This early sporting craze led to a unique model that still exists today. By 1910, over three-hundred clubs existed in Buenos Aires alone, with many more in the provinces. These non-profit civic associations have always relied on the growth of club membership, as well as the revenue generated by gate receipts from soccer matches, to fund other sports and activities for adults and children. Sporting and cultural events deepened ties between the club and the surrounding neighborhood. Because clubs are owned by members (socios) and their families, civic pride ran deep. Sometimes, though, such pride resulted in intense rivalries between clubs from different barrios; or, in some cases, between clubs within the very same neighborhood. Where else but in Buenos Aires will you find two soccer stadiums with a capacity for over 50,000 spectators located just two city blocks from each other?

Students visited stadiums, club museums, and heritage sites of national significance – such as the house of soccer player Diego Maradona. The trip also included a 2-day excursion across the Rio de La Plata to Uruguay – the host nation for the first-ever FIFA World Cup held in 1930. In Uruguay, students examined the similarities and differences in how soccer helped shape national identity in the region.

Peru boasts one of the greatest archaeological and heritage landscapes in the world, as well as a vibrant and complex array of cultures, communities, and socio-economic challenges. This LIV focused on diverse historic sites in their current setting from urban Lima to coastal pyramid complexes, examining issues of tourism, environment, development, colonialism, and rights. Students learned about these sites within the context of how UNESCO’s World Heritage program, Peru’s own Ministry of Culture, heritage NGOs, and community driven initiatives are crafting Peru’s national image as a major heritage destination. Students were asked to consider how heritage places are entangled with issues of national branding, ethical business development, the role of extractive industries, conflict and resettlement, and the potential for community benefits. This LIV brought together global forces and local outcomes in the context of Peru, providing lessons that can be applied internationally.

In geographic terms the LIV was based in the capital Lima moving north to Chiclayo, the ancient Moche heartland. In Lima, students visited the Archaeological Sanctuary of Pachacamac, the Larco Museum, and De la Puente’s colonial mansion. The group then followed the Moche Route, a tourist destination promoted by the Peruvian government, beginning in the city of Trujillo that once was the seat of power of the Moche culture known as The Temples of the Sun and the Moon. Other sites explored included Chan Chan, Túcume, Señor de Sipán with its golden treasure, El Brujo and the pyramids of the Sun and Moon. This route is today marketed by ministries of culture and trade for its beautiful beaches, diverse gastronomy, as well as its deserts, pyramids, mummies and museums with breath-taking objects of gold and precious stones. The LIV concluded with a trip to the Historical Centre of Callao, the most important port of Peru since colonial times and recently transformed by contemporary artists into a modern and pop art hub.

IN OR OUT OF EUROPE?

Borders have shifted frequently in European history, with massive repercussions. Today, the European Union’s eastern boundary separates the mostly prosperous and secure nations of Central Europe from those perched precariously outside looking in. Yet, Poland and Hungary, two of the most successful economies in the region, have elected and re-elected populist governments that question the very nature of the European Union (EU) integration project, from which both have benefited greatly. Meanwhile, Moscow asserts its own “zone of privileged interests” in neighboring countries, such as Belarus and Ukraine, creating a dramatic tug of war between Russia and the West that some liken to a new cold war. This LIV explored the nature of the European project and its boundaries in their geopolitical, economic, religious, cultural, architectural, and historical dimensions.

The trip started in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, a regional power and arguably the most successful economy to emerge from communist rule in 1989. The group studied with executive MBA students at University of Warsaw, learned the geopolitics of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia with leading Polish experts, and visited the Eastern gateway city of Lublin to explore the extensive Ukrainian immigration to Poland which included hearing a church perspective on Europe from the Catholic University. En route to Budapest, the group made brief stops in Poland’s beautiful second city of Krakow, the magnificent Orava Castle in Slovakia that has guarded trade routes between Poland and Hungary since the 13th century, and the ancient Slovak/Hungarian/German mining city of Banska Bystrica. In Budapest, a self-professed “illiberal” democracy, the group explored Hungary’s highly divided society by soliciting both pro- and anti-government perspectives on the meaning of Europe and by visiting controversial cultural monuments over which these perspectives frequently clash. The LIV also explored the meaning of European economic integration, business practices, and media conditions in a semi-authoritarian system.