he exciting cultural and political capital of Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, is home base for College students exploring the history and culture of Spain and the western Mediterranean world. The Winter Quarter sequence "Western Mediterranean Civilization" covers the history of the region from antiquity to the twentieth century. Excursions include visits to the remains of Greek and Roman settlements (Ampúrias and Tarragona, respectively), to medieval Girona, and to various historical sites within and in the vicinity of Barcelona. Barcelona itself offers a dazzling collection of architectural splendors, historically significant sites, and abundantly stocked museums. The course utilizes the classrooms and study center of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business in Barcelona, and students are housed in a small hotel within easy walking distance of it.

Meeting Culture Head On

arcelona, the capital of Catalonia and Spain's largest city on the Mediterranean, is the site for this Winter Quarter intensive course. Barcelona's cultural and economic capital, coupled with natural and human resources, have been the dynamic factors of development and change sometimes in conflict, sometimes in harmony. The course examines Barcelona and its environs as a microcosmic examples of the emergence of modern-day Europe.

The course begins with the earliest inhabitants of the Iberian peninsula, from the cave peoples of the Maestrazgo to the early Middle Ages, then focuses on the impact of successive invasions and colonizations by Phoenicians, Greeks, Etruscans, Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths, and Arabs, with emphasis on their traces in and around the region.

The second segment covers in depth the peculiar amalgam of Christians, Moslem, and Jews, their periods of harmony and conflict, and the growth of Barcelona from the early Middle Ages to the present day as the capital of a Catalan-speaking nation within a Spanish state that is an integral part of the larger European community. The final sequence offers and intensive study of primary materials in the arts, literature and architecture produced by the various peoples and culture of the region, from the time of the Celto-Iberians to the present.

Readings for the course may include Seneca, Martial, Averroës, Maimonides, Ramon Muntaner, the Cid, Joanot Martorell, and Josep Plá, among many others. They are supplemented by slide lectures and numerous on-site visits.