Sicily, Italy: Migration, Identity & Mediterranean Culture
Palermo • Lampedusa | 8-Day Faculty-Led Program
An Immersive Exploration of Migration, Identity & Belonging in Sicily
Designed for students in global studies, sociology, political science, human rights, public policy, conflict studies, and related fields, this immersive program examines migration through Sicily's unique position at the crossroads of Europe, Africa, and the Mediterranean.
Traveling from Palermo to the island of Lampedusa, students move beyond headlines and policy debates to explore the lived realities of migration. Through neighborhood exploration, community organizations, university engagement, local perspectives, memorials, public art, and facilitated reflection, students consider migration through the interconnected lenses of human rights, identity, belonging, community conflict, and peacebuilding.
What Students Explore
MIGRATION & HUMAN RIGHTS | Examine Mediterranean migration through lived experience, policy, advocacy, humanitarian response, and community perspectives.
IDENTITY & BELONGING | Explore how migration, culture, religion, nationality, and community shape ideas about who belongs and how identities change over time.
COMMUNITY & INTEGRATION | Consider how communities respond to migration and how local organizations create pathways toward social connection, employment, and inclusion.
CONFLICT & PEACEBUILDING | Investigate how communities respond to social conflict through advocacy, dialogue, grassroots action, and community-based solutions.
ART, ACTIVISM & PUBLIC MEMORY | Examine how murals, memorials, monuments, and public spaces communicate stories about migration, loss, identity, and belonging.
8-Day Itinerary
A Program, Built to Be Customized
This itinerary is designed to show what a Sicily Migration, Identity & Mediterranean Culture program could look like. Specific community organizations, university engagements, guest speakers, and site visits will vary based on your program dates, group size, academic goals, and local availability.
We'll work with your faculty and study abroad team to adapt the program to your course objectives and students. Activities can place greater emphasis on migration, human rights, public policy, conflict and peacebuilding, sociology, art and activism, or Mediterranean studies
Day 1 | Arrival & Introduction to Sicily
Arrive in Palermo and begin exploring Sicily's position between Europe and North Africa. Meet your EdOdyssey Program Leader, participate in a program orientation, and gather for a welcome dinner introducing the historical and contemporary forces that have shaped migration and identity across the Mediterranean.
Sample Experiences:
Arrival orientation • Palermo introduction • Mediterranean migration framing • Welcome dinner
Day 2 | Palermo: Migration, Markets & Community
Explore Palermo's Ballarò neighborhood and market as a lens into migration, changing populations, commerce, and community life. Engage with a local organization, social enterprise, or advocate to examine how migration becomes part of the everyday social and economic fabric of a city.
Sample Experiences:
Ballarò Market • Neighborhood exploration • Migration & integration • Social enterprise • Community engagement
Day 3 | Migration, Policy & Belonging
Engage with university students, researchers, advocates, or organizations working with migrant communities to examine migration from multiple perspectives. Explore how policy, borders, employment, community organizations, and local attitudes shape the experiences of people arriving and building lives in Sicily.
Students compare what they encounter in Palermo with migration debates and community dynamics in the United States.
Sample Experiences:
University engagement • Migration organization • Human rights • Policy & advocacy • Cultural exchange
Day 4 | Across Sicily: Conflict, Community & The Migration Journey
Travel from Palermo toward Porto Empedocle, using the journey across Sicily as part of the academic experience rather than simply a transfer.
Depending on program design and availability, stop for an engagement focused on grassroots peacebuilding, anti-mafia history, community justice, youth integration, or humanitarian response. Continue to the southern coast and prepare for the journey to Lampedusa.
Sample Experiences:
Cross-Sicily journey • Peacebuilding & community justice • Migration pathways • Porto Empedocle • Faculty-led reflection
Depending on program dates and logistics, travel to Lampedusa may be by overnight ferry or flight.
Day 5 | Lampedusa: At the Crossroads of Mediterranean Migration
Explore Lampedusa's distinctive position as both an island community and one of Europe's most visible points of arrival for migrants crossing the Mediterranean.
Engage with local perspectives and visit sites connected to migration to better understand how geography, borders, humanitarian response, and international policy intersect on the island.
Sample Experiences:
Lampedusa orientation • Mediterranean migration • Local perspectives • Migration sites • Community engagement
Day 6 | Memory, Human Rights & The Mediterranean
Examine how Lampedusa remembers and represents migration through memorials, monuments, public art, and community spaces. Students consider how communities memorialize lives lost at sea and how art and public memory can influence conversations about dignity, human rights, identity, and responsibility.
Conclude with facilitated reflection connecting experiences in Lampedusa with those in Palermo and broader migration debates.
Sample Experiences:
Migration memorials • Public art • Human rights • Public memory • Community perspectives • Guided reflection
Day 7 | Independent Exploration & Program Reflection
Spend part of the day independently exploring Lampedusa and reflecting on the experiences and perspectives encountered throughout the program.
Reconvene as a group to connect themes of migration, identity, conflict, belonging, and global citizenship. Consider how firsthand experiences complicate narratives about migration and what responsible engagement with complex global issues can look like.
Gather for a farewell dinner.
Sample Experiences:
Independent exploration • Faculty-led reflection • Comparative discussion • Global citizenship • Farewell dinner
Day 8 | Departure
Depart Lampedusa with a deeper understanding of migration not simply as a political issue, but as a complex human experience shaped by individuals, communities, borders, history, and place.
Sample Experiences:
Breakfast • Final reflection • Departure
Make this program your own
Start Here. Then Shape Around Your Course.
This itinerary is a starting point. Depending on your goals, we can place greater emphasis on areas such as:
Migration Studies
Borders • Migration routes • Integration • Displacement
Human Rights
Humanitarian response • Advocacy • Dignity • Global citizenship
Conflict & Peacebuilding
Community conflict • Dialogue • Justice • Grassroots action
Public Policy
Migration governance • Borders • European policy • Local responses
Sociology & Anthropology
Identity • Belonging • Community • Cultural change
Art & Activism
Murals • Memorials • Monuments • Public memory • Political expression
Mediterranean Studie
Migration • Geography • Cultural exchange • Europe and North Africa
We can also adjust the program length, community and university engagements, transportation to Lampedusa, cultural activities, reflection, accommodations, meals, and level of EdOdyssey Program Leader support.
Could this work for your students?
Use this program as your starting point or tell us what you’d change. We’ll work with you to align the itinerary with your course objectives, students, preferred dates, group size, and budget.
Have a different academic focus in mind?