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ANT/GWS 195 Sumak Kawsay and Ikigai: Living Well and Finding Meaning in a Global World 

This Global Learning Program (GLP) course offers an exploration of two concepts: 

• sumak kawsay, a central tenet of Andean and Quechua cosmology that means “living well,” and 
• ikigai, an idea that originated in 8th-century Japan that roughly translates as finding meaning in life.

 While their cultural origins vary greatly, these two concepts share particular aspects of what constitutes a “good life.” Each ideology blends individual wellness, community relations and harmony, ecological stewardship, and sustainability. As they are used today, sumak kawsay and ikigai seek to decolonize Western assumptions about the body and well-being and re-appropriate traditional ways of being and knowing, particularly in their emphasis on ancestral knowledge, traditional healing, and eco-spiritual practices. Simultaneously, they also have been deployed politically and have become heavily commercialized. Even as these terms and concepts are getting newfound attention, their origins and related practices are rooted deeply in the past. This course thus centers the history and current understanding of sumak kawsay and ikigai to create a lens through which we may consider health and wellness holistically, historically, and cross-culturally.   

To consider the contemporary and historical trajectories of sumak kawsay and ikigai, we will travel to three sites: Ecuador and Peru over spring break in March 2023 and Japan in May 2023. We have chosen these sites carefully in order to maximize points of comparison and divergence. By traveling to the places where these ideas originated, students will be able to contextualize the historical, social, and cultural settings in which these concepts emerged as well as how people in these places pursue what it means to live well and with purpose. 

This course is taught by Professor Carolyn Herbst Lewis, gender, women’s, and sexuality studies (GWSS), and Professor Maria Tapias, anthropology. Institute of Global Engagement Associate Director Ashley Laux is the Faculty-led Learning Across the Globe (FLAG) program contact for this course. 

The student fee for this course is $415 and will be added to the students’ College bill in February 2023 after registration. The student fee only covers a fraction of the full trip cost; the remainder of the trip expenses are funded through the Institute for Global Engagement. Travel expenses including flights, lodging, activity fees, and most meals are covered other than a few meals and personal incidentals.  

Please note that all sites include several activities requiring walking through uneven, steep, and challenging terrain often at very high altitudes. Students will need a pair of sturdy hiking/walking shoes for excursions in all three locations.

Current first-year students can . The application deadline is Oct. 10, 2022.

Questions? Contact Ashley Laux.