Immersion Experiences

Do you learn best by doing? Encounter and engage with nonviolence and applied peacemaking in these local, domestic, and international travel and immersion programs. Each program explores themes of social justice, human rights, and peace through a unique lens. 

Particular attention is given to the concepts of subsidiarity and solidarity as participants examine their actions and those of communities engaged in grassroots struggles for the promotion of peace and justice.

Domestic immersion experiences

  • Civil Rights Pilgrimage (U.S. South) - This week-long pilgrimage will traverse the U.S. South to experience places and learn about people that comprised the U.S. Southern Civil Rights Movement.
  • Engaging Muslims, Countering Islamophobia (Detroit, MI) - Participate in an interfaith immersion to learn about Islam and about Muslim American life.
  • SOA-Watch Border Encuentro (Nogales, AZ) and Ft. Benning Vigil (Columbus, GA) - Attend weekend workshops and a vigil about the human dimensions of immigration policy and U.S. foreign policy in Latin America. Note: Not offered during 2022-23 school year.
  • CAMPus Impact (Milwaukee's Near West Side) - Participate in a fall break service and immersion experience in Milwaukee's Near West Side to learn about social issues in Milwaukee and how Marquette students are uniquely situated to learn about and respond to these challenges. The trip will consist of volunteering at a variety of non-profits, as well as nightly reflections and discussions about service and justice in Milwaukee. Fall break 2022 is Oct 20-23. The cost to participate is $25. Apply for the Near West Side immersion.

Short-term study abroad experiences

  • Faith and Non-violence; Religious Peacebuilding in India (Guwahati and Delhi, India) - This two-week study abroad program includes meetings with individuals and organizations working to build sustainable peace at the grassroots level, as well as visits to significant religious, cultural, and historical sites to learn about India's rich history of nonviolent social movements and religious diversity.
  • Peace & Trauma in El Salvador (San Salvador, El Salvador) - This course explores peacebuilding interventions that harness sport, bodywork activities, and athletic practice for collective healing from intergenerational trauma. We develop a critical, decolonial approach to the concept of trauma in ‘post-conflict’ settings, and seek to understand the physiological impact of trauma on the body. We visit sites in Milwaukee and El Salvador, with a focus on peacebuilding rather than on the pathologizing narratives of violence that are too often highlighted in these places.

Semester-long study abroad programs

Marquette offers opportunities to study peacemaking abroad as part of a semester-long, academic and service immersion.

  • Sibanye Cape Town (Capetown, South Africa) - The program offers an understanding of the people, history, culture and traditions of South Africa through integrated academic course work at the University of the Western Cape and direct immersion into the culture through community-based service. Service learning sites provide opportunities to engage in community education, empowerment, mediation, training, research and more.

Other Marquette service, immersion, and study abroad resources