Hispanic Studies

TRIP, Spain, Fall 2000

TRIP Spain 2000: CC students gather for a photograph after visiting the mosque in Còrdoba

In November 2000, Julia A. Kushigian, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies, took 12 students —the entire advanced study seminar of the SPA 493B course, Orientalism in the Hispanic Literary Tradition — on a tour of Spain. The TRIP purpose was for the students to understand how Spain embodies its multicultural past and present.

Having studied legal, literary, historical and cultural texts from the Medieval period through the twentieth century in the Connecticut College classroom, these students were brought to Spain to explore the way the Spanish came to terms with the Other, that is, the Jews and Moors, to produce a profound synergy of cultures and philosophies. This contact, while not always peaceful, did exhibit remarkable cultural, psychological, philosophic, and artistic qualities that are evident in everything from architecture, language, food, laws, and customs to road signs.

Once in Spain, the students and their professor toured architectural sites of importance, including Jewish temples and libraries, Moorish mosques, palaces, fortresses, and gardens. They searched for evidence of Spanish coexistence with the Other and continued tensions that are produced by Spain's desire to embrace Globalization and its need to turn to the Other for the labor needed to get there.

The Seminar students worked in teams throughout the semester to prepare final presentations based on their research and information acquired in Spain.