Communication, New Media + Journalism Spanish Newsletter II / Spring 18

Kashaf Momin interviewed by Annie Quigley and Asa Goldstein on celebrating International Women's Day in Seville from CIEE SEVILLE on Vimeo.

Dear friends,

Our Spring 2018 semester advances and the students of the Communication, New Media and Journalism Spanish program (CNMJ S) have just enjoyed the first of their two one-week breaks of the semester. This period for recharging their batteries will come in handy as they will soon be busy working on their end of semester media projects and assignments.

Meanwhile, they’re fully absorbed by their life in Seville. This newsletter is headed with a video produced by CNMJ S students Annie Quigley (Indiana University-Bloomington) and Asa Goldstein (Elon University), who interviewed her peer Kashaf Moin, student of the Advanced Liberal Arts program from Georgetown University, on celebrating International Women's Day in Seville.

On March 8th the majority of CNMJ S program students participated in the massive demonstration celebrated in Seville, as in all Spanish capitals, to signal IWD demanding equal rights for women and men. Guided by journalist and CIEE profesor Marina Blesa, the students of the courses 'Gender, Identities and the Quest for Equality in Spain', 'Social Justice, Action and Media: Stories that Matter', and 'Spanish Skills in Context: Podcast Reporting', created banners to carry to the demonstration. At CIEE Seville’s Facebook page, you can see the memory of their participation through this brief collection of photos.

Experimenting is a constant activity at the CNMJ S program. Every semester, Spanish photographer and CIEE professor Antonio Pérez Gil collaborates with Rubén Díaz in his course Digital and Visual Culture in Contemporary Spain. On this occasion, the photographer facilitated a workshop on visual cultural memory, manipulation and the power of images, which he titled "Ways of seeing Spain: Photography and Truth". The students worked with an archive of photographs from the Spanish Civil War in Seville, as well as with other images out of context (from other war contexts, from war movies, or even from video games). The two pictures below, featuring Lauren Chin from Brandeis University, give you an idea of what the students experimented. 

In addition to their academic work, many CNMJ S students are making the most out of their experience abroad by either volunteering at local NGOs, teaching English at public and private schools, training with soccer and volley teams, or simply participating in some of the many activities that, organised by CIEE Seville’s Student Life team, allow them to connect with their host community at different levels.

In just a few days, April 6-8, CNMJ S students will go on an academic trip to Northern Morocco, where they will be hosted by the families of Moroccan students in the beautiful town of Chefchaouen, in the heart of the Rif Mountains. Immediately after crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, they will visit Tangier, a most fascinating city that represents the current economic growth of Morocco and that enjoyed an international status from 1923 until 1956 (the year of Morocco’s independence). And before heading to t Chefchaouen, where they will spend two full days, they will also visit the historic medina of the city of Tetouan, the forme capital of the Spanish Protectorate.

Last but not least, I'd like to mention that this semester, we’re lucky to have 7 students from the University of Seville participating for-credit the core courses of the CNMJ S program, Digital Video Reporting in Context and Magazine Reporting and Writing, which are as usual hosted at the Centro de Iniciativas Culturales de la Universidad de Sevilla (CICUS), one of the most important cultural hubs of the city. Students of the course Urban Photography Workshop: the City from Within will have their final projects exhibited here. 

For more news about CIEE Seville, you can visit our Facebook page. I would also like to remind you that you can read magazine articles, see video reports and photographic projects, and listen to podcast reports created by CNMJ S students in the program’s website of projects masmenos.es.

More news at the conclusion of the semester…

Best regards,

Óscar Ceballos