COURSE OVERVIEW
You are required to enroll in a total of 4 courses to receive full academic credit, choosing from a combination of courses offered through CASA center (at least two) and the University of Havana.
Language of instruction
CASA Cuba is a language immersion program, and as such, you are required to take all of your courses in Spanish.
CASA/University Courses
CASA Cuba
| Courses/Subjects | Total courses | Total credits/hours |
|---|---|---|
| CASA Seminar | 1 | 2 hrs week. No credit. |
| CASA Courses | 2-3 | 4 / 60 hours each |
| Direct enrollment courses | 1-2 | 2/3/4/ semester-hour credits 32/48/64 contact hours |
➢ After selecting CASA courses students choose from an extensive course offering at the University of Havana. Please consult the following documents for typical course offers per semester to view the local course offering and accompanying descriptions. Bear in mind that there may be adaptations (more or different courses) from one year to another.
University of Havana Course Offers
➢ As UH does not post its current course offering online, you need to refer to courses from a previous academic year, making sure that you select courses offered during the relevant semester. Most courses repeat each academic year, but may be taught by different professors.
Faculty of Arts and Letters offer
Faculty of Philosophy, History and Sociology
➢ There will be a number of innovative, elective courses that vary from semester to semester, but they only become available and are confirmed once the semester starts.
➢ Please bear in mind that this is not an exhaustive list of courses, but rather an example of courses that have been offered in past semesters.
➢ Courses may be limited in space availability and/or may require prerequisites; therefore, you should compile a preliminary list of at least five UH courses that can be narrowed down to a final course load of one or two courses and 6-8 full academic credits.
➢ Final course selection and enrollment will take place two weeks after your classes start.
➢ You should refrain from taking online classes as part of your coursework in order to align with CASA Cuba’s immersive nature and program objectives. There are no local online classes.
➢ It is essential for you to have your course selection approved by your home school academic advisor to ensure that credit will be awarded for your chosen courses.
Examples of the courses commonly taught at the CASA Center can be found below. The courses offered at CASA are specifically designed for international students with little or no knowledge of Cuba, include site visits and invited experts that will engage with students. The format of theses classes is more akin to the US/international seminar style with debates, presentations etc.
CASA Courses - Fall 2025
Professor: M.Sc. Tania Sevillano Hernández
2011- Master in Didactics of Spanish and Literature, at the “Enrique José Varona” University of Pedagogical Sciences. Thesis: Workshop system for the development of oral communication in first-year students of the Spanish-Literature degree. Professor of the Department of Linguistic Studies of the University of the Arts, ISA Taught: Linguistic Studies, Theaterology and Dramaturgy profile, Faculty: Theater Art Writing and composition, Ballet profile, Faculty: Dance Art.
e-mail: sofisaul3@gmail.com
Articles
2023: Analysis of language from the process of aestheticization of the arts in language classes. In: XXI Scientific Conference on Art and Culture 2023, III Symposium “Thought and humanities in the Arts”.
2022: The construction of professional pedagogical discourse. In the book “Manual to analyze and construct professional pedagogical discourses.” Compilation made by Alicia Toledo Costa and Oriniel Martinez Ibarra. The book with ISBN 9789974949683, Montevideo, Uruguay.
Course Description
The course seeks to consolidate previously acquired knowledge of the language by students. It provides tools and exercises that will be useful for reading skills, discussions, presentations, research activities and the preparation of academic essays, as well as for the daily use of the Spanish language. The course helps the student in his linguistic and sociocultural immersion in Cuba.
Professor Dr. Rafael Hernández Rodríguez. Political scientist, researcher, writer. He directs the journal of social sciences and cultural studies Temas. He has been a professor at the University of Havana and the Higher Institute of International Relations; Researcher at the Center for American Studies and at the Juan Marinello Institute. He has taught as visiting professor at Harvard, Columbia, the University of Texas, the University of Puerto Rico; CIDE and ITAM in Mexico, Renmin University in China; and served as a visiting scholar at the Wilson Center (Washington DC) and the Institute of Developing Economies (Tokyo). He has published on Cuban and US politics, inter-American relations, international security, migration, Cuban culture, civil society.
e-mail: rafaelmhdez@yahoo.com
Articles
"Conflict resolution" between the United States and Cuba: clarifications, premises and precautions.
In: Ritter A.R.M., Kirk J.M. (eds) Cuba in the International System. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London.Cuba in the International System
The story of the future. On the 5 and odd lessons of Obama before the Cuban civil society.
The story of the future.
Cuba. For a socialism without fear
Course Description
This seminar examines the complexities of the US-Cuba conflict, a case study at the crossroads of North-South and East-West tensions, focusing on its most recent developments from the Cold War to the present, on domestic and multilateral interactions , nationals. international interests and actors, as well as points of convergence and confrontation at the bilateral, regional and extra-hemispheric level. This conflict is explored as an intermestic relationship, considering the roles that both countries play in each other's internal affairs. The seminar will emphasize the case of Cuba-United States relations as a paradigm for understanding nationalism and imperialism, the limits of US power, and the dynamics of Third World revolutions. It focuses in depth on the main themes that have shaped current relations between the United States and Cuba, their different political values and national interests, ideological and cultural representations, and their current meanings; but also their “ties of singular intimacy”, cultural affinities, mutual images and civic cultures. This special relationship offers a case study to discuss how a conflict matrix also involves real and potential instances of cooperation, where creative politics can flourish and develop the current process of normalization, with all its complexities and perspectives.
Professor: Dr. Enrique Beldarrain Chaple Medical specialist in Epidemiology. Doctor of Health Sciences. Full Professor of the Medical University of Havana, Senior Researcher. Research Coordinator of the National Information Center for Medical Sciences. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba. He has published 5 books and 72 scientific articles.
e-mail: ebch@infomed.sld.cu
Articles
First historical epidemiological approach to COVID-19 in Cuba. Annals of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba; Vol. 10, No. 2 (2020): special COVID-19.
The COVID-19 pandemic, case studies: Australia, New Zealand and Cuba.
Course Description
The course takes an initial historical tour of Cuban medicine and the development of health institutions and their relationship with society at each historical moment, reaching the present day where it analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Cuba, the multidisciplinary response designed to face it, the role of science in that response, biotechnology, social behavior and the influence of the disease in all aspects of contemporary life.
Possible course offerings for spring 2026.
In the Fall 2025 semester, courses will be addressed in:
Elements of Spanish grammar and writing and style, Professor: Tania Sevillano Hernández.
U.S.-Cuban Relations: A Debate, Professor: Dr. Rafael Hernández Rodríguez.
Society and Health in Cuba. Professor: Dr. Enrique Beldarrain Chaple.
, which, together with History of Cuba, Economy and Cuba Image, will be the possible courses for Spring 2026.
Professor Dr. Yoel Cordoví Núñez
Yoel Cordoví Núñez, born on December 1, 1971 in Güines, province of Havana, is a prominent Cuban historian. He has a doctorate in Historical Sciences, obtained from the University of Havana in 2007, and a doctorate in Pedagogical Sciences, obtained in 2019. He currently serves as president of the Institute of History of Cuba and is a senior researcher and professor at the Raúl Roa García Higher Institute of International Relations (ISRI). He is also a member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences and the Union of Historians of Cuba. Among his main works are Liberalism, crisis and independence of Cuba, 1880-1904 (2003), Teaching and Nationalism in the public schools of Cuba. 1899-1920 (2012), Máximo Gómez. Utopia of reality of a republic (2009) and Cuban emigration in the United States. Structures, directives and currents of thought (2012).
Articles:
“La Universidad Popular José Martí en la órbita del pensamiento político de Julio Antonio Mella, 1923-1927”, en Historia Caribe, Universidad del Atlántico, Barranquilla, Colombia, vol. 16, no. 38, enero-junio 2021, La Universidad Popular José Martí en la órbita del pensamiento político de Julio Antonio Mella...
“Mapeando saberes, debates y tensiones sobre la educación de los cuerpos. El caso del X Congreso Panamericano de Educación Física, Cuba 1986” (coautoría con Pablo A. Scharagrodsky: Perfiles De La Cultura Cubana, (29), 300–400, La Habana, 2021, Perfiles De La Cultura Cubana
“Del calabozo a la disciplina moral: metáforas de la Escuela y los controles escolares en Cuba, 1793-1902”, en Ariadna Tucma. Revista Latinoamericana, Buenos Aires, 2022, metáforas de la Escuela y los controles escolares en Cuba
“Cuba en vísperas de la Revolución de 1868”, en Desperta Ferro. Historia Moderna, no. 70, Madrid, 2024, Cuba (1868-1878). La Guerra Grande
Course Description
Professor Dr. Jorge Mario Sánchez Egozcue
Professor of International Economics at the University of Havana and the Cuban Center for International Economic Research (CIEI). He has lectured and been a visiting professor at the Brookings Institute and at the University of Texas at Austin, Columbia, and Harvard Universities, among others. He has numerous publications in international academic journals on US-Cuban relations, the Cuban economy, and international relations.
e-mail: jorgemse@yahoo.com
Articles
US-Cuba Relations Debate: How Should We Play Ball Now?
Debating-USCuban-Relations-How-Should-We-NowPlay-Ball
UnitedStates Cuba economic relations: pending normalization
Course Description
The course presents a selection of topics related to the general features that characterize the Cuban economy, the evolution of its structural transformations, and the challenges that arise for policies of international integration and economic and social development in the medium and long term.
E-mail: jorgemse@yahoo.com
Professor Lic. Víctor Fowler Calzada
Poet, essayist, critic, narrator. He received the National Award for Criticism 1998, with his book "The curse". He is a frequent commentator on race relations in Cuba in national and international media. Her research interests cover the history of Cuban literature, as well as its reflections on the problems of gender, race and sexual identity. He has won several national awards as a poet. He is currently working on a volume of essays on some projects of social transformation in the country from the end of the 19th century to the present. Member of the Cuban Association of Cinematographic Art.
e-mail: oppianos@gmail.com
Articles
Discriminations: Terms to discuss and tools for action
http://www.lajiribilla.cu/articulo/discriminaciones-terminos-para-discutir-y-herramientas-para-la-accion
An exercise in auto-ethnography.
http://www.lajiribilla.cu/articulo/un-ejercicio-de-auto-etnografia
