
The Study Abroad in Spain program offers an array of areas of study suited for every student, including courses in Hispanic Studies, Business, Translation, Education, and Spanish for specific purposes.
In addition to all these disciplines, students may participate in a unique Internship Program and spend a full semester in a company or an organization of their choice.
All syllabi in this section are tentative, therefore, they may be subject to change.
Hispanic Studies

The course is aimed at students who wish to enhance their communication skills in Spanish. To achieve this goal, new grammatical structures will be introduced, and others that have already been acquired by the student will be strengthened. This course requires students to have passed level B (intermediate level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) in order for them to be able to learn about the contents explained in class with no difficulty. The contents of the course will include four skills: speaking, writing, listening and reading comprehension. Students will therefore acquire greater confidence and independence, enabling them to express themselves in Spanish fluently. Cultural and social aspects will also have great presence and they will be integrated into the communication process.

The course is aimed at students who wish to learn about the life and work of one of our most renowned writers, Miguel de Cervantes. Students will learn about Cervantes’ most relevant works, in addition to his literary influences and characteristics within the context of the Spanish Golden Age. The course will include a selection of readings from his different works, with particular emphasis on his famous Don Quixote.

This course provides an overview of the Spanish media (print, advertising, film, radio, television, and social networks) as well as the vision of Spain today that is offered by these media outlets. While the classroom approach tries to be generalist, more emphasis is placed on the media, and individual and current work with specific features that are now part of the history of Spanish communication.

The aim of this course is to bring students closer to the life and work of our most influential authors of the 20th and 21st centuries. We will study the essential stylistic features of each author and we will situate them in a particular period or movement. The aim is to integrate different art forms into the most recent historical development, in order for students to identify them in the literary texts of each period.

Cinema is one of the most popular artistic manifestations due to its expressive power and narrative capacity. Film production allows us to gain knowledge about the reality of a country from two perspectives: as a historical document and an aesthetic expression. In this course students will learn about the Spanish film discourse based on the analysis of seven important films in the history of the Spanish cinema. On the other hand, the course aims to make a journey through the history of Spain, from the Civil War to the present, taking as reference film productions on this period. The Spanish film production will be studied from a multidisciplinary perspective in order to analyze the most relevant historical periods of contemporary Spain. In addition, students will have the opportunity to acquire specialized language on film and historiography. It will allow them to improve their oral and written expression in Spanish, as well as to appreciate cinema as a form of artistic and cultural expression.
NOTE: This course includes different cultural topics (such as bullfighting, terrorism or nudity) that may hurt the student's sensibilities.

The course provides an overview of Spanish art history from the early days (Cave of Altamira) to the avant-garde of the twentieth century. While the course offers a general panoramic overview, more emphasis is placed on the great masters of painting such as El Greco, Velázquez, Goya and Picasso, whose skills and abilities set the course of pictorial art by turning Spanish painting into the soul of modern art.
This course is aimed at students who wish to improve their communication skills in Spanish. To achieve this goal, new grammatical structures will be introduced and others that students have already acquired will be strengthened. This course requires students to have passed level A. Thus, students will acquire greater confidence and independence enabling them to express themselves in Spanish with some fluency. We will focus on past tenses for the linguistic content.

The course is aimed at students who wish to have a panoramic understanding of contemporary Spanish literature by studying the writers that have been honored by the prestigious Cervantes Literary Award. It explores the life and work of the most important authors of Spanish written literature in recent decades. The essential features of the authors will be studied individually and they shall be positioned within a specific period or movement. Within this framework, the world views of the social groups involved in Spanish and Latin American literature will become apparent. The course will finalize with the reading of fragments from the most representative work of each of the important authors.

The history of Spain will be examined in an international context, particularly from a European and North American perspective. Students will explore Spanish culture in its various representations, examining cultural expressions in terms of its universal perception. Course topics will be linked to political and cultural issues of the contemporary identity of Spain.

The course introduces a panoramic overview of Spanish literature starting in the Middle Ages up to the latest trends of the twentieth century. It explores the most significant literary movements, contextualizing the life and work of different authors. The readings integrate the different world views of our history, showing the diversity of voices that make up the peninsula’s literature.

The course is aimed at students who wish to have a comprehensive and thorough knowledge of Spanish literature and, more specifically, the Spanish works that have passed from books onto the big screen due to their literary quality and universality. On the one hand, it focuses on the study of literary texts within a literary, historical and sociocultural context, and also on the aesthetic representation of the work adapted to a modern audience. It involves reinterpreting and integrating texts of the past, with the technology and interpretation of the present, in order to bring students close to the most influential works of Spanish literature. Students will learn about different authors and literary movements. Movies will be complemented with a selection of readings of different works.

This course is intended for students with an advanced level of Spanish who have specific medical/scientific background. Medical translation, like any specialized translation, requires specific definitions and terminology. Language as well as concepts are equally important. The course will have a theoretical and practical approach. On the one hand, students will learn the role of the medical translator, they will analyze specific English and Spanish medical texts and they will work with direct and indirect translations, that is from Spanish into English and from English into Spanish. Moreover, students will be introduced to interpretation and intercultural mediation in a medical context through different exercises.

The course is aimed at students who wish to have a comprehensive and thorough knowledge of Spanish phonetics, and improve their pronunciation. It is structured from a practical point of view, always focusing on practical exercises within a theoretical context. It is important for students to hear and contrast first, and modify and improve later, through a detailed study of phonemes, syllables, stress and a general knowledge of the Spanish phonetic alphabet. This study will delve into phonetic transcription with exercises and explanations to train them in order to achieve an effective use of the language.

Gastronomy reflects the cultural identity of a country. This course is designed to be a cultural and gastronomic journey through Spain, in order to gain knowledge and understanding of the country’s culinary richness and variety, as well as the special importance of gastronomy in Spanish culture and society. Students will learn about the historical, cultural, and social aspects of Spain through gastronomy. During the course, students will read about, be informed on, discuss, be presented, and will write about Spanish gastronomy and its cultural impact. They will study the cultural diversity of the main Spanish communities, the main products of each region, its most outstanding dishes, history, regional characteristics, and of course, recipes.

The course offers a historical and interdisciplinary overview of the most relevant characteristics and events of Spanish culture and contemporary civilization. It is important to learn and understand the past in order to fully understand Spanish history and society today. This course provides an interdisciplinary approach that integrates the social, political, artistic, religious, ethnographic, anthropological, and economic perspectives that will help students understand in greater depth the reality and challenges of the country throughout different historical periods.

The term Al-Andalus refers to the territory of the Iberian Peninsula that was under Muslim domain between 711-1492. This long tenure of nearly 800 years has confirmed a legacy that now forms a significant part of the hallmarks of Spanish culture. In this sense, the course is organized to include several subjects on the study of Muslim monuments such as the origin of Mudejar and Mozarabic art. The transformation of the city, houses and gardens, the greatest example of which is the Alhambra in Granada. The development of agriculture and the arrival of new foods that are the origin of modern Spanish cuisine. We will also emphasize on the linguistic influence, music, festivities and traditions that make Spain such a unique country.

Soccer is not just a sport; it is a social, cultural, economic and media phenomenon. This course aims to study the international dimension of European soccer and its implication in all of these fields. It introduces students to the world of soccer, as a game and as a business, and the impact of its international presence. Soccer will be studied as an economic and market phenomenon, using European soccer clubs as an example. Also, we will study the origin of soccer and its evolution, the love-hate relationships between soccer and the media and we’ll learn basic strategic theory.

This is a practical course with the main objective of students developing and acquiring a methodology in translation and improving their language skills in Spanish. This is a dynamic and interactive course in which students are required to translate general and specific texts using different methods and strategies. Furthermore, students will also be initiated in the field of interpretation, public speaking, consecutive interpreting with note-taking and simultaneous interpretation. Students registered in this course are required to have a high intermediate/advanced level of Spanish (B according to CEFR).

This course aims to improve students’ oral and conversational skills. The course provides both linguistic and cultural knowledge. Units follow a linguistic progress for this which goes from the verb to be; ser / estar / haber; prepositions; reflexive verbs; direct and indirect pronouns; irregular verbs; past perfect / imperfect / indefinite; simple future; the conditional tense and the present subjunctive. These grammar points are studied in a context that is related to cultural aspects in Spain. Thus students will see topics such as; the parts of the house, giving directions, using public transportation, food, fashion, a doctor’s visit, cultural festivals: Fallas, bullfighting, Christmas and Easter, among others.
Professional Spanish

This course is aimed at students who are interested in improving their language skills in a business scenario. The course, its activities, assignments and assessments have a communicative approach, and real-life and business situations are proposed. It focuses mainly on the acquisition of company-specific terminology, oral expression and communication, written expression in letters, resumes and other specialized documents, without forgetting the essential elements involved for a correct cultural and linguistic expression.

This course requires to be studying a major in biology, medicine, nursing, pharmacy or psychology and to have a B2 Level of Spanish. Teaching will take place both in class and in hospitals. A series of activities and tasks will take place in the classroom with a communicative approach and real-life and health-related situations will be proposed. Special attention will be placed on acquiring terminology in this context, on oral expression in specific situations and on writing, without forgetting cultural elements. At the hospital, students will apply what they have learned in class, they will learn about the Spanish healthcare system firsthand and they will observe the most common health practices that take place in visits with patients, in operating rooms, in the laboratory, etc. Students who wish to enroll in this course should pay a €170 fee and submit an Official Health Report.
Business

The transformations that have occurred in relation to new technologies, ways of working (online), globalization, development and cheaper transport, among others, have led to a greater mobility of expatriates and students living in other countries. This requires that these groups be trained in the intercultural field. This is a course that explores and brings students closer to communication and culture, especially in the context of international business.
Internships

This course offers students the opportunity to obtain a Spanish cultural, economic and linguistic practical immersion experience in a company or in another institution. The course consists of two parts: one is an internship and the other part is made up of workshops, seminars and supervision meetings carried out at the institute.