ABSTRACT
Analysis of policy discourse suggests that underlying clichés characterize study abroad as a leisurely experience pursued by wealthy women who travel to Europe and enroll in academically weak programs in the liberal arts to acquire a general and genial familiarity with a foreign culture. This chapter will conduct an “archaeological dig” into the belief that study abroad is for general and genial purposes of cultural acquisition—or, in other words, that study abroad constitutes a “Grand Tour.” This chapter will seek to uncover perceptions including: What do Americans mean by the “Grand Tour”? How has the term been associated with study abroad in the discourse of the academy? What are the roots of this association? And how has it developed as a dominant belief contributing to an episteme that study abroad is academically weak and without serious and professional purpose, thus helping to marginalize study abroad in American higher education?
