Peru Field School: Gender, Planning and Development

Peruvian mountains

CANCELLED for Summer 2023.  Check back in September to see if it will be offered in 2024.


Peru offers an important and interesting site to study gender planning and development because of the distinct and unique challenges and opportunities experienced by the rural and Indigenous people living in the highlands of the Andes. Students will gain firsthand experience working with locally based NGOs and communities to support gender inclusive development programming aimed at improving the lives and livelihoods of marginalized communities in Peru.

Experiences of rural and indigenous (Quechua and Wanka) women in rural locations and living in the highlands in Peru vary greatly from experiences of women in Canada, as do the approaches and interventions made by development organizations and governments. For those living in the Central Highlands of Peru, the harsh mountain environment contributes to the vulnerability of communities - as these regions are some of the worst impacted by climate change and extreme weather events. At the same time, faced with a particular set of problems, people living in these diverse ecosystems have developed context-specific knowledge and strategies to adapt which in some ways reveals particular forms of gender relations and power dynamics. Across Peru there are 11 ecoregions, with 8 unique ecozones in the Andes alone. This has resulted in a very diverse set of experiences for those living in different environments, which makes developing development strategies and policies uniquely challenging. For this reason, development practitioners in Peru must consider various social, cultural, historical, and environmental conditions and experiences when integrating gender issues in project planning. Additionally, women’s lives and livelihoods vary greatly between urban and rural Peru making the need for gender-informed development approaches particularly important as rural and indigenous women, often lacking resources and access to power, have historically been marginalized or left out of research.

Information Session

Thursday, October 20, 2022
5:30 - 7:00 pm

University Centre room 390
(take the South elevators by the front doors of the UC) 

Come in person, or follow the presentation virtually on Teams.
https://teams.live.com/meet/9378441648197

Field School Details

  • Instructor:  Dr. Silvia Sarapura, Rural Planning and Development
  • Offered: Summer 2023
  • Prerequisite: 7.5 credits or permission of the instructor, 68% cumulative average
  • If you have any questions about the program, please contact Dr. Silvia Sarapura or Allison Broadbent, Study Abroad Manager.

Program Dates (tentative)

  • May 11 - June 22, 2023

Course 

Students will be registered in 1.0 credits at the third year level. 

This international field school is open to students from all disciplines at the University of Guelph.

Costs

Students should budget for the following:

  • Round-trip airfare to Peru (estimated $1000)
  • Tuition and fees at the University of Guelph for 1.0 credits
  • The Peru Field School fee: approximately $1500  (includes accommodations, meals, in-country travel). Amount is subject to change based on fluctuating exchange rate.
  • Mandatory travel health and emergency insurance through the company Guard Me ($1.65 / day)
  • Personal expenses (souvenirs, additional personal excursions, etc) 

Travel Grants

Students participating in this Field School, who identify as an Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit, Métis) student, a student registered with Student Accessibility Services, and/or have demonstrated financial need are eligible to apply for the GSO Travel Grant. There are also other University of Guelph travel grants available.  


Eligibility

Students applying for the program must have completed a total of 7.5 undergraduate credits by the time the program begins in May 2022 (or permission from the instructor), and must have a 68% cumulative average.  (Students with a 65 - 67% cumulative average may be considered if there are extenuating circumstances that affected their marks which are described on their application.)

The program is open to students from all disciplines at the University of Guelph, with a maximum of 15 students being accepted to the program. 

Apply to the Peru Field School

To apply for Field School programs you must complete CIP's online application. Step-by-step application instructions are outlined in the link below.

Application Instructions

A boat on a lake, snowy mountains, an alpaca, and a potato farm