Culture Archives | Semester at Sea

News from the Helm

Alert: Coronavirus Response

Topic: Culture

Voyagers Study Architecture and Religion in Salvador, Brazil

In Dr. James Bratt’s Philosophy class, Meaning and Truth in Religion, students are asked to take a phenomenological look at how people find meaning and truth in their lives through […]
From Bean to Bar: Exploring the Origins of Fair Trade Chocolate in Ghana

Ghana is the second largest producer of cacao in the world, behind Ivory Coast, which provided Semester at Sea students an excellent opportunity to see the process of chocolate production […]
Journalism students talk #MeToo Movement in India

The #MeToo movement, which was founded in 2006 but gained prominence in 2017 after accusations of sexual assault and harassment against high-profile American celebrities, has since spread throughout the world, […]
Discovering New Cuisine: 6 Dishes Our Voyagers Tried in Japan

For many Semester at Sea voyagers, their understanding of Japanese cuisine is limited to two dishes – ramen and sushi – but food in Japan is diverse, regional, and storied, […]
Hawaiian Food Traditions: A Window Into the Impact of Culinary Tourism

Culinary tourism is a booming space within the travel industry, as students in Professor Christina Minihan’s Culinary Tourism class are learning. But staying true to the roots of Hawaiian cuisine […]
Understanding Traditional Religions in Post-Modern Japan

Kyoto: a picturesque city approximately an hour and a half away from the port of Kobe and home to 1,600 Buddhist and Shinto temples. There was no better location to […]
International Law framed through photos of the Vietnam War

For U.S. students studying abroad on the Fall 2018 Voyage of Semester at Sea, the story of the Vietnam War has been ingrained through history classes, remembrances, and popular culture, […]
Semester at Sea’s continued travel to Myanmar (Burma)

Within the past two weeks, the U.S. Treasury Department and the United Nations released statements regarding the conflict in Myanmar (Burma) and the atrocities committed against the Rohingya Muslim communities. […]
Book recommendations for Fall 2018 Voyagers

Rick Steves is always writing and talking about how traveling can (and should) be a political act. I probably don’t have to affirm that stance to all of us in […]
Fall 2018 Professor Preview: Dr. Nan Sussman

Semester at Sea — from life on the MV World Odyssey, to language barriers, to the kind of food voyagers eat in-country — is about encountering the new, the unfamiliar, […]
Spring 2018 Voyager reflects on Semester at Sea

Like all great endings, my semester around the world comes to a close with the promise of a new beginning. As I prepare to journey home in just two short […]
Voyagers find ways to give back to community in Ghana

Many of Semester at Sea’s programs in Ghana focused on connecting with locals and students did just that. Between homestays and service visits to local social enterprises, voyagers took the […]
Interport lecturer Zubeida Jaffer joins community in Mauritius

Zubeida Jaffer, an award-winning South African journalist, joined the shipboard community in Mauritius to talk about her experience as a journalist of color reporting at the time of the uprisings […]
Spring 2018 faculty member wins Hiddingh-Currie award

Faculty member Megan Lewis is much more than a professor- she’s a thespian, a historian, an advocate for human rights, and now, the winner of the Hiddingh-Currie literary award. As […]
University of Alabama voyagers play Holi in India

On any other day of the year, Megan Hoeffler’s flaming red hair would stick out among the crowded streets of New Delhi like a rose in a garden of daisies. […]