Bucknell en España
Bucknell en España offers a high quality academic and residential experience for Bucknell students who plan to study in Spain for a semester or a full academic year. Students choose from a wide variety of curricular options at the Universidad de Granada’s Centro de Lenguas Modernas to advance their major or minor studies in Spanish or to complement other programs of study at Bucknell. Very advanced students may enroll directly in selected courses at the Universidad de Granada. A Bucknell faculty member, normally from the Department of Spanish, serves as Professor-in-Residence and teaches a required course that combines an orientation to life in contemporary Spain, the study of key elements of Spanish cultural history, and reflections on the cross-cultural experience. Students’ immersion in the culture is facilitated by their residence with carefully selected Spanish families. Students are encouraged to participate in additional immersion activities provided by Bucknell en España and by the Centro de Lenguas Modernas to enhance their interaction with the Spanish-speaking community.
The program is centered in Granada, an Andalusian city of approximately 250,000 inhabitants, located at the foot of the perennially snowcapped Sierra Nevada mountains, one hour from the Mediterranean Costa de Sol. The Universidad de Granada is one of Spain’s most prestigious universities and its Centro de Lenguas Modernas (CLM) is recognized as a leader in the area of Spanish and Hispanic Studies for non-native speakers. The Bucknell en España program is open to all Bucknell students in good standing who have completed SPAN 207 Toward Advanced Spanish or its equivalent. The Professor-in-Residence teaches a course that begins with an orientation for students with regard to the culture of Spain and Granada, in particular. This course begins upon the group’s arrival in Spain and lasts until the end of the semester; it includes all of the group travel to cultural sites throughout Spain, and students’ reflections on their experience of these sites, in addition to more traditional class discussion and interpretive essays. Upon arrival in Spain, students engage in intensive language instruction to assure their preparedness for their semester or year-long program of study.
Normally, students who have completed at least six semesters of language study at Bucknell (SPAN 208 Advanced Conversation and Composition) enroll in the advanced Estudios Hispánicos at the CLM, which includes courses in anthropology, art history, Spanish and Latin American cultures, dance, economics, geography, history, language and linguistics, literature and film, management, music, political science, sociology, translation, women’s studies, and in the spring semester, health and environmental studies.
Most students who have completed only four or five semesters of Spanish, or the equivalent, normally enroll in Lengua y Cultura Española, which offers a slightly smaller selection of courses in anthropology, art history, Spanish and Latin American cultures, dance, economics, geography, history, language and linguistics, literature, management, political science and sociology. Very advanced students who plan to stay for the full academic year or for the spring semester may register for one regular university course offered by the Universidad de Granada.
In order for students’ coursework from the Centro de Lenguas Modernas or the Universidad de Granada to count toward their major at Bucknell, it must be approved by the department chair or program director of the major.