Description & Syllabus
K55.1200: Art of Travel
Professor Steve Hutkins
Spring 2009
2-credit course, runs entire semester
Enrollment restricted to students studying abroad in the spring of 2009 at an NYU abroad site.
This online course provides an opportunity for students studying abroad to reflect, analytically and creatively, on their travel experiences. We examine some of the art created by travelers—travel literature, photography, paintings—and consider how traveling can itself be viewed as an art, with its own conventions, styles, traditions, and opportunities for innovation. All of the course activities are conducted on the class website: students blog about their responses to the readings and their own travels, post photos, etc. Enrollment is limited to students studying at one of NYU’s study abroad sites. Reading assignments are individualized for the city and country of each study-abroad site, but some readings are for the whole class.
Requirements
18 blog posts, approx. 400 words each.
18 comments on other students' blogs, approx. 100 words each.
Read two travel narratives or books about your abroad site.
Reading:
Two travel narrative or travel essay books about the place you’re studying, plus selections from Alain de Botton's The Art of Travel (available on this website). Here is the suggested readings page to help choose your two travel books.
Schedule of Topics
| POST DATE | ASSIGNMENT |
| Jan. 25 |
1. Introductions |
| Jan. 30 |
2. Departure-Arrival |
| Feb. 5 |
3. De Botton, ch. 1 - 3 |
| Feb. 10 |
4. Open Topic |
| Feb. 15 |
5. Discuss a reading (1) |
| Feb. 20 |
6. Quotidian life |
| Feb. 25 |
7. The "art" of travel |
| March 2 |
8. Open Topic |
| March 7 |
9. Authenticity |
| March 12 |
10. Cultural activity |
| March 23 |
11. Discuss a reading (2) |
| March 28 |
12. Open topic |
| April 3 |
13. Place |
| April 10 |
14. Person |
| April 15 | 15. De Botton on habit |
| April 20 |
16. Advice |
| April 25 |
17. Course Evaluation |
| April 30 |
18. Final Thoughts |
Contact:
Office: 715 Broadway, room 608
Phone: 998-7361
E-mail: ssh1@nyu.edu


