Semester in Spain Additional Info

The initial phase of the program consists of six weeks of intensive study of the Spanish language and of contemporary Spanish culture to introduce students to life in Spain and to the city of Madrid, where the program has its headquarters at the Universidad Complutense.  In this initial period, there will be six to eight hours of language classes per week.  In addition, there will be six hours per week of classes focused on contemporary Spain, in particular the events and issues that have produced a vibrant democracy out of a forty-year dictatorship.  Outside of class, we will enjoy, as a group, cultural events that in past programs have included cooking classes, concerts, theater, and dance.  And we will hold a series of guided visits to appropriate places of interest in the city (theaters, churches, stadiums, neighborhoods with particular urban configurations or that reveal unique social patterns, etc.).  The program will organize a walking tour of old Madrid and visits to Madrid's major museums.  

At the same time, students will begin their less intensively-paced study of the European Union and Spain’s role therein in the IGS and Art History classes. Class work will concentrate on contemporary issues in Europe and art history during this period along with continued language study.

Sewanee Semester in Spain’s class schedule, barring exceptional meetings that may be necessary as a result of our travel, is Monday through Thursday.  This allows students extra-curricular time to explore the sites and culture of the Spanish capital or to take advantage of Spain’s excellent rail and bus systems for independent travel within Spain.

Sewanee Semester in Spain includes approximately 20 days of program-related travel.  Itineraries are flexible, determined by a series of variables including current hotel and transportation costs; the dollar-euro exchange rate; and emergent opportunities related to the focus of our classes.  A 10-day trip at the end of the initial 6-week intensive period, for example, has traditionally included Andalucía (Granada, Córdoba, Sevilla), Extremadura, and sometimes Portugal or Morocco (recognizing the impact on Europe of current immigration from north Africa and the historical impact of Islam on Spanish culture from the 8^th century onward). 

A second major field trip may take students on a weeklong journey to Brussels, Maastricht, Aix-la-Chapelle, Ghent, Bruges, The Hague, and Amsterdam in order to visit and study the birthplace and the institutions of the European Union as well as to explore first-hand monuments associated with other historic efforts to produce a unified Europe, like the empire of Charlemagne, whose 9^th-century palatine chapel we visit in Aix-la-Chapelle, or that of the Spanish Hapsburg dynasty of the 16^th and 17^th centuries.  Alternatively, in recognition of Spain’s role as a world leader in sustainable energy, we may visit sites and institutions throughout Spain itself where work on solar, wind, and tidal energy, desalination, and other environmentally focused projects is taking place.

Student lodging, in neighborhoods near both the director’s apartment and our university center, is with Spanish families, many of whom have been welcoming Sewanee students for years.

 In short, Sewanee Semester in Spain delivers an academic program combined with cultural experience and program-related excursions and travel that are unparalleled in any study abroad program known to us.
The scheduled trips of this program are subject to change according to the political situation of the moment. 

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