[slideshow][Ghana photos by Jihyun Kim](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2015/10/Ghana-1.jpg);[Ghana photos by Jihyun Kim](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2015/10/Ghana-2.jpg);[Ghana photos by Jihyun Kim](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2015/10/Ghana-3.jpg);[Ghana photos by Jihyun Kim](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2015/10/Ghana-4.jpg);[Ghana photos by Jihyun Kim](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2015/10/Ghana-5.jpg);[UAE, Oman and India photos by Xinyi Wei](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2015/10/oman-1.jpg);[UAE, Oman and India photos by Xinyi Wei](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2015/10/oman-2.jpg);[UAE, Oman and India photos by Xinyi Wei](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2015/10/oman-3.jpg);[UAE, Oman and India photos by Xinyi Wei](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2015/10/oman-4.jpg);[UAE, Oman and India photos by Xinyi Wei](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2015/10/oman-5.jpg);[UAE, Oman and India photos by Xinyi Wei](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2015/10/oman-6.jpg);[UAE, Oman and India photos by Xinyi Wei](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2015/10/oman-7.jpg);[UAE, Oman and India photos by Xinyi Wei](https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2015/10/oman-8.jpg)[/slideshow]

HAVANA, Cuba — This past September, when January Term classes went live, students were offered an unconventional option: a J-Term class in Oman taught on a boat. Even though the ship could not sail its intended route due to licensing issues, students found themselves splitting their time between the UAE, Oman and India. In its modified form, Science and the Sea is an example of what a research focused J-Term session could look like.

J-Term classes abroad are typically designed to facilitate an immersive cultural experience for students. Some go even further and demand it as part of the syllabus.The museum studies class, Places of Human Suffering as Global Heritage Sites, featured a ten day stay in Elmina, a few hours’ drive from the NYU Accra site. Not having received their syllabus in advance, most students expected their J-Term to take the same form as the other classes taught in Accra, following a nine to twelve schedule as indicated on Albert. Robert Parthesius, the instructor for the class, designed it to take place in the open air.

Sophomore Rebecca Neivar explained that she went into the class expecting a lot of theory, and was surprised by the field research. Irrespective of whether she had known about all that she would get to do in Elmina, she would still have chosen the class.

"The course description did not describe what we did at all,” said Neivar, "But I got to know the city and the culture so much more than … if I had just stayed in Accra and done a nine to twelve class. I don’t think I would have left here having … appreciation for Ghanaian culture in the same way that I do."

The premise of the course was to document the different narratives around the Elmina castle, which played an important role during the transatlantic slave trade for many stakeholders: locals, people from the African diaspora, tourists, the Ghanaian authority, UNESCO and other experts. The research, aside from the development of individual projects, culminated in a research booklet that detailed the findings, alongside a letter to the castle’s director on how he could improve a visitor’s experience to the castle.

Parthesius, who in 2014 took his class to visit the World Heritage sites in Zanzibar and Ghoul, said J-Terms are “the only way of doing [this type of research].”

"You really go out there to experience, you really go out there to research something... I would love to call it, actually, an expedition… we really discover all those sides of this castle, that is our expedition, our J-Term expedition …  And I feel that having three weeks being really engaged and out there brings you a lot of stuff that you can’t learn in a semester long course,” said Parthesius.

During the semester, Parthesius has found that he cannot just take students on a week-long trip. Furthermore, most archaeologists or experts he would like the students to meet don’t work during the weekend, when trips are feasible. Additionally, conducting the type of research he would like his classes to be engaged in is not possible over a weekend.

For Neivar, weekend trips are often not as useful as they are made out to be. "And I think that’s when these J-Terms can be so useful and can be so influential,” she added.

Parthesius admits that the success of these classes, especially if one is not too well-acquainted with an area, relies a lot on luck upon arrival to the location, since pre-departure arrangements can only go so far. The director of the castle gave permission to the group – only a couple of days after the students had arrived – to conduct research in exchange for a report of the findings.

"It’s not realistic to have a J-Term class to try to do what you can do in a semester and I know that sometimes they try to do that with a Core or things like that but I think … people recognize that it is less about getting a credit than it is about getting an experience,” said Neivar, who thinks NYUAD should be more experiential in J-Term classes.

“The whole focus — at least from how I understand it — is that J-Term classes are meant for us to be able to explore new cultures, understand new cultures in a diverse setting with people from all over who bring different perspectives. And I think that can be best seen when you are doing these experimental classes like the one we just took,” Neivar said.

Both she and sophomore Andrea Chung agreed that Places of Human Suffering as Global Heritage Sites took more advantage of its location than their previous J-Terms abroad that consisted of more structured three-hour long daily classes.

“We were actually interacting with the location, with the people much more than in my previous J-Term. And we were actually trying to produce something out of it. For my last J-Term [in New York] it was like I read this, I talked to the author and that’s it", said Chung. "But this time we also tried to actually create a project or a final product that we could also give back to the community. So it’s good for both sides.”

Chung felt that her previous J-Term course had tried to fit in a semester-worth of theory and readings that many students, given the tight three-week schedule, were not able to finish. Based on this different J-Term experience, she thinks it would be great if NYUAD would rethink J-Term course curricula. She, however, would understand if this didn’t take place because four credit J-Term classes should be equivalent to those taught during regular semesters, as far as workload is concerned.