Academics

Madrid Study Group

Universidad San Pablo CEU
Director Fall 2010: Professor Frederick Luciani, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

Program prerequisites | Course descriptions | Living arrangements
| Extra costs | Deadlines | Further information | Helpful links

The Madrid Study Group offers qualified Colgate students the opportunity to live and study for one semester in a dynamic and culturally rich European capital.  The Group is intended for students in their junior year who already have significant ability with the Spanish language, and who seek to perfect their Spanish language skills, acquire a deeper knowledge of Spanish life and culture, and undertake a diverse and challenging academic experience on the premises of a private university in Madrid.  At the same time, the Group is organized to recognize the unique needs of American students studying abroad.  It includes a two-week introductory session in Santiago de Compostela in the northwestern region of Galicia, followed by a 13-week semester at the Universidad San Pablo CEU in Madrid.  The curriculum balances courses designed especially for the Group with a broad array of courses drawn from the regular offerings of the Universidad San Pablo CEU. 

Through academic experiences connected with the cultural resources of Madrid, participants will become acquainted with the richness of Spanish art, film and theater, and through the experience of living with Spanish families and sharing classes with Spanish students, participants will acquire a knowledge of Spanish culture in the more everyday sense.  Excursions will be designed to give participants a good sense of the geographic and cultural diversity of Spain, its complex history, and its major artistic monuments.

Living arrangements
During the two-week Santiago de Compostela session, participants will live in a dormitory of the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela.  In Madrid, students will live with families, who will provide most meals.  No more than one student will be housed with any given family.  All housing arrangements will be made by the Director, after consultation with accepted students on living preferences. Any exceptions to these rules can only be made by the Director.

Courses
Students must register for four courses, and are eligible to receive four Colgate credits including two credits for a Spanish concentration or minor.  The course offerings are as follows:

The Program Seminar (Spanish 400)
This course, required of all participants, includes two segments:  1) the introductory two-week session in Santiago de Compostela, designed to prepare students for the semester in Madrid, and 2)  “Madrid and the Arts,” offered in Madrid.  In the Madrid segment, participants will attend weekly lectures on Spanish art, film, and theater complemented by visits to museums, cinemas and theaters.

The Director’s seminar:  “The Literary Journey in Spanish and Spanish America.” This seminar will examine the theme of the journey in Spanish and Spanish American writing, in different historical moments and in a number of genres:  letters, chronicles, short stories, lyrical poetry, novels, essays, travelogues.  The course will be organized in topical units, including:  

• Discoverers and conquistadors:  encountering the Other
• Mystics and pilgrims:  the spiritual journey
• The critic’s gaze:  satire and the traveler in Spain and Latin America
• The Romantic traveler:  in search of the sublime
• The urban wanderer:  the flaneur in Spanish and Spanish American fiction

An aim of this course is for the students, through their reading of literature relating to journeys, to reflect upon their own experiences as sojourners in Spain.  To that end, in addition to writing analytical papers on the texts read, all students will do some creative writing reflecting their experiences during the semester, whether in the form of diaries, descriptive sketches, travelogues, poetry, essays, or short fiction.  As a final group project, the class will produce an anthology of original writings about their own journeys in Spain.  This course can count for a Spanish concentration or minor.

Perfecting Language (Spanish 380) 
This course will provide students with a comprehensive review of the finer points of the Spanish language, with an emphasis on fostering near-native pronunciation, correctness of grammar in speech and writing, and the idiomatic use of the language in a variety of contexts.  This course will be required of all participants except for those who place out of it. 

Electives
Participants, with guidance from the Director, will choose one or two electives from the regular Universidad San Pablo CEU course offerings in the Humanities and Social Sciences.  Students may petition departments at Colgate to have these electives count for a concentration or minor.  Approved courses in literature may count toward the Spanish concentration or minor.

Excursions
The Group will include a one-day excursion during the Santiago de Compostela session, to one of the major natural or archaeological sites in Galicia, and a one-day excursion to visit the artistic treasures of Toledo.   There will be two weekend excursions during the semester, linked to academic components of the Group.  Possible sites include the Basque country, with a visit to the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, and Andalucía, whose architectural monuments include the mosque of Córdoba, the cathedral of Sevilla, and Granada’s famed Alhambra.

Costs
Costs above Colgate’s tuition include room and board, visa fees, airfare, and necessary out-of-pocket expenses. On the average students can expect to spend $5,500-$6,500 more than a semester on campus. These increased costs are used in calculating the aid packages of students who receive financial aid, provided this is their first study group experience.

Students who are planning extensive personal travel will need to increase their budget accordingly.