Encounters: Travel and Civic Life

From ancient pilgrims to modern explorers, travelers have long reflected on what it means to meet the unfamiliar. This course examines travel writing as a record of cross-cultural encounter and moral reflection. Through classic texts from multiple traditions, students will consider how travel narratives have shaped understandings of citizenship, identity, and the common good. What civic virtues--or vices--emerge when individuals confront difference? Can travel foster genuine dialogue across difference, or does it inevitably reinforce boundaries?