Language + Culture

CIEE Courses

• AHIS 3001 BASP (ENG): Catalonia and Spain Through the Arts (in English)
• BUSI 3001 BASP: Corporate Financial Decision Making
• MKTG 3001 BASP (ENG): International Marketing (in English)
• BUSI 3003 BASP: Business Ethics and Social Responsibility
• CATA 1001 BASP: Introduction to Catalan Language in its Social Context
• COMM 3301 BASP: Intercultural Communication and Leadership
• ECON 3006 BASP: The Spanish Economy in the European Union
• ECON 3002 BASP (ENG): European Economic Integration and its Impact on the Spanish Economy
• ECON 3005 BASP: Competitive Strategy: A European Perspective
• MGMT 3004 BASP: International Human Resource Management
• ECON 4001 BASP: Re-Imagining Capitalism
• POLI 3002 BASP (ENG): Spain Today: Politics and Society (in English)
• HIST 3002 BASP (ENG): Past and Present in Barcelona (in English)
• HISP 3001 BASP: Urban Culture in Contemporary Barcelona
• INSH 3801 BASP (ENG): Internship Seminar (in English)
• LITT 3001 BASP (ENG): Literary Images of Catalonia and Spain (in English)
• MKTG 3002 BASP (ENG): Branding and Cultural Icons: The Case of Barcelona (in English)
• MGMT 3002 BASP: Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility: From Theory to Practice
• POLI 3001 BASP: The Politics of Western Europe
• ECON 3007 BASP: International Finance

UPF REQUIRED LANGUAGE COURSES

These courses meet for 8 hours per week and are taught at UPF

BEGINNING SPANISH LANGUAGE

This course uses a communicative approach, focusing on what students can do with the language as much as what they know about the language. By the end of this course, students are able to communicate when carrying out everyday tasks, understand phrases and expressions of common use, and describe aspects of their own past as well as issues related to their most immediate needs. The course seeks to provide a basic repertoire of linguistic elements and sufficient vocabulary to meet these communicative goals. Students should be able to use some simple grammatical structures and in general be able to pronounce in a clear, comprehensible way. Contact hours: 90. Recommended credit: 6 semester / 9 quarter hours.

PRE-INTERMEDIATE SPANISH LANGUAGE

(Prerequisite: one semester of college-level Spanish, or the equivalent)
This course uses a communicative approach, focusing on what students can do with the language as much as what they know about the language. By the end of this course, students understand the principal points of clear texts and writings in standard language; knows how to describe in the past and to exchange information about daily routines, experiences, likes, and interests. The linguistic elements and vocabulary that are taught prepare students to deal with frequent topics and daily situations. Contact hours: 90. Recommended credit: 6 semester / 9 quarter hours.

INTERMEDIATE SPANISH LANGUAGE

(Prerequisite: two or three semesters college-level Spanish, or the equivalent.)
This course uses a communicative approach, focusing on what students can do with the language as much as what they know about the language. By the end of this course, students understand the principal points of clear texts and writings in standard language; produce simple and coherent texts about familiar topics in which there is a personal interest; describe experiences, events, wishes, and aspirations; justify their own opinions, and express plans for the future. The linguistic elements and vocabulary that are taught prepare students to deal with non-frequent topics and unpredictable situations. Contact hours: 90. Recommended credit: 6 semester / 9 quarter hours.

UPF HISPANIC AND EUROPEAN STUDIES PROGRAM (HESP) COURSES

The academic offering may vary from semester to semester. This is a sample of courses that have been taught in previous semesters.

Courses taught in English

BARCELONA: THE CITY AND ITS HISTORY

Barcelona enjoys the reputation of a cosmopolitan city with a great international projection. Behind a glossy and tourist-friendly façade, the city has a complex history. This course introduces the student to the city of Barcelona by studying its past and analyzing its present. This interdisciplinary course covers subjects in history, geography, art, architecture, and urban planning. Contact hours: 45. credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

GLOBAL MARKETING AND CULTURE OF FC BARCELONA

European football (soccer) has become a major cultural vehicle in the global world, both in terms of economic impact and social influence. This course focuses on how this sport shapes the social, economic and cultural realms, and tries to interpret the different links between the game itself and the dimensions surrounding it: media coverage, aesthetic value, political targeting, public and corporate policies... In that context, FC Barcelona remains a unique case, studied in business schools as an example of global market branding, while passionately lived by millions of fans all over the world. Moreover, Barcelona city offers a privileged standpoint to better understand football as a growing issue within contemporary culture. Contact hours: 45. credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

THE BARCELONA JOURNEY TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY: ECONOMIC, BUSINESS AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS

This course celebrates the city of Barcelona and embarks students in a journey to better understand the concept of Sustainability and its novel developments. From an environmental, social and business perspective, the course covers the main challenges that sustainability raises for the city of Barcelona and beyond. Relying on innovative individual and collective pedagogical practices, the course offers an integrative and deep learning process. Contact hours: 45. credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

POLITICS AND SOCIETY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

The course is aimed at introducing the main institutions and the structure of the EU to US students. Module 1 of the course will examine the origin and the development of European integration process, the main theories behind the process of integration and the institutional structure of the EU. Module 2 is more policy-oriented and it will focus on some of the most relevant issues surrounding the contemporary debate on European integration: formulation of the EU budget, enlargement, neighborhood policy, the EU in the international scenario and the democratic deficit. Contact hours: 45. credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

CORPORATE BRAND EQUITY IN THE CONTEXT OF EUROPEAN CULTURAL IDENTITY

Since the globalization of the economy at the end of the last century, the context of brand communications in today's businesses has radically changed. Communication strategies to reach any type of target group are challenged to anticipate stakeholders' interests, build brand equity beyond good products and services and be able to remain competitive in a highly-active technological context that has reversed some of the traditional ways of managing businesses.
In this global environment, corporate communications demand greater levels of ethics and responsibility towards the society in which it operates and larger collaborative synergies and collaboration processes. To this respect, Europe's competitive-edge is like any others, at stake, but the asset of intellectual capital and cultural identity it portrays in its legacy may be just the right kind of differentiation brands need to successfully compete in the 21st C. Contact hours: 45. Recommended credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

UNDERSTANDING GLOBALIZATION: HISTORICAL ROOTS OF ECONOMIC, POLITICAL AND CULTURAL EXCHANGES BETWEEN EAST ASIA, AMERICA, AND EUROPE

The course aims to put the contemporary discussion of globalization into historical perspective by examining the long-lasting interactions of East Asian countries, Latin America and Southern Europeans from 1500-1800 in order to be a rich and understandable explanation of three hundred years of globalization. The course will focus on the debate about economic histories of divergence between the East and the West. A debate opened by neo-Weberians, on the one side, and historians grouped in two groups: Fernand Braudel, Immanuel Wallerstein and his followers in the World Systems School, and the Californian School (including Ken Pomeranz, Roy Bin Wong, and others). Contact hours: 45. credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

SCREENING THE GLOBAL WORLD: CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND PUBLIC TELEVISION SPACE

How should Television treat the diversity of contemporary societies? How to respond to the challenge of global communication preserving, at the same time, the adequate discursive treatment of diverse cultural groups, minorities, the phenomenon of immigration and the representation of Otherness in a broader social sense? In US the industrial TV model and private stations shape social imaginary, but variety of other countries choose the primacy of public television in order to promote values of equality and the integration of citizens. This course will analyze a variety of public television programs from all over the world, dedicated to the subject of diverse cultural identities, transcultural issues, representation of Otherness in different social modalities, including the depiction of foreign cultures, national minorities and immigration. Some examples will also expand to the area of sexual diversity, treatment of disabled and the relationship between totalitarian regimes and democracy. The examples treated along the course will be chosen from the UPF's unique archives of international television festivals INPUT, held every year since 1977. As a principal reference for establishing the criteria for adequate visual treatment of cultural diversity issues the course will introduce the competences of Media Literacy, familiarizing the students with the tools for constructive analysis as well as patterns of creation of 'television of quality'. The goal is to offer valuable insides and firm criteria for approaching the television as a public service and its role in shaping the values of diversity in contemporary societies. Contact hours: 45. credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

GLOBALIZATION, DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL COHESION: WHICH ROLE FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION?

Cooperation for development is a fundamental objective for various international actors such as the United Nations (UN), more concretely the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); the World Bank; and the European Union. International cooperation, from a multilevel and integral point of view, implies not only the participation of intergovernmental and State institutions but also of local governments and nongovernmental organizations. In this context, all actors have to contribute from their own areas of expertise in order to improve the system. The European Union is a paradigmatic illustration of this multilevel approach and commitment to international cooperation for development. Currently, Europe is the main source of funds for cooperation. The European Commission and governments, both at national and at local level, conduct several development programmes and projects that not only seek to provide funds but also to exchange experiences in relation to governability and public policies. 
The objective of this course is to introduce the student to the principal issues related to development and international cooperation, with a special emphasis on the role of the EU as main donor in the field of official development assistance (ODA). The main thrust of the course will be on outlining the institutional and political mechanisms of international development, as well as examine their impact in developing territories. At the same time the course aims to offer students a deepened insight into some of the most controversial debates surrounding the current state of affairs of international cooperation. Contact hours: 45. credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

CONTEMPORARY SPANISH ART

This course offers a survey approach to the history of artistic developments in Spain, from Goya to present day. In addition to the main artistic events, relevant political, historical, and cultural issues are covered. Although the course is primarily based on lectures, visits to museums and exhibitions are part of the course requirements. Contact hours: 45. credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

GLOBAL MEDIA AND INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM IN THE 21ST CENTURY

This course looks at world news management from the beginning of the 21st century to the present day. The consolidation of global media such as Al-Jazeera in the Arab world, Tele Sur in Latin America, and Zee TV in India is reviewed. By analyzing case studies such as the media coverage of Islam, the Africa story, the European Union, and the image of Spain in the foreign press, we analyze the role of the foreign correspondent as an intercultural mediator, the media construction of the “Other,” the new actors in the global news narrative, and ask the question: how does the future of the world news system shape up? Contact hours: 45. credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

POLITICAL IDEAS FROM THE EARLY MODERN AGE TO THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION

By representing a systematic introduction to the major political ideas that emerged and developed in Europe, from the French Revolution to post-communism, the premise of this course investigates the concept that political ideas are always emerging and should be understood in specific historical contexts. Each class starts with an examination of the historical and cultural context, and connections are built between specific political ideas, works of art, and their historical context in an attempt to better understand the modern and contemporary history of European Civilization. The course gives special weight to Spain. Contact hours: 45. credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

SOCIETY AND POLITICS IN CONTEMPORARY SPAIN

This course examines the sociological and political aspects of post-Franco Spain, emphasizing elements of change and continuity—the constitution, political parties, monarchy, populace, and immigration. Contact hours: 45. credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

SPAIN IN CINEMA: LOCAL AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

The course analyzes different aspects of Spanish culture, history, and society through films. Both local and international productions are used to present historical events (Columbus’s travels, the Civil War), myths (Don Quixote, Don Juan) and artists (Goya, Picasso) that originate from Spain. Documentaries of international renown describe transitional and contemporary Spain. Contact hours: 45. credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

CIEE COURSES

• AHIS 3001 BASP (ENG): Catalonia and Spain Through the Arts (English)
• BUSI 3001 BASP: Corporate Financial Decision Making
• BUSI 3003 BASP: Business Ethics and Social Responsibility
• CATA 1001 BABC: Introduction to Catalan Language in its Social Context (Spanish/Catalan)
• COMM 3301 BASP: Intercultural Communication and Leadership
• ECON 3001 BABC: The Spanish Economy in the European Union
• ECON 3002 BAEC (ENG): European Economic Integration and its Impact on the Spanish Economy
• ECON 3005 BABC: Competitive Strategy: A European Perspective
• ECON 3006 BABC / MGMT 3004 BABC (ENG): International Human Resources Management
• HISP 3004 BABC / POLI 3003 BABC: Spain Today: Politics and Society (English)
• HIST 3002 BABC: Past and Present in Barcelona (English)
• HISP 3004 BARU: Urban Culture in Contemporary Barcelona
• INSH 3801 BASP (ENG): Internship (ENG)
• LITT 3001 BABC (ENG): Literary Images of Catalonia and Spain
• MKTG 3004 BABC / CLST 3001 BABC: Branding and Cultural Icons The Case of Barcelona (English)
• POLI 3001 BABC: The Politics of Western Europe
• BUSI 3002 BABC / MKTG 3001 BABC: International Marketing (English)

UPF REQUIRED LANGUAGE COURSES

These courses meet for 8 hours per week and are taught at UPF

Beginning Spanish Language
This course uses a communicative approach, focusing on what students can do with the language as much as what they know about the language. By the end of this course, students are able to communicate when carrying out everyday tasks, understand phrases and expressions of common use, and describe aspects of their own past as well as issues related to their most immediate needs. The course seeks to provide a basic repertoire of linguistic elements and sufficient vocabulary to meet these communicative goals. Students should be able to use some simple grammatical structures and in general be able to pronounce in a clear, comprehensible way. Contact hours: 90. Recommended credit: 6 semester / 9 quarter hours.

Pre-Intermediate Spanish Language
(Prerequisite: one semester of college-level Spanish,or the equivalent)
This course uses a communicative approach, focusing on what students can do with the language as much as what they know about the language. By the end of this course, students understand the principle points of clear texts and writings in standard language; knows how to describe in the past and to exchange information about daily routines, experiences, likes and interests. The linguistic elements and vocabulary that are taught prepare students to deal with frequent topics and daily situations. Contact hours: 90. Recommended credit: 6 semester / 9 quarter hours.

Intermediate Spanish Language
(Prerequisite: two or three semesters college-level Spanish, or the equivalent.)
This course uses a communicative approach, focusing on what students can do with the language as much as what they know about the language. By the end of this course, students understand the principle points of clear texts and writings in standard language; produce simple and coherent texts about familiar topics in which there is a personal interest; describe experiences, events, wishes, and aspirations; justify their own opinions; and express plans for the future. The linguistic elements and vocabulary that are taught prepare students to deal with non-frequent topics and unpredictable situations. Contact hours: 90. Recommended credit: 6 semester / 9 quarter hours.

UPF-HESP ELECTIVES COURSES

The academic offering may vary from semester to semester. This is a sample of courses that have been taught in previous semesters.

Barcelona: The City and Its History
Barcelona enjoys the reputation of a cosmopolitan city with a great international projection. Behind a glossy and tourist-friendly façade, the city has a complex history. This course introduces the student to the city of Barcelona by studying its past and analyzing its present. This interdisciplinary course covers subjects in history, geography, art, architecture, and urban planning. Contact hours: 45. Recommended credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

Global Marketing and Culture of FC Barcelona
European football (soccer) has become a major cultural vehicle in the global world, both in terms of economical impact and social influence. This course focuses on how this sport shapes the social, economical and cultural realms, and tries to interpret the different links between the game itself and the dimensions surrounding it: media coverage, aesthetic value, political targeting, public and corporate policies... In that context, FC Barcelona remains a unique case, studied in business schools as an example of global market branding, while passionately lived by millions of fans all over the world. Moreover, Barcelona city offers a privileged standpoint to better understand football as a growing issue within contemporary culture. Contact hours: 45. Recommended credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

Barcelona: The Rise of a Design City
'Barcelona, the Rise of a Design City' looks at one of the most exciting periods of the city's recent history: what is known as the 'Barcelona design boom', a cultural phenomenon that helped define the Spanish transition to democracy in the 1980s and the city's Olympic dream in the 1990s. For a few years and in sharp contrast to the preceding decades, design became one of the main cultural frameworks of Barcelona's identity, both locally and abroad. Paired with architecture in a seemingly unavoidable partnership, it provided the seeds from which ultimately emerged the narrative of the city as it is seen today: that of a sophisticated European metropolis, miraculously emerging from the ashes of a decaying post-industrial provincial capital. Initially addressing local design practice and design retail, and later embracing architecture as well, this course follows the way in which these disciplines turned ideas about local identity, modernity, social and cultural value into everyday material artefacts and environments. Design and architecture were placed at the heart of the city's popular culture, and of its international success to this day.

"Sepharad": History and Heritage of Jewish Spain
The course presents an itinerary around the human, historical and cultural heritage of the Spanish Jews, from the Middle Ages to present day. The first part of the course keeps a historical focus, studying the cultural history of Sepharad, from the origins to the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. The Sephardic Diaspora and the development of the judeo-hispanic culture, the return of the Sephardic Jews from the late 19th Century, of European Jews during the inter-war period and how the Shoah relates to Spain will also be covered. The second part of the course will focus focus on the cultural, architectural and human recovery of the Spanish Jewish heritage. Both the human and patrimonial aspects of such recovery will be analyzed, through the case study of different private and public initiatives aimed to develop tourism or marketing projects revolving around the “myth” of Sepharad. Students will work on individual or group projects to delve into questions such as: How is Jewish heritage and history presented in Spain? What are the strategies and outcomes of such projects? What is the prevalent discourse in these cultural initiatives? How does the Spanish society today face its Jewish cultural roots?

Ancient Mediterranean
This course will examine the nature and complexity of interactions between the regions of the Mediterranean during the second and the first millennia BC. The cultural florescence of the Ancient Mediterranean civilizations had its origins in a series of colonial entanglements beginning first in the eastern Mediterranean. Minoan and Mycenaean communities began to establish links with Egypt and the Near East in the first centuries of the II millennium BC. From then, over a period spanning more than two thousand years, and ending with the Roman conquest, colonists, merchants, sailors and conquerors sought to benefit from the commercial and cultural opportunities provided by the riches of the eastern, central and western Mediterranean.

The Barcelona Journey towards Sustainability: Economic, Business and Social Transformations
This course celebrates the city of Barcelona and embarks students in a journey to better understand the concept of Sustainability and its novel developments. From an environmental, social and business perspective, the course covers the main challenges that sustainability raises for the city of Barcelona and beyond. Relying on innovative individual and collective pedagogical practices, the course offers an integrative and deep learning process. Contact hours: 45. Recommended credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

A Messy Garden: A History of the Cultural Values of Europe 
The course is intended to provide an understanding of the basic aspects of what we may call a European civilization. Europe has a long and rich history and has contributed decisively to what our world is today. Europe has invented many ideas and beliefs about man and his world, has spread this ideas and beliefs to other continents, and many of its values are still today guiding our actions and ruling our attitudes towards life. The understanding of this particular legacy seems an important issue for young students coming from different cultural and historical backgrounds and spending a course in a European country. Each session will discuss in detail some of these different aspects and elements of European civilization in order to recognize that particular legacy. It will be essential to consider also the darker sides of our long history, to be critical towards our past, in order to get aware, as Stefan Wilkanowicz claimed, of the richness of our heritage, drawing from the wealth of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Greek philosophy, Roman law, and humanism with both religious and non-religious roots; aware of the values of Christian civilization, which is the basic source of our identity; aware of the frequent betrayals of these values by both Christians and non-Christians; aware of the good and the evil that we have spread to the inhabitants of other continents; bemoaning the social catastrophe caused by the totalitarian systems that have originated within our civilization. Contact hours: 45. Recommended credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

Politics and Society in the European Union
The course is aimed at introducing the main institutions and the structure of the EU to US students. Module 1 of the course will examine the origin and the development of European integration process, the main theories behind the process of integration and the institutional structure of the EU. Module 2 is more policy-oriented and it will focus on some of the most relevant issues surrounding the contemporary debate on European integration: formulation of the EU budget, enlargement, neighborhood policy, the EU in the international scenario and the democratic deficit. Contact hours: 45. Recommended credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

Corporate Brand Equity in the Context of European Cultural Identitiy
Since the globalization of the economy at the end of the last century, the context of brand communications in today's businesses has radically changed. Communication strategies to reach any type of target group are challenged to anticipate stakeholders' interests, build brand equity beyond good products and services and be able to remain competitive in a highly-active technological context that has reversed some of the traditional ways of managing businesses.
In this global environment, corporate communications demand greater levels of ethics and responsibility towards the society in which it operates and larger collaborative synergies and collaboration processes. To this respect, Europe's competitive-edge is like any other's, at stake, but the asset of intellectual capital and cultural identity it portrays in its legacy, may be just the right kind of differentiation brands need to successfully compete in the 21st C. Contact hours: 45. Recommended credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

Understanding Globalization: Historical Roots of Economic, Political and Cultural Exchanges between East Asia, America and Europe
The course aims to put the contemporary discussion of globalization into historical perspective by examining the long-lasting interactions of East Asian countries, Latin America and Southern Europeans from 1500-1800 in order to be a rich and understandable explanation of three hundred years of globalization. The course will focus on the debate about economic histories of divergence between the East and the West. A debate opened by neo-Weberians, on the one side, and historians grouped in two groups: Fernand Braudel, Immanuel Wallerstein and his followers in the World Systems School, and the Californian School (including Ken Pomeranz, Roy Bin Wong and others). Contact hours: 45. Recommended credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

Screening the Global World: Cultural Diversity and Public Television Space
How should Television treat the diversity of contemporary societies? How to respond to the challenge of global communication preserving, at the same time, the adequate discursive treatment of diverse cultural groups, minorities, the phenomenon of immigration and the representation of Otherness in broader social sense? In US the industrial TV model and private stations shape social imaginary, but variety of other countries choose the primacy of public television in order to promote values of equality and the integration of citizens. This course will analyze a variety of public television programs from all over the world, dedicated to the subject of diverse cultural identities, transcultural issues, representation of Otherness in different social modalities, including the depiction of foreign cultures, national minorities and immigration. Some examples will also expand to the area of sexual diversity, treatment of disabled and the relationship between totalitarian regimes and democracy. The examples treated along the course will be chosen from the UPF's unique archives of international television festivals INPUT, held every year since 1977. As a principal reference for establishing the criteria for adequate visual treatment of cultural diversity issues the course will introduce the competences of Media Literacy, familiarizing the students with the tools for constructive analysis as well as patterns of creation of 'television of quality'. The goal is to offer valuable insides and firm criteria for approaching the television as a public service and its role in shaping the values of diversity in contemporary societies. Contact hours: 45. Recommended credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

Globalization, Development and Social Cohesion: which role for International Development Cooperation?
Cooperation for development is a fundamental objective for various international actors such as the United Nations (UN), more concretely the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); the World Bank; and the European Union. International cooperation, from a multilevel and integral point of view, implies not only the participation of intergovernmental and State institutions but also of local governments and non-governmental organizations. In this context, all actors have to contribute from their own areas of expertise in order to improve the system.
The European Union is a paradigmatic illustration of this multilevel approach and commitment to international cooperation for development. Currently, Europe is the main source of funds for cooperation. The European Commission and governments, both at national and at local level, conduct several development programmes and projects that not only seek to provide funds but also to exchange experiences in relation to governability and public policies. 
The objective of this course is to introduce the student to the principal issues related to development and international cooperation, with a special emphasis on the role of the EU as main donor in the field of official development assistance (ODA). The main thrust of the course will be on outlining the institutional and political mechanisms of international development, as well as examine their impact in developing territories. At the same time the course aims to offer students a deepened insight into some of the most controversial debates surrounding the current state of affairs of international cooperation. Contact hours: 45. Recommended credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

Spain in Cinema: Local and Global Perspectives
The course analyzes different aspects of Spanish culture, history, and society through films. Both local and international productions are used to present historic events (Columbus’s travels, the Civil War), myths (Don Quixote, Don Juan) and artists (Goya, Picasso) that originate from Spain. Documentaries of international renown describe transitional and contemporary Spain. Contact hours: 45. Recommended credit: 3 semester / 4.5 quarter hours.

Crossroad in the Arab Countries: Authoritarianism, Spring and Islamic State
The Islamic State or ISIS or Daesh is now the main threat in de Arab world. After 9-11, five events determines the evolution in the political landscape: the war in Afhganistan, the war in Iraq, the aftermath of the Arab Spring, the blockage in the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, and the consolidation of the Islamic State like a political and military reality. For the West, especially in Europe, the main consequences are the terrorism (security crisis) and the refugees (humanitarian crisis). Another questions are the relations between Western and the Arab and islamic governments, the management of the war in Syria from the West, and the crisis inside the Arab world (suna vs. chia, fundamentalism vs. liberalism, the status of women, etc.). In this situation, the intervention of Russia in Syria and the agreement with Iran promoted for the president Obama complete the field of the global crisis. (Former course: El laberinto árabe: de las primaveras al estado islámico).

Neurosciences for Humanities
How reliable is our perception of the world? What is consciousness? Is free will an illusion? Does beauty reside in our brain? Neurosciences study the brain, from genes and cells to behavior and, during the last years, the scientific study of the brain has provided radical new clues about how the brain works. This knowledge has strong implications for many areas of human activity outside the conventional environment of medicine or psychology, and expands to economics, laws, philosophy or art. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the dialogue between neurosciences and humanities, thereby breaking the classical gap between CP Snows' "Two Cultures". The intersecting topics range from philosophical and ethical issues, such as free will, the grounds of knowledge, or economic behavior, to questions related to art and culture.

Political Marketing
This course aims at understanding the contexts in which political brands are being modelled in contemporary world. The dynamics of political brands can no longer be understood solely from a communication perspective, a marketing approach or a political science perspective. Concepts such as political star-system, celebrity politicians, political show business or media performance are well settled in specialized practices and academic research and also become an interesting field for the emergence of new professions.

International Business and Globalization
How does international business drive economic globalization and affect people across countries? How do international business and current domestic and international political issues affect each other? What challenges and opportunities do firms face operating internationally? The course starts with an overview of economic globalization from a historical, political and sociological perspective, focusing on its most relevant aspects associated to international business: the role of states and international institutions (e.g., World Bank, IMF, EU); socioeconomic development; inequalities within and across countries; international migration; domestic political debates referred to globalization. The second part of the course examines some key management topics associated to globalization: global corporate social responsibility; diverse national political environments; internationalization and alliance strategies; global marketing; global human resources management.