Challenges to the Nation State: Spain
DialogueMadrid, Spain Barcelona, Spain Bilbao, Spain Summer I, 2025
Courses
Examines chronologically the forces that have forged Spanish culture and have made Spain the pluralistic society and multinational country it is today. Traces the development of the peoples of the Iberian Peninsula from prehistoric times to the present. Based primarily on the history of ideas, the arts, and architecture, incorporates history, sociology, anthropology, geography, economics, and politics. Conducted in English.
Offers an in-depth critical inquiry into the current debates in the public sphere in Spain focusing on the politics of culture and identity as they both inform and challenge the very foundations of a modern nation-state. Arguably the first political entity in modern times to have been constructed as a state unified under one religion, one people, and one monarch, Spain is today an early example of a growing tendency toward national fragmentation and disintegration. Examines the ways in which current events in Spain may be the presage to an ever more unstable world order. Considers the possibility of a higher state of global governance beyond the nation-state and empire. Taught in English.
Arguably one of the first Western countries to have been constituted as a proto-modern state, unified under a single religion and one crown, Spain is today an example of a growing tendency toward national fragmentation, or “balkanization”. This DOC offers an in-depth critical inquiry into the current debates in the public sphere in Spain, Catalonia and the Basque Country, focusing on the politics of culture and identity as they challenge the very foundations of a modern nation-state. It also considers the ways in which current events in Spain may be a presage to new forms of global governance beyond the legacy of empires and the tired narratives of nationalism.
Students will meet with representatives of the main political parties in Spain, the Basque Country, and Catalonia. The program also includes numerous visits to some of the world’s finest museums of art and history, as well as day trips from Madrid to Toledo, Segovia, and the Escorial, from Bilbao to Gernika and Donostia, and from Barcelona to Poblet.
