Sex and Romance in Study Abroad

Catalog description

The EU's Erasmus study abroad program estimates that, since its inception in 1987, more than one million children have been born from contacts and relationships initiated by university students during their international sojourn, thus leading to a generation of Europeans called "Erasmus babies" and yielding irrefutable evidence that sex and romance play a prominent role in the study abroad experience. This is a course on gender and sexuality in language learning and multilingual interaction examining the topic of sex and romance in study abroad from a second language acquisition (SLA) research and critical cultural studies perspective. It covers topics such as: contexts, processes, and experiences of language learning; the brain chemistry of lust and love (e.g., dopamine, oxytocin) and its role in facilitating social bonding and language learning; negotiating international and intercultural sexual relations; gender violence in international and intercultural contexts; the politics and ethics of desire, difference, and sexual relations in foreign cultural contexts; and power dynamics in multinational love—all culminating in a final project conducting a critical analysis of a film, television series, podcast, or novel depicting sex and or romantic love/relations in study abroad.