Dutch Studies has been selected to receive a grant of $24,000 from U-M's Vice Provost for Engaged Learning's Global Engagement Strategic Plan to support the new Faculty-Led Education Abroad program called "Beyond Dutch: A Study Abroad Course in Suriname", which will take place in May 2026. The grant will provide support to students to travel to Suriname with our Dutch Lecturer, Denice Gravenstijn Vliet. The program will be connected with the College of Humanities of the Anton de Kom University of Suriname, and specifically with the Taal en Communicatie (“Language and Communication”) program, an accredited Dutch program through NOVA (“National Body of Accreditation”).
Students in this study abroad course will build their experiential learning of Dutch language and culture in excursions (conducted in Dutch) to places like Dutch Fort Zeelandia and the Dutch-Jewish Savanna. Our students will build additional experiential knowledge of Dutch language and culture working with Kinderuniversiteit (“Children’s University”) which organizes “child language exchanges between children in Suriname, the Netherlands Caribbean, the Netherlands, and Belgium,” in other words, the full Dutch-language area.
