Recorded Information Session: https://echo360.org/media/d6d73edb-1260-46eb-abd5-69d150a4b674/public
Program Location: Immerse yourself in village life in Northeastern Thailand, exploring the mountains and forests with your warm and welcoming host families. On this 16 day experience you will stay with Thai host families learning about their deep connection with the land through rice and rubber farming, growing cotton, and fishing in the local streams. Communicating across language barriers with your host families over communal meals served on mats on the floor, you will experience Thailand the way very few travelers are able to in their lifetime. The program will take place in two village communities located in the Northeast part of of the country. Y
Program Overview: Students will become immersed in rural Thai life through living with human rights defenders fighting for holistic restoration and political inclusion in Northeast Thailand. Through exchanges, focus groups, interviews, and community tours, students will practice action research methods to understand the needs of communities impacted by mining and their efforts to restore their communities. The course invites students to translate their newfound understanding to action by creating a summative project that addresses community needs and connects to long-term solidarity efforts. Students will work alongside human rights defenders and NGO workers to design projects that contribute to holistic restoration.
Program Experience:
COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY ACTION RESEARCH: Understand the impacts of extractive industries (e.g., mining) on community well-being, including individual physical and social-emotional health, interpersonal relationships, and community processes. Develop skills in community-based research methods (e.g., qualitative data collection and analysis). Apply learning to a summative project connected to ongoing solidarity work.
HOLISTIC RESTORATION: Learn about community-driven restoration processes in response to systemic oppression and disenfranchisement through collective action and public participation.
CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING: Become immersed in Thai culture and learn about local practices, values, and traditions through homestays, market visits, and exchanges with local organizations.
Course Info:
- PSYC 4710 or PSYC 4880 for 3 undergraduate credits or PSYC 5710 for 3 graduate level credits
- Waiver of prerequisites by instructor
- Fulfills Social Sciences BOK elective or Free elective for non-psych majors.
- Can fulfill FAHSS interdisciplinary minors and Honors requirement.
- All majors welcome!
On-site Partner: UMass Lowell is partnered with the Radical Grandma Collective, an international and intergenerational solidarity effort supporting environmental justice activists in Northeast Thailand. Providing educational programming, the RGC will host our visit and introduce us to its mission. The RGC supports environmental restoration and advocates' economic security by:
-Directing resources to human rights defenders
-Amplifying environmental justice movements in Thailand
-Providing educational programming
Costs: See budget worksheet linked above
Inclusions:
- All local transportation in Thailand
- Accommodation: 16 nights in either guesthouse or village homestays
- 3 meals a day for 16 days
- Radical Grandma Collective Educational and Logistical Facilitators
- All program activities, including donations to community partner organizations
- On the ground support 24-7
- International health and emergency insurance
- Pre-departure meetings and on-site orientation
Exclusions:
- Round-trip airfare - students will be guided on purchasing a suggested itinerary to encourage all to fly together. Do not purchase a flight until instructed to do so.
Scholarships:
Financial Aid Advising: https://go.oncehub.com/UMLFinancialAid
Professor on-site & Contact: Larissa_Gaias@uml.edu
Appointments: