A dozen Mercer University students studied history, literature and creative writing while immersed in the vibrant culture of Krakow, Poland, this summer. The three-week study abroad program was organized and led by Dr. David Davis, English professor and associate director of Mercer’s Spencer B. King Jr. Center for Southern Studies, and co-taught by professors Dr. James Davis May and Chelsea Rathburn.
The program was hosted in collaboration with Krakow’s Jagiellonian University, a connection forged through Dr. Davis’ friendship with Jagiellonian professor Dr. Michał Choiński. Dr. Davis hopes this summer program will open the door for Mercer students to study at Jagiellonian in the future.
“This is a great partnership for us, and it gives Mercer a footprint in Central Europe and a partnership with one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious universities,” Dr. Davis said. “As a nation, (Poland) is very much invested in building these kinds of partnerships. So, we used that foundation to build an even closer relationship between Mercer and Jagiellonian. This study abroad program is a way of getting Mercer students to Krakow and to Jagiellonian, so they have an understanding and awareness of the city, the country, the university, and so they build personal connection with this location.”
Dr. Davis said Krakow is an ideal location for a study abroad experience. In addition to being the educational and cultural center of Poland, it is a beautiful, affordable and pedestrian-friendly city, he said. Plans are already in the works to host the program again in summer 2027.
Mercer students participated in at least one of three courses taught by Mercer professors while on the trip. Dr. Davis taught a class that examined American identity through literature. Once a week, the class met with Jagiellonian students in Dr. Choiński’s class to discuss their book readings. The Polish students were also invited to join Dr. Davis’ class discussions.
The Mercer and Jagiellonian students gained a better understanding of their identities by hearing each other’s perspectives, Dr. Davis said. They also experienced different styles of teaching, Rathburn added.
“It was a dynamic and powerful learning experience for the students on both sides,” Dr. Davis said. “We were able to build organic relationships between Mercer students and students from Jagiellonian. Those students have now connected on social media. They had meals together. Those kinds of relationships, I think, are much more powerful and are an additional level of engagement to the experience.”
The Mercer students used Krakow as inspiration for their work in a creative writing class taught by Rathburn, associate professor of English and creative writing.
“Along with reading poems, short fiction and essays set in Krakow, my students were responding to the city around them in their own writing. I gave them creative prompts based on our sights and activities, and they generated some really fabulous work,” Rathburn said. “The energy and excitement in Krakow was so inspiring to me as a teacher that I’m looking for ways to bring some of our activities home to my Macon creative writing classes.”
“I had the students responding to the city around them. I was giving them creative prompts based on the things that they were seeing and doing, and they generated some really fabulous work,” Rathburn said. “I had such a great time in the classroom in Krakow that I was coming home thinking how can I bring some of the energy and excitement from my study abroad class into my regular introduction to creative writing class. So many of the assignments we did were really productive and fun.”
Dr. May, associate professor of English and director of creative writing, focused on Polish poets and religious heritage during his class.
“Krakow is a city that really honors its poets,” Dr. May said. “So much of Polish poetry is about reckoning with the atrocities that happened during World War II, so to read some of the poems and then to go to sites like Plaszow, Auschwitz and the Schindler Factory was incredibly meaningful.”
Jacob Hossler, CLAS ’28, said he was introduced to Polish poets like Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska his freshman year during an English class with Dr. May and chose to participate in this study abroad program to deepen his understanding.
“This study abroad experience was transformative and helped me understand the power and importance of literature,” he said. “So many of the scholars we studied in Krakow had different ways to represent generational trauma and residual effects of war in mediums like poems or long fiction, and I began to see parallels in American representations of the same themes. It reminded me that no matter the national background someone may come from, the human experience overlaps. As students in general and especially as liberal arts students, we have an obligation to understand others and to recognize their inner humanity.”
The Mercer students spent their mornings in class and their afternoons on excursions that taught them about the history of Southern Poland and the legacy of the Holocaust, Dr. Davis said. In addition to the Auschwitz, Birkenau and Plaszow concentration camp sites, they visited the Oskar Schindler Factory, Rynek Underground Museum, Wawel Royal Castle, Kazimierz Jewish quarter, Polish National Gallery, Czartoryski Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Students also had the option to do day trips on the weekends, and some traveled to Warsaw, Zakopane and Prague. In addition, Rathburn, Dr. May, Dr. Choiński, Mercer student Michael Echols and Ella Bissonnette — a 2025 graduate who joined the trip as a Lifelong Learner — shared their works during a poetry reading at Massolit Books & Cafe, Rathburn said.
“When you take a group of students abroad, the learning is happening almost 24 hours a day,” Rathburn said. “We could see the students making connections between all three of our classes, and we know that their learning continues after they get home.”
This was Dr. Davis’ first time leading a study abroad program, and he said it was incredibly rewarding.
“With a typical classroom experience, I build relationships with the students 50 minutes a day, three days a week,” he said. “In this case, however, I was with students almost all day, pretty much every day, for three weeks. The students bonded with each other tightly, but they also built strong relationships with us as faculty members. At Mercer, we prioritize building those relationships between students and faculty. The relationships that I’m taking away from this experience in Poland are some of the strongest I’ve built at Mercer so far.”
Hossler said his favorite thing about the trip was the friendships he forged not only with Mercer students but Jagiellonian students.
“I was able to share my passion for reading with them, and experiencing unfamiliar places with fellow students also helped us bond easier,” said Hossler, an English major. “Interacting with the students of Jagiellonian in a country I had never before been to was fascinating, as we shared many differences but somehow came together in our love of the study of literature.”
Mei-Ling MiQwe, CLAS ’29, said the trip helped to reinvigorate her writing. She appreciated Poland’s efforts to preserve its history in such detail, and she had her eyes opened to the vast differences between the American South and European culture.
“Going on a study abroad, being able to see and experience new things, being localized in one environment and learning at the same time was very interesting,” said MiQwe, a double-major in English and law and public policy. “I enjoyed the freedom I was given on this trip. It was a great experience. It was nice to meet new people from new backgrounds. I wish I could be there forever, honestly.”
