A structured, supportive space where locals, expats, and students regularly convene for guided intellectual discussions and high-level language exchange.
The Málaga Critical Thinking Seminar is a weekly graduate seminar-style meeting where a diverse group of the area’s residents and visitors come together to read and discuss key works in literary studies, participate in facilitated cultural and linguistic exchange, and consciously strengthen their critical thinking skills in an increasingly AI-driven world.
More than a reading group, the MCTS is structured and intentional. It is neither an overly familiar chat, nor a space of formal debate. Instead, it’s an opportunity for us to focus, together, on how an idea, an argument, or a context can act as a lens for understanding — and living — our day-to-day lives in new, engaged, and critically informed ways.
Learning from and working alongside other adults, especially those unlike us, is stimulating, rewarding, and fulfilling. Now more than ever, we need to collaborate in order to live together.
The rapid expansion of AI technologies means that we don’t just live in a “post-truth” era anymore, but that our actual capacities for critical thought are in jeopardy.
The problem is paradoxical:
The volume of available information — most of it AI “slop” — has skyrocketed, and we are faced with the responsibility of sifting through more content than ever, most of it absolute garbage. This requires a high level of discernment from every individual.
Yet, our increased reliance on AI means we outsource our learning and productivity to machines. This not only increases social and intellectual isolation, as we rely less on each other for knowledge exchange and understanding varied perspectives, it does material, muscular damage to our critical thinking abilities.
The MCTS is an opportunity to address the rise of AI and its effects on us as critically thinking members of the world. We not only need to rely on our neighbors, but fortify our capacities to engage and interact with each other in productive, understanding, and compassionate ways.
The MCTS provides a space for Málaga’s inhabitants to commune across differences in a city increasingly experiencing all kinds of problems related to capitalism, gentrification, uneven distribution, cultural chauvinism, forced diversification, and more.
Who is the Málaga Critical Thinking Seminar for?
MCTS was conceived with three primary demographics in mind:
Currently enrolled or recently graduated university students who, for whatever reason, haven’t had access to university-level instruction on topics that continue to animate U.S. academic circles and dominate the global critical thinking landscape.
Local Spanish life-long learners and other professionals who are interested in the facilitated exchange of knowledge and ideas, and high-level English language-learning.
International expat residents who want to make a real effort at accessing local communities, and work to gain insight into your new neighbors, their culture, and their perspectives on the issues of today.
Seminar Details:
When:
12 x weekly in-person meetings of 1.5-2 hours each.
Begins week of September 14th; ends week of December 16th.
Specific time and weekday TBA.
Where:
Location TBA.
If you’re interested in hosting the Málaga Critical Thinking Seminar, please get in touch!
How it works:
Weekly reading to be completed before each meeting. Readings available for free online.
Weekly in-person meetings of 1.5-2 hours each, depending on cohort size.
12 total sessions, 10 readings.
Graduate seminar-style crosstalk and respectful dialogue.
Facilitated by university instructor.
Multi-lingual; we’ll use the linguistic resources at our disposal.
Regular, scheduled virtual office hours (available to monthly or semester students).
Cost:
More information on a tiered and sliding-scale pricing system will be announced soon.