This course is intended as an introduction to the cultural diversity of the world through the analysis of its major regions. The course programme is organised into two main parts: -The first part introduces the concepts of world regions and cultural areas and presents the main systems and proposals for global cultural regionalisation in order to explain, in the second part, the most important cultural characteristics of some of the following macro-regions. The aim of this first part is to provide a critical framework that allows, on the one hand, to address some of the historical and geopolitical issues that affect the understanding and categorisation of world regions, and on the other hand, to discuss more specifically the relationship between culture and geographical space in the contemporary era, and therefore to tackle the issue of how cultural phenomena and processes are shaped, affected and transformed in their networked spatial dimension within the current framework of globalisation. -The second part describes and explains the main geographical and cultural elements of each of the selected regions: the Arab world, monsoon Asia, the Slavic world, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. The emphasis in this second section is on understanding the most salient cultural features of each of these regions, based on a general explanation of the geographical, demographic, geopolitical, political and socio-economic characteristics of each region. It is therefore assumed that a cultural region is, formally, one whose population shares similar cultural characteristics, including elements such as history, cultural landscapes (as a product of the relationship between societies and the natural environment), language, religion, food, political systems and traditions, etc. These elements, and the cultural diversity they reveal, will be framed within an explanation of the broader underlying metaphysical structures, worldviews and mythological systems (their formation, diffusion and mixing), as historically formative elements of the so-called 'cultural hearths' that have given rise to the great civilisations and which, therefore, can allow us to reflect on cultural diversity. PROGRAMME: PART ONE. GLOBAL CULTURES: ISSUES AND CONTROVERSIES. Unit 1. World regions, cultural areas and civilisations. Main systems and proposals for cultural regionalisation of the world. Unit 2. 'Metageographies'. Culture, geographical imaginaries and the geopolitics of spatial structures. Unit 3. The contemporary configuration of world cultures: cultural assets, flows and identities in the context of globalisation. PART TWO. ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT CULTURAL REGIONS Unit 4. The Arab world (North Africa and the Middle East). Unit 5. Monsoon Asia (South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia). Unit 6. The Slavic world (Russia and Eastern Europe). Unit 7. Latin America. Unit 8. Sub-Saharan Africa.

The course combines theoretical sessions and practical sessions. Theoretical sessions present the basic contents of the syllabus and aim at providing students with conceptual and methodological key elements. Theoretical sessions will be developed through classroom lectures by the teacher, while practical sessions will be focused on the discussion of a number of issues, drawing for that in the reading, presentation and critical analysis of selected texts (given by the instructor), as well as on learning to analyze specific issues and cultural traits as they express regionally. In that sense, a number of practical sessions will consist of students¿ oral presentations of their group projects with a follow-up discussion with the classmates and teacher. All in all, students shall carry out three types of assignments when it comes to continuous assessment: -preparation of activities of discussion, including exposition and critical analysis of texts from the reading list; -an essay on a specific issue discussed in the second part of the course (group project); -a final exam bout the contents of the course. Tutorials will be carried out through the procedures established by the university.