Penn State students explore Ireland through art and literature

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — This summer, a group of 10 students from the College of the Liberal Arts and College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State stepped into the heart of Irish culture as part of the faculty-led program, Dublin, Ireland: Representing the Irish Landscape, Literature, and Visual Arts.

Through site visits, tours, plays and day trips spread across two cities, various rural areas and two islands, the group learned how Ireland has inspired generations of writers and artists. The course was one of 12 faculty-led programs offered through the College of the Liberal Arts this summer.

Lauren Stygar, a third-year student majoring in digital arts and media design, with minors in music technology and arts entrepreneurship, thanked Professor of Art Helen O’Leary for her leadership during the trip.

“She was such an amazing, creative presence to have for this trip,” Stygar said. “Not only is she incredibly cultured and knowledgeable, but she’s also just plain fun to be around.”

O’Leary and Mark Morrisson, associate dean for undergraduate studies and professor of English in the College of the Liberal Arts, were the two faculty leaders in charge of the four-week trip.

“This program has been running since the late 1990s and is one of Penn State’s longest-running faculty-led summer abroad programs,” Morrisson said. “It offers students not only amazing cultural and social experiences in both rural and urban settings on the wild Atlantic coast and in Dublin, but it also features class visits by leading writers, artists and activists.”

Students connected Irish landscapes with literature by reading about each location before visiting. While at each site, they focused on the role of the landscape in daily life and culture and tried to understand how the location’s context shaped literature.

Lydia Thompson, a fourth-year student majoring in English and minoring in linguistics, was excited to take it all in. The aspiring fiction writer from Melissa, Texas, was fascinated with how book descriptions compared to the things she had seen and felt in real life.

“I know exactly how important the vibe of a place is, yet how often it is left out of nonfiction pieces about that place,” Thompson said. “But vibes are fiction's bread and butter. You can learn about a place all you want, but you don't really know how it feels until you're there in the weather.”

Thompson especially enjoyed talking with the locals, one of the main reasons she was drawn to the program.

“I really liked the idea of studying abroad, but it’s a pretty scary thing to do, so I liked the idea of going to an English-speaking country,” Thompson said. “I’m a linguistics minor, and the Irish language is very well studied in linguistics spaces, so I’ve learned a lot about it in classes at Penn State.”

While Thompson was fascinated with the language-related aspects of the program, Stygar particularly connected with the art.

“I went into this trip with the intention of rekindling my sense of play and fun when making art, and I certainly accomplished that,” Stygar said.

Stygar chose the program to engage in her passion while immersing herself in a new culture, accomplishing that through nature experiences, artist speakers, historical visits and hands-on lessons.

Even though Morrisson and O’Leary planned activities for the group, the students were able to spend time on their own exploring the country’s beauty.

“My favorite experience from the trip was when two students and I hiked from Ballyvaughan to Fanore,” Stygar said.

Starting at the Burren College of Art and hiking 9 1/2 miles over two mountains to the beach town, Stygar was able to see a variety of wildlife. Mountain goats, hares, horses and sheep were scattering the hills where she visited an abandoned famine village.

“The top of the mountain was covered in sheets of cracked limestone; it was so surreal,” Stygar said. “I really felt like I was in ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ which was actually inspired by the Burren, so no wonder I felt that way!”

Stygar said the famine village stood out to her because she didn’t know much about Ireland’s Great Famine.

“I always thought that it was nothing more than a failed potato crop for a year or so,” Stygar said. “This trip opened my eyes to the realities of the British occupation of Ireland and how their presence influenced art, writing and legislation, even to this day.”

This realization is one of the reasons Morrisson promotes education abroad.

“The openness to experiential learning in other cultures deepens engagement with more traditional classroom experiences and makes learning feel more part of a bigger transformation of the self via that openness to the world,” Morrisson said.

Although studying abroad can be expensive, Liberal Arts students can apply for enrichment funding through the Career Enrichment Network to make their out-of-classroom experiences more affordable. This funding “has been a game changer in Liberal Arts in recent years,” Morrisson said.

Thompson was among the students who received enrichment funding to participate in the program. It covered her airfare costs.

“It was very nice because my younger sibling also studied abroad this summer, so the funding helps,” Thompson said.

For Stygar and her classmates, the program went far beyond traditional study abroad.

“I couldn’t recommend this trip any harder,” Stygar said. “It offered so many amazing experiences, like basket weaving and artist workshops, but it also gave you breathing room to explore on your own. This is an experience I truly will never forget.”