Study Abroad: English Majors
by Ahlaam Abdulwali ’25
This past year, English majors traveled across the globe to participate in study abroad programs. Here are some of the many experiences that English majors had this past year!
Will Tandy ’24 (he/him) studied abroad in both Berlin, Germany, and Vienna, Austria from January 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023. In Berlin, he enrolled at the Humboldt Institut and took intensive German language classes for two months prior to attending the University of Vienna for four months where he took two courses that were part of a combined Group A program with Macalester. One of the courses, “Theatre Alive,” was taught by Macalester Professor David Martyn. In this class, Will “studied the theory of theater and attended several live theater performances in Vienna.” The other course was an urban studies course that analyzed “different ways of viewing the city” titled “Countermapping a Modern Metropolis.” In true Macalester fashion, Will also studied the intersection between Environmental Science and English in “Critical Readings in Literature: Climate Change and Environmental Justice.” Will described this class as “an American Literature course with a focus on climate literature, especially from authors of color.” The final course on his plate was “a linguistics [class] on the History of English” that “merged the history of England with the linguistic characteristics of Old, Middle, and Modern English.”
Even though Will escaped the claws of the Macalester English Department, he still managed to have an English-related experience with his Critical Readings in Literature course. At the University of Vienna, Will thought it was “very interesting to study American literature from a European perspective.” A common sentiment from students at other institutions, when they come back from study abroad, is that they felt ill-prepared for the rigor of their classes, but this was not the case for Will. Will’s English classes here at Mac “over-prepared [him] to study at the University of Vienna.” The literature course at Vienna had a similar structure to the “small, discussion-based classes at Mac.” This format for classes was “not the norm for many of the students in the course,” so the other students “weren’t used to getting the chance to share their opinions and analysis, and were probably more accustomed to large seminars or lectures.” Whereas, Will “had practice in coming into a discussion with some questions or comments about the reading.” He admirably, at times, had to hold himself “back sometimes from being the only person talking in the class, and letting [his] peers share their thoughts.”
Similarly, Reagan Kimzey ‘24 (she/her) studied abroad in Amsterdam during the Spring 2023 semester. During her time there, she took two English classes titled “ European Literary History” and “Concepts in Contemporary Culture.” Like Will, Reagan’s English classes here at Mac prepared her well for the classes she took in Amsterdam. She felt “much more comfortable speaking in small groups” in her “fully discussion based” and “lecture with a seminar component” courses. Many of the readings in Reagan’s courses overlapped with readings she had done at Mac, which made her feel “equipped, even being in that new space and environment.”
The next student we spoke to, Lucy McNees ‘25 (she/her), is currently studying abroad at the British American Drama Academy in London, England. The British American Drama Academy is a drama conservatory with “intensive studies in Shakespeare, Movement, Voice, High Comedy, Stage Combat, Theatre History, and Dramatic Criticism.” She is also taking “weekly Masterclasses with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company, BADA Alumni and various professionals in the theatre world.” In Lucy’s courses, students read and analyze “plays and literature that are written throughout different times in history,” which stimulates conversations regarding the “linguistics, grammar structure, vernacular, translations, and literary movements in which the plays are situated.”
At Macalester, Lucy is on the creative writing track “with a focus on poetry,” and she found connections between her poetry studies here at Mac and her studies of Shakespeare’s verse at BADA. In particular, Lucy finds “more complex relationships” as her courses further “dive into linguistics and voice, and how to translate written text into spoken word.” Her English classes at Mac have made her “increasingly conscious of writer and character identity and what racial, cultural, religious and gender representation looks like in various texts.”
For the third feature, we have Madeline Graf ‘24 (she/her) who studied abroad in Seville, Spain during the Spring 2023 semester. Madeline’s course load featured 4 classes: “Spanish Women Writers of the 20th Century, Methodology for Teaching English to Spanish Speakers, Culture & Cuisine, and Islamic Art & Culture in Southern Spain.” Her Spanish Women Writers course was a literature course taught in Spanish, but Madeline found that “the class structure mirrored nearly every English literature class I’ve taken at Mac — read, discuss, and respond with an essay.” The parallels between those courses and Madeline’s courses here at Mac made her” feel more comfortable participating in a less familiar language.”
Madeline’s time in Seville also featured the unique opportunity to teach “English classes to Spanish 14 year olds once a week” in her Methodology for Teaching English to Spanish Speakers. Teaching anything to teenagers is no small feat, and Madeleine tried “to make the grammar lessons a little more appealing with classic English idioms, stories, songs, etc.” Madeline described her time teaching these students as a “ fun (and humbling) experience!”
Skye Newhall ‘24 (they/them) studied abroad further North of Madeline in Dublin, Ireland during the Fall 2022 semester. In Dublin, they took five courses, one more class than the typical Macalester courseload. Their five classes included: “The Craft of Irish Poetry, Writing the Irish Short Story, Gothic Ireland: Fact, Fiction, and Film, Irish Communal Identity, and Shaping Visual Narratives.” Skye was excited that the first classes listed were English courses and that the “former two had creative writing aspects,” an area that was fantastic to focus on “as a literature major.” During their time in Dublin, they wrote two poems titled “Interstices” and “Inchydoney” for their Irish Poetry course that were published in Chanter!
Studying abroad presents the opportunity to immerse yourself in new cultures and enrich the education that you receive here at Mac. Will beautifully summarized his time abroad as his “best semester at Mac, and it was the only one where [he] wasn’t at Mac!” Thank you to all the students who took the time to respond to our questions and for sharing their experiences! For some bonus content, we asked each student about their favorite memory/experience abroad. Here are their responses:
Will: I can’t just pick one! Picknicking and studying in parks in Vienna, seeing Caroline Polachek in concert in Berlin, snowshoeing in the snowy mountains outside of Sarajevo, Bosnia, adopting a stuffed animal in Krakow with friends, bike-riding along the Danube at twilight, and going to Vienna Pride are certainly some of the highlights! Also, not a memory, but I treasure all the people I met and friends I made in Berlin and Vienna, Mac students and not. It was such a magical, transformative time!
Reagan: My favorite memory from study abroad was watching the rugby team I practiced with while there win the Netherlands National Women’s Championship. It was a great game, but I was also super proud of myself that I had been able to practice with a team of that level!
Lucy: It’s less of a memory and more of a current experience! One of my favorite moments so far has been walking through Regent’s Park in the early morning, surrounded by autumn leaves and reading Shakespeare’s Richard III in preparation for a monologue workshop.
Madeline: I absolutely adored dressing up for and attending the Feria de Abril, a weeklong holiday/party (one of many — Andalucía is festive)!
Skye: My favorite memory from study abroad was the weekend we went on a writer’s retreat to Incheydoney in County Cork. I took a deep dive into my favorite poet, David Whyte and wrote a poem inspired by both him and the island itself.