Courses

This course continues the study of complex sentence patterns and reviews basic patterns in greater depth, partly through the discussion of authentic short stories. Students practice all four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) in Spanish. Taught five days a week in Spanish. 

This course is the second part of a two-term sequence, starting with a special section of SPAN 204 in the fall. The course offers an immersive experience in language and culture, focusing on boosting Spanish skills through instruction and immersion while exploring social justice issues. Participants connect with local leaders to deepen their understanding of Mexican culture. Upon returning to campus, students analyze their experiences through reflections and present their findings in a poster presentation. This program aims to equip participants with language proficiency and cultural sensitivity for a globalized world.

Pragmatics entails the relationship between language and context. This subfield of linguistics can help us become more aware and critical of what we say, whether it be in our native language or a second language. After reviewing some basic theoretical components, students will use their experiences in Spain as a “laboratory” to reflect on their own interactions and observations during their daily lives abroad. Although the concepts covered are applicable to any language, this class focuses primarily on Spanish, often contrasted with cultural and linguistic differences in English regarding conversational styles, speech acts, politeness and verbal interaction in general.

Motherhood is central in Latin-American literature of the twenty-first century. Beyond the tendency to represent motherhood as a paradise of love and snuggles, Latin-American writers have been proposing new reconfigurations of family. Families that are not bonded by blood. In this class we will study novels, poems, and short stories about these non-traditional families, for example, families that are led by trans-women, families that are formed between species (with plants or animals), among others. We will analyze what insights these fictional families can offer on topics such as race, reproductive rights, legalization of abortion, marriage equality, and new feminisms.

This course examines the Islamic influence in the Iberian Peninsula between the 8th and the 16th centuries. The theoretical sessions will cover different periods (emirate, caliphate, taifa kingdoms, Almoravid, Almohad, and Nasrid) focusing on material culture, including the Mosque of Cordoba, Medina Azahara, Toledo, and the Alhambra. The course also aims to offer a more current vision of how Spaniards have integrated (or rejected) this Islamic past into their own national identity. These topics will address debates that have emerged within Spanish historiography over the past years: Was it an invasion or a conquest? Coexistence, tolerance, or confrontation?

In this course we study the relationship between myth and history in Central America since its origins in the Popol Vuh, the sacred texts of the Mayans until the period of the post-civil wars era. The course is organized in a chronological manner. We will study, in addition to the Popol Vuh, the chronicles of Alvarado, some poems by Rubén Darío and Francisco Gavidia, some of the writings of Miguel Ãngel Asturias and Salarrué. The course will end with a study of critical visions of the mythical presented by more contemporary authors such as Roque Dalton and Luis de Lión.

This course is a comparative study of classical and Christian tragedy from Sophocles to Valle  Inclán and from Aristotle to Nietzsche. Classes alternate between lectures and group discussions. Course requisites include a midterm exam and a final paper. All readings are in Spanish, Sophocles and Aristotle included.

Muslims conquered Spain in 711 and lived in the country roughly until 1614. This course will examine the Islamic origins of Spain from a variety of disciplines, including literature, religion, history, and art history. Topics covered include:Hispano-Arabic literature, the fall of Granada, the repression of Moriscos under Philip II, aljamiado literature (literature written in Spanish with Arabic characters), the expulsion of Moriscos, and the diaspora in Tunisia. We will also devote two weeks to the study of the representation of Turks, Muslims, and Moriscos in Cervantes’ plays and novels, including several chapters of his famous Don Quixote. All texts are in Spanish, including Arab sources by Ibn Hazm, Wallada, Muhya, and other Hispano-Arabic and Morisco writers.  

Within the capitalist system, the concept of dying well (Ars moriendi) has progressively lost its collective sense and meaning, relegated instead to the realm of individual responsibility. Simultaneously, the notion of a dignified death has ceased to be an inalienable right for all individuals, becoming contingent upon inherited privileges and access to private resources. Death, transformed into a taboo, coexists with an apocalyptic culture and a state of eco-anxiety stemming from ecological crises and the looming extinction of numerous species, potentially including humans. Some of our guiding questions will be: What implications does dying under capitalist conditions entail? Can cultural representation do more than merely comply with, comment or oppose these scenarios? Our exploration will encompass a diverse array of texts, films, and workshops featuring various guest speakers.

Among other things, Don Quijote is a "remake," an adaptation of several literary models popular at the time the picaresque novel, the chivalry novel, the sentimental novel, the Byzantine novel, the Italian novella, etc. This course will examine the ways in which Cervantes transformed these models to create what is considered by many the first "modern" novel in European history.

The 'Spanish economic miracle' refers to the period of accelerated economic growth in Francoist Spain from 1959 to 1973. This unprecedented economic expansion laid the groundwork for the rapid development of a capitalist system within a dictatorship, resulting in a profound transformation of Spanish social structure. This course will analyze the underlying factors that supported this structural transformation, the subsequent 2008 financial crisis, the Indignados Movement and the rise of the Commons—a system promoting equitable and sustainable life for all. This course features engaging workshops with expert guest speakers, exciting travel opportunities, and meaningful interactions with diverse social collectives.

This course offers an in-depth view of four of the greatest Spanish masters of all time—El Greco, Velázquez, Goya, and Picasso. The course combines class lectures at the Complutense University in Madrid with weekly museum visits and excursions outside Madrid to study, in person, iconic works of Western art such as El Greco's The Disrobing of Christ in Toledo's cathedral, Velázquez' Las  Meninas and Goya's Black Paintings at the Prado Museum, and Picasso's Guernica at the Reina Sofía Museum. Special attention will be given to artistic theory in the seventeenth and twentieth centuries.

Borges once said about Quevedo that he was less a man than a vast and complex literature. This phrase is probably the best definition for Borges as well. We will discuss the many writers encompassed by Borges: the vanguard writer, the poet, the detective short story writer, the fantastic story writer, the essayist. We will also study his many literary masks: H. Bustoc Domecq (the apocryphal writer he created with Bioy Casares) a pseudonym he used to write chronicles and detective stories. We will study his impact on contemporary writers and philosophers such as Foucault, Derrida, Roberto Bolaño, etc.

Carnivals are frequently associated with colourful crowds, merrymaking and excess. But what role do carnivals play in the construction of national and collective identities? We will try to answer this and other questions focusing on films, paintings, and literary texts from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that represent some of the most popular carnivals in Latin America: Candombe (Uruguay), Yawar Fiesta (Peru), Blacks and Whites (Colombia), Oruro (Bolivia), and Rio (Brazil). We will analyze them from an interdisciplinary perspective that includes literary criticism, anthropology, and history. Students will engage with debates about nation, popular culture, modernity/modernization, and intangible cultural heritage.