WSU students have a new faculty-led study abroad program option this year.

The program, Gender and Sexuality: Current Discourses in Cuban Academics, will take students to Havana for 10 weeks during the spring semester.

“It is a unique program in that you can’t just travel to Cuba. You have to have an invitation or a permit from the Cuban government,” said Laurie Quiring, a faculty-led program specialist at WSU.

Leading the program will be Luz Maria Gordillo, assistant professor of women’s studies in the College of Liberal Arts at WSU-Vancouver. Academic classes will include courses in Spanish, history and women’s studies.

Gordillo said this particular study abroad program is an amazing opportunity because WSU holds an academic license to travel to Cuba. She said the license is not easy to get because of Cuba’s political state.

“We are very lucky in many ways that we were granted this license,” she said.

Gordillo said students will witness an important time in Cuba’s history of social justice, as Cuba held its first national GLBT conference last year.

Historically, homosexuality was outlawed in Cuba. After the 1959 revolution, the communist government of Cuba attempted to rid the nation of homosexuality. Same-sex relations became legal in 1992. Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuba’s current leader Raúl Castro and niece of Fidel Casto, is the head of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education. The center advocates for tolerance of LGBT issues in Cuba.

Erika Abad, a graduate student in American studies and a women’s studies teaching assistant, said she is looking forward to taking students abroad.

“So much can happen in 10 weeks,” Abad said. “It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and very few universities across the country have ever had this opportunity.” Along with WSU-Vancouver Chancellor Hal Dengerink, Gordillo began establishing an alliance in December 2006 with the University of Havana and the Instituto Superior de Arte, where the students will study during the program.

The U.S. Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control grants a license to travel to Cuba for educational purposes, Gordillo said. Armando LaGuardia, associate professor of education at WSU-Vancouver, was responsible for obtaining the license. Gordillo traveled to Cuba and worked with both institutes this past summer to finalize the program, she said.

She said the program is a way to bring diversity back to campus.

“My goal is to expose students to something new and unfamiliar, such as the culture and language of Cuba,” Gordillo said.

Quiring said students will visit many historic sites, and many lectures are planned.

Places students will visit include the National Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of the Revolution, the Center for U.S and Cuba Relations, the Women’s Studies center, a castle and a cigar factory. Students will also visit architectural sights.

The main academic focus of the program is to help students understand Cuban history and culture, Abad said.

“One required course will focus on the historical, political and gender issues that unite and divide the island nation and its hemispheric neighbors,” she said. “Students interested in stepping outside of their comfort zone would gain an extraordinary experience in visiting a country that approaches government, state relations and social services in a different manner than the U.S.” All students, regardless of major, can sign up for the program. Participants must be undergraduates from any WSU campus with a minimum 2.5 GPA. A minimum of 10 students are needed for the program.

Students should talk to an academic adviser to see if the credits will count for the student’s degree or if exceptions can be made, Quiring said.