This morning let me leave Bethel’s past for a moment and look to a small part of Bethel’s future, as it connects to one of the wars we’re studying…

This coming January, my colleague Sam Mulberry and I will take a group of Bethel students to Europe for a three-week course on the history of World War I. It’s our second time teaching HIS230L as a travel course, and much as we enjoyed the 2013 version, this trip promises to be all the better simply because we’ll catch Europe in the middle of the ongoing WWI Centenary. (For example, we didn’t get to visit the Imperial War Museum last time because they were starting work on the completely revamped WWI galleries that the 2015 class will get to see.)

Of course, I’m also intrigued that the Bethel at War project gives me the chance to incorporate a new dimension into the course. As part of our students’ pre-trip work, I think we’ll have them read some of my WWI posts at this blog, and perhaps some primary sources, to better understand how their predecessors at Bethel experienced the war.

If you’re interested in learning more about our trip:

1. When we first started to advertise the 2015 trip last spring, I posted a tentative schedule at our department blog, along with some highlights from the first trip: pictures taken by Sam (like the one above) and students, plus links to reflections on the trip by students and me.

2. I created a map showing the museums, memorials, and other sites we’ll be visiting, along with some other places students might want to see while they’re in London, Paris, and Munich.

[googlemaps https://mapsengine.google.com/map/embed?mid=z5pCEgMH9DN0.kcn4nTPfLmLc&w=640&h=480]