Penn Global announced 20 global seminar courses for the 2025-26 school year, featuring eight new destinations from Armenia to Taiwan.
Penn Global Seminars are semester-long courses that combine classroom learning on campus with short-term international travel experiences, typically during a break or at the end of the semester. The new courses will take students across four continents and span a variety of disciplines, from nursing to engineering.
The eight new courses include “Energy Security and Geopolitics,” “Compassionate Leadership: ‘The Power of Love, Service and Inner Work’: Experiencing the Life of Mahatma Gandhi and other Compassion-based leaders,” “The Biochemical Engineering of Wine,” “The Functions of Art,” “In the Shadow of Empires: Iran, Armenia and Azerbaijan,” “Lactation and Birth Care Advocacy in the Dominican Republic,” and “Pacific Worlds: Vietnam.”
The new course “The Biochemical Engineering of Wine” is taught by Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering professors Talid Sinno and Bomyi Lim and was previously offered without the travel component. Students in the class have the opportunity to learn about the biochemistry and biochemical unit operations of modern wine production.
Over spring break 2026, the cohort will travel to Argentina where they will be exposed to winemaking methodologies and practices while also examining how the region's producers are adapting to environmental challenges posed by climate change.
Another new course, “The Functions of Art,” will travel to Italy. Taught by Philosophy professor Errol Lord, students will explore the social, religious, and aesthetic functions of famous art pieces. Students will view art pieces up close during a spring break trip to Florence, Padua, and Venice to study how the works’ functions interact with their physical settings.
Three returning courses will fulfill the writing seminar requirement, with priority given to first-year students. “Writing Health and Healing in Botswana,” taught by lecturers Sara Byala and Rebecca Tenney-Soeiro, will travel over spring break. Two additional writing seminars will travel in May 2026: “Communicating Change in Mongolia,” taught by lecturer Aurora MacRae-Crerar and “Tourism, Sustainability and Local Impact in Indonesia,” led by lecturer Helen Jeoung.
In addition to the new programs, the global seminars for the 2025-26 school year will travel to destinations including China, the Galápagos, Greece, Iceland, and more. Returning classes from previous years include “American Race: A Philadelphia Story,” “Paris under the German Occupation and Its Places in [Non-] Memory," and “Case Studies in Environmental Sustainability.”
Financial aid may be applied to the flat $950 program fee, and applications for the fall 2025 PGS will be open during advance registration from March 24, 2025 through April 7.
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