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The mission of study abroad
component of the Department of Hispanic Studies is to encourage students
to engage in international and intercultural learning and to promote
understanding of self and others through contact with diverse cultural
and linguistic behaviors.
In addition to on-campus
courses in language, culture and literature and internships in the Twin
Cities, the Department of Hispanic Studies recommends study abroad to
all enrolled students, and requires it of Department majors. Our focus
is on high quality intellectual, cross cultural and language acquisition
opportunities that live up to the promise of a serious internationalist
liberal arts college. The challenges and opportunities associated with
study abroad are many and include the following:
1. Study abroad calls upon
students to use their Spanish or Portuguese language skills daily, inevitably
resulting in dramatic improvement in all areas of competency, including
grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation and speaking ability.
2. Family home stays provide
students with an interpretive lens through which to view a country’s
culture and the relations between self and society. This window on daily
life and understanding supports students as they engage the broader
community.
3. Study abroad academic
programs, whether offered in a university setting or a private institute,
complement on-campus offerings by exposing students to diverse teaching
methodologies, new perspectives on their major course of study and by
providing opportunities for internships and independent projects tailored
to students’ interest.
4. The study abroad experience
challenges students’ notion of themselves, their world view and
their place in it. As a result of the engagement with bilingual and
bicultural realities, students enrich their perception of themselves
and their relationship to society.
Be sure to read about Macaleseter’s study abroad program by reading the website maintained by the Macalester International Center. Both the Macalester International
Center and the Department of Hispanic Studies recommend the programs
listed below. They have a history of providing rigorous, well-structured
and meaningful experiences abroad. Each includes a home stay. Spanish
minors are advised to consider the starred field-study programs, which
require only three semesters of Spanish.
Butler University coordinates study abroad programs in Santiago, Chile through its Chilean Universities program. A wide variety of courses are offered at universities that include Pontífica Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad de Chile and Universidad Diego Portales. www.ifsa-butler.org/index.htm
Butler University coordinates
study abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Argentine Universities
Program offers flexibility in a cosmopolitan city with course offerings
from just one or from all four of the associated Buenos Aires universities:
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Universidad Católica Argentina,
Universidad del Salvador, or Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. www.ifsa-butler.org/index.html
The School for International
Training (SIT) offers a program in Culture and Development in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
The program explores the key role played by cultural processes, identities
and resources in defining who ”develops” and how. Field
excursions to the tropical lowlands and the altiplano, including spectacular
Lake Titicaca and the world’s highest capital city, La Paz, provide
opportunities to observe social and cultural life in both urban and
rural Bolivia. Visits to development agencies and seminars on the history
of Bolivian social movements enhance your understanding of this predominantly
indigenous nation. www.sit.edu
The Council on International
Educational Exchange (CIEE) offers a program in Bahía, Brazil
designed for students with at least two years of college-level Spanish
or one year of Portuguese. The program’s objectives are to increase
students’ oral and written Portuguese language skills; to facilitate
students’ knowledge of contemporary Brazil and the northeastern
region; and to provide students with the opportunity to take regular
Brazilian university courses, especially in the fields of Afro-Brazilian
issues, cultural studies and/or the arts. www.ciee.org
The Higher Education Consortium
for Urban Affairs (HECUA) offers a semester in Quito, Ecuador called
the Community Internships in Latin America program (CILA), which is
a semester of study and experience with a focus on community participation
and social change. A home stay is combined with a hands-on internship
and independent study opportunity designed to meet your own learning
goals. A field seminar involving local experts and activists provides
an intensive immersion into Latin American daily life and culture. Models
of community participation, organization, development and social change
are compared and contrasted. Students learn first-hand about challenges
in Ecuadorian communities and explore ways that they are being addressed.
www.hecua.org
The School for International
Training (SIT) runs a program called ”Revolution, Transformation
and Civil Society” in Managua, Nicaragua. This program goes to
the key sites where Spanish colonial powers, the Sandinista revolution
and the Contra War have left their legacies. Conditions permitting,
students travel to Cuba for a comparative analysis and added perspectives
on Nicaragua’s development. Throughout the program, lectures and
field visits illustrate ways in which social and political movements,
including women’s movements, are informed by and respond to both
domestic and external influences, including US foreign policy. www.sit.edu
The University of Iowa (CIC) offers a program in Santiago, Dominican Republic, to students who are interested in health and nutrition. The primary objective of the University of Iowa Global Health Studies Program is to educate students about the health transitions occurring globally in the wake of dynamic global environmental, political, economic, and social changes, and to prepare these students for occupations that increasingly demand critical interdisciplinary and international thinking skills and perspectives. A specific goal of this program is to provide advanced Spanish language students with a critical appreciation of the Dominican Republic and the Hispanic Caribbean and its importance in Latin America from the perspective of the health sciences and in the context of an underdeveloped Caribbean setting. www.international.uiowa.edu
The Council on International Education Exchange (CIEE) offers a program in Guanajuato, Mexico in which students pursue a liberal arts curriculum. Students take two Spanish courses, two CIEE content courses and the required core course. The core course requires an independent project. This program is designed to provide students with an intellectually rigorous experience that directly links intense language study to a critical curriculum related to creative and intellectual expression, and to a deeper core concern with issues related to writing about culture, language, and identity.www.ciee.org
Universitas Castellae in
Valladolid is a private educational institute offering courses in language,
literature and culture to international students. Its professional team
is composed of highly qualified professors and researches in the field
of Hispanic studies from both foreign and Spanish universities. www.universitascastellae.es
Though Trinity College, a program in Barcelona, Spain is offered at the Universidad Pompeu Fabra. Students may enroll in an Iberian Studies track or a Studio Arts track. Iberian studies students will take courses taught in Spanish in the Hispanic Studies Program of Pompeu Fabra University, one of Spain's finest universities. Studio arts students will take classes taught in English by Trinity faculty at Trinity's own Global Learning Center. www.trincoll.edu/depts/edusrv/brochures/Barcelona/curriculum.html
Students may enroll directly at the Universidad de Duesto in Bilbao, Spain, and must have the ability to follow coursework with native speakers conducted entirely in Spanish. Sample course include Spanish history, European economics, human rights and community psychology. www.duesto.es
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