Global Cities

This course will explore the fact that today, most brands make their offerings available through multiple distribution channels and demonstrate how a brands channel strategy may also act as a key differentiator. Students will develop an understanding of how brands can distinguish themselves competitively while taking multichannel marketing, managing of channel conflict, disintermediation, and push vs. pull marketing efforts in the channel into consideration. 

The country of Spain today is a pluralistic society, which, though suffering from bouts of xenophobia, is commonly regarded as being welcoming to foreigners. This has not always been the case. Until quite recently, Spain was better known as the birthplace of modern religious, ethnic, and racial intolerance. The expulsion of the Jews and the Muslims and the coming of the Inquisition served to create the first country in Europe dedicated to ridding itself of religious pluralism. While racial laws (limpieza de sangre) were initially promulgated to "protect" Christians against the mixing of Jewish or Islamic blood in Iberia, these laws were later exported to Spanish America where they formed the juridical rationale for an explicitly racial hierarchy that discriminated against those deemed to be of inferior race. Spain, alas, was not alone in its persecutions. Other countries soon instituted tribunals that persecuted witches, heretics, nonbelievers, homosexuals, and others targeted as scapegoats. Such intolerance reached its apex with the Holocaust of the 20th Century, resulting in the nearly unexplainable mass murder of some six million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Gypsies, handicapped, dissidents, and others classified as physically and mentally degenerate. Today, Islamophobia and ethnic discrimination against immigrants continue to plague Europe. Organized into four sections, this course engages you in a historical exploration of human intolerance, institutionalized persecution, and contemporary cruelty. Section I examines the birth of modern religious and racial categories of discrimination in Inquisitorial Spain and Spanish America. Section II analyzes the coming and spread of witch-trials, which usually targeted elderly women, sexually 'promiscuous' women, and homosexuals (marked as male witches) in Europe and America. Section III analyzes the Holocaust and the advent of institutionalized persecution and genocide. Section IV looks at discrimination and persecution in contemporary Europe by examining the rise of Islamophobia and the administrations of detention centers used to restrain and deport the desperate, clandestine, and unwanted. Guest speakers from the Jewish and Islamic communities in Spain today help you understand the history and context of discrimination, persecution and intolerance. By exploring this history, you will reflect critically on the origins and meaning of ethnic and religious tension in today's world. This course helps you reflect upon the meaning of cultural difference, develop intercultural competence and cultivate your sense of global citizenship.

This course provides you with an overview of the scientific study of abnormal psychology. Based on a bio-psycho-social approach, you will study how the biological, cognitive, behavioral, social, and emotional factors are related to the onset and the trajectory of the psychopathologies. Coursework will include basic concepts and definitions, historical perspectives on psychopathology, and different theoretical models of psychopathology. Additionally, the course will cover frameworks for the assessment and diagnosis of mental illness, legal and ethical issues pertaining to the assessment and treatment of mental illness, and the role of culture and diversity in assessment and treatment. You will acquire theoretical knowledge that will allow you to identify indicators of disorders, analyze real cases, and compare clinical interventions based on a bio-psycho-social approach. You will be able to identify and explain how most disorders result from the interplay of biological/medical, psychological/individual, and social/cultural factors.

The course has been created for students who have at least an intermediate level of Spanish and who, consequently, have an understanding of the basics of Spanish grammar and lexis, but who now wish to turn their focus on consolidating their understanding and expanding their ability to communicate through real practice. The main aim is to develop your oral communicative proficiency. To achieve the course goals, you will participate in active conversation inside and outside the class. Since successful communication always depends on the cultural context, a key part of the course will be discussing topics related to the social and cultural context in which the course is taught (i.e., Spain and Barcelona). A secondary aim, but no less important, is to examine stereotypes about Spain and to learn about Spanish customs as they exist today, in the 21st century. You will discover the diversity and complexity of the country, its people and its culture and become aware of how current Spanish culture may not coincide with your notions prior to arrival. Activities include: in-class discussions, debates, surveys, interviews, presentations, and job interviews. You will learn how to express personal preferences and speak by phone. Given the importance of using language in context, you will therefore experience the Spanish language and culture through real practice: for example, you will learn to talk about food by participating in a cooking course taught by local chefs. A key component of the course will be activities designed to promote direct contact with the host culture, via surveys, interviews, and language exchanges with Spanish students. This is an active course and to take full advantage of it, you must be motivated to learn and ready to participate. Only in this way will you make real and observable improvements in your oral competency. Previously titled as Conversational Spanish: Daily & Practical Uses/SPN303

This course is designed for students who have mastered the grammatical structure of the language and are ready to expand and enlarge your language skills thus achieving a high degree in mastery in the four basic skills (reading, listening, speaking and writing). Oral and written production across genres will be analyzed and practiced, with a particular attention to the textual type, ie. narrative, descriptive, argumentative. Additionally, students will write a variety of texts -- from plot summaries to reports, short essays and reflections. The course's integrated approach aims to develop all skills. In-class time will be devoted to not only the structure of the textbook, but also to speaking and practicing Spanish through a combination of group-based and individual activities, focusing on grammatical structures, language functions and vocabulary. Lessons also include wide range of realia and active learning which will take students to different areas of Seville to allow for authentic practice in real-life situations to allow students to acquire linguistic and intercultural skills. Local engagement is offered so learn about Spanish society, thus improving their understanding of host culture to see the ways in which culture and language intersect to unlock a wide range of intercultural tools to enhance living and studying abroad. Class size rarely exceeds 15 students, what allows students to have sufficient opportunities to practice your spoken Spanish and receive personal attention from the instructor.

This course will introduce students to the dynamic relationship between advertising and society. Students will develop an understanding of the fundamentals of how advertising works; discuss the many ways in which our behaviors and attitudes as human beings can be influenced and impacted (both positively and negatively) by advertising; explore various criticisms of advertising; and apply critical thinking skills in the analysis of selected examples of advertising.

Cities around the world are striving to be ‘global’; Barcelona, the capital of Catalunya, is one of the largest and most cosmopolitan cities in Spain. It is globally-renowned for its art and architecture, possessing no fewer than nine UNESCO-designated ‘world heritage’ sites, and has become a major destination for global tourism. In this interdisciplinary course, students will examine the emergence of this elegant, creative city as Spain’s gateway to the Mediterranean; analyze its history and evolution since its foundation by the Romans; explore the role of population dynamics, industrial change and globalization in shaping the city and the lives of its inhabitants; and investigate the ways in which the interplay of urbanism, politics, and society has addressed challenges of social, political, and technological change in the past and today.

This course provides you with the tools to understand, analyze, appreciate and criticize the works of some of the most relevant artists who have had an outstanding influence in the artistic life of Barcelona over the last 150 years. Throughout this period, Catalonia has played a leading role in the economic development and modernization Spain, while its capital, Barcelona, has assumed an equal endeavor in terms of cultural modernity. Within contemporary Spain the relevance of Barcelona could not be fully comprehended without first understanding the contributions of four main figures of contemporary art and architecture: Antoni Gaudí, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí. This course is devised as a thorough study of the work, ideas and personality of Gaudí, Picasso, Miró and Dalí and their scope and meaning in the context of contemporary society. Barcelona is the best example of an architectural catalogue of these Artist's movements, therefore it offers the chance to experience and study many of these buildings in situ, analyzing not only their formal, symbolical and historical aspects, but also their integration in the urban framework and their current function as masterworks. The connections between the specific situation of Catalan cultural life and the international context are even more explicit in the case of the three painters that will be dealt with in this course, since each of them has evolved a contemporary conception of art by witnessing or even participating in the introduction and diffusion of that new sensibility, first in Barcelona and later in the rest of the country. You will be able to appraise the significance that Barcelona had in the respective evolution of each artist from an early academic stage to the development of an avant-garde spirit. You will have the opportunity to visit the museums dedicated to all these painters in the city, stressing the importance of the artistic evolution as something beyond pure formalism and always related with a personal, theoretical and historical context. Furthermore, throughout the study of the city and its artists you will be able to formulate a general vision of the beginnings and development of contemporary art and architecture.

This course introduces the field of operations and supply chain management, a key managerial function that encompasses the design, control, and improvement of processes used to produce goods and/or provide services. The course will explore foundational concepts, including forecasting, production planning, master scheduling, material requirements planning, capacity planning, world-class manufacturing principles, and continuous improvement. Using case studies drawn from global companies, students will apply what they are learning to the study of managerial and mathematical techniques the managerial and mathematical techniques - along with information technology resources - used to make goods and services. *This course is cross-listed as BUS334BCN.

This 1-credit course is assignment-based, using Microsoft's Excel software, and is intended to complement the 3-credit Basic Operations Management course (BUS334 / MIS334). More specifically, it consists of weekly, one-hour laboratory sessions in which students develop their skills in the application of Excel in order to resolve Operational Research problems. Emphasis will therefore be placed on the practical implementation of real world models, building on competencies acquired in the 3-credit BOM course. The laboratory sessions are informal and students are expected to contribute in a positive manner. *This course is cross-listed with BUS329BCN

This course is designed for students who wish to achieve a basic level of Spanish. The structure of the course focuses particularly on basic strategies and structures for communicating on daily situations. By carrying out specific tasks you will develop and improve different skills necessary for communication. In class students are required to use Spanish in order to solve activities that demand communicative exchanges. These individual or group-based tasks will offer students context for exploring and synthesizing vocabulary, grammar structures or language functions necessary for accomplishing the activity. The course reveals the close link between language and culture. By completing different types of tasks such as field studies or onsite research, students will explore and contrast cultural aspects which define Spanish society. By the end of the course, students are expected to master vocabulary and grammar structures in order to be able to: understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type; introduce yourself and others; ask and answer questions about personal details such as where students live, people you know and things you have; interact in a simple way provided the other person speaks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.

This course is designed for students who have at least the equivalent of one semester of college level Spanish. The primary aim of the course is to develop the four basic skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) through a communicative, collaborative and cultural approach. The course combines several integrated approaches aimed at developing your skills. Most in-class time, driven by the structure of the textbook and accompanying activities, is devoted to speaking and practicing Spanish through a combination of group-based and individual activities, focusing on grammatical structures, language functions and vocabulary. Lessons also focus on a wide range of contemporary cultural themes through the use of varied materials such as advertising material and short film clips. Onsite activities such as field studies to markets and universities, and regular interviews and conversations with members of the local community, will give you a unique chance to rapidly implement your linguistic development in real-life. Special extra-curricular activities, such as music concerts, cooking classes, exploring museums and parks, Spanish movie night, or possible language-exchange opportunities will be announced and your instructor will help you identify which activities would be most useful for you. These, and other cultural components of the course, will also promote your knowledge of Spanish and Spanish people, as you learn about Spanish society, and thus learning Spanish gives you a privileged opportunity to develop sensitivity towards cultural differences and to understand the ways in which culture and language interlock. In this sense you will be encouraged to exploit the value of these lessons not just as a useful aid to your progress in other courses at the GlobalCampus, but as a set of tools for unlocking a wide range of intercultural discoveries whilst living and studying abroad. By the end of the course, you are expected to have mastered basic grammar and lexical structures, so that you'll be able to conduct a simple conversation and to write short and basic texts with some degree of competency. You will be able to speak about yourself and your family, to introduce people, to interact with the host community and to follow short and simple conversations.

Just as industrialization in the 19th century determined the development and role of the city during the modern period, so the advent of the post-industrial economy and globalization is transforming the city of the post-modern period. As economic control slips from the grasp of nation states, it is left to cities to compete amongst themselves for the investments and incomes so critical to the replacement of vanishing industrial bases. In the process, cities are forced to transform and re-brand themselves as they struggle to adapt to the new geographical, economic and symbolic environment in which they find themselves. Brand Barcelona: Marketing the Global City will critically examine the success of the Barcelona Model of urban redevelopment and self-reinvention, paying particular attention to the way in which marketing has extended its sphere of influence from the selling of commodities to the selling of places. Given the consequent commodification of the city, the question will be raised as to who has benefited and who has lost out in this transformation. As well as providing a solid foundation in theory, the course will also consider contemporary debates over the regeneration of Barcelona and will involve you in an exploration of the invisible city that is concealed by Barcelonas business/tourist friendly facade, through field studies and films. An important part of the assessment will involve project work, through which you will be encouraged to uncover aspects of the city that reveal something significant about how it is being transformed and reinvented through its global promotion. Cross-listed as MKT338

Just as industrialization in the 19th century determined the development and role of the city during the modern period, so the advent of the post-industrial economy and globalization is transforming the city of the post-modern period. As economic control slips from the grasp of nation states, it is left to cities to compete amongst themselves for the investments and incomes so critical to the replacement of vanishing industrial bases. In the process, cities are forced to transform and re-brand themselves as they struggle to adapt to the new geographical, economic and symbolic environment in which they find themselves. Brand Barcelona: Marketing the Global City will critically examine the success of the Barcelona Model of urban redevelopment and self-reinvention, paying particular attention to the way in which marketing has extended its sphere of influence from the selling of commodities to the selling of places. Given the consequent commodification of the city, the question will be raised as to who has benefited and who has lost out in this transformation. As well as providing a solid foundation in theory, the course will also consider contemporary debates over the regeneration of Barcelona and will involve you in an exploration of the invisible city that is concealed by Barcelonas business/tourist friendly facade, through field studies and films. An important part of the assessment will involve project work, through which you will be encouraged to uncover aspects of the city that reveal something significant about how it is being transformed and reinvented through its global promotion. Cross-listed as CUL358

The course will apply fundamental concepts in ethical theory to business practice, investigate methods of stakeholder analysis, introduce some rudiments of behavioral economics, explore specific ethically and socially sensitive topics in business and management, and lay out the ethically problematic structure of representative real-life cases. To assess such claims, the course selects real-life problematic cases and applies to them moral theories. You will refer to a selected number of texts, research real-world business cases, analyze and give presentations on selected subsidiary readings, and engage in class discussions over specific topics.

The role of finance in business is essential. We use financial data to assess current trends, make projections regarding future activities, and to drive decision-making within an organization. This course provides students with an introductory theoretical framework for understanding and analyzing major financial problems of modern companies. Lectures, readings and case studies will illustrate the impact that financial decisions can have on corporate performance and value, and students will receive an overview of how to break down the components of a financial problem and apply the appropriate financial decisions to solve them. The main topics of this course include evaluation of a firm?s financial performance, financial analysis, time value of money and interest rates, capital structure, risk and return relationship, cost of capital, and dividend decisions, among others. The knowledge gleaned through this course will be useful for any business student regardless of their intended career path.

This course is designed as an introduction to basic Catalan expressions and grammatical structures used in everyday situations. The course also explores the main traits of the Catalan culture as a way to enhance student's intercultural competence and provide them with enough analytical skills to understand their cultural surroundings while studying abroad. The course includes a political, sociological, and historical overview of the Catalan speaking territories.

This course will cover the basics of human cognition, a field of study that explores how people perceive, learn, remember, and think about information. Cognitive Psychology is about how we take in information about the world, make sense of it, store it for later use, and then try to retrieve it when it's needed. In this course you will understand how best to study for tests, how to read effectively, and how to remember difficult-to-learn material. You will learn that there is much more going on in your mind than you are conscious of. You are aware of experiences such as seeing something, remembering a past event, or thinking about how to solve a problem, but behind each of these experiences are many complex and largely invisible processes. We will delve into some of the activities that go on in our minds that are responsible for everyday experiences such as perceiving, remembering, and thinking. You will learn there are many practical connections between the results of cognitive psychology research and everyday life. Examples of these connections will be prevalent throughout the course. The course is structured into ten distinctive modules covering the main aspects of the discipline of Cognitive Psychology and its application to contemporary phenomena: Cognitive Neuroscience, Perception, Attention and Consciousness, Memory, Knowledge, Language, Problem Solving and Creativity, Judgment, Decision Making and Reasoning, and Cognition and Emotion. The format of instruction will include lecture, audiovisual materials, small group discussions, class activities, and in-class discussions.

With the rise of global mobility and communication, encounters between people of diverse and multiple cultural identities are increasingly common. Less obvious are the reasons why these encounters can be challenging and, more importantly, the knowledge and skills necessary for overcoming communication barriers that arise from differences in communication styles and patterns. This course is designed to give students the tools needed to be competent global citizen in the interconnected world. The study of intercultural communication requires not only grappling with broad concepts such as "culture", "communication", and "identity", but also learning how communication styles are patterned within cultural groups. This course thus explores the interaction between culture and communication and introduces students to the knowledge and skills requisite to building intercultural competence. More specifically, this course invites students to analyze and evaluate how their own cultural identity influences communication with others; encourages interaction with the host culture; and prepares students with knowledge and skills to be effective and ethical intercultural communicators.

This course describes the pillars and mechanisms upon which market capitalism functions. As the dominant socio-economic system, understanding these aspects is indispensable for comprehending today's world and one's own role in it. Drawing from economics and other social science disciplines, students will trace history, balance theory, and practice to explore market capitalism?s strengths and shortcomings, as well as the role of institutions and economic agents that make it function as it does: international organizations, nation-states, transnational companies and civil society. Using diverse case studies, students will analyze how capitalism can vary in different contexts. Students will employ comparative methods to explore these differences within capitalism, as well as other socio-economic systems, particularly socialist economies. The role of culture and religion in these systems is also considered.

In this course students will learn why consumers behave the way they do, how environmental forces influence and shape our behavior, and the practical marketing implications of that behavior. Topics will include consumer behavior decision making and the effects that internal influences (motivation, perception, affect, personality, lifestyles, and values) and external influences (culture, family, social class, competition, group influences and social media) have in that decision making process.

Over the past three decades, Spain has undergone a transformation perhaps greater than any other country in Western Europe. Until 1975, the military dictator Francisco Franco had governed a country with a modest economy that seemed condemned to remain on the periphery of European culture and politics. At the present time, however, the country has grown into one of the most advanced and dynamic places on the continent. In this course, we will discuss and explore the reasons behind Spain's ascension, while examining critically the current challenges that the country faces. The main objectives of this course are that students understand, comment upon and analyze the most important aspects of Spanish history, politics and society over the last 30 years. Topics covered will include: integration into the European Union and NATO; the decentralization of Spain, asymmetric federalism, the role of the autonomous communities; from an emigrant to an immigrant country; women in the workplace and the family; Basque and Islamic terrorism; secular society and the Church; and the challenges of globalization. The latter sessions will concentrate on issues important to today's Spaniards. These include their attempts to come to terms with the past to "right the wrongs" of Francoism - through the Law of Historical Memory. We will explore how immigration is changing the face of society, housing problems, and the burdens of an aging population.

This course will examine the impact that various issues such as gender, identity, body, tradition, tourism, violence, media, and new technologies have on Spanish society and democracy. The interdisciplinary focus of this course will examine the intersection of historic and cultural materials (films, music, paintings, art exhibits, and TV) to understand the latest digital shifts in Spanish culture. Students will use an intercultural lens to compare Spanish culture and the culture of the United States. A combination of in-class lectures and discussions are complemented by out-of-classroom learning as students explore the historical and contemporary aspects of Spanish culture. The course is cross-listed with HIS336BCN.

This course will examine the impact that various issues such as gender, identity, body, tradition, tourism, violence, media, and new technologies have on Spanish society and democracy. The interdisciplinary focus of this course will examine the intersection of historic and cultural materials (films, music, paintings, art exhibits, and TV) to understand the latest digital shifts in Spanish culture. Students will use an intercultural lens to compare Spanish culture and the culture of the United States. A combination of in-class lectures and discussions are complemented by out-of-classroom learning as students explore the historical and contemporary aspects of Spanish culture. The course is cross-listed with CUL336BCN.

In recent years, the consolidation of digital technologies has led to the radical transformation of journalism. Blogs and podcasts are now part of the contemporary media landscape alongside more personal forms of on-line communication like live streaming; mobile journalism; virtual and augmented reality; and several social network tools like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or YouTube. Cross-cutting content and formats is what leads a new generation of storytelling focused on stories that can be read, listened to, and watched, all at the same time. That's why every story needs to be explained in an attractive and appropriate format, channel, or narrative. But the biggest change is that information and stories are no longer unidirectional. As Tom Foremsky explained some years ago, "every company is now a media company," and in that same sense, every journalist and professional of any discipline can become a relevant and respected storyteller. We can all become our own "media outlet". To explore this concept, you will analyze how politics, marketing and PR professionals, and corporations are investing more and more in "journalistic" style communications to reach bigger and better audiences. This course aims to explore the "me-journalism" phenomenon through examining greater user participation, active content consumption, permanent feedback, the creation of highly specialized audiences, new formats, and the regaining of the information initiative. The theoretical content of the course will be complemented at a practical level by practical exercises in Mobile Journalism, the creation and maintenance of a blog (Wordpress), other 2.0 tools, and the creation of a podcast, all under the supervision of the course instructor. You learn how traditional journalism is changing and how social media tools can help anyone promote, inform, or build a new brand. **This course was previously titled: Journalism 2.0 Journalism 2.0: Communication & Blogging in the 21st Century

This digital marketing course aims at answering how to professionally present, promote, and place what we want an audience to sell and buy online, considering the most effective and attractive resources to do it. To that end, a semester will be devoted to exploring the 'Three Ts of Marketing.' This course will focus on trade, trends, and tools in both theory and practice. Readings, debates, guest speakers, and multiple activities will provide students with insight and expertise in a growing and attractive field.

This course focuses on how to check if your business idea can be profitable. You will analyze different cases selected to give you practical knowledge that will be immediately helpful if you plan to run your own business or you want to improve your decision-making as financial investor. In the first part of the course you will be familiarized with essential entrepreneurial, accounting, and finance concepts; which will include identifying entrepreneurial opportunities, evaluating the market, deciding the sources of finance; and analyzing different types of business entity. In the second part of the course you will create and test your business idea. Furthermore, you will focus on the financial section of your business plan and learn how to use a variety of financial management tools to evaluate the firm?s performance. Furthermore, you will work on a hypothetical new venture project and build a financial plan to test it. The aim of this course is to sharpen your skills in all of the activities associated with entrepreneurial finance, including identifying attractive business opportunities, estimating the resources necessary to undertake these opportunities, and prudently managing them in pursuit of the opportunity. It will increase your capacity to create new ventures and it will help you to understand the complexities and purpose of analyzing a business idea.

More than just small business management, entrepreneurship means identifying market opportunities and capitalizing on those opportunities by marshalling resources and designing a strategy. Students will analyze different mindsets and behaviors of effective entrepreneurs and develop abilities for brainstorming and creating new business ideas. By the conclusion of this course, students will be able to put their entrepreneurial ideas into action by structuring a formal business plan.

Through group exercises and team projects, students will apply theoretical models and case studies to create a concrete business plan at the end of the term. Students will complement in-classroom learning with out-of-class site visits and discussions with local entrepreneurs.

The growing economic and political integration of Europe is making decision-making processes at both national and supranational level increasingly intertwined. As the European Union (EU) is neither a state nor a federation, but rather an organization of a unique kind, the transfer of national prerogatives to the supranational level raises a series of questions such as: a) how do decisions taken at the EU level influence national ones and vice versa?; b) which theoretical approaches help us to grasp the ongoing process of integration?; c) what are the consequences of EU enlargement for both existing institutions as well as for democratic legitimization? Part I of the course will examine the origins and development of European integration, the main theories behind the process of integration, the institutional structure of the European Union and the specific economic and political areas of inter-state cooperation. Part II will focus on some of the most relevant issues surrounding contemporary debates on European integration. Major issues facing EU members today such as the so-called democratic deficit, European Governance, and EU enlargement will all be considered.

This course provides an international perspective to the study of financial accounting by looking at the analysis and evaluation of financial reports. The main goal of this course is to learn how to analyze the financial performance of an organization through the use of published financial information. In the first section of the course, students will be familiarized with the elements of financial statements including: Balance sheets, Income statements, the statement of cash-flows, the statements of retained earnings, and the notes to the financial statements. The second section of this course will then focus on international accounting differences between the US GAAP and the International Standards (IFRS) and the tendencies towards harmonization. During this section, the course will also deal with creative accounting as well as accounting manipulation and scandals. In the third and final section of the course, students will carry out a financial ratio analysis to interpret financial statements. This analysis will allow students to both evaluate the performance of one business as well as analyze business opportunities from a financial standpoint. This course will help students understand the complexities and purpose of financial accounting along with its limitations. The overall goal of this course is to equip students to better understand financial accounting concepts and approaches in relation to business in order to make sound financial management decisions. Course activities are based on worksheets with exercises related to each topic studied in class. The course will also use current articles and videos from business newspapers and magazines to be discussed on a daily basis to motivate class discussion and participation. *This course is cross listed with FIN335BCN

This course provides an international perspective to the study of financial accounting by looking at the analysis and evaluation of financial reports. The main goal of this course is to learn how to analyze the financial performance of an organization through the use of published financial information. In the first section of the course, students will be familiarized with the elements of financial statements including: Balance sheets, Income statements, the statement of cash-flows, the statements of retained earnings, and the notes to the financial statements. The second section of this course will then focus on international accounting differences between the US GAAP and the International Standards (IFRS) and the tendencies towards harmonization. During this section, the course will also deal with creative accounting as well as accounting manipulation and scandals. In the third and final section of the course, students will carry out a financial ratio analysis to interpret financial statements. This analysis will allow students to both evaluate the performance of one business as well as analyze business opportunities from a financial standpoint. This course will help students understand the complexities and purpose of financial accounting along with its limitations. The overall goal of this course is to equip students to better understand financial accounting concepts and approaches in relation to business in order to make sound financial management decisions. Course activities are based on worksheets with exercises related to each topic studied in class. The course will also use current articles and videos from business newspapers and magazines to be discussed on a daily basis to motivate class discussion and participation. *This course is cross listed with ACC335BCN

This course introduces Spanish gastronomy while focusing on the complex value codes and beliefs related to Spanish local products and their consumption. The course is divided into four parts. In the first part, students will be encouraged to define the concepts of food and culture, explore the role of cuisine in collective and individual identities, and examine how cultural food habits are created and change. This part covers the broader context that includes and sustains the way food is produced, prepared and consumed in Spain: the Mediterranean diet. The second part of the course explains the theoretical and ideological aspects of cuisine in Spain and identifies the particular characteristics of traditional Spanish cuisine. The third part of the course presents historical events that have shaped the cultural food model in Spain by exploring the influences of the Romans and the Arabs and the Columbian Exchange as the initial basis of the modern Spanish diet. The final part focuses on some of the foods that comprise the core of the Spanish diet. The course includes a number of experiential learning activities that may vary from term to term. These range from visits to local markets and wineries to a variety of workshops, including olive oil tasting, a bread workshop, and a tapas cooking workshop. There is a $25 course fee to cover the cost of these activities.

This course provides you with an introduction to the field of Health Psychology which studies how biology, behavior, and social context influence health, wellness, and illness. The course explores the main theoretical approaches and research methods in health psychology and provides current examples of practice in the field along with a number of practical applications of core concepts covered in class readings and discussions. The course is designed to enable you to acquire theoretical knowledge and complete experiential learning activities related to course concepts and learning objectives. In this course you will understand the biopsychosocial processes that influence health and health care delivery. Topics to be examined are the psychophysiological and social bases of health and illness; stress and coping; substance use; eating behaviors; pain; adaptation to chronic and terminal illness; health-promoting behaviors; patient adherence; and using healthcare. The course is structured into six distinctive modules covering the main aspects of Health Psychology as a discipline and its application to real-world scenarios: (1) theoretical approaches and tools; (2) stress, illness, and coping; (3) lifestyles to enhance health and prevent illness; (4) becoming ill and getting medical treatment; (5) physical symptoms; and (6) chronic and high-mortality illness. Within these areas, you will engage in field research on particular topics of interest to you within an intercultural framework.

Television shows are the main storytellers of the 21st century, serving as visual vehicles to communicate cultural, social, political, philosophical, and economic ideas that are currently at issue in public debates. Since television shows' heroes and protagonists represent abstract and complex philosophical concepts in the real world, an analysis of these concepts and their role in the shows can help us understand and question our reality, our culture, and the reasons behind our own actions and opinions. This course will provide you with analytical tools to examine popular contemporary and classic television shows from the US and Spain. As a result, you will be exposed to a number of topical issues including environmental ethics, animal welfare, abortion, attitudes towards same-sex marriage, capital punishment, privacy and public domain in the digital age, and the role of technology. You will revisit your own ideas on these topics in order to understand the extent to which your personal beliefs and actions in your daily life align with cultural and political institutions. Moreover, you will reflect on how culture may shape different worldviews by analyzing US vs. Spanish TV shows and comparing your own perspectives with those of local people in your study abroad location. Throughout the course you will be required to watch selected TV show episodes and complete readings that will guide you in the cross-cultural analysis of different concepts. Prior knowledge of specific TV shows is not required.

"If the name and the identity of something like the city still has a meaning, could it, when dealing with the related questions of hospitality and refuge, elevate itself above nation-states or at least free itself from them in order to become, to coin a phrase in a new and novel way, a free city?...[A] certain place (diplomatic or religious) to which one could retreat in order to escape from the threat of injustice." (J. Derrida, 2001) In recent years, immigrant and refugee movements have increasingly come to the fore in Spain and Europe. Immigration is a relatively recent phenomenon in Spain which has traditionally been a country from which people emigrated. Indeed, the word inmigrante was generally used not to refer to people from other countries but rather to people from other parts of Spain. The rising prosperity of Spain that followed its membership to the European Union reversed this trend, and from the 1990?s onwards, Spain played host to increasing numbers of foreign immigrants. Since the early 1990s the foreign born population of Spain has risen from about 1% to around 10%. The 2004 terrorist attacks in Madrid and the steady stream of Africans risking the treacherous crossing from the North African coast sharpened public awareness about this issue. This upsurge in immigration has bought about a transformation of Spanish cities as the recently arrived residents carve out a niche for themselves within the existing socio-economic order, while resident population adapts and responds to their presence. As immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees move 'within' and across Spanish urban borders, they impact the familiar and the 'rigid orders of the self'- to borrow the words of the German novelist Günter Grass. They thus incite an array of responses in different contexts and forms. Therefore, just as is happening in the U.S., discussions on migration to and from the country meet in that discursive space where critical concepts like 'home,' 'identity,' 'subjectivity,' and 'otherness' eschew stereotyping. Employing cross-cultural and multi-disciplinarian approaches to the subject of how identity is formed, challenged and defended in an ever more globalized world, you investigate in this course the pressing issues of immigration, race and ethnicity that have sparked such controversy and passion both in contemporary Spain, Europe and the U.S. To this end, your analytical focal point is placed upon the city and suburbs of Barcelona, where the presence of diverse immigrant communities offers opportunity for direct exploration of how effectively they and their second generation descendants have been incorporated and integrated into the Spanish political, economic, societal and cultural mainstream. You will therefore experience at firsthand how the city has changed in the past thirty years and how it is still changing beyond tourist stereotypes through a strong process of cultural hybridization.

"If the name and the identity of something like the city still has a meaning, could it, when dealing with the related questions of hospitality and refuge, elevate itself above nation-states or at least free itself from them in order to become, to coin a phrase in a new and novel way, a free city?...[A] certain place (diplomatic or religious) to which one could retreat in order to escape from the threat of injustice." (J. Derrida, 2001) In recent years, immigrant and refugee movements have increasingly come to the fore in Spain and Europe. Immigration is a relatively recent phenomenon in Spain which has traditionally been a country from which people emigrated. Indeed, the word inmigrante was generally used not to refer to people from other countries but rather to people from other parts of Spain. The rising prosperity of Spain that followed its membership to the European Union reversed this trend, and from the 1990?s onwards, Spain played host to increasing numbers of foreign immigrants. Since the early 1990s the foreign born population of Spain has risen from about 1% to around 10%. The 2004 terrorist attacks in Madrid and the steady stream of Africans risking the treacherous crossing from the North African coast sharpened public awareness about this issue. This upsurge in immigration has bought about a transformation of Spanish cities as the recently arrived residents carve out a niche for themselves within the existing socio-economic order, while resident population adapts and responds to their presence. As immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees move 'within' and across Spanish urban borders, they impact the familiar and the 'rigid orders of the self'- to borrow the words of the German novelist Günter Grass. They thus incite an array of responses in different contexts and forms. Therefore, just as is happening in the U.S., discussions on migration to and from the country meet in that discursive space where critical concepts like 'home,' 'identity,' 'subjectivity,' and 'otherness' eschew stereotyping. Employing cross-cultural and multi-disciplinarian approaches to the subject of how identity is formed, challenged and defended in an ever more globalized world, you investigate in this course the pressing issues of immigration, race and ethnicity that have sparked such controversy and passion both in contemporary Spain, Europe and the U.S. To this end, your analytical focal point is placed upon the city and suburbs of Barcelona, where the presence of diverse immigrant communities offers opportunity for direct exploration of how effectively they and their second generation descendants have been incorporated and integrated into the Spanish political, economic, societal and cultural mainstream. You will therefore experience at firsthand how the city has changed in the past thirty years and how it is still changing beyond tourist stereotypes through a strong process of cultural hybridization.

This course offers an understanding of how culture influences behavior from a psychological perspective, drawing on the theory and applications from the fields of cultural, intercultural and cross cultural psychology. Psychology offers insight and understanding to intercultural interaction in an increasingly globalized world. The course presents a unique opportunity for you to combine academic learning with personal development in relation to your experience as sojourner (understand the influence of your culture on your behavior, your intercultural interactions and your cultural adjustment) during your study abroad period. To this end three classes are dedicated to the sojourner experience at relevant intervals in the course, permitting you to integrate your personal experience with psychological theory, thus enabling you to maximize your academic learning through vital experiences. Furthermore, a fourth class, in a similar vein, offers you the opportunity to identify skills acquired during your period of study abroad and how these skills can be used on your return home. The academic material is divided into five core topics and, where possible, will focus on how the theory applies in Spain/Catalonia. It will emphasize an important aspect of the study of psychology (application to people and real life) and simultaneously heightening your awareness of the culture in which you are living. The first topic addresses the conceptualization of the abstract nature of culture and complex nature of intercultural communication, concluding with a field study to a Catalan cultural center, enabling you to differentiate Catalan culture from Spanish culture. Secondly, the role of socialization is introduced, that promotes your self awareness of your own culture; permitting the development of a flexible ethnocentric approach for your cultural adjustment. The concrete example of the complex and contentious issue of the solely Catalan speaking education system serves to illustrate how education in childhood is an important socializing agent. Intercultural communication is the third topic and here we address verbal and non verbal communication, the intricacies of intercultural communication problems and how these difficulties and misunderstandings can be addressed. The fourth topic is the complex area of the role of culture in relation to health, both physical and mental, and health behaviors, universalistic and relativistic understanding of illness, and the impact on communication in the client practitioner relationship where cultural background is not shared. We then focus on the well documented mental health problems experienced by immigrants in Europe, including Spain (Ulysses Syndrome) primarily provoked by crossing cultures. Finally, the fifth topic considers inter-group relations in general (in and out groups, psychological process in development of stereotypes and forms and function of prejudice, and then focuses on relations between groups in Spain (the gypsy community, immigrant community) through a combination of readings, guest speakers and on-site learning. The course concludes looking forward to the future of intercultural interaction and how you can implement your new intercultural skills in this future in an increasingly globalized world.

The purpose of this course is to improve your fluency at the intermediate level in order to interact more comfortably with the host community. Grammar foundations developed in your previous Spanish courses will be reviewed and new grammar structures introduced to develop stronger oral communication strategies. As a student in linguistic immersion you have a unique opportunity to engage local people in order to increase both your linguistic and intercultural skills. Designed for students who have at least a beginning understanding of Spanish, this course offers a structured learning environment for directed study of Spanish phonetics and the acquisition of intermediate-level and action-based conversations appropriate to the immersion experience such as: discussing current topics and news, going to the doctor, planning a trip, giving opinions or advice, and accepting and refusing invitations. Over the course of the semester, you will hone your intermediate-level competences in oral communication through an interactive and intercultural approach that will also enable you to further develop your personality and sense of identity in your communications and engage more deeply in the enriching experience of otherness in both language and culture. Your goal, therefore, is to systematize competencies related to listening and oral production so as to effectively achieve acts of speech such as "talking about preferences","expressing feelings in specific situations", and "explaining personal anecdotes and future expectations and plans". This course also focuses on pronunciation to improve your accent. You will practice Spanish sounds improving your tone, intonation and rhythm. While vocabulary and grammatical competencies are not formal objectives in this course, reviewing them is a necessary step to making progress in this course. This course is also appropriate for students with greater writing and reading competence in Spanish but who are lacking equal proficiency in listening and speaking. Conducted entirely in Spanish, this class requires daily preparation as well as a high level of personal engagement during class meetings. While the instructor does not expect you to understand every word said in class, you should listen/look for patterns and contextual clues to gain an overall understanding of the situation and meaning. Learning to achieve a general understanding from speech and text that you may not entirely understand is a powerful tool that will hone your ability to understand your environment as you navigate your way through Spanish-speaking cultures.

Macroeconomics is the "big picture" of the economy. Macroeconomics studies the economy as a whole whereas microeconomics is about how individuals and firms make decisions. Since the economy affects all of us in different ways, it's important for everyone to know about macroeconomics. In this course we will develop and analyze macroeconomic models to understand how economies grow over the long-run, how the economy operates when resources are fully employed, why economic performance might deviate from its full-employment ideal in the short-run, and what policy-makers can do - if anything - to improve economic performance and human well-being. The level of the course goes beyond macro principles in terms of both breadth and depth. Topics of the course will include (1) the measurement of output and prices, (2) determinants of economic growth, (3) business-cycle fluctuations, (4) fiscal policy, and (5) monetary economics. We will focus on the modern theories of the determination of the level and rate of growth of income, output, employment, and the price level. We will also discuss the implications of each theory on alternate fiscal and monetary policies seeking to facilitate full employment, economic growth and price stability. Since macroeconomics is an empirical discipline, you will become familiarized with the current macroeconomic data and its relevance. By the end of the course, you should have a solid grounding in the basic theoretical approaches used in macroeconomics as well as an understanding of the economic data that is commonly analyzed. Observations from the US economy and from a number of other economies will be used throughout the course.

This intermediate course works to improve the four basic skills: reading, speaking, writing and understanding through direct exposure to Spanish language and culture. After reviewing basic grammar and vocabulary, you will be exposed to new and more complex grammar and communicative structures so that you will have more opportunities for interacting accurately and expressively with the host community. The course combines several integrated approaches intended to develop your skills. Most in-class time, driven by the structure of the textbook and accompanying materials provided by your professor, is devoted to speaking and practicing Spanish through a combination of group-based and individual activities, focusing on grammatical structures, language functions and vocabulary. Lessons also focus on a wide range of contemporary cultural themes through the use varied materials such as newspaper articles, advertising material and short film clips. Onsite activities will require involvement with the local community, which will give you a unique chance to rapidly implement your linguistic development in real-life. Special extra-curricular activities, such as music concerts, cooking classes, exploring museums and parks, Spanish movie night, or possible language-exchange opportunities will be announced and your instructor will help you identify which activities would be most useful for youThese, and other cultural components of the course, will also promote your knowledge of Spain and Spanish, as you learn about Spanish society, and thus learning Spanish gives you a privileged opportunity to develop sensitivity towards cultural differences and to understand the ways in which culture and language interlock. In this sense you will be encouraged to exploit the value of these lessons not just as a useful aid to your progress in other courses at the GlobalCampus, but as a set of tools for unlocking a wide range of intercultural discoveries whilst living and studying abroad. By the end of the course, you are expected not simply to be able to demonstrate mastery of the basic grammar and lexical structures, but the growing ability to conduct relatively demanding conversations to express personal ideas and opinions, hypothesis, commands and future projects, and to be able to write short texts that clearly and simply relate personal experiences, impressions and opinions. Several class sessions will involve simple group discussions and debates on current topics, thus increasing the possibilities for developing the skills of self-expression. Particular attention will be devoted to expressing individuals' and other people's ideas and to synthesizing information and opinions. Class size never exceeds 15 students so that you have sufficient opportunities to practice your spoken Spanish and receive personal attention from your instructor.

This intermediate course builds on your proficiency with the four basic skills (reading, speaking, writing and understanding) through a direct exposure to Spanish language and culture. It exposes you to new and more complex grammar and communicative structures so that you will have more opportunities of interacting accurately and expressively with some degree of fluency with the host community. You will also to be able to write articulated texts and express opinions on current topics, expressing pros and cons as well as to talk about cultural elements of Spanish society. The course combines several integrated approaches intended to develop your skills. Most in-class time, driven by the structure of the textbook, is devoted to speaking and practicing Spanish through a combination of group-based and individual activities, focusing on grammatical structures, language functions and vocabulary. Lessons also focus on a wide range of contemporary cultural themes through the use varied materials such as newspaper articles, songs, short readings and short film clips. Onsite activities will require involvement with the local community, which will give you a unique chance to rapidly implement your linguistic development in real-life. In addition, you will be encouraged to read a great variety of real-life materials such as newspaper articles, advertising material and literary texts to foster your comprehension of written sources and to enrich your vocabulary. Special extra-curricular activities, such as music concerts, cooking classes, exploring museums and parks, Spanish movie night, or possible language-exchange opportunities will be announced and your instructor will help you identify which activities would be most useful for you. These and other cultural components of the course will also promote your knowledge of Spain and Spanish, as you learn about Spanish society, and thus learning Spanish gives you a privileged opportunity to develop sensitivity towards cultural differences and to understand the ways in which culture and language interlock. In this sense you will be encouraged to exploit the value of these lessons not just as a useful aid to your progress in other courses at the GlobalCampus, but as a set of tools for unlocking a wide range of intercultural discoveries whilst living and studying abroad. By the end of the course, you are expected not simply to be able to demonstrate mastery of the grammar and lexical structures studied during the course, but the growing ability to conduct demanding conversations to express personal ideas and opinions, hypothesis in the present and the past, emotions, feelings, interests, desires, and to express agreement and/or disagreement with a well elaborated argument. Class size never exceeds 15 students so that you have sufficient opportunities to practice your spoken Spanish and receive personal attention from your instructor.

This course explains and analyzes the main financial challenges that companies face in an international context. Globalization, or the increasing economic integration of goods, services, and financial markets at the international level, represents both opportunities and threats for governments and enterprises. There is one main dimension separating domestic finance and international finance: International risk. Fluctuations in exchange rates, interest rates, and inflation require risk identification, risk measurement, and hedging which are important tasks for international finance. This course provides discussions of some of the main challenges of international financial transactions. It is divided into two sections. In the first section, you will be familiarized with exchange rate determination, balance of payments, the international monetary system, the European Monetary System, and the parity conditions in real markets and financial markets. In the second section, you will examine the different derivatives for hedging (options, forwards, futures, and swaps), and exposure measurement (translation, transaction, and economic exposure). Course activities are based on worksheets with exercises related to each topic studied in class and current articles and videos from business newspapers and magazines to be discussed on a daily basis and motivate class participation.

According to former French President Jacques Chirac, the need for prominence on the transnational communication circuit is leading both nations and cultures to enter into the "global battle of images." This new course begins by analysing the role of international journalism in contemporary history and places special emphasis on the coverage of armed conflict. From war reporting, the course takes a detailed look at the figure of the foreign correspondent as an intercultural mediator and examines the construction of "the Other" in the international press by closely examining the media portrayal of Islam, the Middle Eastern conflict and the image of Spain in the foreign media. The course moves into the field of global media by analysing both the traditional Anglo-American news management of world events before presenting the challenges led to this supremacy by news networks such as the Arab world's Al-Jazeera, Latin America's Telesur project and the launching of the France 24 network and posing the question how does the future of the world news system shape up?

This unique international service learning course focuses on the pressing social issues confronting our ever more globalized cities: social inequality and exclusion within the context of the accelerated demographic transformation of today's urban space. Contributing to the ongoing search for effective responses to such endemic problems, you will do volunteer work at a community-based organization while simultaneously pursuing theoretical coursework and independent sociological research related to your service learning placement. As the world becomes increasingly globalized, businesses, non-governmental organizations and governments need people with the ability to adapt and excel when faced with the challenges associated with working in foreign countries, such as the variety of working conditions, work practices and cultural norms. Because service learning requires intensive intercultural engagement on a regular basis while exposing you to populations you might otherwise not encounter as a visiting student, this course provides a unique opportunity for you to gain the socio-cultural and research skills employers look for. Furthermore, participating in service learning abroad illustrates your ability to understand and contextualize academic theories and use and adapt research skills to field work. Your service learning placement will be situated within one of the following areas to be agreed upon with the instructor: immigration; homelessness; education; youth work; sustainable urban development; the environment; or urban cultural expression. Placements might include: helping disadvantaged children at a homework club; working at an educational project at an immigrant center; working with an organization for the homeless; working with an urban-garden or redevelopment project; contributing to urban cultural expression and preservation; or assisting in centers working with the elderly or disabled. Your 2½ hour per week placement involves working and interacting personally with local community volunteers, giving you firsthand insight into the local neighborhood, its organizations, its membership and the challenges facing them all. You will be required to pay transport costs to your placement site.

This unique international service learning course focuses on the pressing social issues confronting our ever more globalized cities: social inequality and exclusion within the context of the accelerated demographic transformation of today's urban space. Contributing to the ongoing search for effective responses to such endemic problems, you will do volunteer work at a community-based organization while simultaneously pursuing theoretical coursework and independent sociological research related to your service learning placement. As the world becomes increasingly globalized, businesses, non-governmental organizations and governments need people with the ability to adapt and excel when faced with the challenges associated with working in foreign countries, such as the variety of working conditions, work practices and cultural norms. Because service learning requires intensive intercultural engagement on a regular basis while exposing you to populations you might otherwise not encounter as a visiting student, this course provides a unique opportunity for you to gain the socio-cultural and research skills employers look for. Furthermore, participating in service learning abroad illustrates your ability to understand and contextualize academic theories and use and adapt research skills to field work. Your service learning placement will be situated within one of the following areas to be agreed upon with the instructor: immigration; homelessness; education; youth work; sustainable urban development; the environment; or urban cultural expression. Placements might include: helping disadvantaged children at a homework club; working at an educational project at an immigrant center; working with an organization for the homeless; working with an urban-garden or redevelopment project; contributing to urban cultural expression and preservation; or assisting in centers working with the elderly or disabled. Your 2½ hour per week placement involves working and interacting personally with local community volunteers, giving you firsthand insight into the local neighborhood, its organizations, its membership and the challenges facing them all. Within a traditional course setting and in support of your service learning placement across the semester, you will undergo initial in-depth orientation and intercultural training that will help prepare you for what can be an emotionally challenging, life-changing, and personally rewarding experience. You will also be introduced to group work skills and activities beneficial to your placement and engage in theoretical study and focused reflection in subjects related to sociology and cultural studies, as well as readings related to your specific service learning area and research project. Throughout the course, you will keep an in-depth research and reflective field journal that will be periodically evaluated by the course instructor. To aid in the analysis of your specific placement and corresponding socio-economic setting, you will be introduced to participant-observation, note-taking, and interviewing skills in line with best research practices. You will conduct a final research project on the work of your placement organization and situate its efforts in broader sociological, environmental and political contexts. This guided placement and research will benefit you whatever your academic discipline and will provide you with the research skills and experience that can benefit senior year research, capstone projects, and career planning. You will be required to pay transport costs to your placement site.

This course provides an overarching introduction to the causes and consequences of Earth?s recent anthropogenic climate change and its intersection with environmental, social, economic, and geopolitical issues. Class sessions will examine foundational physical processes that determine the Earth's climate and demonstrate how former civilizations, flora, and fauna adapted to previous non-anthropogenic changes in climate. Further investigation will examine the connections between the industrial revolution, demographic evolution, and rising living standards, powered by the ever-increasing use of fossil fuels. Further, students will synthesize the link between climate change and other environmental challenges - such as access to water, preservation of biodiversity, plastics, and carbon emissions. Students will also analyze empirical observations on trends in Earth's rising average temperature; debate about climate change-related topics including their social impact and challenges of communication; and investigate current and potential climate policies, initiatives, and international political responses.

This course covers all the basic financial instruments necessary to understand and implement investment programs. The concepts of Time Value of Money, Financial Statement Analysis and Portfolio construction will be used to analyze different investments. Moreover, students will review the concept of risk/return tradeoff as well as options, futures, and other newer type investments. Furthermore, this course will help you to understand the complexities and purpose of investments along with its limitations. Overall, the goal is to equip you to better understand financial investments and approaches in relation to business in order to make sound financial management decisions. This course is an introductory investment course that focuses on practical applications as well as analytical analyses of investment theories. It provides the basic knowledge about financial markets, valuation of investment tools, and different investment strategies. Those students who want to start a career as investment professionals or who want to improve their decision-making as individual investors will find this course very useful. Major course topics include: financial markets and instruments, portfolio theory, valuation of equity and fixed-income securities, options and futures.

This course will explore the relationship between mass media and the fashion industry from historical Spain to today's new media platforms and globalized communication networks. The first half of the course addresses the primary forms of conventional fashion media (journalism, photography, film, new media) while the second half of the course emphasizes the media dialogue and diplomacy a well as its value arbitration (representation, taste, status, trend, globalization). As an integral part of this course, students will consider the various interactions between fashion and media by personally conducting interviews or fashion show reports. The course includes a shared blog component for posting assignments and critiques of your visits to fashion industry headquarters or exhibitions.

Using the great art galleries of Europe as your personal visual library and viewing many masterpieces in the original, you will analyze and learn to appreciate the master works of both Spanish and non-Spanish artists across the canvas of European painting such as El Greco, Velázquez, Goya, Sorolla, Picasso, Miró, and Dalí but also Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Rembrandt, Manet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Munch, Matisse and others. Seeking both meaning and mystery in great works of art, this course deepens your understanding of expression in European painting. Surveying both European and Spanish original masterpieces, this course therefore provides a theoretical and practical foundation for developing the heightened visual literacy required of meaningful appreciation of great painting. It provides a framework for understanding the principles of scholarly analysis and interpretation of painting within their many layers of meaning. The course presents established methodologies and approaches necessary to analyze, interpret and evaluate paintings. You will learn how visual elements of design (color, space, perspective, tone) and principles of composition are articulated, how they relate to each other, and how the artist manipulates them in order to alter the effect on the viewer. The different methodologies of cultural history and art history will be addressed as well, along with the various types of conceptual frameworks for interpretation, including formal-stylistic, aesthetic, technological, historical, ideological, political, sociological and gender-based. Visual lectures use illustrated art works and integrate readings relevant to the various paintings under discussion. In addition, there are visits to the National Museum of Catalan Art which illustrates stylistic developments in painting in Western Europe. The course concludes with student-designed and student-led presentations of selected masterpieces in the art museums and galleries of Barcelona.

The aim of this course is to analyse the role of the mass media within Western European political structures and to focus on Spain as a case study of a Mediterranean media model. The Spanish case will be placed in a wider European context and will be played off the media-politics matrix in the United States. This analysis will be carried out from a political, sociological and historical perspective in order to draw a complete picture of today's complex reality. The course will take a look at the media-politics divide in France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Spain through in-depth studies of the major players across Europe to see if any specifically European traits regarding the relationship between the media and politics can be identified. In order to reach these goals, an in-depth analysis of the contemporary political situation of these countries is a necessary prerequisite. In order to make it more approachable for non-European students, the course will address issues such as the meaning of the term "Western Europe" and the main differences between European political terminology and US terminology (key terms such as "liberalism," "socialism," "left," "right" etc). Questions to be raised include: what makes Europe work and how does Spain fit into the European political framework? or How do Europeans project themselves through their national presses? The Spanish case will be examined in greater detail and a hands-on approach to press, radio and TV will be adopted, including on-site lectures in press headquarters, radio stations and TV production facilities. Toward the end of the course, the US corps of foreign correspondents based in Barcelona will be invited to discuss how they portray Spain in their respective media.

This course will provide a structured approach to media systems, and explore the dynamics of news, politics, and freedom of the press. Students will examine how international media report on ongoing, international crises of global importance; investigate the dynamics governing news media; develop an understanding of why audiences from different cultural spheres perceive news in diametrically opposed ways; and gain an awareness of press repression tools used by some regimes and the courageous journalists who try to circumvent these obstacles. Given the rapidly evolving nature of subjects studied, this syllabus is subject to change.

The course focuses on the connections between money (the Federal Reserve) and financial markets with financial institutions as their main actors (banks, mutual funds, hedge funds, insurance companies, the shadow banking system) in the modern market economy. Upon completion of this course you will have a thorough understanding of the role of money and banks in the broader economy and of the unique role of banks in the financial system. In this course, you will gain a macroeconomic perspective on capital markets and the banking system by learning how interest rates and exchange rates are determined and manipulated, and how to interpret and predict implications of monetary policy conducted by the Federal Reserve. You will also comprehend financial market inefficiencies (such as asymmetry of information) and notions of behavioral finance. You will analyze the performance of government, markets, and institutions in the context of economic problems. Topics will include unconventional monetary policy tools during financial crises, the future of banking and new developments in the financial system such as cryptocurrencies. Throughout the course you will have the opportunity to widen your horizons on a chosen topic with a project based on real-life context (country, company, market), such as offshore banking regulations in tax heavens countries, or how banking can benefit from blockchain technology.

The current surge of support for independence in Catalonia is profoundly altering Spanish politics, affecting the European Union, and reverberating in the international press. Whether pro-independence or not, the vast majority of Catalans assert a "right to decide" over the future relationship of the autonomous community and the Spanish state. Supporters claim that Spain should permit Catalonia to hold a referendum on separation in much the same manner as Canada and the United Kingdom did for Quebec (1995) and Scotland (2013). In contrast, the major political parties in Spain oppose a referendum, arguing that it is contrary to the Constitution and practically all the constitutions of democratic states in Europe and the world. What is more, Catalans are divided on independence. Most native Catalan speakers (about half the Catalan population) favor independence, while most native Spanish speakers (about half the Catalan population) oppose it. Amid this polarization, many have proposed a middle ground in which the constitution could be reformed in order to create a federal Spain or grant Catalonia a greater degree of self-government and fiscal autonomy. Will Catalans vote on independence? If so, will they vote to secede? Or will a compromise be found? This course is divided into two sections. The first part begins with a brief introduction to the ethno-linguistic characteristics of the population and outlines the present status of the conflict. We will then explore the historic origins of Catalan nationalism with an emphasis on the decades since the end of dictatorship and the coming of democracy in 1975. Until recently, most "Catalanists" did not seek to secede but aimed for greater political and fiscal autonomy within Spain while promoting and defending their language and culture. The second part of the course examines why the quest for independence gained momentum. It begins with the political crisis triggered when the Spanish Supreme Court struck down key provisions of Catalonia's Statute of Autonomy in 2010, an event that caused massive public demonstrations. We will then examine the worldwide economic crisis, which caused soaring unemployment and rising discontent among those who claimed that Catalonia unduly suffered due to acute fiscal imbalances. We will examine political, legal, and economic arguments both for and against independence and discuss the extent to which the surge of support for independence is due to the recent effects of the political and economic crises or to the long-term changes in linguistic and cultural identities. We will also examine the feasibility of an independent Catalonia within the European Union and a globalized world. Although the course focuses on Catalonia, it addresses broad themes, engaging with theories of nationalism and exploring the relationship between democracy and secession. This course will help you reflect critically on movements for national self-determination in Europe and the world. You will reflect upon the meaning of ethnic and linguistic difference and minority rights, develop intercultural competences, and cultivate your sense of global citizenship.

This course analyzes the transformation occurring at the intersection between the theory and practice of international relations on the one hand and issues related to the management and exploitation of environmental and natural resources on the other. The relative abundance or scarcity of natural resources has long been a major factor in accounting for the rise and fall of civilizations. It is also a major cause of regional tension and international warfare. Conflicts over the struggle for scarce natural resources (i.e. the so called 'resource curse') are common today while 'resource nationalism' in resource-rich countries (e.g. Russia, Venezuela, and Brazil), exacerbated by tight supply of conventional energy sources, harbors the potential for global economic disruption. In a similar vein, the global scale of modern economic systems blurs the traditional distinction between rich North and poor South. The rise of high-consumption societies now cuts across international regions and borders while the distance between those who benefit from high consumption and those who suffers from its social and environmental impact grows inexorably. Notwithstanding, we have witnessed over the last four decades the emergence of a deeper understanding of the intrinsic value of environmental natural resources along with a newly-felt sense of urgency for dealing with the collective problems arising from their use and (or) degradation. The concept of natural resources has expanded from a traditional, restrictive view of simple material economic inputs to one that now includes those environmental and ecosystem variables whose role is fundamental in guaranteeing the integrity of life-supporting earth systems. You will address and analyze these realities in three parts. You begin by reviewing the basic concepts and theories of international relations theories as well as the evolution of the analytical paradigms that have been used to frame the relation between human development and the natural environment. You will then focus on the visible output of global environmental politics, i.e. international regimes for environmental, nature and habitat protection and conservation. The course will end by looking in detail at the energy-climate nexus, as the competition for hydrocarbons represents a potential trigger of conflict but which also opens the doors to a serious effort to accelerate the pace of development and deployment of alternative sources of energy that are key to reducing the production of greenhouse gases. This course is cross-listed as IRS332

This course analyzes the transformation occurring at the intersection between the theory and practice of international relations on the one hand and issues related to the management and exploitation of environmental and natural resources on the other. The relative abundance or scarcity of natural resources has long been a major factor in accounting for the rise and fall of civilizations. It is also a major cause of regional tension and international warfare. Conflicts over the struggle for scarce natural resources (i.e. the so called 'resource curse') are common today while 'resource nationalism' in resource-rich countries (e.g. Russia, Venezuela, and Brazil), exacerbated by tight supply of conventional energy sources, harbors the potential for global economic disruption. In a similar vein, the global scale of modern economic systems blurs the traditional distinction between rich North and poor South. The rise of high-consumption societies now cuts across international regions and borders while the distance between those who benefit from high consumption and those who suffers from its social and environmental impact grows inexorably. Notwithstanding, we have witnessed over the last four decades the emergence of a deeper understanding of the intrinsic value of environmental natural resources along with a newly-felt sense of urgency for dealing with the collective problems arising from their use and (or) degradation. The concept of natural resources has expanded from a traditional, restrictive view of simple material economic inputs to one that now includes those environmental and ecosystem variables whose role is fundamental in guaranteeing the integrity of life-supporting earth systems. You will address and analyze these realities in three parts. You begin by reviewing the basic concepts and theories of international relations theories as well as the evolution of the analytical paradigms that have been used to frame the relation between human development and the natural environment. You will then focus on the visible output of global environmental politics, i.e. international regimes for environmental, nature and habitat protection and conservation. The course will end by looking in detail at the energy-climate nexus, as the competition for hydrocarbons represents a potential trigger of conflict but which also opens the doors to a serious effort to accelerate the pace of development and deployment of alternative sources of energy that are key to reducing the production of greenhouse gases. This course is cross-listed as ENV332

Learn how the camera can be used in a foreign environment as an exciting tool of documentary record, cross-cultural understanding, artistic expression and self-discovery. After an introduction to the fundamentals of photography, both traditional and digital, your camera will be constantly trained on the city of Barcelona itself, its architecture, history, people, and rich culture. As you develop your technical, compositional and critical skills as a photographer you will create a portfolio of images that will both showcase and celebrate your whole unforgettable study abroad experience. Throughout the course you will be able to post your best work on the Campus website to record and display your experiences. Your in-class workshops will develop your practical and theoretical skills, and your photographic trips throughout the streets, and squares of the city center will be complemented with a guided in-depth visit to different photo shows. Throughout the course your instructor will frequently deliver critical reviews of your work, but you will also be actively involved in analyzing and evaluating your own work and the work of others in a collaborative atmosphere of constructive reflection and criticism. You'll have the opportunity to post your work on the course web site in order to record and display your experiences. You may choose to work with traditional or digital photography. Digital cameras must have a minimum of 4 mega pixels. Traditional cameras must be able to be loaded with 35 mm films. The camera must be functioning, and particularly if old and unused for a long time, has to be reviewed professionally before you leave the U.S. Do not bring any film with you as it is frequently destroyed by airport security scans. If you are enrolled in any other electives there may be the possibility of executing a photographic project as part of your work requirements for those courses.

The aim of this course is to analyse the role of photojournalism and mass media in society in a historical and contemporary perspective. You will explore, through practical assignments and experience, the making of news photographs and photo essays. In addition, you will learn how to read visual information and learn the process of layout of images. Photojournalism has played a vital role in shaping the visual memory of our societies, and continues to do so through newer emerging media such as the internet and blogs, as well as traditional means, such as magazines, books and exhibitions. The role of each of these media and their relative strengths and weaknesses will be explored. The course will take a look at the structure and function of a photo essay, the impact of the image, how to place an essay with a magazine, and continue finding new subjects to photograph. Focus will be on spot news coverage, sports coverage, features, library supply, agencies and their role in the process of an image and the role of the internet in mass communication. Ethical and legal implications of taking someone's photograph will be investigated and debated with specific case studies used as examples.

Within the context of important elections and referenda in the Western world, propaganda, persuasion, and political manipulation have always existed. However, in a rapidly changing world, political allegiances and convictions shift more quickly than ever. Politicians, political programs, and political measures are products that have to be sold like any other; therefore, political marketing must also fluctuate in response. Whatever the political content, it can be made attractive to the citizen using special tactics and strategies. This course focuses on what political marketing is and how it works. You will study how political leaders, ideas, candidates, parties, programs, and actions are sold on the political market. Important concepts like branding, targeting, positioning, e-marketing, and framing will be analyzed from a political science perspective. You will be able to describe aggressive, defensive, sales-oriented, and populist strategies, as well as explore the importance of political market research. You will also compare the US and the host culture forms of political marketing. Finally, we will discuss the impact and consequences political marketing may have on democracy and the governance of states.

This course will begin by providing an overview of the marketing process, with a focus on developing successful marketing strategies in different environments. Students will then shift to understanding buyers and markets, emphasizing the study of consumer behavior. This will allow students to discuss how to target differ-ent marketing opportunities, by exploring segmentation, targeting and positioning. Finally, this course will also explore satisfying these market opportunities, by looking into the fields of product development, advertising, and public relations.

This course will examine the social, cultural, economic, and political impact of public art in global cities taking Barcelona as an example and focusing on the study of contemporary artistic practice. Public space has become a place of great complexity in its social and political dimension since the population of global cities has grown in size, plurality, and diversity. Residents, tourists, and real estate developers are some of the actors who negotiate the meanings and values of this space creating an arena of dissension and conflict. Public art, having a great symbolic value, operates within this manifold scenario, not only modifying the architectural and urban morphology of the city, but also infiltrating its social fabric by introducing elements of reflection, debate, and disagreement. The first part of this course will focus on the theoretical framework of public art concentrating on the analysis of some relevant international case studies. The second part will focus on examples of artistic interventions in the public space in Barcelona. The aim of the course is to establish a basis to determine the degree of effectiveness at a social and economic level of this type of artistic practice. Topics include the uses of public art as a visual landmark and tourist attraction; as an urban regeneration tool; as a space of memorial and remembrance; as a generator of civic pride, sense of place and identity; and as a creator of sense of community and collective anchor points. This course will also address issues of spatial inequality taking examples of projects generated both in the city's monumental center and in peripheral neighborhoods. Finally, a comparison will be made between the authorized public art and some illegal artistic practices such as graffiti and street art.

This course traces the historical development of sexual categories, norms, and behaviors in Europe from the 18th century to the present. We will examine how understandings of sexuality have changed from the emergence of Western notions of sexual identity in the 19th century, through the politics of sexuality in the early 20th century and the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, to contemporary debates about LGBTQ rights in a multicultural Europe. The construction of normativity, such as heteronormativity, will be discussed, as well as the intersections of gender and sexuality with other fields of power, including race and class. The course also traces the evolution of the term "queer" from its early contestation to its current use as a broad framework for non-normative forms of knowledge, cultural practices, and political activism. This course provides students with insight into the social and cultural dimensions of human sexuality and offers opportunities to trace the historical roots of current attitudes toward gender and sexuality.

Today's personal, social, political, economic worlds are all affected by digital media and networked publics. With the advent of virtual communities, smart mobs, and online social networks (such as Facebook, Friendfeed, Twitter, Linkedin, Digg and Delicious) old questions about the meaning of human social behavior have taken on renewed significance. What do we mean by "community"? How do we encourage, discuss, analyze, understand, design and participate in healthy communities in the age of many-to-many media? How does meaning-making happen in and around the contexts of contemporary social media? In what ways are affinities for these media enabling us to think differently about what it means to read, write, and participate? While much has been made about both media consumption and production, we have yet to understand what it means to truly participate in their situated contexts. This course addresses these questions. Although the course is grounded in theory, it is equally rooted in practice, and much of the class discussion and activity takes place in social cyberspaces. Consequently this course requires active participation of students and a willingness to immerse in social media practices. Much of the class discussion takes place in a variety of virtual world environments during and between face-to-face class meetings. As a practicum, those who complete this course will know how to chat, blog, tag, wiki, avatar, comment, twitter and flicker productively - and have some notion of how these practices affect self and community. This course will also explore the new media landscape in terms of online expression, social networking, identity management, community building, and citizen journalism. How is social media changing the way you work and live? What are the implications for you and for the organizations you will work with? What opportunities and challenges do individuals, news organizations, and businesses face regarding communication, identity/brand management, and community building? How do we understand, participate in, and leverage communities in our current age of many-to-many media? This course is cross-listed as SOC321.

Today's personal, social, political, economic worlds are all affected by digital media and networked publics. With the advent of virtual communities, smart mobs, and online social networks (such as Facebook, Friendfeed, Twitter, Linkedin, Digg and Delicious) old questions about the meaning of human social behavior have taken on renewed significance. What do we mean by "community"? How do we encourage, discuss, analyze, understand, design and participate in healthy communities in the age of many-to-many media? How does meaning-making happen in and around the contexts of contemporary social media? In what ways are affinities for these media enabling us to think differently about what it means to read, write, and participate? While much has been made about both media consumption and production, we have yet to understand what it means to truly participate in their situated contexts. This course addresses these questions. Although the course is grounded in theory, it is equally rooted in practice, and much of the class discussion and activity takes place in social cyberspaces. Consequently this course requires active participation of students and a willingness to immerse in social media practices. Much of the class discussion takes place in a variety of virtual world environments during and between face-to-face class meetings. As a practicum, those who complete this course will know how to chat, blog, tag, wiki, avatar, comment, twitter and flicker productively - and have some notion of how these practices affect self and community. This course will also explore the new media landscape in terms of online expression, social networking, identity management, community building, and citizen journalism. How is social media changing the way you work and live? What are the implications for you and for the organizations you will work with? What opportunities and challenges do individuals, news organizations, and businesses face regarding communication, identity/brand management, and community building? How do we understand, participate in, and leverage communities in our current age of many-to-many media? This course is cross-listed as COM351.

This course provides you with an introduction to the psychosocial study of human life and focuses on the central topics of this evolving discipline. To this end, the course explores the main theoretical approaches to the field of social psychology and provides current examples of practice in the field along with a number of practical applications of core concepts covered in class readings and discussions. These include in-class exercises and historical analyses of social and media events. The theoretical exploration, coupled with practical experience, will enable you to assimilate theoretical knowledge and apply it to experiential learning activities related to course concepts and learning objectives. The core objectives of this course are: to spark awareness of and appreciation for a subject at the crossroads of social interaction and individual identity; to provide an operational framework for using social psychology for generating insights into individual, intergroup and group phenomena and dynamics; to initiate you into the process of questioning and reflecting upon underlying psychosocial forces acting upon everyday life situations; to introduce you to the empirical methods used by social psychologist for extracting hidden meaning from commonplace social situations; and to provide you with conceptual methods and practical tools for managing daily social and psychological dilemmas. Structured into six distinctive modules covering the main aspects of the discipline of Social Psychology and its application to contemporary phenomena, the course addresses: theoretical approaches and tools; self & identity; social influence; interpersonal relationships & diversity; group behavior; and self-presentation. Within these areas, you will engage in field research on particular topics of interest to you within an intercultural framework.

This course will investigate the creation of contemporary identities through “Spanish” films and cinematic form. Students will critically examine the notion of a “national cinema”; the role cinema plays in constructing our stories; cinema’s impact on shifting ideas of what constitutes the human condition; and where and how issues of gender, sexuality, class, and ethnicity surface in cinematic articulations of the relationship between national identity, global trends, and personal history.

This introductory course is designed for students who have never received formal Spanish instruction or who do not know any Spanish language. Students will develop Spanish communicative proficiency in four key areas: listening, speaking, reading, and writing; gain an awareness of Hispanic cultures; and have opportunities to practice Spanish language skills in real-world situations. The instructor will strive to use only Spanish as a means of communication, and students are expected to do the same.

This course is designed for students who have successfully completed Spanish 101 or its equivalent. Students will develop Spanish communicative proficiency in four key areas: listening, speaking, reading, and writing; gain an awareness of Hispanic cultures; and have opportunities to practice Spanish language skills in real-world situations. The instructor will strive to use only Spanish as a means of communication, and students are expected to do the same.

This course is designed for students with some prior knowledge of Spanish, who can already use basic words and phrases, and understand simple requests. By the end of this course, Students will have built a solid foundation in five key skill areas: intercultural communication, reading, writing, listening, and speaking, in order to accomplish a variety of everyday needs in the host culture. The instructor will strive to use only Spanish as a means of communication, and students are expected to do the same.

After completing this course, the student will understand extended speech and readings (TV, movies,  newspapers, …). Will be able to communicate with a degree of fluency that will allow them to interact with natives with spontaneity. The information presented will be precise when talking about a field of  interest and quite clear when writing or speaking on a range of subjects.

This course will examine the history of Spanish art from prehistoric times to the present day. You will study in detail the artworks of the great Spanish masters with the purpose of achieving an in-depth global understanding of the subject. Instruction will delve into art terminology and how to talk about art for purposes of definitions, characteristics common to a particular movement, individual and general styles, and how the work of art provokes and stimulates the individual. Given the wide range of material, we will focus on artists and artistic movements that have had a significant impact throughout the history of Spanish art. Medieval Romanesque, Gothic and Islamic art, Renaissance and Baroque during the Spanish Golden Age, Modernism, Surrealism, Cubism and the latest tendencies will be studied in depth. Field-studies will be an important part of the course as the city offers important examples of the different movements and styles studied in class. Artistic movements and artists will be placed within their social and historical context, so that you will have a wider understanding of the themes studied, the artistic significance and the social message of the works. A comparison between Spanish and European art will be made in order to give you a more global view and therefore better contextualize works of art. The personalities and opinions of the most representative artists will be studied.

The aim of this course is to understand the most recent artistic manifestations and examine the key artists and movements that shaped the contemporary artistic scene in Spain. There was a turning point between the last decades of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century due to the arrival of new technologies that affected all aspects of human life, as well as artistic creation. The course will focus on how these new technologies, media and topics have influenced the most recent artistic creation in Spain. This course will provide a dynamic and multidisciplinary introduction to contemporary art in Spain, including relevant information on the political, historical and cultural context. You will carry out a study of the main topics and materials that contemporary artists use with the purpose of reaching a global understanding of the subject. The course is divided into thematic topics that explore the intersections between art and objects, politics, public space, identity, multiculturalism, gender, nature, memory (personal and collective), and alike. Special emphasis will be made on the media used by contemporary artists, which range from photography, video, digital resources, performance, painting, sculpture to other techniques close to fields like advertisement, marketing or social campaigns for instance. Finally, you will compare Spanish and American artists within each topic in order to gain a global view and the criteria necessary to better contextualize works of art. This course is designed not only for students who are curious about contemporary art but also for those who are skeptical about it. Additionally, this course will give you the tools to look the varied landscape of art today and provide you with a tool kit of questions which are helpful to engage and connect deeply with the work of art. You will be encouraged to have your own personal opinion and feelings about the artworks and share it appropriately. *This course was previous numbered ARH373BCN

The aim of this course is to analyze Spanish culture following a historical and sociological perspective. Similarly, the course has an intercultural component comparing home and host customs, traditions and values. You will study the history of Spanish civilization from pre-history to modern times while interacting with Madrid?s reality in order to interpret and understand Spanish culture. Therefore, students will acquire general knowledge of the main events of the history of Spain and their influence upon current Spanish life. Main topics of Spanish life and how they have changed in the last century will be discussed in class to better understand principal current ideological, political, and cultural tendencies in modern Spain. Students will be able to trace the importance of history in the culture in which they are immersed.

The aim of this course is to analyze Spanish culture from both a historical and sociological perspective while you acquire strong Spanish writing and speaking skills. The course has an intercultural component and you will study the history of Spanish civilization from pre-history to modern times while interacting with the reality of modern day Spain in order to interpret and understand contemporary culture. By learning about Spanish culture in Spanish, you will be able to reflect on the ties between language and culture. In such a way, you will acquire general knowledge of the main events of Spanish history and their influence upon current life. How significant issues have changed over the last century will be discussed in class so as to better understand the main underlying ideological, political and cultural tendencies in modern Spain. Furthermore, in order to maximize your integration into Spanish culture, this course guides you to critically analyze what is culture and how you can achieve intercultural strategies so as to understand, adapt and learn local customs more easily. Thus, you are asked to reflect on cultural differences between U.S and Barcelona so as to analyze in greater depth the host culture and navigate in your new surroundings successfully. Thus, by the end of the course, you will understand that a country's customs and traditions are linked to its historical, social and economic evolution.

This advanced Spanish language and culture course will prepare you for successful communication in the Spanish-speaking business world. Learning a second language implies much more than acquiring structures or words. It means developing a series of mechanisms to interact with people of different cultures. Spanish for business targets all aspects of learning a second language, but unlike other classes, language structures will not be the only focus. This course will also emphasize essential business terminology and language situations in business contexts such as writing a commercial letter, holding a meeting, presenting a product, writing a resume, or carrying out a business presentation. You will also gain an understanding of the cultural traits that distinguish the business environment in Spain and the Spanish-speaking world in comparison with the U.S. The course combines several integrated approaches intended to develop your skills. Most in-class time is devoted to speaking and practicing Spanish through a combination of group-based and individual activities, focusing on business related themes. The course content is presented through the use of varied materials such as newspaper articles, advertising material and short film clips. Class size never exceeds 15 students so that you have sufficient opportunities to practice your spoken Spanish and receive personal attention from your instructor.

The aim of this course is to analyze the important role that sport plays within European culture in general and particularly in modern Spain. A multidisciplinary study from both a historical and sociological standpoint of the relations between politics, media and sport will serve as a useful route to understanding wider issues in contemporary Spanish society. The historical framework to this module will be provided by an analysis of the socio-political use of sport by the Francoist dictatorship and the repercussions of this heritage on 21st century Spain. The sociology of sport involves in-class analysis of related phenomena such as the role of the media, the business of sport, violence, gender issues regarding sport and cross cultural comparisons with the sports-culture matrix in the USA. The course will adopt a hands-on approach to the subject matter including case studies, field studies to sporting events and organizations, guest lecturers (journalists, sports administrators, professional athletes) and will require a significant level of participation on your behalf.

This course will provide an overview of several facets of the sports marketing industry including: athlete representation/management, marketing of clients and events, industry structure, technology, strategy, and broadcasting. You will analyze different theories and methods sport managers utilize for conducting relationships with consumers in sport environments and you will learn about sport consumer behavior, marketing research in sport industry, marketing plan processes, promotional activities, advertising, and corporate sponsorship. The sports industry is extremely diverse, in that it covers everything from professional to leisure sports, individual and team sports, big events such as the Olympic Games to local events and athlete representation among other topics. You will learn about each of these areas while incorporating field studies in order to gain a deeper understanding of the industry.

This course presents a hands-on approach to some of the ideas (themes) being explored by contemporary artists living today in Spain, such as Eulàlia Valldosera, Chema Madoz or Pilar Albarracín, and abroad, such as Sarah Sze, Cildo Meirelles or William Kentridge. Contemporary art refers to the work of artists who are living in the twenty-first century. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the processes followed by artists and how a piece of art is developed from its initial conception to a finished artwork. In addition, the course will help you develop an understanding of the relationship between art and culture in Catalonia and Spain. You will be asked to complete five different practical projects, each a part of five units in which the course is divided. Specifically, the course is divided in the following units: Structure, Place, Emotion, Surface, Stories. Each unit represents a major concern or area of interest prevalent in the work of today's artists. After being introduced to a new concept and a set of art techniques, you will make drawings, collages, work with found objects and introduce a narrative element in your art, having the chance to show your work in progress in group critiques, as well as participate in class discussions sharing the ideas this work has generated. For these exchanges, readings will be mandatory. Although introductory lectures are necessary to get acquainted with each new theme, this is a practical course, focused in the development and completion of five art pieces utilizing different art techniques. As a student abroad, the city of Barcelona will become your source of ideas and inspiration for your own projects. Throughout the course, the class will also participate in a variety of field studies, including visits to commercial art galleries, a local artist studio or a museum collection. A guest artist will also be invited to give a presentation examining his/her work. No special skills or previous expertise are required for this course. Your most important skill will be to keep an open mind and constructive attitude to explore new techniques, materials and ideas. In addition, you must create an artist's book during the length of the course. It will be used to write your reviews after every field trip, as well as to record your creative process: from a budding idea to a completed art piece. You can write down ideas, inspiration, sketches, questions, answers, useful information... This will be an on-going project to be handed in at the end of the semester.

This course surveys current methodology for modern language teaching. It will provide a solid introduction to language and the many aspects of language acquisition, such as the psychological components governing language, how language communicates from one mind to another, language use and socio-linguistic implication, the nature of human use of language and the cognitive processes involved in language learning. Students will consider second language acquisition (SLA) from an interdisciplinary approach, including linguistic, psychological, and sociocultural perspectives, in order to understand how a second language is acquired, what the learner of a second language needs to know, and why some learners are more successful than others. After deconstructing the language acquisition process and introducing the founding theories regarding the teaching and learning process, students will have the opportunity to focus upon the practical tools necessary to promote authentic language learning. Not only will individual classes be dedicated to methodology for the four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking), other more comprehensive topics will also be incorporated. These could include, but are not restricted to, the following: world Englishes, molingualism and bilingualism, SLA in adults and children, formal and informal learning contexts, SLA in diverse socio-cultural settings, error correction and types of feedback, technology in the classroom, lesson planning, myths about language learning, etc. In addition, students will volunteer every week as teaching assistants of English at local primary schools, high schools and adult learning centers. Students will observe local language classrooms, will relate classroom practice to theories of second language learning, and will reflect on cultural differences and their experience as teaching assistants in a different culture. Moreover, they will have the opportunity to apply their knowledge by facilitating activities in English classrooms and testing their own teaching materials designed during the course. The class will provide both a dynamic introduction to teaching methods and present innovative practical strategies for teaching modern languages.

This course surveys current methodology for modern language teaching. It will provide a solid introduction to language and the many aspects of language acquisition, such as the psychological components governing language, how language communicates from one mind to another, language use and socio-linguistic implication, the nature of human use of language and the cognitive processes involved in language learning. Students will consider second language acquisition (SLA) from an interdisciplinary approach, including linguistic, psychological, and sociocultural perspectives, in order to understand how a second language is acquired, what the learner of a second language needs to know, and why some learners are more successful than others. After deconstructing the language acquisition process and introducing the founding theories regarding the teaching and learning process, students will have the opportunity to focus upon the practical tools necessary to promote authentic language learning. Not only will individual classes be dedicated to methodology for the four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking), other more comprehensive topics will also be incorporated. These could include, but are not restricted to, the following: world Englishes, molingualism and bilingualism, SLA in adults and children, formal and informal learning contexts, SLA in diverse socio-cultural settings, error correction and types of feedback, technology in the classroom, lesson planning, myths about language learning, etc. In addition, students will volunteer every week as teaching assistants of English at local primary schools, high schools and adult learning centers. Students will observe local language classrooms, will relate classroom practice to theories of second language learning, and will reflect on cultural differences and their experience as teaching assistants in a different culture. Moreover, they will have the opportunity to apply their knowledge by facilitating activities in English classrooms and testing their own teaching materials designed during the course. The class will provide both a dynamic introduction to teaching methods and present innovative practical strategies for teaching modern languages.

This course will explore the new digital platforms that have profoundly changed how we live, work, and conduct business over the past decade. Students will work to demystify these technologies and develop a deeper understanding of social media as a business tool through a combination of readings, podcasts, class discussion, case analyses, and group projects.

This course introduces creative documentary as a form of storytelling suitable for media communication, qualitative research, and cross-cultural understanding, without overlooking its potential for personal expression and self-exploration. Its multiplicity of reality-based methodologies provides endless possibilities to shed light on contemporary societal issues through compelling stories. In this hands-on course, students will create short documentary pieces. Students are free to use any equipment that allows them to record, edit, and mix different media. Their documentary content will be a sensory exploration of reality, focused on any elements of the local culture and society. This can include such topics as families and individuals; social and political issues; and economic and cultural practices. Students will experiment with the different stages of creating a non-fictional work, while reflecting on the processes of representation through discussion of key historical moments within the evolution of documentary practice. A wide array of non-fiction works from around the globe - with a special emphasis on European, Spanish, and Catalan documentaries - will also illuminate students' own storytelling. Class time will include lectures, technical workshops, case studies, critical review of student work, and carefully designed fieldwork. Students are encouraged to analyze their own work and the work of others in a collaborative learning environment of constructive criticism, in which cross-cultural skills, creativity, and critical thinking will be crucial.

This course will provide the knowledge, skills, and tools for understanding core elements of logistics and transportation systems. Students will examine the dynamics of key logistics and transportation decisions, develop an understanding of best practices, and gain an appreciation for the challenges that typical companies face in managing their logistics and transportation network. 

This multidisciplinary course explores the meaning of foreign travel, the search for identity and self-awareness through exile, and literary and filmic expressions of journey and coming of age through travel and cultural displacement. Taught abroad, you will analyze literary and visual texts, comparing them to your own experience and expressions of overseas travel. As a foreigner abroad, you will reflect upon the lives and complex meaning of travelers, exiles, foreigners and tourists. Using a theoretical and comparative approach to contemporary literary and filmic expressions of travelers, you reflect upon cultural difference, identity, and the role journey plays in cultural understanding, both of home and host peoples. Organized around the theme of travel as search for identity and cultural understanding, the course begins by building a historical and conceptual framework from Homer to Woody Allen that situates travel writing within Western literary and cultural traditions. The course then addresses specific English and American travel writing, using contemporary literary and filmic representations of how travelers and foreigners develop distinct strategies for managing cultural conflict while struggling to experience and learn from the lives of foreign others. In class you will compare these strategies to those you adopt yourself while living and studying in the foreign city abroad. Finally, you will compare and contrast your own experience and evolving image of contemporary Spain with the diverse images presented by travelers and exiles in their respective literary and visual texts. You will find inspiration in the eclectic texts of authors such as Cervantes, E.M Forster, Mark Twain, George Orwell, Ernest Hemingway, and Jack Kerouac as well as in contemporary films about adventurous travelers and tourists such as Darjeeling Express, Vicky, Cristina Barcelona, or Lost in Translation. Throughout the course, you will reflect upon and write about your own travels, the challenges you encounter discovering Spanish society, the strategies you devise to overcome them, and the cultural identity and awareness you develop as a foreigner.

This course examines the portrayal of women's identity in Spain as well as in Spanish literature and film from the 20th century until today. In addition to acquiring knowledge about women's identity in Spain students will gain a better understanding of Spanish literature and cinema, while simultaneously broadening their knowledge of Spanish language. To better understand Spanish women today, students will examine the major historical events of the 20th century and their effects on women's lives. This course will analyze depictions of Spanish femininity and the stereotypes created, or challenged, by these depictions. Students will learn to apply different feminist theories to the content they are reading and viewing. This course will take place over three blocks, each examining different eras of Spanish culture and the role of the Spanish woman in each of them. The class will be conducted entirely in Spanish, and students will learn specific terminology and academic language. In addition, they will practice and improve their writing, listening, and oral expression skills in Spanish.

This course gives students an understanding of contemporary global religious traditions and their impact within their societies. This course firstly introduces major western & eastern religions in a global context, especially in Europe and North America. Students will explore and analyze the origins, development, central teachings, devotional practices, institutions, and cultural expressions of world religions such as Aboriginal Spirituality, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and more. This course will include visits to historical and contemporary religious sites to embrace opportunities for interaction across cultures.

This course will explore the craft of creative writing in relation to the city and the particular challenges of writing about place. Students will examine different aspects of the city in relation to Barcelona narratives including travel, urban spaces, solitude, politics, ethnicity, and particular boroughs and characters (both fictional and real); and participate in both practical exercises and field work.