Archive for January/2012

by Rolf Strom-Olsen, Academic Director of  Humanities Studies at IE School of Arts & Humanities

How do you teach the humanities to MBA students without them demanding a refund on their tuition fees? And, at a time when the humanities are under threat at many universities, what is the value of such a curriculum?

I received my PhD in history from Northwestern University, with a focus on court ritual and political development under the Dukes of Burgundy in the 15th century. Today, I am a professor at IE University and IE Business School in Madrid, an institution that offers professional degrees (business, law and such). I teach a variety of humanities courses to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Coming from a North American background, I found this a very interesting classroom experience for a number of reasons. First, there is the extraordinary diversity of the student body. Before I came here, I had read that diversity was one of the institution’s real strengths. This, of course, sounds like the usual pablum offered up by any number of university brochures, but the reality has more than lived up to the billing. The range of both nationalities and, in our graduate classes, life experiences is exceptional. From a pedagogical perspective, this has been intriguing because, in a class where every student is “international”, no student is foreign. As a result, no one cultural viewpoint dominates.

Second, at the business school I have had the opportunity to develop a core humanities class called Creative Management Thinking for our international MBA programme. This journey from medieval Burgundy to the modern business classroom has been an interesting challenge.

When I was asked to design a humanities core course for the MBA programme, I discovered that there was no obvious precedent. There are plenty of examples of importing humanities into business curricula, such as ethics, or business and economic history. But such classes tend to be offered as electives, implying that their value is not central to the underlying goals of the programme. How can a humanities course be designed that is both comprehensible to professional degree-seekers and also integrated into the fundamental pedagogical aims of the broader programme?

There is no precise blueprint for achieving this, but one thing that is essential is to separate methodology from discipline. I do not walk into my MBA classroom to tell the students about late medieval European history. Instead, I have adapted the analytical tools that I learned and use as a historian – how to assess evidence, how to construct arguments, how to read events and interpret phenomena – to inflect differently the way in which MBA students speak about management, the economy and society.

Finally, it is worth contextualising this experience within the lively debates that are occurring (albeit separately) about both the future of the humanities within the academy and the pedagogical diversity and intent of MBA programmes. With the chorus of “quo vadis” coming from funding-deprived humanities departments and a recognition (especially after the financial meltdown of 2008) that MBA education plays a critical role in determining the character of business practices, the potential fusion of the humanities and MBA programmes could not be more timely.

I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to help explore, in a wonderfully diverse setting, what this fusion can look like.

As published in Times Higher Education

This past January 26th, IE hosted the round table “ARCOMadrid and Contemporary Art collecting”, attended by a capacity crowd more than 100 people. The event was chaired by Arantza de Areilza, Dean of the IE School of Arts & Humanities, and included as panelists Carlos Urroz, the director of ARCO, Elisa Hernando, a former economist who is now a successful art advisor, Francisco Gonzalez, a successful lawyer and collector, and Julieta Rafecas, an art historian with a wide experience in both the primary and secondary art markets.

Carlos Urroz began the panel discussion by explaining in general how art fairs work and the world of collectors, and then focused specifically on the fair that he runs, emphasizing the ways to identify and evaluate a collector. Afterwards he described the different initiatives that had been introduced under his mandate in the fair, e.g. First Collector, and the different activities that are being jointly organized with other institutions such as the Fundación ICO or the Fundación La Caixa.
Elisa Hernando started with a brief analysis of the art market and the nature of investment, which often informs the acquisition of a work of art, with a special emphasis on the Mei Moses Index. She then explained the interesting initiative that she runs in ARCO, First Collector, whose goal is to introduce beginners to the world of collecting. This project, linked to the ARCO art fair, is individually customized to the interests and budget of each participant. At the end of the workshop, participants receive a dossier at the entrance of the fair which contains specific information about available works that comply with their criteria.

Francisco Cantos, the only presenter not professionally involved in the art world, spoke above all about the emotional aspects of collecting art, underscoring his remarks with the observation “collecting is addictive and Freud classified it as a disease.” He also talked about his experience as a collector and the owner of a large art collection, and shared several photos of works he owns with the audience. According to Francisco, “the benefit of acquiring a work of art for subjective reasons, that is to say on impulse and not as an investment, is that you can enjoy the work, and if you are wrong [about its future value] there is no drama.”

Julieta Rafecas, pick up the theme of how collecting can become an obsession and how, in fact, it can move from a mere activity to a very way of life. She explored how a large art collection is managed, detailing how something that starts as a hobby can end up being one’s legacy. In certain cases this can mean the creation of a specific museum. In other cases, however, it can go beyond this, and she noted the Guggenheim collection which today serves as the basis of a global museum brand. She also talked about certain oddities such as the Anita and Poju Zabludowicz Center, whose collection of contemporary art is housed in a Methodist church in London. She concluded the session by remarking “the collections of today are the foundations of the museums of tomorrow.”

After the presentation there was a round of questions, which led to an interesting discussion between the panelist and members of the IE Community.

Por Rafael Puyol, Vicepresidente de IE Foundation

Creo que no hay peor cosa para las mujeres y los jóvenes que el ser elegidos para ocupar cargos políticos o empresariales por esa simple condición. Las “cuotas” sea cual fuere el motivo de su uso no me parecen un buen sistema para la selección de personas que debe obedecer más a razones de capacidad o de mérito que a motivos prioritarios de sexo o edad. Esto es lo que parece ha pensado Rajoy al nombrar su equipo de Gobierno. Es de suponer y sobre todo de desear que todos sus miembros reúnan los conocimientos y las habilidades suficientes para aportar en tiempos  difíciles las inmensas tareas a las que se enfrentan. Pero lo que sí resulta claro es que el Presidente no se ha regido por las cuotas, ni por un criterio de edades para elegir a sus colaboradores inmediatos. Vean si no los grandes números: 13 responsables ministeriales, de los que 9 son hombres y 4 mujeres, con un abanico de edades entre 40 (Soraya) y 67 (Margallo) y una media de 55,5 años. Cuando Zapatero fue elegido Secretario General del PSOE su triunfo fue considerado como la victoria de la “esperanza” contra la “experiencia” (Bono). Y la verdad es que no nos fue muy bien. Ahora Rajoy  ha seguido criterios distintos al escoger un buen puñado de “seniors” para convertir la experiencia en la esperanza del cambio. Hay varios ministros sesentones, pero pese a que todos peinen canas eso no significa que no tengan sus habilidades intactas para desarrollar su misión. En un país donde los trabajadores mayores sufren una injusta discriminación, la elección del gobierno es un claro ejemplo a seguir que no tenía demasiados precedentes. Es la apuesta por personas con una larga trayectoria profesional en la que han acumulado experiencias, destrezas, capacidad de asombro y una imprescindible comprensión de la maldad humana. Son gente bien formada para la vida que tienen que afrontar, preparadas igualmente para asimilar el éxito que para soportar el fracaso .Y es que  la Demografía nos ha permitido ser jóvenes durante muchos más años.

IE School of Arts and Humanities en colaboración con la Asociación de Antiguos Alumnos del IE tiene el honor de invitarle a la mesa redonda titulada “ ARCOmadrid y el coleccionismo privado de arte contemporáneo” el jueves 26 de enero a las 19.30h.

“ARCOmadrid y el coleccionismo privado de arte contemporáneo” tratará las claves para iniciarse en la adquisición de obras de arte. El acto, estará moderado por Carlos Urroz, director de ARCOmadrid, y contará con la participación de Elisa Hernando, fundadora y directora de la empresa de consultoría Arte Global, quien hablará de cómo crear una colección privada y qué hay que tener presente a la hora de adquirir arte por primera vez; Francisco Cantos, secretario de la Fundación ARCO, quien dará a conocer su propia experiencia como joven coleccionista; y Julieta Rafecas, asesora y profesora de arte, quien expondrá la manera de promocionar una colección a fin de que se convierta en marca de un centro de arte o, incluso, impulse la economía de una región.

La conferencia se impartirá en el aula S-001 del Instituto de Empresa situada en c/ Serrano, 105.

En caso de ser de su interés, le rogamos confirme su asistencia a ArtsHumanities@ie.edu