World Building Based on Historical Worlds

Create a world-building project modeled after the cultural complexity of medieval Spain. Use Southern Spain’s historical and cultural contexts, unique architecture, and enchanting landscape to create compelling characters, plots and settings.

• Spend three weeks in Spain during the summer visiting sites and monuments to inspire you to create a multicultural, fictional story in a fall 2025 class in Rochester.
• Visit four cities in Spain (Madrid, Seville, Cordoba, and Granada) and explore sites such as Alhambra Palaces and Generalife Gardens, the Mosque of Cordoba, and the Royal Alcazar.
• An excellent creative opportunity for students with an interest in writing/storytelling, creating interactive narratives, game design, visual media, or film/animation.

No Spanish language is required.

Course Term: Fall 2025 course (students travel to Spain in the summer, before fall classes)
Travel Dates: July 27-August 18, 2025
Credits: 3

Course Details:

• ENGL-586: Advanced World Building Workshop (undergrad)
• ENGL-690: Creative Writing Workshop (graduate)
  Students will travel to Spain in late summer 2025 followed by a fall 2025 class in Rochester.
   

Pre-req: First-year writing or ENGL 211 or ENGL 212. Open to all undergraduate and graduate students, all year levels. No Spanish language is needed.

Application deadline: Extended to February 9th, 2025

Learn more about the program in these media highlights below:

• RIT News - https://www.rit.edu/news/using-historic-worlds-inspire-creative-writing
• RIT Technically Speaking - https://www.instagram.com/p/CrhTPVtt_kW/

Eligibility:

• Have a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher (students with lower than a 2.5 GPA would be considered on a case-by-case basis)
• Have a clear conduct record with RIT
• Have no financial holds on your RIT eServices account at the time of your program acceptance/confirmation

Program Cost & Financial Aid

Program Cost: Student budget worksheet - World Building in Spain - outlines all program costs.

Financial Aid:
Financial aid may cover some program costs. As you review the budget worksheet, please remember that it does not include your RIT financial aid or scholarships, which may cover some of the program costs. The purpose of the budget worksheet is to show all the costs associated with your study abroad program, which will help your RIT Financial Aid Assistant Director determine how your aid and scholarships may be applied. 

To understand how your financial aid and scholarships may apply to your program costs:

• Make an appointment with your financial aid assistant director (call Financial Aid at 585-475-2186) and mention that you are calling for a study abroad appointment
• Upload a copy of your budget worksheet(s) via the Financial Aid upload portal at https://join.rit.edu/register/FA_upload (at least 48 hours prior to your scheduled meeting, so they have time to prepare) 
  • Please rename the file name of your budget worksheet before uploading it to the Financial Aid portal based on the instructions provided in the portal (adding your name and student ID)

To find out the name of your financial aid assistant director for your degree program visit: https://www.rit.edu/admissions/aid/contact#counseling-team

We recommend you meet with Financial Aid before the application deadline to understand how your aid will apply. The RIT financial aid office is located in Bausch and Lomb Center (Bldg. 77), 2nd floor, 2125.

Scholarships:
RIT scholarships and national scholarships for study abroad are good options to explore for scholarship funding. Make sure you are checking scholarship eligibility requirements and take note of scholarship deadlines. More about undergraduate scholarships for study abroad

To Apply

1) Start an application in the RIT Study Abroad Compass
Before starting an application, you will be prompted to fill out a Compass profile. After completing your profile information, you must search for the "World Building in Spain" program under "Search Programs" to complete an application.

2) Watch this video on application steps for RIT faculty-led programs, which covers important information (video is captioned)

Contact

Trent Hergenrader
Associate Professor
Department of English
wthgsl@rit.edu