Note: This course listing is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a contract between CIEE and any applicant, student, institution, or other party. The courses, as described, may be subject to change as a result of ongoing curricular revisions, assignment of lecturers and teaching staff, and program development. Courses may be cancelled due to insufficient enrollment.
CIEE Study Center Syllabi
To view the most recent syllabi for courses taught by CIEE at our Study Centers, visit our syllabi site.
Institute Courses
A final list of Institute courses is available a few months prior to the start of the program. Students should refer to the course registration form in their acceptance materials for a final list of courses.
Session I
Cervantes and His Work
This course examines the literary masterpiece of Miguel de Cervantes, El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha. It explores the novel’s place in Spanish and world literature, its importance as a model for the novel, and the use of language and the realities it portrays. A previous class in Golden Age Literature is recommended.
Comparing the United States and Spain: Culture, Politics, and Social Structure
The objective of this course is to enable participants to study different aspects of present-day Spain and the U.S. from a comparative perspective. Issues such as everyday life and customs, cultural diversity, economic and political institutions, religion, immigration, ethnic relations, and questions of identity in both countries are analyzed. Special emphasis is given to issues of social diversity, as well as the need to avoid existing stereotypes. Students also acquire new communication skills, perfecting their understanding of the Spanish language and gaining a deeper knowledge of both Spanish and North American societies.
Great Poets of the Spanish Literature
The course is designed for North American students who want to acquire a general and complete knowledge of Spanish poetry from the Medieval Ages until today. The course has been designed from a practical point of view within a historical and socio-cultural context. The course structure tends to integrate the different poetry movements in history, so that students can identify each literary text according to the characteristics of any artistic period. Students are familiarized with the most remarkable characteristics and style of an author to identify each literary work according to the generalities of each period. Readings of poems are completed during class time so students can obtain the skills to make critical and personal comments that show the knowledge gained by the student.
Master Pieces of the Spanish Literature
The course has been designed from a practical point of view where only the most relevant literary texts are analyzed within a socio-cultural context. The structure of the course tends to integrate the different literary movements in history, so that students are able to identify the most remarkable texts according to the characteristics and generalities of each period. By the end of the course, students have acquired the skills to develop critical and personal comments in order to show the knowledge gained.
Reading Analysis
The course intends to give the student the necessary tools to understand the text and the ability to communicate, both in writing and speaking, in relation to the text studied. In addition, the students analyze the different linguistic structures used.
Spain and the European Union
The aim of this course is for students to understand the origins and current role of the European Union. With this purpose in mind, the course provides a detailed look at its creation, present reality, goals, structure, institutional organization, and political principles. Students also learn about the extent to which Spain is affected by these factors and study its role in the EU. In addition, the legal, economic, social, and political changes that Spain has undergone since its transition to democracy and membership in the EU are also studied. Students are also asked to consider the future challenges that Spain faces at both the national and international levels.
Spain in Images: The Spanish Society in Film
This course enables students to understand the evolution of film in Spain through the study of the major works of Spanish cinema. Students learn to understand film as art, and as the imprint of a people’s reality and fantasy.
Spanish Art History
This course is an introduction to the most representative of Spain’s historic-artistic monuments. The architectural and pictorial works from the different cultures which lived in the Iberian Peninsula are studied. Students learn the most important aspects of Spanish art through the comprehension of the main features of a work: periods and styles, masters and schools, and monuments and works.
Spain: Relations with Latin America
This course introduces students to different aspects of the culture and civilizations in the Hispanic world from the pre-historic age through today. At the end of the course, students identify distinct epochs in Latin American history, recognizing the cultural variations that resulted in forming the distinct countries that are now Latin American territory. Likewise, students gain a base of knowledge—knowledge that has marked each of the different countries in a notable way and influenced the personalities of each country of this continent, which has historically, politically, and culturally proven its influence and resonance in the rest of the world, from pre-Columbian times until today.
Spain Through the Media
The aim of this course is to help students develop communicative competence through grammatical, cultural, and social-linguistic means, as well as through discourse. Class lectures are supplemented with multi-media communication from present-day Spain, including publicity, radio, television, press, and the cinema.
Spanish for Bilingual Speakers
This class is designed for native speakers of Spanish with a command of the oral language, but who have been educated primarily in English. There is an emphasis on oral and written expression and reading comprehension through different literary styles (newspapers, essays, and literary works).
Spanish Civilization
Students gain an ample understanding of Spain’s past and present by understanding contemporary Spain in its geographic and political context. Participants analyze the nation’s intellectual, artistic, social, and human development as manifested in contemporary literature, art, music, folklore, national and regional celebrations, and group and individual activities. The final objective is to help students identify a Spanish cultural spirit in a broad sense.
Spanish for Health Care Professionals
This course is designed for future health professionals (doctors, nurses, medical assists, paramedics’ EMT, administrators, ect.) who need to use Spanish at their workplace. The course has an especially practical approach that includes learning medical terminology, understanding the most commonly used grammatical structures, and learning culture aspects that every health care professional should know. The objectives of this course are to:
- Improve the ability for students to communicate in a medical context
- Understand the differences between medical terminology in Latin American and Spain
- Understand the principle cultural differences between the United States and Spain
- Guide the student through the health field in Spain
Traditions of Spain
The analysis of different aspects of Spanish civilization and culture serves to stimulate the student to develop their linguistic abilities through compositions, presentations, and debates. Students learn to write different types of texts (descriptive, expository, argumentative, and essays) and to speak in different registers. They also learn to manage grammatical concepts at an intermediate level, such as the past, the historical present, the future, and the present subjunctive.
Translations of Spain
Students learn both direct and inverse translation of diverse styles. There is an emphasis on grammatical, syntactic, and lexical problems. Interpretation of oral texts from Spanish to English and English to Spanish are performed.
Writing Skills in Spanish
The objective of this course is to offer techniques for planning, developing, and organizing specific written texts. The first part of the course is dedicated to development strategies for compositions that help the student generate their own writing process and improve the ability to produce any type of text. The second part of the course familiarizes the students with different professional writing styles (news, newspaper articles, interviews, chronicles, autobiographical, reports, essays, critiques, ect.) while applying the techniques of description, narration, exposition, and argumentation. Each style studied is accompanied by texts from Spanish writers which serve to aid students for producing their written work.
Session II
Cervantes and His Work
This course examines the literary masterpiece of Miguel de Cervantes, El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha. It explores the novel’s place in Spanish and world literature, its importance as a model for the novel and the use of language, and the realities it portrays. A previous class in Golden Age Literature is recommended.
Contemporary Spain
This course serves as a window to the social and cultural history of Spain in the 20th century and provides a projection of where Spain will go in the 21st century. It explores the First Republic, the Bourbon Restoration, caciquismo and pacifism, regionalism and regional culture, the crisis of 1898, the artistic vanguard (Picasso, Dalí, Miró, and Buñuel), dictatorship, the Second Republic, the Spanish Civil War, Spain and World War II, Francoism, U.S.-Spain relations, the economic boom of the 1960s, the socialist years after Franco, the Center and the Partido Popular, and Spain and the European Union.
Contemporary Spanish Literature
This course follows the development of Spanish literature during the 20th century and relates the works to the literary currents that influenced contemporary literature.
Globalization and the Spanish Economy
This course consists of two parts. The first addresses the globalization phenomenon and its effects on the world’s economic growth and welfare, as well as its impact on employment, wages, and social inequalities in both developed and developing countries. The second analyzes the present moment and the outlook for the Spanish economy. Special attention is paid to the integration process of Spain’s economy in the European Union, as well as the economic interdependence between the U.S. and the EU.
Great Spanish Painters
The main objective of the course is to give students a global view of the most important figures in Spanish painting history such as Goya, Velázquez, or Dalí. The lectures and material in class are complemented by visits to museums, cities, and institutions to allow students to experience direct contact with the masterpieces of these great masters.
Spain and the European Union
The aim of this course is for students to understand the origins and current role of the European Union. With this purpose in mind, the course provides a detailed look at its creation, present reality, goals, structure, institutional organization, and political principles. Students also learn about the extent to which Spain is affected by these factors and study its role in the EU. In addition, the legal, economic, social, and political changes that Spain has undergone since its transition to democracy and membership in the EU are also studied. Students are also asked to consider the future challenges that Spain faces at both national and international levels.
Spain in Images: The Spanish Society in Film
This course enables students to understand the evolution of film in Spain through the study of the major works of Spanish cinema. Students learn to understand film as art, and as the imprint of a people’s reality and fantasy.
Spain through the Media
The aim of this course is to help students develop communicative competence through grammatical, cultural, and social-linguistic means, as well as through discourse. Class lectures are supplemented with multi-media communication from present-day Spain, including publicity, radio, television, press, and the cinema.
Spanish for Bilingual Speakers
This class is designed for native speakers of Spanish, who have a command of the oral language but have been educated primarily in English. It emphasizes oral and written expression and reading comprehension through different literary styles (newspapers, essays, and literary works).
Spanish for Business
The objective of this course is to give students command of the structures and vocabulary most essential to the fields of business administration and economics. Students work on the language of business practices and communications in business, including banks, marketing and publicity, tourism, labor relations, insurance, industry, and the EU.
Spanish Civilization
Students gain an ample understanding of Spain’s past and present by understanding contemporary Spain in its geographic and political context. Participants analyze the nation’s intellectual, artistic, social, and human development as manifested in contemporary literature, art, music, folklore, national and regional celebrations, and group and individual activities. The final objective is to help students identify a Spanish cultural spirit in a broad sense.
Spanish Phonetics
This course presents the basic principles of Spanish phonology and phonetics and is designed to help native speakers of English improve their Spanish pronunciation. Classes discuss the articulation of the sounds of Spanish compared to English sounds, the intonation patterns and stress system of Spanish, the learning of correct articulation, and different dialects.
Survey of Literary Analyses
Based on analysis of and commentary on major texts of Spanish and Latin American literature, this course emphasizes the practical issues of textual commentary as opposed to the study of critical theory alone. Students work with a literary text, and all conclusions must be based on solid references to the text.
Reading Analysis
The course intends to give the student the necessary tools to understand the text and the ability to communicate both in writing and speaking in relation to the text studied. In addition, the students analyze the different linguistic structures used.
Traditions of Spain
The analysis of different aspects of Spanish civilization and culture serves to stimulate the student to develop their linguistic abilities through compositions, presentations, and debates. Students learn to write different types of texts (descriptive, expository, argumentative, and essays) and to speak in different registers. They also learn to manage grammatical concepts at an intermediate level, such as the past, the historical present, the future, and the present subjunctive.
Writing Skills
This course familiarizes students with different types of professional writing (literary writing is also addressed as necessary) and with different formats, while enabling them to develop their own strategies and techniques throughout their own writing process.
study