SP-901 Advanced Study:Special Topics
Special topics in language, literature, civilization or field work of mutual interest to student and instructor.
3 Credits
SP-910 Southern Cone Literature and Film
Representative works by authors and film directors from the Southern Cone of Latin America. Content and focus will vary in response to particular student and faculty interest.
Spring only and other or on demand. 3 Credits
SP-925 Travel Study Course
Trip will be preceded by a seminar. Classes conducted in Spanish.
3 Credits
SP-928 Survey of Latin American Film
This course introduces students to a contextual approach to Latin American cinema. Students will develop their skill in film analysis as they examine the specific role of film in representing, contesting, or defining questions of national, personal, and cultural identity in Latin America. Class discussions and assignments will strive to familiarize students with the primary characteristics of the distinct film aesthetics and the socio-political and cultural contexts in which these works were produced. We will learn about Latin American history, politics, human rights, social activism, race relations, class differences, and gender roles in the formation of individual and collective identities.
Other or on demand. 3 Credits
SP-929 Latin American Women's Film and Literature
This course examines women's cinema and literature in Latin America and focuses on clusters of texts that reflect and intervene in a number of debates related to gender and feminism, including but not limited to family, maternity, body, sexuality, and violence. The course is organized thematically in order to trace how women's production within the region reflects local and global political histories and struggles for power. Students will develop their skills in textual analysis grounded in a feminist perspective that takes into account the intersection of a number of identities, such as race, ethnicity, class, age, ability, etc.
Other or on demand. 3 Credits
SP-931 Spanish Civilization
A historical survey of Spanish social, cultural and political life.
3 Credits
SP-932 Domestic Labor and Care Work in Latin American Film
This course will examine films that question the historical marginalization of female domestic workers by making these women the center of the narratives, their families, and society. Each week will focus on a pair of films placed into dialogue with each other to consider the ways in which cinematic representations of workers and/or care work may respond to current economic, social, political and/or cultural anxieties and tensions related to gender and labor.
Other or on demand. 3 Credits
SP-934 Topics in Latin American Film
Representative works by Latin American film directors from early 20th century to the present. Content will vary in response to particular student and faculty interest.
Spring only and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
SP-936 Magical Realism
This graduate course explores some of the most intriguing examples of Latin American fiction in the 20th century. During the semester, students read texts, watch films, and listen to podcasts that may challenge what they think of as "real." Concepts such as magical realism and marvelous realism are analyzed and compared to other creative trends such as fantasy and science fiction. Students analyze works by Carpentier, García Márquez, Rulfo, Garmendia, Cortázar, and Ferré, among others in order to discuss and elaborate on diverse topics, such as, social class, politics, race, and gender in Latin America.
Other or on demand. 3 Credits
SP-938 New Latino Boom
This graduate seminar will examine the New Latino Boom, which is the 21st-century literary movement in Spanish from the US. In this century, independent publishing houses have been focusing on the publication of texts written in Spanish in the US. Class discussions will focus on works produced/published in Miami, Chicago, and New York. Special attention will be given to authors' techniques, the editorial process of publishing in Spanish, the concept of the anthology as a symbol of the movement, the role of bookstores, magazines, and literary events, and the use of social media by authors, editors, and cultural agents.
Other or on demand. 3 Credits
SP-939 Memory and Identity in Latinx Literature
This graduate seminar will focus on the major trends in contemporary Latinx literature. Students will read, analyze, and discuss in depth narrative and poetry produced by Nuyorican, Dominican-American, Cuban-American, and Chicanx writers. Topics to be addressed include the construction of identity and the concept of belonging; bilingualism and code-switching; the experiences of the exile and its incidence in the creative process, life on the border; the marketing of Latinx writers and their literature; the controversies behind the use of labels such as Latino and Hispanic. Students will read texts in Spanish, Spanglish, and English.
Other or on demand. 3 Credits
SP-944 Approaches to Teaching Cervantes´ Don Quixote
The purpose of this seminar is to read and comment selected readings of Cervantes' Don Quixote, and aims to inspire and assist instructors to experiment with new techniques and integrate new ideas into their teaching.
Other or on demand. 3 Credits
SP-946 Federico García Lorca
This course studies the poetic and theatrical work of García Lorca from the historical, geographic, and artistic contexts in which these works were produced. It examines how his literary production was marked by factors such as his life and sexuality; his interest in gypsies; cante jondo; Andalusian folklore; his Granada roots; trips to Madrid, New York and Cuba; his incursion in surrealism; and the historical moments he experienced, from the Spanish Second Republic, to the economic crash of 1929, or the Spanish Civil War. Topics discussed: gender roles, symbolism, minorities, politics, modernization, arts, and poetics.
Other or on demand and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
SP-947 Immigration in Contemporary Spanish Film: Identity, Otherness, and Stereotypes
Adopting a postcolonial approach and considering concepts such as Other/Otherness, difference, stereotype, imagined communities, subaltern, mimicry, or marginal space, students will learn about the different identities that conform the migrant population (Latin America, Maghreb, and Sub-Saharan Africa), and will examine the ways in which the filmic image of the immigrant subject is constructed via narrative and cinematographic strategies. Students will apply the work of postcolonial and cultural theorists (Bhabha, Fanon, Spivak, Hall) to the study of Flores de otro mundo; Princesas; Amador; Evelyn; Las cartas de Alou; Biutiful; Catalunya ber alles; Retorno a Hansala, or A escondidas. Conducted in Spanish.
Other or on demand and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
SP-955 Effective Teaching of a Foreign Language
Examines and evaluates effective teaching techniques in the Foreign Language classroom at the Middle and Secondary School levels.
3 Credits
SP-960 Love, Nation, and Death in Spanish Romanticism
Reacting to the order, logic, and didacticism of the Spanish Enlightenment, the 19th C. Romantic period aims to restore the power of feelings over reason. This class studies narrative, poetry, and theatre works by Romantic masters such as Mariano José de Larra, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, José de Espronceda, Rosalía de Castro, the Duke of Rivas, and José Zorrilla. It explores how subjectivism, the intensity of feelings, the inner self, the presence of death, and the revival of nationalism -all key elements of Romanticism-- are reflected in pieces like "Canción del pirata", Rimas, or Don Juan Tenorio. Class conducted in Spanish.
Other or on demand and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
SP-962 Staging Social Change: 20th & 21st Century Latin American Theater
This class explores the historical and aesthetic development of Latin American Theater, focusing on the particular factors that distinguish this theater from the Western European tradition. Class discussion will be organized around major thematic focal points such as nation building, immigration, memory, and globalization. We will analyze dramatic text, performances and critical and theoretical perspectives to engage in the following questions: How does theater create and represent social and political transformation? How might we reevaluate civic responsibility through the study of audience? And, what are the innovations in Latin American Theater and performance in the 20th & 21st Centuries?
Other or on demand and other or on demand. 3 Credits
SP-963 Love, Nature, and Mythology: Spanish Poetry of the Renaissance
This seminar will be devoted to closely reading literary works of Spanish Golden Age Literature, emphasizing the presence (or lack) of love elements within the Spanish Canon. Texts from poetry will be carefully analyzed, and in studying them serious considerations will be given to matters of both content and structure as well as the relationship between poetry and its historic and cultural determinations. Because of this, the design of this course implies a focus on Critical Thinking through acquiring a blend of theoretical concepts and practical applications.
Other or on demand. 3 Credits
SP-990 Directed Study: Spanish
Directed study offers graduate students, who because of unusual circumstances may be unable to register for a course when offered, the opportunity to complete an existing course with an established syllabus under the direction and with agreement from a faculty member. variable credits.
Fall and Spring and every year. 1-6 Credits
SP-994 Comprehensive Exam
Students will take a Comprehensive Exam that evaluates the overall program coursework in order to complete the requirements for graduate work.
Other or on demand. 3 Credits
SP-997 Independent Study: Spanish
Study of a special topic of interest to the student. Both content and eligibility are subject to departmental guidelines and approval.
3 Credits