Signature Programs and Courses

Explore the American Revolution from the other side of the Atlantic. Based in London, you will examine the Revolution from a transatlantic perspective, considering how British officials, ordinary citizens, political leaders, and observers understood the growing conflict with the American colonies. London becomes your classroom as you engage directly with historical documents, artifacts, museums, archives, and historic spaces connected to the Revolutionary era.

What can food, farming, and rural communities tell us about the future of Japan—and about the challenges communities face around the world? Led by Professor Kay Shimizu, coauthor of Betting on the Farm: Institutional Change in Japanese Agriculture, the program takes you beyond the classroom and into communities where these questions are playing out in real time. Through site visits, conversations with local experts and community members, and travel across distinct regions of Japan, you will examine how national and global challenges take different forms at the local level—and why communities respond to them in different ways. 

On Bioscience Breakthroughs you will learn about the history of bioscience discovery during the scientific revolution in Europe, including landmark discoveries such as the development of the Germ Theory of Disease. You will also hear from current university researchers and leaders in the bioscience start-up communities in Pittsburgh and Berlin to learn about how current, cutting-edge scientific discoveries develop from ideas to actual products and services. 

What does it mean to make ethical decisions in healthcare? How do politics, society, law, religion, and culture shape those choices? In this three-week faculty-led program, you'll explore those questions firsthand in Amsterdam and Milan; two cities with rich and distinct approaches to medicine, public health, and human rights. Led by Dr. Cindy McCarthy, Associate Professor and Director, Bioethics Certificate, you'll examine real-world ethical debates through a combination of coursework, guest lectures, and hands-on site visits. 

Experience Trinidad and Tobago through its music, art, communities, and cultural traditions. In this immersive service-learning program, you will explore the cultural arts economy with a particular focus on Kaiso and Calypso—examining how artists shape national identity, preserve cultural heritage, and contribute to the social and economic life of Trinidad and Tobago. Working alongside local partners, artists, and community members, you will move beyond the classroom to learn directly from the people and places that sustain Trinidad and Tobago's cultural heritage. 

Exploring the geology and paleontology of Wyoming and South Dakota through three weeks of immersive, field-based learning.  Along the way, you will encounter some of the most remarkable geological landscapes in the American West, including the Snowy Mountains, Vedauwoo, the Tetons, Yellowstone, Devil’s Tower, Spearfish Canyon and Wind Cave.  The experience combines hands-on field work, expert-led learning, hiking and camping. 

This program fulfills Creative Work, Specific Geographic Region, The Arts, and Diversity general education requirements.  It also fulfills 5 requirements in the Film Studies program. 

Combining diverse academic coursework from world-renowned film makers and academics, hands-on film production with the support of the Derek Jarman Lab, and the rich cultural tapestry of London, you will work to craft your own film that captures you time in London.  This program is hosted by the Frederick Honors College but available to students from across the University of Pittsburgh. 

Consistently ranked as one of the top universities in the world and a recent recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize, the University of Melbourne offers more than 1,500 courses across nearly a hundred disciplines.  Located in the heart of Melbourne, outside of the classroom you will have access to one of the best arts, culture, food, and coffee scenes in the world.

Inspired by innovations in healthcare born from movements for social justice, we will explore the ways in which the political, economic, social, and technological conditions impact the development of standard-setting care in various aspects of health and human care. Compare the development of Freedom House EMS in Pittsburgh with the formalization of trauma care at Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.