each country visited. Students for the most part live with host families. Course work goes far beyond regular classroom meetings; guest lecturers, fieldwork, case studies, and frequent excursions play a major role in the curriculum.

Approximately thirty students are selected to participate in each program. Students are varied in their personal backgrounds, and are from different universities and many areas of study. Though most participants are college students or recent graduates, older students often join the programs. Course work is formally evaluated and participants customarily receive academic credit from their home institutions. IHP has operated in cooperation with Bard College since 1989. Beginning in 2002-2003, IHP is offered in affiliation with Boston University International Programs and transcripts for work successfully completed will be provided by Boston University.

The quality of IHP is distinguished by the leadership of outstanding professors with strong field experience and with a desire and talent for working closely with students. Previous IHP leaders have included Gregory Bateson, Edgar Snow, Huston Smith, Daniel Lerner, Kazuo Kawai, Louis Nemser, Philip Appleman, Claude Buss, David Plath, George DeVos, Kushwant Singh, Edward Bruner, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Robert Gardner, Vlada Petric, Lina Fruzzetti, Akos Óstor, William Rothman, Johan Galtung, Hans Spiegel, Janice Perlman, and Lisa Peattie.

Over the past 45 years, private encounters have been arranged with an outstanding array of guest speakers. Students have met with, among others, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer, Margaret Mead, Satyajit Ray, Willy Brandt, King Constantine, Edgar Faure, Ambassador John Kenneth Galbraith, Malcolm X, Jane Goodall and Richard Leakey, Tadao Sato, James Lovelock, Vice President Albert Gore, Jr., Lynn Margulis, Vandana Shiva, Ambassador Charles Stith, and Ivan Illich.

For many alumni, the IHP experience directly influences their graduate school or career choice. IHP prompts students to ask lifelong questions about their role in a global community.

International Honors Program
Boston University
232 Bay State Road, 5th Floor
Boston, MA 02215 USA
617.353-9888 phone
617.353.5402 fax
http://www.ihp.edu/