Sul Ross State University Teams Up with the University of Córdoba
By Brooke Manuel, Skyline Editor, and Gisselle Rueda, Skyline Reporter
ALPINE – Two Sul Ross State University faculty members and 13 students are traveling to Spain in May to kick off the collaboration between Sul Ross and the University of Córdoba that was made official in November of 2023.
Esther Daganzo-Cantens, the director of international studies, and Laura Payne, dean of the Colleges of Graduate Studies and Literature, Arts and Social Sciences, are taking two RGC students and 11 Alpine students, to Spain for 10 days.
As part of the pilot program, Daganzo-Cantens and Payne will each teach a hybrid class. Hybrid classes include elements of both in-person and online instruction. There will be ten days of in-person instruction, while the remainder of the course will be taught online from the United States once everyone returns.
Daganzo-Cantens's course is titled Culture and Civilization of Spain, which is an overview of the development of Spanish culture from ancient times to the present through the study of history, art and literature. Payne is teaching an English Travel Writing course.
To participate in the program and go on the trip to Spain, students must take at least one of the two courses being offered by Daganzo-Cantens and Payne. Details of the costs for travel, housing and participation for students are still being worked out.
The purpose of the trip is to fully immerse the students in Spanish culture. While in Spain, the students will attend the two classes being taught by Daganzo-Cantens and Payne at the University of Córdoba in the morning and explore the country in the afternoons and evenings.
Some of the places Daganzo-Cantens, Payne and their students will be visiting include the cities of Málaga and Seville, the Picasso Museum, the Seville Cathedral, the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba and the remains of the golden city of Madinat al-Zahra.
“It’s a very intense program,” Daganzo-Cantens said.
This impending trip to Spain will be the first of many as Sul Ross State University and the University of Córdoba signed an agreement to collaborate in November of 2023. President Carlos Hernandez, his wife, Executive Vice President and Provost Bernie Cantens, and Daganzo-Cantens took a trip, themselves, to Spain in November to sign the agreement, which will benefit students, faculty and staff members of both institutions.
As a part of the agreement with the University of Córdoba, opportunities to work abroad and continuing education training will be available to staff members at both institutions.
Sul Ross is in the process of negotiating collaboration agreements with three other universities as well — the Technological Institute of Piedras Negras, the Polytechnic University of Piedras Negras, and the Antonio Narro Autonomous Agrarian University, which are all located in Mexico.