One of our signature orientation activities, known as "Mapping Madrid" has our faculty taking small groups of students out and about to visit their favorite corners of the city.  These excursions and walking tours exemplify our firm belief that the city of Madrid can and should be our classroom, textbook, and laboratory, and that study-away, when taken seriously, can involve 24/7 immersive learning.  

Traces of the Spanish Civil War on the streets of Madrid?  Vestiges of the city's Islamic origins? Working-class communities and gentrification as they collide in Chueca and the other neighborhoods surrounding NYU Madrid? The LGBQT+ history of Madrid as it can be perceived in neighborhoods, institutions, monuments, and place-names? Haunted houses and other urban legends in the environs of NYUM?  Street art and how it reflects a city in flux?  Food markets as glimpses into the diversity of the city's population? 

These are just some of the topics that permeate our curriculum, whether we are in a classroom at our academic center at Calle Barquillo 13, or out on the streets, reading the city. 

Eniola Linda Adeyemo will join the faculty of NYUMadrid this fall to teach the course ¨Migrations and Cultural Diversity in Spain:  Anthropological Approaches.”  Eniola is currently completing her PhD in Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck College, London, with a thesis focusing on “Belonging and Identity in Afro-Spain.”  She holds a MRes in Social Research Methods and Psychosocial Studies, also from Birkbeck, and an MA in Social and Cultural Anthropology, which she earned at the Universidad complutense de Madrid.

Using contemporary Madrid as a case study, the course explores anthropological approaches to develop theoretical and analytical frameworks that will help students understand the diversity and complexity of migrations and their effects on society and culture.

Even though education is often purportedly at the core of the mission of most modern museums, the activities --and the archives-- of museums' education departments are more often than not underfunded and overlooked.  This contradiction throbs at the heart of the modern museum and is the focus of a new collection of essays, titled Art Education as a Radical Act:  Untold Histories of Education at MOMA (Routledge, 2024), and co-edited by NYUM faculty member Sara Torres-Vega and Wendy Woon, who is an adjunct instructor in Steinhardt's Visual Arts Administration Program. The publication is the result of Dr. Torres-Vega's three year stint at New York's Museum of Modern Art, where she mined the educational archives of the museum, and interviewed all of the living directors of MoMA's Education Department.   In addition to co-editing the volume, Torres-Vega is the author of nine of the twenty-nine essays included in the book. 

Early in the volume, Torres-Vega quotes from a remarkable speech made by the architect Buckminster Fuller in 1951:  "The battle for the human spirit will be fought and won in art rooms of the nation's schools and in the artists' studios, but only if the creative arts become a major part of every child's education and if the artist asserts his significant and historical role as the people's advocate."  In many ways, Art Education as a Radical Act is a collection of reflections and interviews that aims to understand both the culture that enabled Fuller to make such a bold pronouncement some 70 years ago, and the culture --today's culture-- of fewer and fewer art rooms in the nation's schools, of celebrity artists, blockbuster shows and museum gift shops, in which Fuller's words seem impossibly utopian or even misguided.

Torres-Vega designed and teaches "Art Before/Beyond/Without Museums" at NYU Madrid, an extraordinarily popular course that recognizes celebrates, and explores the fact that most art in Spain happens, resides and circulates outside of the Prado,the Reina Sofía, and Madrid's other museums.

The Fulbright/Castillejo Grant will allow her to continue her research next summer in New York on the founder of MoMA's Department of Education (and erstwhile professor of NYU), Victor D'Amico, and his partner and collaborator, Mabel D'Amico. 

Pilar Paradiso,  Starting Her MA in International & Development Studies in Geneva  (Fall, 2024)

"My semester at NYU Madrid was life changing. The dedicated faculty and staff made my experience what it was. I had some of the best professors of my university career; all of whom went over and beyond to support their students' education and wellbeing. Each of my classes incorporated Madrid culture into learning, with class trips to Las Ventas Bullring to discuss the rich culture of bullfighting as well as the issues associated with it, to a small town in Galicia to learn about the impact of the civil war on impoverished, rural communities, and to museums to witness the strong influence of european, mediterranean, and african culture in the city's art. These lessons helped myself and my peers appreciate the city we were studying in so much more. 

Most importantly, as a final semester senior, my professors made it a point to help me figure out what I could do next. With the guidance of Professor Adam Dubin, I decided to pursue my masters degree in International and Development Studies at the Geneva Graduate Institute. He listened intently to my goals and aspirations of studying peace and conflict and suggested the program I would ultimately get into and attend. 

Without my experience at NYU Madrid, I would have never been so open to continuing my education away from my home in the United States, nor would I have learned of the opportunity of studying world peace and development."

Isabella Montano Charts Global Career Path at NYUM  (Fall, 2024)

"Being in NYUM helped me picture a more global career path. NYU does a good job of informing you about global programs and opportunities, but I think it can be difficult to seriously imagine what that might look like. However, actually being in Madrid takes that dream of the future and grounds it in real experiences and connections."

Isabella spent the 2023-2024 academic year at NYU as a Global Liberal Studies student, and managed to stay on through the summer, working as an intern for NYU Madrid Professor, Adam Dubin.  Isabella discovered her passion for the field of international human rights law in her courses and internship at NYUM, and was able to pursue that passion further, working over the summer with Professor Dubin and his colleagues at the Migration Studies Institute of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas on a research project that examines the state of human rights across Europe by mapping the use of a framework called the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. 

"I'm now working on law school applications, and sharing my experience abroad is such a central part of that.  I now have a wonderfully fresh perspective to bring to the table and can honestly say that I have a global understanding of the topics I've been studying during my undergraduate career.  There are certain careers and majors where I think many students don't feel that studying abroad will do much to support their post-college plans, but after my time in Madrid, I wish I could tell them all:  'You're totally wrong!'"