Course Descriptions

 

Sustainable Development and 
Social Change in Central America 

(Offered both Fall and Spring Semesters)

 

A semester abroad program of the
Center for Global Education at Augsburg College 

Full Program Syllabi

Explanation of Grades and Grading Criteria

 

Guatemala 

Beginning or Intermediate Intensive Individualized Spanish

(Spanish 111/112/211/212) 

• Improve your Spanish language skills while living with families in the Guatemalan highlands. 

• Instruction is provided by Guatemalan instructors at a private language school; classes are composed of one student per teacher. 

 

Intermediate or Advanced Conversation and Composition

(Spanish 311/411)

• Improve written and Spanish language expression through discussions, debates, oral reports, journals, and compositions, including formal letters, newspaper articles, and position papers on key topics in Mexican current events. 

Conversations in Cultural Context

(Spanish 316)

• Aims to improve oral fluency through debates, oral reports, and discussion of contemporary issues in Latin America. Uses Latin American films and local newspapers to stimulate discussion and deepen students' understanding of political, economic, social and cultural issues in the host country and throughout Latin America.

Latin American Literature: 20th-Century Voices (Spanish 356)

• Examine issues of social change through the voices of contemporary Latin American writers. (For bilingual students & those who have already completed all other 300-level courses).

El Salvador

Latin American Liberation Theologies

(Religion 366) 

• Learn about the role of the church in promoting and acting toward social change. 

• Observe and explore the functioning of the "popular church" and "base communities." 

Nicaragua 

Cultural Conflict and Change in Latin America:
The Central America Historical Context 

(History/Women's Studies 355) 

This course will trace the historical development of gender, class-based, and racial oppression in Central America, as well as explore the experience of resistance and change in Nicaragua within the following periods:

• Conquest and colonization in the 16th-19th centuries

• US occupation and intervention in the 20th century

• Sandinista revolution of 1979-1990

• Contemporary post-revolutionary period.
   

Nicaragua

Topics in Comparative Politics: 
“Citizen Participation in Policy Formulation in a Globalized Economy -- 
A Nicaraguan Case Study” (Political Science 459)

• Understand the interplay between global processes and political and economic factors that define development policy formulation and implementation at the national level today.

• Analyze  the role played by international actors in the agenda setting of  key contemporary  economic policies

• Examine the power relations involved in the implementation of key strategies and/or plans shaping Nicaraguan development policy, i.e Free Trade Agreements

• Analyze the degree to which social groups have participated in the formulation and implementation of development policies