This course is open to all post-secondary students as well as the general public. It will take place in Spain.
For more information, please email Hélène Doré-Lavigne at hlavigne@ustpaul.ca.
Course description
Focusing on a portion of the Camino de Santiago (Way of Saint James) situated in the region of Navarra (Spain), this course proposes an interactive and experimental approach to the concept of pilgrimage. Bringing together a series of scholars from Canada, Spain, and the U.K. from various disciplines, this global history, art, and culture course offers a journey on the Camino, where the students will be invited to walk and learn from in-situ socio-historical and artistic embodiments along the way. From architectural monuments to local businesses, public discourses, music, history, myths, art, culture, figurative language, multimodality, and gestures, students will experiment with a multidisciplinary array of perspectives, to better understand the meaning, purpose, and power of pilgrimages. Addressing issues of pilgrimage related to spiritual growth, cultural exchange and local economic impact, this course will introduce students to the sociocultural narrative of the pilgrimage journey in Navarra as they join the many pilgrims who have undertaken this 1000-year-old journey. The students will participate in a practice that crosses cultures and religions, deeply embedded in human history as a means of spiritual exploration and devotion.
Course material
Required readings
Listed and marked as mandatory in the Course Outline for specific lectures, the required readings will be available as downloadable PDFs before the trip. Optional readings are also available in the Course Outline for specific lectures.
Course intructor
There will be several guest lecturers participating in the walking tour. The language of instruction is English but spoken and written French and Spanish are also welcome.
Anna-Maria Moubayed is a medieval art historian whose current research focuses on representations of Eve in Romanesque sculpture, women on the Camino de Santiago, digital humanities, Romanesque architecture, semiotics, narratives, issues of spolia in Christian and Islamic medieval architecture, time, space, and performance in medieval art and thought. Click here to access her publication list.
Course Schedule
* May be subject to change
Day 1 | Way of Saint James
Itinerary: Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Porta à Roncesvalles 7h (25.7km)
Prof: Anna-Maria Moubayed, Inés Olza, and Adriana Gordejuela
- History of Camino
- History of Navarra (Basque)
- History of Pilgrimage
- The Performative Act of Walking – Semiotics
Day 2 | La Chanson de Roland
Itinerary: Roncesvalles à Monasterio de Leyre 1h car (72km)
Profs: Anna-Maria Moubayed & Rosa Fernandez
- Charlemagne
- Chanson de Roland
- Roncesvalles and Pilgrimage
Day 3 | Nature, the Sacred and the Religious
Itinerary: Monasterio de Leyre à Javier 2h (9.5km)
Profs: Anna-Maria Moubayed & Julia Pavón
- Monasticism at Leyre
- Art and architecture at the monastery
- San Virila
- Monastic food and economy
During the walk from Leyre to Javier :
- What is the Sacred?
- 2 hours of silent walk where the student will note their experience in their pilgrimage journal
Day 4 | Mythical Birth of the Kingdom of Navarra & the Jesuits’ Mission
Day 5 | The Catholic Kings and Queens
Itinerary: Sos del Rey Catolico à Sanguesa 2h30 (12KM) Bus to à Santa Criz 18 mins (19.5km)
Profs: Anna Dulska, Ruth Breeze, and Anna-Maria Moubayed
- Christianity & Judaism
- Norse mythology
Day 6 | Romans in Navarra, Movies and Innovative Architecture
Day 7 | Puente la Reina
Itinerary: Puente la Reina à Pamplona 5hr30 (22.7km)
Profs: Anna-Maria Moubayed, Inés Olza, Albert Recasens
- Y-shaped crosS
- Daily life of a pilgrim – Who was the Reina?
- Music and the Camino
Day 8 | Pamplona
Profs: Anna-Maria Moubayed, Inés Olza & Juan-Pablo Dominguez & Raquel Cascales
- Walking tour of the old city
- Wrap up at the University Museum
Day 9 | Pamplona
Profs: Anna-Maria Moubayed, Julia Pavón, & Albert Recasens
- Visit of the archives with Prof Pavón
- In situ religious music with Prof Recasens
Day 10 | Fashion on the Camino (Optional)
Profs: Anna-Maria Moubayed & Patricia SanMiguel
- Visit of the Balenciaga Museum
Evaluation
Students and participants will carry a journal in which they will write about their journey:
things they have learned, how they felt walking every day, people they met, etc.
They will then be invited to contribute to the Instagram account @el_camino_de_las_mujeres
by creating a reel post about something they have experienced on the Camino (i.e. artwork,
place, object, historical event, what pilgrimage means for them, etc.)
Additional Notes
This is an experiential course which will involve consistent walking over many days along the Camino trail. It is a companion course to Prof. Moubayed’s theoretical and historical course “The Women’s Way: Art, Architecture, History, and Cultural Products of the Camino de Santiago” (to be offered as a full-semester course in the Winter Term of 2025). However, the two courses can be taken separately without prerequisites.
The cost for Ontario students is 1,500 CAD and 1,700 CAD for international students, respectively. Students pay for their own transportation, room and board (the university will provide suggestions for accommodations along the walking path). There will be an info session held in the Winter term where all logistical details will be discussed (date TBD).