K'iche' Summer Program

[Harold Schiffman]

The University of Chicago Center for Latin American Studies, in
partnership with Vanderbilt University's Center for Latin American and
Iberian Studies, offers a summer intensive immersion language program in
K'iche' Maya on site in Nahualá, Guatemala. The program will next be
offered from June 23-August 1, 2008. Please see
http://clas.uchicago.edu/kiche_summer.shtml for full program details and
application instructions.

K'iche' is a Mayan language spoken by about one million people in the
central highlands of Guatemala. The K'iche' language has played a
central role in the Mayan cultural revitalization movement and has a
long literary tradition including such works as the Popol Wuj and Rabinal Achi.
The Maya cultural revitalization movement and
the subsequent rise in bilingual education in Guatemala have resulted in
a number of interesting changes in both language structure and use, and
have had important social and political implications for the cultures
that speak the K'iche' language.

*Program Information*

The goal of the program is to help students develop proficiency in
modern spoken K'iche'. Students will spend mornings Mondays-Fridays with
linguistics and anthropology faculty from the University of Chicago,
Vanderbilt University, and University of Kentucky in a classroom setting
in order to develop a strong foundation in K'iche' grammar and
vocabulary. During the afternoons, each student will work one-on-one
with a native K'iche' speaker in a conversation workshop. Each student
will be placed with a local home-stay family during weeks 2-6 of the
program, for a genuine immersion experience. Weekly cultural
demonstrations, including wood-carving, backstrap weaving, foot-loom
weaving, and metate fabrication, will compliment the formal instruction.

During the first week of the program the course will meet in Panajachel,
where students will stay in a hotel and meet with faculty to prepare for
living in Nahualá, including practice of basic K'iche' phrases. At the
start of week 2, the course will move to the town of Nahualá, where
K'iche' is the primary language used by the majority of residents.
Nahualá has a laundry service, an ATM machine, a U.S.-trained physician,
and several locations for using the internet.

The K'iche' program uses newly developed teaching materials in addition
to a revised version of the Stanley Wick and Remigio Cochojil-González
textbook published at the University of Chicago in the 1960s. The
University of Chicago houses one of the world's finest collections of
recorded K'iche' materials, including recordings dating back to the
1920s, which form an important part of the curriculum. The course is
appropriate for students with a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds,
including anthropology, comparative religion, history, Latin American
studies, linguistics, political science, and sociology.

Enrollment is limited to 12 students. Undergraduate students will be
admitted only with consent of instructor. Students are encouraged to
apply early. This is a field-based program — students should be flexible
and prepared for conditions in rural Guatemala.

*Travel and Arrangements*

Students are responsible for their own airfare, and should plan to
arrive in Panajachel on or before June 22.

*Tuition/Fees and Credit*

A $50 application fee is required (see below for details). This course
meets all requirements for Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS)
Fellowships; students are encouraged to apply to their home institution
for summer FLAS Fellowship support. Tuition for students on FLAS
Fellowship is $4,000 (students not planning to enroll with a FLAS
Fellowship should contact Josh Beck, jpbeck at uchicago.edu
<mailto:jpbeck at uchicago.edu> or 773-702-8420, for tuition details).
Eligible graduate students at other universities may apply to the
University of Chicago and/or Vanderbilt University for summer FLAS
Fellowship support, but priority for FLAS awards at both institutions
will be given to University of Chicago and Vanderbilt students.

All students must pay a $1,150 program fee. The program fee covers local
accommodations (including one meal/day with the home-stay family) and
local travel.

Certain costs are not included in the program tuition or program fee,
such as transportation to Guatemala and hotel accommodations in Antigua
for the first night, laundry, snacks, souvenirs, etcetera. Students
should plan accordingly and budget approximately $700-$850 for
international airfare.

All students will receive 3 credits from the University of Chicago for
Beginning K'iche' Maya 1, 2, and 3.

Full class attendance is required.

*Application and Enrollment*

Please download an application <kiche_application.pdf> [PDF
<kiche_application.pdf>]. Completed applications should be sent to:

Josh Beck
Associate Director
Center for Latin American Studies
University of Chicago
5848 South University Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637

Applications are due by March 30, 2008 and must be accompanied by a
non-refundable $50 application fee.



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