Faculty Leader

• Dr. Randol Contreras, UCR Associate Professor of Media and Cultural Studies

Classes

• MCS 159: Race, Space, and Identity (4 units)
• MCS 190: Special Studies on Racism and Anti-Blackness (4 units)

The professor teaches two courses, MCS 159: Race, Space, and Identity and MCS 190: Special Studies on Anti-Blackness. The course, MCS 190 (Anti-Blackness), introduces students to racism and colorism in Puerto Rico. The course, MCS 159, examines the intersection of race, space and identity in modern and contemporary Puerto Rican culture, including an exploration of PR's reggaeton music and culture. To supplement both courses, guest lecturers will teach students about PuertoRico's history, government, drug policies, and laws. In all, students will get a global understanding of the links between racism, colonalism, identity, and reggaeton in Puerto Rico.

Activities in San Juan include guest talks from El Otro PR, the Hasta Bajo Project, a guided community tour of La Perla in Old San Juan, a visit to Urbe Apie, including a discussion with an organization representative, a visit to Colectivo Ile, including a discussion with an organization representative, cultural guided visits/activities alking tour of Old San Juan, and more. There will be a walking tour of Loíza, including a discussion on Black history with a representative from Taller Salud, the organization that runs the Acuerdo de Paz project. Finally, there is a day trip to El Yunque National Rainforest and local beaches.

To decrease student costs, the professor will hold the program's first two weeks at UCR. This ensures that the students develop a solid knowledge base without the distractions of being in out of the state for the first time. Also, it decreases the overall costs for students since they will be abroad for only three weeks rather than five weeks.

Apply Here: Race, Identity, and Reggaeton in Puerto Rico

Faculty Leader

• Dr. Fuson Wang, UCR Associate Professor of English

Classes

• ENGL 128J Jane Austen (4 units)
• ENGL 166T Topics in Romantic Literature (4 units) 

"Austen and the City" offers students the opportunity to experience the cultural transformation of Romantic-era revolutions by connecting the groundbreaking works of authors like Jane Austen, William Wordsworth, William Blake, Anna Letitia Barbauld, Felicia Hemans, Letitia Landon, Percy Shelley, Friedrich Engels, and more to the places that inspired them. Students will learn how these authors were awed, disgusted, amused, or motivated by the people and places around them.

Bath was a holiday town where fashionable society came to mingle, and Jane Austen was right there to document their human foibles with acerbic wit and moving characterizations, especially in Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Although we'll be based in London, we will take a trip to Bath to see how the landed gentry lived it up in the southern English countryside, away from the urban noise of London. With walking tours, a visit to the Jane Austen Centre, and a bus trip to Chawton House, students will see how an industrializing empire tried hard to maintain fictions of gentility, picturesque gardens, and bucolic bliss. In addition to English 128J's focus on Jane Austen, students will also experience in English 166T the darker urbanity of Romantic literature with the work of someone like William Blake. There will be a hands-on tutorial on Blake's unique printmaking process that allowed him to meld visual and verbal art into idiosyncratic expression and revolutionary mythmaking. Michael Phillips has recreated Blake's copper plates, ink blends, and even his star press so that students can experience first-hand how Blake had to create his own printing process to do justice to his anti-industrial, anti-capitalist, and anti-establishment verse.

This program exposes students to these generative contradictions of Romantic-era England to show how this era dealt with issues that we're still grappling with today. In the ruptures of these contradictions, these authors dared to envision a world without perpetual war, the abolition of the slave trade, the flourishing of professional women writers, and the world-shaking agency of the human imagination.

Apply Here: Austen and the City in London

Faculty Leader

Dr. Marta Hernández Salván, UCR Associate Professor of Spanish

Classes

Note: Classes are taught in Spanish. If you speak Spanish at a high intermediate or advanced level, you are welcome to apply! Please email the professor if you haven't completed the prerequisites below.

• SPN 122B: Spanish Transatlantic Cultural Studies (4 units)
• SPN 103: Spanish Culture and Civilization (4 units)

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Dr. Covadonga Lamar Prieto, a different UCR professor, ran a very similar FLEAP before. Here is media coverage about that program:

• StoryMap (2021)
• YouTube Video (2021)

Apply Here: Madrid, Spain: Interculturalism in the Crossroads

Faculty Leaders

• Dr. Brian Crites, Lecturer in Computer Science
• Dr. Samuel Fullerton, Lecturer in History

Classes

• CS 110: Principles of Web Development (4 units)
• HIST 108: Technology in the Premodern World (4 units)

This interdisciplinary program will integrate two upper-division courses, Web Development (CS 110) and Technology in the Premodern World (HIST 108), to create an interdisciplinary experience in which students will use the long and complicated history of the early modern "printing revolution" to give a historical perspective on the issues we see today around access, moderation, censorship, and funding mechanisms of the modern web and social media platforms. The program will be conducted in Seoul, South Korea, where metal-type printing was first invented and which remains one of the world's leading technology and innovation hubs. We will take advantage of this setting by engaging in experiential learning activities relating to both the history of print (HIST 108) and its interconnectedness with the most recent publishing medium, the modern-day website via web design (CS 110). All told, the program will equip students to think critically about the power (and pitfalls) of digital media and the power and responsibilities of developers within that milieu by positioning them geographically and historically within the heart of the world's first communications revolution.

Apply Here: Digital and Social Media in Seoul, South Korea

Faculty Leaders

• Dr. Muhamad Ali, UCR Associate Professor of Religious Studies
• Dr. Reza Aslan, UCR Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Creative Writing

Classes

• SEA 149: Southeast Asian Religions (4 units)
• RLST 190: Independent Study (4 units)

The program is aimed at introducing students to Southeast Asian through Indonesian cultures and religious traditions, practices, and institutions.

The learning outcomes are:

1. Students are able to use secondary sources as well as primary sources, including observations, visits, and interviews of local people in carrying on research in religious studies.
2. Students demonstrate effective writing and speaking skills in communicating their knowledge about the elite and popular religions, the normative and practical life. 
3. Students demonstrate an ability to record videos about religions and religious peoples, and communicate them to the class as well as to the public via social media.
4. Students will demonstrate an understanding of world and local religions, particularly indigenous religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism/Chinese religions, Protestant Christianity, Roman Catholicism, and Islam.

Apply Here: Bali, Indonesia: Culture, Nature, and Religion

Faculty Leader

• Dr. Sean Jasso, Professor of Practice in Business

Program Description

The program is for all UCR majors, undergraduate, graduate, and alumni!

The Oxford Intensive Accelerator Program will focus on four key themes. Firstly, Technology Market Trends and Their Strategic Implications for Business. What will artificial intelligence's medium- and long-term impact on individuals, societies, and economies? As well as topics such as Deepfakes and Weaponized Information in the Age of AI. To conclude the technology element, we will have sessions on digital marketing and how China’s unique technology landscape and e-commerce platforms compete with, and in some instances, outperform, those in the West.  

Secondly, the program will delve into Sustainability and the Circular Economy, addressing the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility and ESG and how businesses can adopt sustainable models to thrive in an evolving economy and address the needs of either employees or consumers who wish to work for or buy from purposeful companies.  

Thirdly, the program will cover Entrepreneurship and Innovation. There will be sessions on strategies for starting, scaling, and successfully exiting businesses, the rise of impact investing by venture capital, and advancements in marketing techniques. 

Finally, the program will conclude with sessions on how Universities can support student start-ups. You will hear the experiences of a seasoned tech entrepreneur who cashed out of his business.  

You will be taught by Oxford and Cambridge Professors, Venture Capitalists, Tech and retail entrepreneurs who have exited businesses, the head of business development at TikTok Europe, and one of the UK’s most successful University Enterprise Hubs.          

Attending The Oxford Intensive Accelerator Program will enhance your entrepreneurial awareness, intellectual creativity, and leadership skills, which are applicable across industries. The program offers a deeper understanding of the key trends and innovations shaping the global landscape in 2025. Upon completion, you will be awarded a certificate of completion from Mansfield College, one of the 39 colleges of the University of Oxford.

The History

In 2010, the UCR School of Business launched the "UCR at Oxford" program during spring break. This is UCR’s 14th program so far: Hundreds of UCR students have spent their spring breaks in residency at Oxford, participating in customized lectures for our UCR cohort and visiting important cultural and corporate sites, including Blenheim Palace (birthplace of Winston Churchill), BMW the home of the electric Mini manufacturing plant, as well as various signature landmarks.

Location

Mansfield College, the University of Oxford, United Kingdom.

Fast Facts About Oxford

1. Oxford is the oldest English-speaking university in the world, dating back to the 12th century. Oxford has been educating leaders for centuries; 30 British Prime Ministers have been educated at Oxford, including the four most recent ones. 
2. Apart from consistently being voted the best university in the UK, CEO Magazine also ranks Oxford as the UK’s second most entrepreneurial university, with 18% of graduates who studied business at Oxford starting their own businesses. 
3. 1,000 Minis are produced each day. The Oxford factory uses more than 1,000 robots. Oxford is the home of BMW’s electric Mini. Smart people and smart technology make environmentally sustainable products.

Program Participant Testimonials

• “The program met my expectations and was definitely worth it.”
• “A well-structured program and one of the best I have attended.”
• “I highly recommend this program as it offers top-tier quality and diversity.”
• “The speakers were highly knowledgeable and engaging, sharing valuable insights and practical examples from their extensive experience.”
• “The content was thorough, well-organized, and engaging. I left each session feeling more confident and better equipped with practical knowledge that I can apply.”
• “A fantastic learning experience with a great mix of theory, real-world insights, and expert speakers.”

Program Eligibility

• Open to students (graduate or undergraduate). All majors are welcome.
• Open to alumni of UCR.
• Open to everyone, such as other university students.

Apply Here: Oxford Intensive Accelerator Program for All Majors

Faculty Leader

• Dr. Setsu Shigematsu, Associate Professor of Media and Cultural Studies

Classes

• MCS 184 / ASN 184 / JPN 184 Japanese Media & Cultural Studies (4 units)
• MCS 190 Major Figures in Film & Media (5 units)

This program provides students the unique experience of studying modern Japanese history, culture and film while being immersed in contemporary Japanese society. This four-week study abroad program teaches students about Japan's modernization through Japanese film and media (including literature and anime), with a focus on Japan's relationship with the United States. Students will study the history of World War II, the transformative impact of the U.S. occupation of Japan and the history of social movements during the 1960s and 1970s. Students will also have the opportunity to train in martial arts and gain the experience of traveling in Japan, visit Hiroshima and Miyajima, and meeting some of Japan's leading social movement activists.

Apply Here: Media and Cultural Studies in Chiba, Japan

Faculty Leader

• Dr. Irene Hatzopoulos, UCR Lecturer of Italian

Classes

• ITA / EUR 43: Italian Cuisine (4 units)
• ITA 45 / MCS 44: Italian Cinema (4 units)

The purpose of the course is to explore Italy's rich cultural history through the vehicles of food and film. By focusing on this topic, we will do a deep dive into the unification of Italy, spend a significant amount of time on Pellegrino Artusi, the father of Italian cuisine, passing through the alimentary restrictions of the Fascist period into the abundance of the economic boom to arrive to modern-day Italy and how food is all at once a function of individual and collective identity. By having Bologna as our home base, we'll be able to explore all of these avenues, primarily through the Cineteca di Bologna (Cinema Ritrovato), taking a short trip to Forlimpopoli to Casa Artusi, a quick stint to Florence to highlight the foods Artusi studied, and a short trip to Rome to experience food and multiculturalism (specifically the presence of the Jewish Ghetto and their culinary delights).

Apply Here: Italy through Food and Film

Faculty Leader

• Dr. Kyle Ingram, UCR Assistant Professor of Teaching in Management

Classes

• BUS 145: Designing and Leading Teams
• BUS 190: Special Studies

The Brazilian Leadership Experience encourages students to engage in a deeper understanding of human behavior within organizations. The program works on the idea that behavior is a function of a person in his/her environment (i.e., the way in which we behave is largely dependent on who we are and the various contexts we find ourselves in.

Both courses encourage students to form a deeper understanding of who they are and how they are already primed for successful leadership and teamwork. Delivering these two courses in the international context will highlight new challenges that students should be ready to face in an increasingly globalized world. The courses are designed to take students out of their comfort zone to inspire personal development and growth.

Studying theories of leadership and international management amongst top academics and practitioners in Brazil will only further expand the knowledge and perspective gained through these courses. Special Studies (BUS 190), in particular, will offer students the opportunity to earn academic credit by participating in independent study or group research to further explore the business practices, of Brazilian business leaders, particularly around the concept of sustainable leadership. Under faculty supervision, students will observe how business practices vary and align across our two national cultures (see potential topics under course syllabi).

Understanding various cultures and backgrounds will help students develop universal messages, appreciate various perspectives, and examine how businesses can reach a diverse range of people through understanding and respecting these differences. International management is invaluable to students wishing to increase their presence in a global economy, and the trip will provide students with the opportunity to see, first hand, sustainability efforts in Brazil.

This program has run before in London, so here is media coverage about it:

• "Study abroad program grows in popularity" (2024)
• "London is Waiting" (2021) 
• StoryMap (2021) 
• YouTube video (2020)

Apply Here: The Brazilian Leadership Experience

Faculty Leader

• Dr. Karisa You, Lecturer in School of Business

Program Description

Experience an Italian getaway this summer from the sandy beaches and crystal clear waters of Ischia, a volcanic island in the bay of Naples. Hidden in the shadows of its glamorous neighbor, Capri, Ischia has been famous for its thermal baths, hot springs, vineyards, scenic hikes, and delicious cuisine. 

This two-week excursion includes cooking classes (pasta and mozzarella visit), a guided tour of Pompei, excursions to Capri, Sorrento, Positano, and the Amalfi Coast, thermal baths, yoga, and hiking. The program is open to non-UCR friends and family members and will be led by Professor Karisa You (business management and law). 

To decrease student costs, the professor has partnered with Italy Abroad Programs (IAP), a cost-effective study abroad program that believes that students benefit immensely from times overseas and are shaped into well-rounded, confident individuals from cross-cultural experiences. Professor You will be co-leading with Vince Amalfitano from IAP, whose expertise, knowledge, and creative passion for Italy will assist students on the journey of a lifetime. 

The program is for all UCR majors, undergraduate, graduate, and alumni!

Program Itinerary

Program Eligibility

• Open to students (graduate or undergraduate). All majors are welcome.
• Open to alumni of UCR.
• Open to everyone, such as other university students.

Apply Here: Italian Island Getaway