Hispanic Studies Course Descriptions

SPAN 101 - Elementary Spanish I

An introduction to Spanish language and culture that emphasizes the basic language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Primary emphasis is placed on interpersonal and presentational oral skills and on functioning in real-life situations in a Spanish-language cultural context. Taught in Spanish. Offered each spring.

SPAN 102 - Elementary Spanish II

A continuation of basic language skills developed in 101, with exposure to more complicated structural forms as well as cultural issues. Primary emphasis is placed on interpersonal and presentational oral skills and on functioning in real-life situations in a Spanish-language cultural context. Taught in Spanish. Prerequisite: Spanish 101 or equivalent. Offered each fall.

SPAN 201 - Intermediate Spanish (LA)

This course continues the proficiency-oriented approach of the Beginning Spanish sequence. It is designed to strengthen the basic language skills introduced in 101 and 102 with an emphasis on interpersonal and presentational oral skills. Students have to attend one weekly conversation session. Taught in Spanish. Prerequisite: Spanish 102 or equivalent. Offered every semester.

SPAN 203 - Spanish as a World Language (G)

This course reviews Spanish structural forms and builds vocabulary in the context of developing speaking, listening, reading and writing skills, and examines the diverse Spanish-speaking cultures. In-class time focuses on the development of interpersonal and presentational skills, while out-of-class time will be directed toward the development of interpretative skills. Cannot enroll in this course if you've already taken Span 303. Offered each semester.

SPAN 223 - Radio Latina (.5)

A weekly guided conversation with Hispanic Studies faculty and students. If you are curious about current events in the Spanish-speaking world and you want to practice your reading and speaking skills in Spanish, this class is for you. Credit/No Credit. Doesn’t count for Hispanic Studies Major/Minors. Prerequisites: Spanish 201 or equivalent. Offered occasionally.

SPAN 230 - Medical Spanish and Cultural Competency of Health Care (U)

This course is designed for students planning to work in health care and who want to acquire more skills in medical Spanish. We will discuss Hispanic culture in the U.S., particularly how it relates to health care. Students will participate in an informal internship at a local community clinic. Prerequisite: Spanish 201 or equivalent. Offered each spring semester. Video: Dr. Nadeau Discusses the Course

SPAN 240 - Spanish for Social Justice (U)

Students develop language skills and cultural competency for situations that focus on social justice. Fieldwork in one of the following areas: immigration, housing, education, employment and voter rights is a key part of the course. Prerequisite: Spanish 201 or equivalent. Offered alternate years, fall semester.

SPAN 250 - Business Spanish in its Cultural Context (G)

This course is designed for students planning to work in business or accounting and who want to acquire more business-related language and cultural competency skills before entering the workforce. Students will read and analyze business documents in Spanish, present oral reports, and work 1-3 hours/week as part of a group project related to the local Latino community. Prerequisite: Spanish 201 or equivalent. Offered annually.

SPAN 300 - Intensive Language Study

When taken abroad in an approved program. This course should be an intensive practice of intermediate/advanced oral and written communication skills in the language. Credit should be discussed and approved by the department chair before departure. Prerequisite: Spanish 203 or equivalent. Offered each semester.

SPAN 301 - Topics in Hispanic Studies

Taken abroad in an approved program. Subject matter might include anthropology, economics, history, literature, political science, or other. Credit should be discussed with the department head before departure. Prerequisite: Spanish 303. Offered as needed.

SPAN 303 - Communicating Across Cultures in the Spanish-speaking World

Practice of advanced oral communication strategies and a thorough review of basic problems of Spanish grammar for English-speakers. The class focuses on practicing interpersonal, presentational, and interpretive communication skills while comparing and contrasting different cultures within the Spanish-speaking world and placing the language in the socio-cultural context where it arises. Prerequisite: Span 203 or equivalent. Offered each semester.

SPAN 305 - Travel Seminar

Travel with a faculty member to countries in which Spanish is spoken. Will include independent projects, a daily journal, and field trips to cultural monuments, museums, and other sites of interest. An experience in linguistic and cultural immersion. Prerequisites vary. Offered occasionally.

SPAN 307 - Reading and Writing Culture (W, G)

In this assignment-based course, students will strengthen reading and writing skills in Spanish through a variety of cultural texts; use writing as a tool for discovery, and explore research paths beyond the basics (accessing authoritative, quality information; using information ethically, and understanding MLA-style conventions). Prerequisite: Spanish 303 or equivalent. Offered annually.

SPAN 308 - Introduction to Literature (LT, G)

An introduction to literary analysis. Major authors, themes, and genres from both Latin America and Spain are included, with basic concepts of contemporary literary criticism and theory. Prerequisite: Spanish 303 or equivalent. Offered annually.

SPAN 311 - Spanish Across the Curriculum

Taken in conjunction with a course outside the department, this course integrates Spanish language and cultural competency with studies in disciplines commonly taught in English. For example, Business Law and Marketing in Spanish. May be repeated as topics change. Prerequisite: SPAN 303 or equivalent. Offered occasionally.

SPAN 317 - Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics (FR)

Examines Spanish language as a functional system of communication. Emphasis is on general principles of linguistic analysis: sound, form, order and on linguistic changes related to temporal, regional and social pressures. Prerequisite: SPAN 303. Offered occasionally.

SPAN 321 - The Spanish Baroque (IT)

This course examines the intellectual history of the Spanish Baroque from the seventeenth-century to expressions of the neo-Baroque today. Works studied may include Calderón’s theatre, Velázquez’s painting, Zayas’ novels, essays by Wölfflin and Sarduy, and Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. This course fulfills the pre-1900 requirement. Prerequisite: SPAN 307 Offered in alternate years.

SPAN 322 - The New Spanish Citizen (IT, G) (Cross-listed with LC 222)

This class explores citizenship as it relates to cultural identity in the Iberian Peninsula. Through the lenses of art, film, and literature, we will analyze how different notions of home and belonging have shaped contemporary Spanish society over time. Prerequisites: SPAN 307. Offered in alternate years.

SPAN 324 - Muslim Spain: the Rise and Fall of the Caliphate of Cordoba (912-1031) (CHC) (Cross-listed with LC 234)

This course studies Islamic Spain from the cultural splendor of al-Andalus, with a focus on the Caliphate of Córdoba (912-1031), to its legacy present in Spain today. We will explore accounts of paradise and expulsion and analyze the complex portrait of Muslims, Christians, and Jews coexisting as they transformed the Western world. This course fulfills the pre-1900 requirement. Prerequisite: SPAN 307 Offered in alternate years

SPAN 326 - Latin American Film (AR, G)

This course will strive to understand the scope and relevance of Latin American film, in general, and the specifics of the filmic production of Mexico, Brazil, Cuba and Argentina. The course will develop the ability to read, understand and discuss films as a unique medium and teach the ability to understand films as cultural products that are the result of particular historical conditions. Prerequisites: SPAN 307 or equivalent. Offered in alternate years.

SPAN 327 - Latin American Revolutionaries

This course will analyze different instances of insurgency in Latin America, including peaceful leftist mobilizations and violent revolutions. We will look at the development of national identities, the wars of independence in the Americas, the Mexican Revolution, the Cuban Revolution, the Cold War, Central America’s civil wars, transnationality and immigration. Prerequisite: SPAN 307 or equivalent. Offered in alternate years.

SPAN 328 - Pre-Columbian and Colonial Latin America (CHC)

This course will study the pre-Columbian background of the Americas, the conquest period, and three centuries of Spanish colonial rule. Students will understand the interplay between culture, power, encounter, and exchange in the Americas, as well as the basic frameworks of Hispanic culture, the organizing principles of various Mesoamerican and Andean cultures, and the material frameworks of conquest and colonization. This course fulfills the pre-1900 requirement. Prerequisites: SPAN 307 or equivalent. Offered in alternate years.

SPAN 332 - Resisting Dictatorship: Spain and Chile (CHC, G) (Cross-listed with LC 232)

This class explores how Chilean and Spanish societies endured decades-long brutal dictatorships and how both nations emerged as democratic systems in the late 20th century. We will examine the on-going legacies of dictatorship and the politics of memory as these play out in contemporary Spain and Chile. Prerequisite: SPAN 307. Offered in alternate years.

SPAN 334 - Cultures of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean (CHC)

Introduction to the cultures of Cuba, The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Focus on historical development of culture and national identity, given the multicultural Indigenous, Spanish and African heritage, to understand the complexities of race, color, class. Students analyze the question of equity, justice and power in contemporary Caribbean societies. Prerequisite: SPAN 307. Offered in alternate years.

SPAN 336 - Underground Hip Hop Culture in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean (CHC,G)

Focus on the underground hip hop movement that affirms Afro-Hispanic identity through lyrics which examine the notion of beauty through an Afrocentric lens rather than one of the dominant Eurocentric culture. We analyze critical issues that affect justice, equity and inclusion for self-identifying Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC). Prerequisite: SPAN 307. Offered in alternate years

SPAN 341 - Don Quijote: The First Modern Novel (LIT) (Cross-listed with LC 241)

This course formulates and develops our ideas of Cervantes, of Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries, and of literature in general. It explores the multiplicity of genres and cultural practices that exist within Don Quijote and examines its enduring influences on both literature and popular culture. This course fulfills the pre-1900 requirement. Prerequisite: SPAN 308. Offered alternate years.

SPAN 344 - Dangerous Texts (LIT, G) (Cross-listed with LC 244)

This course explores contemporary Spanish literature as a site for denunciation and resistance. What makes a text dangerous? How does the Spanish society deal with this threat? How does it affect the nature of writing? We will analyze different genres and authors from the 20th and 21st centuries. Prerequisite: SPAN 308. Offered in alternate years.

SPAN 346 - Visual Cultures of Modern Spain (IT, G) (Cross-listed with LC 246)

Analysis of main aesthetic, cultural, and philosophical questions as articulated in Spanish film and the visual arts. Prerequisite: SPAN 308. Offered in alternate years.

SPAN 347 - Latin American Short Story (LIT)

This course will study the short story in Latin America, including Quiroga, Rulfo, Cortazar, Borges, Bombal, Garcia Marquez and Allende, and the principal literary, social and political movements that produced those stories, such as Regionalism, the Avant Garde, Existentialism, the Boom, the post-Boom and Feminism. Prerequisite: SPAN 308 or equivalent. Offered in alternate years

SPAN 348 - Latin American Women Writers (LIT)

This course will provide a general knowledge of Latin American women writers through a literary, cultural and historical study. We will establish the historical importance and cultural contributions of Sor Juana, Gomez de Avellaneda, Bombal, Ferre, Mastretta and Allende, including their marginalization from the canon and emergence from traditional inaccessibility to the production of official culture. Prerequisite: SPAN 308 or equivalent. Offered in alternate years.

SPAN 351 - Identity and Alterity in Latino Literature (LIT, U)

Explores literature by Latinos/as/xes born or raised in the United States to examine the notion of individual and collective identity. How do they define their identity in relation to that of their parents and ancestors, or fellow Americans? We analyze prose from the 20th and 21st centuries. Prerequisite: SPAN 308. Offered alternate years.

SPAN 353 - Afro-Latino/x Literature (LIT, U)

Analysis of Afro-Hispanic literature from Latin America and the United States to understand the representation of racial and cultural identity through literature. Focus on understanding denial and affirmation of blackness in the Caribbean and other Latin American nations. Emphasis on literary readings and critical texts by authors from these nations. Prerequisite: SPAN 308. Offered in alternate years.

SPAN 395 - Directed Study in Spanish

A project of interest to the student related to the advanced study of the Spanish language, or the cultures and literatures of Spanish-speaking countries. Normally topics may not duplicate the content of regularly offered courses. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor and the chair of the department. Students must submit a plan of study prior to enrollment, see form here. Offered as needed.

SPAN 397 - Internship

Opportunities to apply linguistic and cultural skills in a professional context in a wide variety of professional areas and locations including local, domestic, and international sites. Visit the Career Center for procedures and requirements. Prerequisites: Spanish 303 and consent of instructor. Offered occasionally. Internship opportunities in the B/N community here.

SPAN 491 - Advanced Directed Study

A major research project developed in consultation with a Hispanic Studies faculty member. Emphasizes original research in Spanish, and may lead to the completion of a research honors project. Prerequisites: Hispanic Studies majors and minors with senior standing, and consent of department chair. Students must submit a plan of study prior to enrollment, see form here. Offered as needed.