SGCP Siberia
Indiana University, SGCP and FIPSE present:
Tyumen Siberia
Please excuse the delay in final information for the Siberia 2013 trip. The following information is reasonably accurate. We will not know our final dates until we purchase plane tickets in early summer, but the dates provided here should be within plus-or-minus 2-3 days.
For much more information on the course please visit the course website. Please note, the application for this program is different than the normal SPEA Abroad form.
Our trip is scheduled for 26 July – 16 August. We will be based in Tyumen, a modern, busy city in southwestern Siberia. We will fly in to Moscow and spend part of a day in Moscow, then continue to Tyumen. In Tyumen, we will visit environmental science laboratories and hear about the major environmental problems of the region, as well as exploring the history and culture of the region. We will spend 2 or 3 days at a local lake research station, possibly with other students visiting from Germany as well as with Russian students, learning about environmental management in the region and about lake ecology. Pictures of our earlier stays in Tyumen and at Lake Kuchak are available.
We then plan to fly north to the smaller but modern town of Khanty-Mansiysk in the Siberian oil-producing region for several days to learn about oil production and to see environmental damage from oil spills and to learn about remediation and restoration efforts. We will also visit an excellent natural history and anthropology museum there. We will return to Tyumen and board a train on the Trans-Siberian railroad and travel to Lake Baikal, the world’s oldest and deepest lake, and one of the cleanest in the world.
Lake Baikal is the subject of some of the most vigorous environmental activism in Russia. A very large and beautiful lake, Baikal is surrounded by mountains. We will explore the area’s ecosystems and discuss the environmental issues that arise in protecting such a rich resource. After our time at Baikal, we will fly back to Moscow and then home to Indiana.
In the 7-10 days prior to our trip, we will be providing orientation and language instruction for the trip. As much as possible, this work will be available online so that those who are working or completing internships need not travel to Bloomington any earlier than necessary. We will need to convene everyone in Bloomgton a few days before the trip for final orientation. During our travels, there will be occasional assigned readings that will help to prepare you for our destinations, followed by discussions either en route or in the evenings at our destinations. The general focus of the trip is on environmental science and policy. No previous training in these areas is required. We anticipate we will have both students with an interest but no training and students with considerable training. This provides a ready source of both questions and answers during discussion! Similarly, no training in Russian language is required and we anticipate that we will have students with a range of abilities. We will be limiting the group size to 10 students due the nature of our transportation in-country. This means everyone will have an opportunity to experience all of our sites and to engage with our hosts and guides to the fullest extent possible.
We expect to be able to provide funding to cover all or nearly all of the travel expenses for this trip. More information should be available by November 19th, 2012. Thank you for your patience.
V482 is in the following undergraduate majors. To find out how this fits into your specific degree, please see your academic advisor.
