As someone who enjoyed studying abroad during her time in college, Tara Moore is bringing her own experiences to the students at Elizabethtown College. Dr. Moore, the Director of the English Professional Writing and First Year Writing Program at the College, is taking students on a fifteen day-long trip over the summer of 2024 to England, from May 14-May 28. This trip will count as a 4-credit, 100 level course centered around an introduction to British literature; students will visit Oxford, Bath, Winchester and London.
A sit-down discussion with Moore brought to light the importance of experiential learning through her course.
Anslee Gerhardt: What are you most excited about [for the upcoming trip]?
Tara Moore: “Well, it’s a thrill to take students to England and introduce them to global travel, as well as to British culture. I enjoy taking them to the Globe Theatre the most because they just get a kick out of seeing performers acting on the stage that’s…very traditional 16th century theater performances. And we’re also going to be taking a boat trip on the Thames in London.”
Gerhardt: How are your personal interests aligned with this trip?
Moore: Well, I really enjoy planning trips, and I enjoy being in the UK. My last trip in 2022 was the first time we went to Jane Austen’s cottage and that was the first time I made it [into the cottage]. I think when I was a grad-student I got there, but the house was closed so I didn’t have a chance to tour it. So that was just a very exciting day. We were given a tour by her brother’s descendant, somebody who’s actually blood related to Jane Austen. They have great cakes. I like the food a lot. And it’s just kind of a break from regular life.
Gerhardt: What will participants of this trip gain from the experience that they would not gain from a classroom?
Moore: That is something that we think about trying to give them experiential learning, like on-site learning you can’t do in a classroom. We don’t do close reading on the trip, and we don’t do…hardly any sit-down conversation. So, seeing the Regency settings and seeing costumes and architecture associated with the time periods that the books are written in, I think that gives students a good introduction to different time periods that they might not already know a lot about. Especially when we see how theater is performed,at the Globe, which is an Open Air Theatre with a lot of people standing…but to see the groundlings just standing there and the actors interacting with them, that’s something you can’t get from reading a Shakespeare play or even watching a film adaptation of it.
Gerhardt: How does hands-on exposure to literature impact one’s own imagination?
Moore: I think that’s different for everybody. To me, it makes all these authors so much more real, to be in the places that inspired them. One of the limitations is a lot of these locations have changed and used to be very rural…I know when I was an undergrad student traveling in England, I wanted to go to these places. I wanted to go to the Brontes house and hike around [ the moors]. I think the same can be said of Romantic poets, because we can still try to capture some of that experience that they lived through.
Gerhardt: What is one item you will not forget to pack?
Moore: I don’t have a cute answer. I have lots of lists and lots of tickets. So hopefully, all of those make it into the bag. Comfortable shoes.
This has been edited for length and clarity.
