GLACE students take three courses to receive 6 hours of credit across three LSA departments: English, American Culture/Native American Studies, and Anthropology. The three classes each approach in a different way the problems of place and experiential learning, with topics and activities ranging from studying the interconnections between life, land and waterways in Michigan and practicing the basics of ethnographic fieldwork to crafting prose writings about self and space and exploring the philosophical basis for our personal self-location in body and spirit.
In addition to formal essays, much of students' writing will be done freehand in a journal. In a model inspired by LSA's New England Literature Program, each student also belongs to a journal group which meets twice a week for discussion, sharing, and experimentation. Journals are repositories for both class assignments and personal reflection, serving as archives of experience that students revisit and reflect upon over the course of the program.
GLACE courses are graded. The academic program requires completion of each course's reading list and assignments, active work in the journal, and consistent participation in classes and journal groups. GLACE students come from a variety of educational and personal backgrounds and interests to form a learning environment in which students actively learn both with and from each other.
