Contra Costa Community College District
PolSc 220 – Comparative Politics
3 units, CSU/UC transferable. Grade or P/NP.
Catalogue Description: This course presents a comparative analysis of the political systems of selected foreign states.
Comparative Politics is the ideal course for study abroad. Its objective is to examine a cross section of political communities and ask twin questions: How does a country organize its politics? And then: Why are politics organized that way?
When taught in the United States, of necessity, this course leans heavily on the students’ familiarity with American politics, as it is often the only system that students have ever experienced.
The benefit of Study Abroad is the opportunity
for students to experience another system, first hand. Comparison is most
effective when the students are familiar with the concepts being compared.
American students are familiar with concepts like Liberty or Individualism, which
are native to them and quintessentially American. A student’s presence in Spain,
will give them opportunity to familiarize themselves with Spanish and European
perspectives on those (and many other) concepts. How do Catalans & Spaniards
understand, value and express liberty in their political life? Discussions that in the
US would be distant and abstract will come to life, infused with the students’
immediate personal experiences. Barcelona offers the opportunity to accomplish
this with nearly every aspect of this course. There is no better way to take this
course than in a study abroad setting.
PolSc 250 - Introduction to International Relations
3 units, CSU/UC transferable. Grade or P/NP.
Catalogue Description: This course is an introduction to various aspects of international relations and politics. Topics include sovereignty, the nation-state and international politics, the nature of the global community, international law, world economics, the United Nations and other international organizations and contemporary world problems.
In International Relations we ask: “Why do countries do what they do?” Our goal is to understand the behavior of states. We introduce and use concepts to understand this question in theoretical, and then practical terms. When taught at home in the US, our application of these concepts is somewhat constrained. Typically, because of the students’ familiarity with and exposure to US behavior, we apply the concepts to unfolding events, and then to the behavior of the United States.
That is far from ideal as the concepts are intended to have much broader explanatory power. Being present in Europe, and with access to
European media, students will have the tools to apply the concepts to the
behavior of European states generally and to Spain specifically. As an example:
How would Spain respond to a terrorist attack? Our curriculum will present
concepts that political scientists find useful in considering policy options. As
Americans, the students will no doubt have contemplated this question. They will
likely be familiar with policy choices Americans have debated and pursued. We
will examine those and then explore the Spanish and European policies chosen to
address the same problem.
Where there are differences, we will explore what accounts for them, doing the same for commonalities. In Barcelona, the opportunities are limitless. We will be surrounded by people with ideas about globalization, trade, immigration, climate change, war and peace that are, for Americans, quite novel. Being exposed to them will dramatically improve our ability to make sense of them.
SocSc 123 – American Popular Culture
3 units, CSU/UC transferable. Grade or P/NP.
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| More than a Club |
Catalogue Description:
This course is an interdisciplinary examination of popular culture’s changing nature in American society.
Looking through the lens of popular culture, this course will examine social and political institutions, such as federal and California state government, and various values that shape American popular culture.
The course considers the significant contributions of Asian American, Latino, African American, Native American, and Jewish communities in shaping the evolution of American popular culture, and considers the importance of women as both producers and consumers of popular culture.
American Popular Culture (In Comparative Perspective) Why teach a course that focuses on an American theme? For American students studying in Barcelona this course is the perfect vehicle to make the most their presence there. This course opens the doors to many exciting opportunities to take what Spain offers and bring it into the classroom. The objective of this course is to understand and appreciate the influence Popular Culture has had on American society. The best way to appreciate your own culture is to step outside that culture and regard it from a new perspective.
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| Casa Batlló |
With this in mind, we’ll look at the role of progress and its influences on art, music, film, and architecture starting with Spain and comparing it to other parts of the world. We’ll explore this firsthand through visiting museums, going on walking tours, and seeing performances. In this class we’ll, learn to curate an online exhibit of Spanish material and visual culture, visit MACBA, the Museu Picasso, and the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya.
It is never enough to just observe other cultures, we must also look at how our communication shifts through interacting with others. In Intercultural Communication, we will learn to analyze, incorporate, and speak about our own cultural understanding and apply these skills by working with a local group. If you like psychology, sociology, and anthropology rolled into one course, this is the course for you.
Here we will visit Don Quixote and Don Giovanni as they make their marks on the world of chivalry and lust. This course surveys world literature in translation from the late seventeenth century to the present. In addition to significant works in the Western tradition, masterpieces of non-Western literature from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Central and South America are studied. The entire range of genres is represented, and, whenever possible, works are read in their entirety.
Let’s delve into some more contemporary issues that influence our host country. How has the past formed what Spain is today? We will examine the literature of immigration, of royalty, and of living harmoniously in a multi-faith society. It will be a pilgrimage through the past to today – with explorations of topics that you bring to the course after exploring our environs. We will study literary texts, with emphasis on analytical reading and writing. It covers principles of argument and analysis, such as reasoning inductively and deductively. Assigned texts include novels, short stories, poems, plays or films, and literary criticism.
Problems with homelessness and insufficient housing are strained even more by Barcelona’s robust tourist industry and foreign investment of vacation homes. This course will look at classical ethical theory (deontology, consequentialism, virtue ethics) and consider issues in Barcelona in the context of trying to better understand issues in California, the US and Globally.
One of the topics we will focus on is the transformation of Barcelona’s historic centers, the most accessible and highly contested spaces in the city, and how these spaces have been intensively transformed by commercial gentrification, touristification and studentification.
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