UPEI Faculty-led courses that fall outside of the Maymester schedule will be posted here when planned.

Maymester 2025 Courses

The following three courses have been approved and will be offered as Maymester courses in May 2025. Details will be updated here as things are finalized. Students are eligible for scholarship funding!

Costa Rica - Business​

Course name: "Special Topics: Sustainable Business Practice" ​(BUS 3850-1/BUS 7950-1)

UPEI Faculty Teaching: Dr. Melissa James and Dr. Tina Saksida

Course overview: This course will introduce students to environmental and social issues that influence business practice. Students will explore sustainable business practices through fieldwork in the tourism sector in Costa Rica. The course will discuss the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and how applying the concepts from these goals and our learnings in Costa Rica can be harnessed for the Prince Edward Island tourism industry. This course focuses on understanding the SDGs and what you can do to develop more sustainably aware action in your businesses, communities, and personal life.

Pre-requisites: ability to travel to Costa Rica (appropriate regulatory requirements such as immigration and visa and/or vaccination requirements). ​

Details on cost and application will be updated here soon. 

Paris, France and Berlin, Germany – Biology and History​

Course name: "Battle of Two Giants of Science: Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch in Historical Perspective" (cross-listed BIO 4090/HIST 4090)

UPEI Faculty Teaching: Dr. Christian Lacroix (Biology) and Dr. James Moran (History)

Course Overview: The course takes students to Paris and to Berlin, the cities where both scientists worked and where their respective legacies have been preserved in museums and special collections. Specifically, we will be exploring the collections at the Louis Pasteur Institute in Paris and the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin. Each institute has dedicated experts who guide students through the museums. The museums are situated in the contemporary research institutes which allows students to see how Pasteur and Koch contributed to scientific research that is still highly relevant today.

Pre-requisites: at least 3rd-year standing in BSc or BA program​.

Information Session: Monday, November 18 at 4:30 pm in Duffy Science Centre, Room 204. For more information contact Dr. Lacroix or Dr. Moran.

Details on cost and application will be updated here soon. 

Aotearoa (New Zealand) - Indigenous Knowledge, Education, Research, and Applied Studies (IKERAS)​

Course name: "Global Indigeneity" (IKE 3090-1)

UPEI Faculty Teaching: Professor Erin Reid

Course overview: The course will be inquiry based. Students will conduct their own field research, photographing, videoing and documenting what they see as part of their research for an extended photo or video essay. Students will have a chance to engage with the past and present and examine and participate in how a similarly colonized nation (Aotearoa) has navigated the complexities of being a global Indigenous nation.

Method of Instruction: This course will have three interrelated components; i) a series of five, 75-minute lectures held at UPEI to familiarize students with the extent, nature, effects and issues associated with Global Indigeneity (two classes), program agenda, and Moodle Pre-Departure Session (one class), expectations, safety, and assessment (one class), and program summary (one class upon return); ii) a ten-day immersive experiential learning program from Auckland (North Island ) to Christchurch (South Island) with daily prompted reflective journal entries; and iii) the creation of a photo or video essay that draws upon their experiences and reflections. This will require students to assess, contextualise and begin to interpret global Indigeneity and how this reflects the values and ideals of themselves as students and as global citizens.

Pre-requisites: Students and instructors can expect an abundance of walking throughout each day. At times, a rapid walking pace may be required. Students and instructors will need to be reasonably physically fit and with no significant ambulatory health issues.

Details on cost and application will be updated here soon. 

In May and June 2024, UPEI students and faculty travelled to Spain and New Zealand for their experiential learning.
 

Read more about 2024 Maymester 

In May 2023, UPEI faculty and students travelled to Costa Rica and Italy for amazing Maymester learning adventures.  

Read more about 2023 Maymester

In 2019, UPEI students travelled to Ireland, Spain, United Kingdom, France, and the Faroe Islands.

Read more about our 2019 Maymester

Costa Rica photo by Willian Justen de Vasconcellos on Unsplash