This challenging interdisciplinary course focuses on one of the most important recent developments in Spanish society, the onset in the 1990s of mass immigration from Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia. Spain’s long history of expulsions enforced religious uniformity, colonialism, contending regional and national identities and loyalties, and the marginalization of the Roma minority, provides an obvious starting point from which to consider both migrant experiences in Spain, and the way migration is reconfiguring contemporary attitudes and identities in Spanish society. Against this historical background, the course will examine the dynamics and demographics of migration to—and again more recently—from Spain, and migrants’ integration or otherwise into the education system, the labor market, and social, political and cultural life more generally. Class discussions and readings will analyze the Spanish response to immigration, whether in the shape of laws and public policies, literary, cinematic and media representations of migrants, or public attitudes and behavior towards newcomers and ethnic minorities, including racism. The course will end by considering the impact of the ongoing economic crisis on immigrants, and the interplay between migration and current nationalist tensions within Spain (above all surrounding Catalonia and the Basque Country).

The aim of this course is to provide students with a general overview on how the Spanish artists in the 20th and 21st centuries seek for references and are influenced by religion, politics, identity, gender and popular culture while simultaneously re-appropriate historical icons and images to provide new readings and modify traditional interpretations. Students will be expected to analyze specific art works that have shaped Spain’s contemporary history and society such as Picasso’s “Guernica,” Dalí’s references to psychoanalysis and sexuality, or Miró’s multiple interpretations of Abstraction. Students will also become familiar with the role of the viewer in the 21st century, an active viewer that must interact with art works to decode their meanings via the study of Abstract Expressionists such as Tàpies or Saura, Abstract Geometric such as Chillida, political and social critics such as Arroyo and Grupo Crónica, more known contemporary artists such as García Alix or Plensa, as well as young artists who are just emerging in galleries. Either in Spain or in exile, Spanish contemporary artists connect their art with post-colonialism, the 1968 revolution, feminism and gender issues, the economic crisis, popular culture and migrations with an introspective look that uses Spanish Art Masters (El Greco, Velázquez or Goya) as sources when it comes to analyze the global situation from a local and micro narration perspective.

“Thinking spatially,” writes cultural geographer Doreen Massey, “means looking out beyond ourselves; [it involves] a recognition of others” that challenges the very notion of ‘identity’ itself. This course examines cultural, literary, and social histories of urban space in Madrid, in order to question how the city contributes to shaping identities—cross-cut by gender, sexuality, social class, ethnicity, citizenship, etc.—and in turn, how the urban milieu is negotiated by them. Students will engage in activities in Madrid that require them to map, observe, write, create, and discuss—in all, to think spatially—in order to critically question identities and the ‘self’ in relation to the urban landscape.

This course takes the contemporary city of Madrid as its point of departure, in comparison with Lisbon, New York, London, the suburbs, etc., and examines case studies that address the entanglements among urban spaces, politics, and identities from modern and contemporary history.

Prerequisite: In this conceptually and empirically challenging course, we will explore the relations between Latin America and Spain in the post-colonial period as constructed in the capital of the former Empire. We will begin with the Indian insurrection (grito de dolores) and the criollos war against Napoleonic Spain in 1810 and we will end with the present-day migratory movement from Spain to Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas due to the economic crisis. Post-colonial criticism is understood—in this context—both as a theoretical framework and as a subject matter. By critically examining the cultural practices, literary productions, political concerns and economic relations of the Spanish American newly formed nations and Spain since the beginning of the independence, students will gain an understanding of the historical relations between “de-colonized” states and “non-imperial” Spain as well as of contemporary political and cultural relations. 

By taking a Spanish perspective on the history of Latin America, we will necessarily be required to consider how the production and dissemination of historical knowledge have been shaped by domestic concerns and developments in the former metropolis. In this way, as much as about Latin America this is a course about Spain, and the evolution of Spanish politics, culture, and identity since the independence of its former colonies. The course will devote the first week to discuss “the Black and White legends” of Imperial Spain. Subsequently, sessions will focus on the period after the independence. By drawing examples from a variety of political issues, economic relations, cultural practices and literary texts, students will be encouraged to interpret the dynamics of these “Hispanic Transatlantic” relationships characterized by a continuous fluctuation of both a merger of and antagonism between the cultures of the modern Spanish American nations—once colonized, and that of Spain—the former “madre patria.” Special attention will be given to issues of cultural displacement but also to the role of linguistic, religious, and cultural affinities that bring these nations together. 

This course will compare the political ecologies of two regions of the world, Spain and California, with significantly different environmental histories, political systems, and socio-economic and political actors but strikingly similar Mediterranean type ecosystems. Not surprisingly, many of the most salient environmental issues in both regions coincide and offer multiple opportunities for fruitful comparison. In particular, this course will focus on two crucial environmental issues for both these regions—water and land use—and how these have emerged as central items in the political agendas in both regions. In this course, for instance, we will explore the nature of the so-called “water wars” in California and Spain and how both regions have attempted to reconcile conflicting public and private interests over water use rights. we will also look at landscape planning and how urbanization has often ignored crucial ecological disturbance processes such as landscape fires with unforeseen and often catastrophic consequences. As part of the course student will visit a politically powerful public company that provides water to the Madrid region, the Canal de Isabel II and meet with representatives of the Ministry of the Environment .To analyze these two key environmental politics arenas, the course will employ a Coupled Human and Natural Systems methodological approach in order to give students an idea of both the political and biophysical complexity of the issues at stake and provide them with the conceptual tools necessary for their analysis. 

• Internships require a supplement of $500.00. 

In all courses, instructors use the cities as course material, so classroom lectures and discussions are enhanced by walking tours and visits. Courses are taught by professors from local universities who are passionate about their subjects and about their cities. Their infectious enthusiasm and knowledge of the cities amplifies your experience, making the information-packed semester quickly fly by. 

Key program themes that may be of interest to students are: 

• Spanish language acquisition, the value of bilingualism  
• Climate change and environmental impact  
• Art as reflection of society and as social criticism  
• Sexual identities, national identity, and intersectionality  
• Migration and social integration  
• Post-colonial relations, globalization, and world crises  
• Possibility to intern at local companies/organizations