Ecuador: Development, Politics, and Languages

Study indigenous concepts of sustainability as it intersects with biological diversity, culture, and quality of life in Ecuador, where climate change is one of the most dramatic manifestations of a dominant civilizational model in crisis.

Program Highlights

• Study development, power, and language among multilingual and multiethnic groups in one of the most biologically diverse countries in the Americas.
• Live and study in Quito, a city nestled in the Andes more than 9,000 feet above sea level and surrounded by volcanoes.
• Visit the spectacular Galápagos Islands, where the diversity of species inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
• Witness the conflicts and links between development and natural resource preservation in the Intag Cloud Forest Reserve, one of the most biologically diverse and threatened ecosystems in the world.
• Explore how Spanish and indigenous languages are used to instill, reinforce, subvert, and reinvent power relationships as you study both Spanish and Quichua.
• Learn to identify your own cultural biases.

Please visit the SIT Study Abroad website for details on program courses (including syllabi), educational excursions, and housing.

Independent Study

During the final four weeks of the program, you can choose to use your new language and cultural skills and the academic knowledge you have acquired to complete an Independent Study Project (ISP) on a topic of interest to you.

The ISP may be conducted in Quito or in another approved location in Ecuador appropriate to the project. The program enjoys links with local NGOs, state institutions, and community-based projects and can facilitate contacts.

Sample topics:

• Linguistic landscape of Quito
• Discourses of sustainability in the Galápagos
• Development and impoverishment in migrant communities of Guayaquil
• Social communication, micropolitics, and activism in the Andes
• Political perspectives on endangered languages: the Sapara case
• Bilingual intercultural education in Otavalo

Key Topics of Study

• Power and politics in Ecuador; hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourses of development
• How different groups in Ecuador think and talk about issues such as sustainability, restoration, resource-extracting industries, social inclusion, and inter-ethnic relations
• The impact of development on the environment, and conversations about sustainability and quality of life
• The relationship between the language(s) of political power and social movements in Ecuador
• Indigenous languages, politics, interculturalism and plurinationality

Money Matters

Be sure to discuss how study abroad costs are handled at your school with your study abroad advisor.  

SIT tuition and room and board fees include the following:

All educational costs, including educational excursions

• All accommodations and meals for the full program duration
• Transportation to and from the airport, and on all educational excursions
• Health and accident insurance

Scholarships:

• SIT awards nearly $1.6 million in scholarships and grants annually.
• All scholarships and grants are need-based.
• Awards generally range from $500 to $5,000.  
• The SIT Pell Grant Match provides matching grants to all students receiving Federal Pell Grant funding when it is applied to an SIT Study Abroad semester program. 
• Contact the financial aid and/or study abroad office(s) at your college or university to learn if your school’s scholarships and grants and federal and state aid programs can be applied to an SIT Study Abroad program.

Contact SIT Study Abroad

• Visit our website: studyabroad.sit.edu
• Request more information or email us: studyabroad@sit.edu
• Call an admission counselor: 888-272-7881
• Contact a former student.
• Apply to SIT