Interview with the Director
DIS Students Interview Anders Uhrskov
By Olivia Kupfer, Vanderbilt University, and Richard Wyde, Kenyon College
How do you decide where to study abroad? For each of you, the determining factors when selecting a study abroad program will be different. DIS offers a broad range of academic programs and courses and provides you with an array of study tour options to great European destinations, as well as a unique Danish perspective to take home.
Having just completed our spring semester in Copenhagen, studying media in the DIS Communications & Mass Media program, we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to sit down and have an intimate conversation with DIS Director Anders Uhrskov regarding the DIS program and our experiences abroad. Anders has been with DIS since 1978, first as Academic Director and since 1987 as Director. Our interview revealed some obvious, and some not so obvious, take-away strengths of DIS. A warning: having just spent four months here, we may be slightly biased!
EUROPE AS YOUR CLASSROOM
Olivia: Why should an American student choose to study abroad with DIS?
Anders: DIS enables you to develop your personality, make your own decisions, and not to be a bystander. At DIS, we mix European heritage and culture with a unique emphasis on developing students’ ability to handle complicated issues, something which will prepare you for the globalized world. You are thrown into new, unexpected situations and encouraged to make decisions fast.
There are many excellent programs out there for different categories of students with differing priorities. What is distinct about DIS is that we literally use Europe as your classroom. We believe in experiential learning with many study tours, field studies, practicum components and field-based assignments. We use the real world to enhance textbook learning.
DIS combines a full semester program in Copenhagen with an array of faculty-led, short-term study tours inside and outside Europe, where students and faculty travel and work together. We have turned study abroad into a win-win game, where you travel and learn at the same time. Most students want to travel when they’re in Europe, and that’s a legitimate goal. It is a one-time opportunity to travel around with friends and seize Europe and all it can offer. We offer study tours that both bring you to all those wonderful places with your fellow students and are integrated into the course academics. That is a great way of learning for two reasons: You learn by experiencing something you have read about. As Goethe, the German writer said, “You see what you know.” Also, learning by doing sticks with you; to carry out assignments on location is an excellent and fun way of learning.
Olivia: From my own DIS experience I know that is right, but could you give some examples for students considering studying abroad in Copenhagen?
Anders: We believe that the combination at DIS of classroom learning and out-of-classroom learning creates a “high-impact learning” environment. For example, Olivia, you learn a lot by going to Istanbul with your class and being afforded the unique opportunity to interview Islamic women who wear the Islamic veil and other Turkish students who hate the veil and then try to understand the immense power of their conflicting opinions. Returning to Denmark, you may speak with your Danish peers about the same issue and will have the benefit of this hands-on experience plus the benefit of classroom discussions that have explored the many sides of such a complex issue.
We prepare students for the real world by dealing directly with real world issues: How do we make our cities livable? How do we marry immigration and national identity? What can we learn from the climate changes that have taken place over the previous 130,000 years? How do we prioritize rising health costs and rising demands from an aging population? The DIS curriculum tackles these questions, using progressive European expertise.
COPENHAGEN: COOL, EASY-GOING CULTURE
Richard: What do you think students gain by living in a foreign city like Copenhagen? Many students come from colleges that aren’t necessarily situated in cities.
Anders: Cities are extremely important. More than half of the world’s population lives in cities. Copenhagen and the cities we visit on study tours are “gold mines” exploited eagerly by students. The focus on “the city” is another signature feature of DIS.
Old European cities in particular are interesting because they carry accumulated culture from past centuries in the physical form of architecture, town planning etc., and also through their history, art and culture. In Copenhagen, you walk in the street surrounded by houses from the 1700s or 1800s, and you hopefully grasp that real people lived here, that historic events were very real for them, as real as what’s happening today is for us. The past cultures are absorbed by osmosis. When you’re from relatively new cities, like in the U.S., it is especially important to get this valuable historical perspective because much of human nature and many characteristics of contemporary society cannot be understood without reference to the past. A city is a physical way of giving that perspective.
Copenhagen has a population of 1.8 million people, and in total there are 5.5 million Danes. It is a compact and, some say, tribal society. But this means DIS faculty can establish contact with many decision makers – the small size makes everything much more accessible than in a superpower nation of 300 million people. It also helps that Denmark is an efficient, modern society with an informal, easygoing culture.
Olivia: I hope it’s okay, Anders, if I go out on a tangent and comment on my personal experience.
Anders: Sure, Olivia.
Olivia: In February, I attended Copenhagen fashion week. I was fortunate – there is a lot of talent and so many great designers here. As a result, the city organizes an annual competitive fashion week. And because it’s a smaller city, it all was accessible for me as a student and journalist. It was one of my most memorable experiences. I used the show for an article for DIS.
Anders: Your experience rings true; there are a lot of on-site opportunities in Copenhagen. When you live with a Danish family or interact with Danish peers, you are afforded unexpected opportunities, and when you grab those, you walk away with unique memories.
WHAT CAN DIS OFFER?
Olivia: Do you think that by having Danish professors and high interaction with Danes, DIS is capable of showing students a different value system from their own? If so, what are the benefits of this exposure? What’s the value of coming home with different ways of doing things?
Anders: We want DIS students to walk away being able to better articulate their own identity, having defined or adjusted some personal goals, being more open-minded and having more empathy for different ways of doing things – plus carrying a lot of exciting academic knowledge. The Danish way might, in the future, serve you as a navigation tool or benchmark. Through the differences experienced while in Copenhagen, students should understand that there isn’t just “one way” of doing things.
Richard: How much training can you really give to students in four months?
Anders: I believe quite a lot. We offer you more than most students realize before they arrive here. To discover that there is significantly more to the world than you already know gives you some very powerful frames of reference for your future. By attending a great college you have already proven yourself, you have a good track record, and you are heading to grad school or into the career world in a few years. You already have made important decisions about your life. I know four months compared to four years at college is not a lot, but I honestly believe we can show you the wider implications of many exciting experiences through these high-impact learning activities – combining the family stay and other kinds of intercultural learning with study tours.
You can significantly enhance your intercultural competency by taking the excellent Danish Language & Culture class and by living with a Danish host family. Students rate the family stay higher than any other housing options with 3.7 on a 4-point scale at the end of the term.
Richard: What are the plans for the future – where is DIS headed?
Anders: We will continue to develop our curriculum, focusing on the “burning issues” of our time, mining the “gold mine” of the European city. We are also looking to put more interactivity in classes and study tours. Our size allows us to offer a lot of great courses. However, we want to stay “small in big” – it is you, the student, and your learning and development that we care about. Reflection is the mother of learning. You will be encouraged to articulate your expectations of study abroad during the Arrival Workshop at the beginning of the semester, and to articulate the outcome of your experience before the end of it. Ultimately, we want to offer you the opportunity to immerse yourselves through interaction with young Danes and other Europeans, and to develop meaningful contacts and a lasting network of international friends.
Olivia: What do you hope students take away from this experience?
Anders: Lots of fond memories and friendships for life, and also critical thinking and moral responsibility on top of the academic knowledge. As for critical thinking, you should never let power-holders fool you and take for granted that what they say is true, but rather you must analyze it critically. And you must have some values to live for that come from your heart – what you should do, what you should fight for, and why you are here in the world.
