After discussing contemporary Mexican literature in class, we’ll visit Mérida’s main cathedral, a contemporary art museum, and a city history museum in beautiful downtown Mérida. In this neighborhood, you can enjoy free arts performances, regional ice cream, artisan’s shops, bookstores, and a variety of cafes.

The Texas State in Mérida Program includes one week of online coursework at home and three weeks of face-to-face coursework in Mérida, Mexico, where students will enjoy the hospitality of home stay families, take field trips to local historical and cultural sights, and gather with classmates and their Texas State professor, Dr. Laura Ellis-Lai, in a classroom each morning, Monday-Friday. All coursework is provided in English.

To complement the ancient indigenous poetry we’ll be reading, we will visit the Mayan ruins of Uxmal to see the Temple of the Doves, the House of the Turtles, and the Pyramid of the Magicians.

Field trips and activities include an archeological tour of the Mayan ruins at Uxmal, a visit to a modern day Mayan priest, a tour of the historic Hacienda de Sotuta de Peón (where we will swim in a cenote), a trip to the nearby beach, a Yucatecan cooking class, a salsa dance class, live music and dance performances, walking tours of downtown Mérida and Montejo Avenue, and visits to the Chocolate Museum outside Uxmal, the Contemporary Art Museum of Merida, the Montejo House Museum, the Grand Museum of the Mayan World, and the City Museum of Merida.

At a historic hacienda, we will learn about the great wealth and tragic exploitation brought about by the the cultivation of henequin, a theme further explored in our course readings. During this tour, we will have the opportunity to visit one of the cenotes – refreshing underground pools – of the Yucatán peninsula.

Students will often have free time during the afternoons, evenings, and weekends to go to the beach together, meet up with friends in lively cafes and restaurants, visit Mérida’s beautiful churches and museums, attend free nightly arts performances, and explore the city.

Enjoy reading and writing at a charming cafe downtown after class, surrounded by the trees and flowers of the city’s central square.

Undergraduate students will earn six hours of credit for two courses: “Practices in Writing and Rhetoric: Travel Writing” (ENG 3311) and  “Studies in World Literature: Mexican Literature, in Translation” (ENG 3341).

Graduate students will earn six hours of credit for two courses: “Problems in Language and Literature: Travel Writing” (ENG 5395) and “Studies in Literary Genre: Mexican Literature, in Translation” (ENG 5324).

*Program pending approval and subject to change