The 2012
program will be from Saturday, May 12, until Thursday,
June 7.
The deadline for applications is January 15.
If the
program fills up, subsequent applicants will be put on a
waiting list. Late applications will be considered until March 15 or
until all spaces are filled, whichever comes first.
We
are now taking applications for the 2012 program. Scroll down for more
information. Students from all
universites and any nation (as well as the interested public) are
encouraged to apply. In the past, in addition to UGA students, we have
had students from universities such as Duke, Cornell, NYU, George
Washinton University, University of Akron, Auburn, and Georgia State
University, Valdosta State University, as well as from Ireland and Malaysia.
Dr Godlas is the Administrative Director. Questions concerning your
application
should be addressed to him at
godlas@uga.edu
His mailing address, where you should mail your program application
is as follows:
Dr. Godlas-UGA/Morocco Program
Dept. of Religion
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-1625
Dr. Ken Honerkamp (web
page is the Director in charge of program content. Please address questions
about the content of
the program to him by email:
hnrkmp@uga.edu
), and by phone at 706-542-1727 at the
Religion Dept., University
of Georgia
Credit
hours: nine undergraduate hours.
Costs for 2012:
$4200 program fee
NOT including
airfare and tuition.
Georgia resident tuition (subject to change) varies from year to year depending on
the Bursar's Office and on when one entered UGA, so see below under Costs
for more
details for tuition and airfare; although for
Georgia
residents who have a HOPE scholarship, the HOPE scholarship covers tuition if you make the
arrangements with your financial aid office to have it apply your HOPE to our UGA
summer program tuition). Roundtrip airfare to Marrakech (and a stopover in Madrid on June 6) will tentatively total $1508.
Very important note: You will buy your ticket individually
after
you have been accepted
into the program. Many airlines randomly demand (when
you get to the ticket
counter at the airport and are about to check in) that you present the credit card used to
originally buy your ticket. Hence, if your parents buy your ticket for you, one of them should come
to the airport with you with the credit card that was used to buy the ticket. If you buy your ticket
with your credit card, make sure that you bring that credit card to the airport with you when you are checking in.
See below for
more details and for students who are not Georgia residents.
Participants: Undergraduate students enrolled in any university and the interested
public. A limited number of graduate students may be able to go, but priority is
given to undergraduates.
To get a sense of the schedule
of the program, see the
Itinerary for 2001 and the Itinerary
for 2004. Note that in addition to starting and ending on
different dates, the itinerary for 2012 may be different in some
ways from previous trips.
The overall aim of the course is to introduce
students
to an in-depth and first-hand understanding of Islam and Islamic culture
in Morocco, in particular to Sufism (which is currently undergoing a
revival in
Morocco), Moroccan Islamic music, and Moroccan architectural art. In
addition,
through travel students will gain first-hand experience with both urban
and rural geography: we will visit three major cites and a variety of
villages off the beaten path as well as Moroccan mountains, valleys,
plains, deserts, forests, rivers, waterfalls, and oases. Students will
become acquainted with the socio-religious and socio-political
issues that are shaping both the Islamic world and Morocco. Another
objective is to provide students with
a beginning level facility in the speaking and comprehension of Moroccan
dialectical Arabic and also to give them a formal opportunity for
intercultural
dialogue with Moroccan students.
a. Credit hours:
Nine upper division credit hours, all of which are required.
b. Contact hours: 135 hours,
Seven days a week, 9 am until 1 pm and 7 two hour dialogue sessions when
not travelling; and
additional hours when travelling.
c. Course titles and numbers:
--Islam
and Islamic Culture in Morocco--RELI 4310, 4 credit hours (60 contact
hours) -- No
prerequisites;
--
Moroccan Dialectical Arabic-- ARAB 4000, 4 credit
hours-- No prerequisites.
--
Introduction to Intercultural Dialogue-- RELI 4311, 1 credit hour -- No prerequisites.
--
d. Examples (from the first UGA-Morocco program) of the course-related
activities/excursions outside the classroom:
Guided
historical tour of the "old city" of Marrakech and
its monuments;
Trip
to the southeastern
region of Morocco: to Tamagrout
at the edge of the Sahara
by
way of the Draa River Valley,
including visits to the Nasiri Zawiya, formerly one of the most important
centers of Moroccan religious culture, to a well-preserved
Casbah, and to the Tinfou
Dunes;
Day
trip to Tinmal,
a fortified medieval mosque and center for the Almohad
dynasty.
Concert
of Moroccan Gnaoua music with Ustad Brahim (with whom Led Zeppelin recorded);
Sufi dhikr ceremonies (Fes Sacred
Music Festival), and Private Inshad performance by Ustad Bennis and ensemble.
Tour of the archictectural monuments and traditional crafts of the "old city"
of Fes, assisted
by
a teacher who has a working knowledge of these crafts.
Optionally, students wishing to complete in six weeks an entire year of
intensive Modern Standard Arabic (fusha), taking Beginning ARABIC 1001-2, Intermediate
ARABIC 2003-4, or Advanced ARABIC 3005-6) (and to obtain UGA credit for these classes) can
plan to stay on in Morocco (after the end of our Maymester Program). The dates for
these intensives
will tentatively be June 11 to June 29 (session one): and July 2nd to
20th (session two).
Application for the Arabic Intensive Options:
For more details on this option (including tuition fees and
registration) and in order to apply,
see the Application
for the Intensive Arabic Option in Marrakech, available now.
The tuition for the first year equivalent of Arabic is $1600 and the second and third
year equivalencies is $1400. If you are planning on choosing this
option, please inform Dr. Godlas by email ( godlas@uga.edu ). Note that the
application processes and forms for the Intensive Arabic
Option, on the one hand, and for the UGA-Maymester program in Marrakech, on the other hand, are
two different processes involving two different forms.
Note: Students who take the Intensive Arabic Option (IAO)
should expect to spend about $180 per week on rent, food, and general living
expenses (not including souvenirs) during the IAO. See a breakdown of
these
non-tuition IAO expenses.
Students:
12-22 students from the University of Georgia, other universities, and the interested
public. (Although the vast majority of our participants are typical college-age students,
we have had "non-traditional" (i.e., "older") students in their thirties, forties, and fifties.)
Faculty: 2 full-time
faculty members (Dr. Kenneth
Honerkamp, an Associate Professor at the University of Georgia, Department of
Religion, is the director in charge of program content. He spent 20 years in Morocco
as a student
and teacher. See Dr. Honerkamp's
website for a more complete biography. Dr. Alan
Godlas, also an Associate Professor of the University Georgia Department of
Religion, is the administrative director; he has travelled, lived, studied, and
worked in various
countries of the Muslim world, including Morocco. See Dr. Godlas' biography as well
as his Webby nominated-website for more
information about
him. Both Dr. Honerkamp and Dr.
Godlas will be the on-site directors of the program in Morocco. They are
specialists in Islamic Studies and Arabic and have particular expertise in
Sufism. They
will be assisted in Morocco by
one native
speaking Moroccan language instructor; local experts in various
subjects such as women, Sufism, music, and art and architecture; and one on-site
administrative and program assistant: Mr. Michael Fitzgerald, Director of the Center for Language
and Culture in Marrakech. .
Cost per each student includes the following: a) program fee;
b)tuition;
c)airfare
Note that the program fee includes the cost of classes, internet and
computer access, meals, accomodations, group
activities, and
transportation within Morocco. Students, however, will also need to budget for
individualized expenses
while in Morocco. See below for
"Answers to Questions about Costs" for more
about this.
Costs for students who are either currently attending a UGA system
school or who are residents of Georgia:
A) Total Program fee: $4200 paid to the UGA Bursar's offfice
(either online at https://studentacct.uga.edu/PCSA/index.jsp, with VISA,
Master Card, or Discover card, or in-person);
this does
NOT
include airfare to and from Morocco and does not include tuition.
The full amount of this program fee must be paid to the UGA Bursar's Office (either online by credit card or by check payable to
"University of
Georgia", with the last four digits of your student ID) by March 31 (for those who have been accepted by
that date) or immediately after Dr. Godlas has
informed you that you have been accepted into the program if you have applied late.
B) Estimated Tuition (payable online https://studentacct.uga.edu/PCSA/index.jsp,to
the UGA Bursar's office or in person at the UGA Bursar's office) for 9 credit hours:
Tuition for undergrads who entered the University System of Georgia after Spring 2009:
$2187 ($243/credit for 9 credit hours) to this UGA adds on a $450 institution fee and a $23 tech fee) [April 15 update]. Note that this
insitutional
fee has
been added by UGA
in recent years to offset the loss in funds to the university due to budget reductions imposed by the Georgia Board of Regents (as well as
the governor and legislature, which ultimately reflect a reluctance by taxpayers to support higher education in difficult economic times).
To the degree that citizens as a whole are unwilling to support higher education, the cost must then be shouldered by students and their
families.
--(For students on HOPE scholarships, HOPE will cover this. UGA students should contact the
financial aid
office for more information. Call (706) 542-6147, press 1 after the automated message begins and ask to speak
with a counselor) The tuition amount may vary slightly for UGA
students not in the Franklin College of Arts of Sciences. This is paid when registering
for classes on Oasis (whenever your OASIS date occurs).
For NON-UGA students who are regular students at another USG institution, your HOPE
scholarship
will cover your tuition for the UGA Morocco program if you take the following steps:
(1) you must contact an advisor in your Financial Aid office while you are applying for this
UGA
study abroad program, informing him/her of your desire to have HOPE applied to your UGA study
abroad tuition.
(2) In your application you must including the following information:
Name of advisor in your Financial Aid office with whom you have spoken______________.
Date on which you spoke with this advisor_____________________.
Direct phone number (plus extension, if any) of this advisor___________________.
Fax number of this advisor____________________.
Email address of this advisor_________________.
(3) Then immediately after being accepted into the UGA study abroad program, you
must inform the advisor of your acceptance so he/she can arrange for your HOPE to cover your
UGA study abroad tuition.
(4) Then following this second conversation of yours with your Financial Aid advisor, you
must email Dr. Godlas at godlas@uga.edu , informing him of your recent conversation with
your financial aid advisor.
For Georgia residents who are non-UGA students and who wish to apply
your HOPE scholarship to the tuition, your application will not be
complete without the above information.
C) Airfare:
Students must purchase their own tickets to and from Marrakech. By March 15, Dr. Godlas
will email participants instructions about purchasing airline tickets.
Note that for residents
of Georgia with HOPE scholarships, tuition will
in many cases be
paid directly by HOPE when registering for the classes; but
check with the Financial Aid Office about this.
Students not on HOPE scholarships must pay the
tuition when
registering for the Maymester classes online on OASIS. Students can also
pay TUITION by check at Bursar's office (phone: 706-542-1625) of
the
university, where tuition
can normally paid.
UGA students who are currently receiving other forms of financial aid such as Pell
Grants may possibly be able to use this aid to cover certain costs of UGA-Morocco
Maymester program. To enquire about this, please call Mr. Robert Tucker in the
Financial Aid Office at (706) 542-6147 and press #1.
Costs for non-Georgia residents not attending a school in the University System of Georgia
Students who do not attend a school in the University System of Georgia (or not in the SEC)
and who are not Georgia residents are called Transient Students and must
pay two additional costs:
(1) $60 covering the cost of processing of
the Transient Student application. (See "Applying" in the table of contents for more
information about the Transient Student application.) The only way to pay this seems
to be by check or money order sent to the following address:
Undergraduate Admissions Office
(Transient Student Admissions)
Terrell Hall
University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia 30602-1633
Do not forget to indicate your name and "Morocco Maymester Program, Transient Studient application fee," on the check.
(2) $250 "non-Georgia resident" fee, for which you will be billed by the UGA Bursar's office and which that office will add
to the tuition.
These additional costs and the process for applying as a "transient student" are explained at
Applying as an Undergrad Transient Student
( http://www.uga.edu/oie/sa_transient_under.htm ) If you are a transient student, please carefully
follow each of the steps described at this url.
a. What is covered by the program fee and
tuition? Covered by
the student program fee and tuition are the following:All
living accomodations (both on site and on the road), including food, homestays,
and hotel costs (when outside of Marrakech); specialist native speaker teacher of
Moroccan Arabic;
lectures by local experts in women, Sufism, music, art and architecture;
also included are costs of
cultural performances, classroom building
use, all transportation (excluding free days), admission to monuments,
insurance, administrative costs and supplies, salaries of all
faculty and guest speakers.
b. What
other expenses might be incurred by the student? Laundry,
souveniers, postage, entertainment. How much can a student expect to spend
on a weekly basis for these other expenses? $100 per week.
c. When
are the fees due?
The deadline for applications is January 15, 2012. (If the programs
fills up before
then, subsequent applicants
will
be put on a waiting list. (Late
applications
will be considered until March 15 or until all spaces are filled,
whichever comes first.) The program fee of $4200 must be
paid to the Bursar's office by Frebruary 1, 2012 (for all who have been accepted by this date).
Exceptions to these dates may be made for late
applicants if space is still available.
UGA students will pay tuition to the university
when they register for the classes. UGA students must register for
the classes and pay their tuition by April 8 or later if their registration date is later.
d.
Can the payments all be made in one check? No. The University of Georgia's accounting system
requires that separate checks be written and made payable as indicated under the description for each
check.
e.
Can a credit card be used? Yes. VISA, Mastercard, and Discover are accepted by the Bursar's office.
Note: Students enrolled in any university will be given priority, but
applications from the interested public may be considered if space is available.
Note as well that deadline for applying is January 15,
2012 although late
applications will be accepted until March 15, 2012 if space is
available.
1) Email Dr. Godlas godlas@uga.edu giving him
your usual email address and informing him that
you are sending your application
2)Fill
out the linked program
application
and apply
immediately, since applications
will be considered on a "first come, first served" basis.
Make
certain that you provide a phone number where you can be
reached, especially one where we can reach you during the last
few days before our flight leaves, just in case there are last
minute changes.
The url for the application at the above link is
http://www.uga.edu/islam/morocco/application.pdf
3) Visas and Passports
No visas to Morocco for American passport holders are needed. If you are
not an American citizen, however, you will need to inquire from the
Moroccan embassy in Washington, D.C. or check the Moroccan
consulate's webpage to see if Morocco requires that citizens of
of your country obtain a visa.
If you do not have a valid passport (that will continue to be valid
until June 10), you should obtain one immediately,
because there may be a backlog of applicants and a long time-delay when
you apply.
4)For All Non-UGA Students: Transient Student Application
In addition to submitting our program's application available
through this website, all non-UGA students (even if you are students at other schools
in
Georgia) must submit a Transient Student Application to the University of Georgia.
It is essential that students at non-UGA and non-Georgia System schools carefully follow
the Instructions for Transient Student Applicants.
Please email Dr. Godlas as soon as you have completed your transient student application and paid the $60 transient student
application fee. Also, at the "Instructions for Transient Students" you will see the url for various health related information
and immunizations, www.uhs.uga.edu/appts_forms/open_comm.html . These will take some
time to fill out, because you will need to go to your physician and get your immunizations certified or get new immunizations.
After you have faxed these into the UGA Health Center, please email Dr. Godlas, informing him of this. You will not be able to
register for classes, until these have been received by the UGA Health Center.
Special dietary needs and food allergies cannot always be accomodated
while
travelling. Therefore, if you have such needs and still desire to participate in
the program, while travelling be prepared to eat simple meals. For example, if you
are a vegan, it will be a good idea, when we are travelling, for you to go the
Moroccan markets
(before we leave) and stock up on foods that you can take with you and eat.
Fortunately for vegans
and vegetarians, dried
fruits and nuts as well as fresh fruits and vegetables are plentiful.
If you have been accepted into the program, click on the following link,
download the MS Word documents linked
on that document, and
follow the instructions there: Post-acceptance
instructions
On the "agreement of participation" found at the previous link, you
will
be instructed to read the itinerary (which you will be emailed shortly after April 2;
you can find previous year's itineraries at
the beginning of this page) and read the Consular
Information Sheet published by
US Embassy in Morocco. We have linked it here for your convenience.
Note that among the post-acceptance documents that you must fill out
and bring in, send in, fax in, or scan and email are the following:
Confidential health record, Agreement for Participation, and the
"Release,
Waiver of Liability and Covenant Not to Sue." The latter two forms
require your signature, hence you cannot simply email them to Dr. Godlas
unless
you fill them out, sign them, digitally scan them, and then email them.
Consequently, you must either send in these two, fax them in
(706-542-6724), or scan and email them. Signing and submitting them is
mandatory. Unless you
sign them and they are received by Dr. Godlas, the University of Georgia
will not permit you to participate in the program. Of course not signing
them will not subject you to any adverse (i.e. punitive) actions such
as prohibiting
you from taking other classes at UGA, withdrawing financial aid, etc.
After acceptance into the program, all students must download, sign, and mail in
the forms (to Dr. Godlas at his address listed above) accessed at the following link
[updated March 8]:
Post-Acceptance
Documents
Note that the tentative itinerary
noted on the program agreement and waiver will be emailed to students after March 8.
d.
Group travel arrangements:
Airline carrier and dates of travel:
We are tentatively going to fly Delta this year to Madrid; and from
Madrid to Marrakech.
Students in Georgia or the Southern U.S. are
strongly urged to
travel with the group. If you do not
travel
to Morocco with the group, we strongly encourage you to fly to the Marrakech airport.
Otherwise, you will
be responsible for arranging and paying for your own transportation to Marrakech from
Casablanca.
(Since the
airport
is not in Casablanca proper, this generally
means taking an hour-long train from the airport into Casablanca proper; then
waiting a while; then taking another five hour
train ride
from Casablanca to Marrakech. It can be a difficult process is one has not done it
before. Hence we do not recommend that you do it.) Similarly, if you do not travel with us
on our return
to Casablanca, you will be responsible for arranging and paying for your transportation
there. We generally recommend that participants travel with the group.
e.
Local transportation arrangements in Morocco:
All
Moroccan group travel is by chartered van. Outside of Marrakech
various hotels will be stayed in.
f. Local housing and meal arrangements:
Homestays and meals
arranged by the affiliated institution, The Center for Language and Culture. We will
attempt to honor requests such as
a homestay with a primarily Arabic speaking family or, on the other hand, a family
that has at least one or more English speakers, for example. The sooner such requests
are made, the more likely they will be able to be accomodated.
a. Date
by which the program will be cancelled if there are an insufficient numbers
of students: April 9, 2012. (In
2006
we took the maximum number of students and had to turn away
some.)
b. Refund information:
Full refunds will
be given if the program is cancelled.In
the event of student cancellation after the program fee has been paid,
if no replacement student can be found, $600 will be refunded.
