2027 Local Immersion Modules
GLAM-ourous Shreveport: Shaping the identity of a City
Instructors: Dr. Kyra Rietveld, Jessica Hawkins, Joshua Chambers
Dates: May 10 – 21, 2027
Module Fees: $275 - $594
This course examines how Shreveport’s current cultural institutions—Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (GLAM)—are actively involved in constructing and communicating the city’s cultural identity today. Rather than simply preserving culture, GLAM institutions play a vital role in shaping how Shreveport defines itself in the present: whose histories are foregrounded, which values are promoted, and how community belonging is imagined. Through site visits, guest conversations, and hands-on reflection, students will explore how these institutions produce and project a specific local identity—one informed by Shreveport’s complex racial, regional, and economic landscape, yet distinct in its contemporary expression.
By engaging directly with the people, spaces, and practices that shape cultural narratives in Shreveport, students will study a unique subcultural identity within the U.S.—one that both reflects and challenges broader national norms. The course centers on institutions as active agents in building civic meaning and community coherence in real time.
Chimp Haven
Instructors: Dr. Jessica Alexander and Brenna Pearson-Gallion
Dates: May 10 – 28, 2027
Module Fees: $800 - $1000
Did you know that culture isn't just something that humans have? Nonhuman primates also have culture!
In this course, we will travel to Chimp Haven, the national chimpanzee sanctuary that's just outside Shreveport, and we will observe cultural behaviors in nonhuman primates. Chimp Haven is home to over 300 chimpanzees who have been retired from NIH biomedical research. They live in communities and build friendships, engage with caregivers, and spend their days learning to be social chimps.
Going behind the scenes at such an incredible facility is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Come examine what culture means with our primate relatives!
Living Myth(ology)
Instructors: Patrick Morgan and Catherine Walsh
Dates: May 10 – 28, 2027
Module Fees: $400 - $850
This immersive, experiential course will encourage students to think like anthropologists, exploring Myth as a fundamental human cultural phenomenon through an in-depth exploration of Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) texts. We will grapple with classic questions: What work do myths perform in human cultures? What do they preserve and teach, and how do they resonate with such deep meaning for members of a culture? How do myths relate to and inform the structure of social concepts of truth, shared memory, purpose, personal identity, morality, and values? Drawing on a range of related ancient texts and contemporary readings, we will explore the complex relationship of Myth with Truth, the intricacy of specific cultural webs of meaning, aspects of human meaning-making, and the strange power of created (but deeply felt) narrative experiences. After examining the Gilgamesh tradition and its cultural context in detail and surveying secondary literature on the concept of Myth, students will demonstrate mastery of these themes by collaboratively creating their own coherent mythological narrative, which they will both perform (in groups) and analyze (individually).
Archival Explorations
Instructors: Dr. Jama Grove and Chris Brown
Dates: May 10 – 28, 2027
Module Fees: $300 - $550
In Archival Explorations: Black Freedom Struggles students will examine archival records for the deliberate exclusions, silences, and meaningful off-hand references that alert researchers to the stories of those who were under-represented or excluded from the dominant cultural narrative and the records produced within that culture. This course will probe the Centenary College’s nineteenth century history to identify the presence and influence of people of color on campus and within the Centenary community prior to the early twentieth century.
Policies, Payments, and Passport Points:
Enrollment:
Enroll into Modules using Bannerweb Self Service.
Choose the following CRNs:
- Glam Shreveport: 3004 + 3013 or 3020 + 3013
- Living Myth(ology): 3005 + 3014
- Chimp Haven: 3018 + 3019
- Archival Explorations: tbd
Register during the Spring Registration Schedule:
- Senior (90 + credit hours) Registration begins October 26
- Junior (60+ credit hours) Registration begins November 2
- Sophomore (30+ credit hours) Registration begins November 9
Registration closes November 13. Students who want to enroll after this date may do so by visiting the Registrar's Office and emailing the Director of Global Engagement.
Payments:
A deposit of $100 is due on December 1.Only 50 Passport Points can be used towards the initial deposit.
Payment due dates are:
- December 1, 2026: Initial Non-Refundable Deposit Due
- January 19, 2027: 1/3 of remaining fees
- February 23, 2027: 1/3 of remaining fees
- March 24, 2027: All remaining fees due
Passport Points:
50 Passport Points can be used towards the initial deposit. A total of 100 Passport Points can be used towards the cost of a local module.