Four new study abroad programs will debut in the 2025–26 academic year, including two traditional quarter-long programs and two September Term programs. These programs are Córdoba: Crossroads of Mediterranean Civilizations, which will satisfy the Civilization Studies Core requirement (set for Spring 2026), and Paris: Inequality and Global Social Development (set for Autumn 2025), as well as the Arts Core programs Florence: Drawing Through the World and Paris: On Images (both set for September Term). The Córdoba program application deadline is January 27, 2025, while the remaining three programs have a February 10 deadline.
According to Dana Currier, deputy director of Study Abroad, these new programs merge classroom learning with experiential activities. “The faculty who proposed these programs have strong academic ties to the program locations,” she said in a statement to the Maroon. “Study Abroad also considers a location’s suitability for hosting the type of customized, faculty-led study abroad programming that is typical of our programs.”
The Córdoba program, which will accommodate around 25 students, is UChicago’s first offering in the city and will collaborate with the University of Córdoba. Professor of ancient Mediterranean religions and mythologies Carolina López-Ruiz, who will lead the first three weeks of the program, will integrate archaeological sites, museums, and day trips to nearby cities into the course. According to Currier, a potential partnership with Casa Árabe, an institute that focuses on Arabic culture, is also in discussion.
The drawing program in Florence, which will have 12–20 students, will also have excursions, including trips to the Italian Central Herbarium at the University of Florence to practice fundamental drawing methods of botanical specimens.
“Florence is the perfect place for learning fundamentals of drawing, along with the ways that drawing was used to develop new and important concepts around the nature of observation, the human body, architectural space, and how those concepts play an important role in contemporary thinking,” professor Katherine Desjardins, who will lead the Florence program, told the Maroon in a statement.
The two new offerings in Paris, which will join 28 other UChicago programs in the city, will be held in the University’s recently opened John W. Boyer Center. “[The opening] has allowed for increased capacity of College students undertaking study abroad in Paris,” Currier said. Students in the Inequality program will earn credit towards the Inequality, Social Problems, and Social Change minor.
According to Currier, there is strong interest in new programming among both faculty and students. “[We] look forward to opportunities to grow and diversify our portfolio of program offerings in the future, particularly as the demand for study abroad remains very high,” she said.