Global Pathways Programs

Where the world becomes part of the conversation.

Communication takes many forms, and its impact reaches far beyond borders. These programs invite you to engage with global perspectives on media, leadership, activism, and innovation while experiencing the people, institutions, and industries shaping today’s interconnected world.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Global Communication, Culture, and Activism

Explore how communication shapes communities, cultures, and social change around the world. Through service-learning, cultural engagement, and conversations with educators and professionals from diverse backgrounds, you’ll gain firsthand insight into the connections between communication, culture, and activism while developing a deeper global perspective.

Sydney, Australia

Global Communication and Leadership

Gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between Australia and the United States through the lenses of global communication and leadership. Based in Sydney, you’ll  explore how culture, governance, and media influence strategic communication while engaging with the people, institutions, and ideas shaping one of the world’s most dynamic international partnerships.

Salzburg, Austria

Creativity, Media, and Global Change

Join students and faculty from around the world in Salzburg, Austria, to explore how media, digital culture, and emerging technologies shape global issues. Through conversations with leaders in the arts, journalism, business, advocacy, and beyond, you’ll  gain cross-cultural perspectives while examining the influence of global media systems in an interconnected world.

Paris, France

French Language and Global Communication

Spend four weeks immersed in French language and culture in the heart of Paris. Through coursework, walking tours, guest lectures, and hands-on experiences, you’ll  explore the connections between France’s rich history and contemporary society while developing language skills, intercultural communication, and a deeper understanding of global perspectives.

Germany

Wiesbaden: Media Management and Problem Solving

Discover how data-driven insights shape the future of marketing and communication during this two-week, 4-credit program in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. You’ll explore the intersection of analytics, media, and storytelling while building professional leadership and teamwork skills. Through immersive learning experiences, you’ll gain the tools to transform complex data into strategic ideas that resonate with audiences across today’s global media landscape.

Singapore

Blueprinting Innovation: Singapore’s Globally Influential Creative Economy

This three-week, 4-credit program introduces students to the global creative industries through the dynamic lens of Singapore, a leading Asian hub for innovation and enterprise. Challenging the assumption that creative industries are centered primarily in the United States, students are encouraged to engage with world-class brands and businesses through company visits, guest lectures, and guided discussions. Focusing on sectors such as music, technology, and design, the program encourages direct comparison of international business approaches and creative practices across global markets.*

*Note: Offered every other summer; alternates with Stockholm.

Stockholm, Sweden

Blueprinting Innovation: Sweden’s Globally Influential Creative Economy

This four-week, 4-credit program examines the global creative industries through the perspective of Stockholm, Sweden, a leading Nordic center for innovation in design, media, and entrepreneurship. Moving beyond a US-centric view of industry, you’ll explore how creative sectors are shaped in an international context through visits to leading firms, guest lectures, and guided conversations with professionals. With a focus on streaming, fashion, and design, the program highlights how regional approaches to creativity and business differ across global markets, offering a comparative understanding of industry practice between Europe and the United States.*

*Note: Offered every other summer; alternates with Singapore.

Every film starts with a story worth telling.

From film sets to writers’ retreats, these pathways combine creative practice with cultural immersion. Students develop new skills, collaborate with fellow creators, and leave with original work inspired by the places, people, and traditions they encounter.

Prague, Czech Republic

Prague Summer Film Program

Spend four weeks in Prague at the renowned Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU), one of the world’s leading film schools. As you create an original short film, you’ll work closely with faculty, mentors, and fellow filmmakers while building your production skills through workshops, industry visits, and guest lectures. Alongside your creative work, you’ll explore the traditions of Czech and Slovak cinema and experience the city that helped shape one of Europe’s most influential film cultures. You’ll leave Prague with a completed film and a deeper understanding of the craft of storytelling.

Aotearoa, New Zealand

Screenwriters’ Lab

Write your next screenplay in Aotearoa in this four-week Screenwriters’ Lab. SOF/WLP students will develop film and television projects through workshops, writing sessions, and experiences shaped by New Zealand’s rich screen cultures and storytelling traditions. You’ll travel from the North Island to the South Island, explore M?ori history and culture, and end with a writing retreat near Queenstown.

Accra, Ghana

Beats Beyond Borders: Digital Storytelling and Hip Hop Culture

Spend four weeks immersed in Ghanaian culture while exploring the global influence of music, media, and digital storytelling. Through the lens of your mobile device, you’ll document your experiences, examine the roots and evolution of Hip Hop and Afro Beats, and investigate the impact of the African diaspora on contemporary culture. Along the way, you’ll develop creative storytelling skills and produce engaging digital content that captures the people, places, and perspectives you encounter.

Performance takes many forms.

From international festivals to comedy clubs and voice workshops, these pathways immerse students in the performing arts through the cultures and communities that bring them to life. Along the way, they engage with artists, experience creative traditions firsthand, and discover new ways of understanding performance.

Santiago, Chile

Artistic Direction on the Global Stage

Go behind the scenes of one of the world’s premier international performing arts festivals in Santiago, Chile. Students engage with festival organizers, artists, and directors while exploring innovative performances that blend artistic excellence with social and political impact—all while experiencing the energy and culture of a vibrant South American capital.

Barcelona, Spain

Art, Theatre, and Culture

This four-week, 8-credit program invites students to study visual art and theatre while immersing themselves in Barcelona’s vibrant Mediterranean culture. Through attendance at select performances at the Grec Festival de Barcelona, students experience theatre, music, and dance from international companies across venues throughout the city. Paired with guided visits to major museums and galleries, along with instructor-led contextual presentations, the program offers a rich exploration of how contemporary and historical works shape Barcelona’s dynamic cultural landscape.

London, United Kingdom

From Shakespeare to Stand-Up

This intensive four-week, 8-credit program immerses students in the world of British comedy across its cultural heartlands of London, Edinburgh, and Stratford-upon-Avon. Exploring the origins, evolution, and global influence of British humor, students engage with contemporary comedy through theatre, stand-up clubs, and improv venues, gaining insight into both historic traditions and cutting-edge performance. Alongside visits to museums, theatres, and galleries, participants connect with working comedians and experience firsthand the creative energy of the UK’s comedy scene.

Kasteel Well, Netherlands

Kristin Linklater Voice Workshop

This four-week retreat-style program at Emerson’s Kasteel Well campus immerses students in a close-knit community and expansive outdoor environment while introducing the Kristin Linklater Voice Method. Through intensive, hands-on training led by certified instructors, students explore voice as a creative and expressive tool—professionally, personally, psychologically, and politically—developing greater confidence, range, and awareness as performers and emerging artists.

What you notice becomes your narrative.

Writing, literature, and storytelling pathways turn global landscapes, cities, and shared experiences into sources of inspiration. Through reading, reflection, and creative practice, you’ll develop your voice while exploring how the world we live in can shape the stories we tell.

Ballyvaughan, Ireland

Writing Place and Distance: Art and Environment in the West of Ireland

Find inspiration in the dramatic landscapes of Ireland’s west coast during this immersive creative writing experience. Based at the Burren College of Art, you’ll explore the relationship between art, environment, and storytelling through workshops, seminar discussions, and dedicated writing time. Surrounded by the unique ecology and striking beauty of the Burren, you’ll develop your creative practice while engaging with a community deeply connected to the relationship between artistic expression and sense of place.

Kasteel Well, Netherlands

Travel Writing

Write and revise short works of creative nonfiction inspired by your time in Europe, using attentive journaling as an core part of your travel experience. Experiment with a range of travel writing styles and approaches while drawing on contemporary works, literary traditions, and historical perspectives. As you move through new places and cultures, you’ll develop a creative voice shaped by observation, experience, and the stories that emerge along the way.

James Baldwin Writers’ Colony

This four-week, 8-credit program invites students to write, workshop, and revise short works of creative fiction and nonfiction inspired by African-American writers who lived and worked in Europe. Through close reading, creative practice, and collaboration with peers from Emerson and historically Black colleges and universities, students explore how concepts such as “Black,” “African-American,” and “diaspora” evolve in an increasingly interconnected world, while developing their own voices in response to this transatlantic literary tradition.

The world offers countless perspectives to explore.

Immerse youself in global study that connects culture, history, and contemporary life through hands-on experiences and interdisciplinary study. You’ll explore how civic identity, modern history, artistic traditions, and environmental storytelling are shaped by the places they emerge from and how they continue to evolve.

Athens, Greece

Cities and Citizenry

Explore the evolving meaning of community in Athens through a four-week intensive program. As the birthplace of the polis—the concept of community as people rather than place—Athens serves as a living classroom for exploring how cultures, histories, and migrations influence our understanding of the local and the global. Through the study of history, culture, and current social issues, students gain new perspectives on what it means to belong in an increasingly interconnected world.

Berlin, Germany

Berlin: Metropolis in Motion

This program explores the relationship between mind and body through immersive, hands-on practices rooted in Japanese craft and philosophy, including woodworking, cooking, pottery, tea making, and Buddhist meditation. Make Kyoto your home base as you explore Japan through excursions to Tokyo and Seto, reflective writing, and readings on Japanese history and culture. Along the way, you’ll encounter centuries-old craft traditions and see how artistic practices rooted in Zen continue to influence the way cultural heritage is preserved today.

Italy

Orvieto: Ecology, Media and Storytelling

This immersive, interdisciplinary two-course program takes place between the hilltop town of Orvieto and a World Wildlife Fund conservation site near Todi, inviting students to explore the intersections of ecology, media, and storytelling. Learn how ecological conservation practices, creative media, and knowledge of cultural heritage can work together to communicate environmental narratives.

The Eternal City: Rome and the Performance of Power

This two-week interdisciplinary course explores Rome as a city of performance, where art, architecture, and urban space have long been used to express political, economic, military, and cultural power. Moving between readings and guided visits to key historical and artistic sites, you’ll examine how Rome has been shaped from the classical period to the present, and how it has continuously cast itself as both an imperial center and a cultural force.

While Emerson offers a wide range of study abroad opportunities around the world, students are also welcome to chart their own course through non-affiliated programs and institutions.*

If you’re considering a non-affiliated program, you’ll work closely with an Education Abroad advisor to identify options that align with your academic and personal goals. Programs must be operated by a regionally accredited U.S. institution. Because transfer credit is not guaranteed, all coursework must be reviewed and approved in advance through the Registrar’s Office, particularly for courses that may count toward your major.

*Emerson students are not allowed to spend their final semester at a non-Emerson program. The final 16 credits must be completed at Emerson.