As a student of Dickinson’s Study Abroad program, I found John D. Hartigan’s collection especially fascinating. In particular, I enjoyed reading his essay “Dickinson Plan of Foreign Career Preparation,” because it outlines Hartigan’s vision for change at Dickinson, hoping for it to become an institution that emphasizes foreign competency as essential to an undergraduate education, one which it now is today. Comparing Hartigan’s initial vision for foreign career preparation with the Office of Global Education in the present day was the main lens through which I read this document. In his outline for the program, Hartigan thinks it would be beneficial for students to have experience with either Greek or Latin before coming to Dickinson. Clearly this is not a requirement for admission in the present day, however I would be curious to know if this were ever a requirement and what of Hartigan’s outline was actually adopted by the college in it’s first year as a Study Abroad institution. Although some differences can be noted between what Hartigan proposes and what the Office of Global Education is today, the overall ideals of engagement, broadening ones horizons, and the advancement of foreign knowledge seem to have been present since the inception of Dickinson’s Study Abroad program.
History@Dickinson
The History Department at Dickinson College provides courses in all areas of world history and with historians who employ a wide array of interdisciplinary and multi-media approaches. All History majors at Dickinson experience a core sequence of methods classes, beginning with the Introduction to Historical Methodology in History 204, continuing to Historiography and Advanced Historical Methods (History 304) and culminating with History 404, a capstone senior seminar.Blogroll
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Hartigan’s ideas about study-abroad programs certainly seem interesting. You may want to think about placing his work in the context of a larger trend. With victory in World War II followed by the onset of the Cold War, the U.S. found itself relating to the outside world in new ways. The post-War period also saw a boom in university education. The Fullbright program also began during this period. In other words, I think there area ways you could move from the very specific (Hartigan’s papers) to something more significant about post-war international relations and higher education.