SPAN 20 is the first course of the Major/Minor, and serves as transition between the skills acquired through the Spanish language courses (Spanish LSA or equivalent preparation) and those needed for all upper-division courses (30 and above). Through the study of critical and theoretical vocabulary, and the reading of short stories, poems, films, theatrical plays and journalistic articles, students will acquire analytic tools to comprehend and analyze several types of texts. This course is also designed to familiarize students with different textual genres and a wide array of literary and interpretative key concepts. Prerequisite: Participation in one of the Spanish LSA programs; SPAN 9 or 15; exemption from SPAN 9 based on test scores (see Department web site); or permission of instructor. SPAN 20 may be taken in conjunction with 30-level survey courses. It serves as a prerequisite for all Spanish courses 40 and higher. Dist: LIT.

Sample Syllabus

This course offers an introduction to the Argentine culture through four debates that expressed and continue to outline Argentina's quest for its own definition of a national identity. Many have named these debates true "Argentine Passions:" the antagonism between Buenos Aires and the rest of the Provinces; the myth of the "melting pot" and the role of immigration; political activism and the place of "youth" in the political arena (Peronism, Dictatorship, and the 2001 Crises); and the connections between Argentina's politics and culture and Latin America. The course program is coordinated with a variety of cultural visits and excursions that are an intrinsic part of its content. Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Dartmouth Spanish LSA+ and Spanish 9. Dist: SOC WCult: NW.

This course will make students fluent in some of the main topics relevant to modern and contemporary Spanish cultural production, with a particular emphasis on Northern Spain.  The course will not count towards the major or minor. Dist: ART; WCult: W.

This course deepens the student's knowledge of the Argentine art and cultures through the study and discussion of the visual, architectural and plastic arts, as well as music and performance. The materials will expose the students to the main trends and topics of contemporary Argentine art, cultures and society. Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Dartmouth Foreign Study Program, Argentina. Dist: ART; WCult: NW.

This course deepens the student's knowledge of the Spanish art and cultures through the study and discussion of the visual, architectural and plastic arts, as well as music and performance. The materials will expose the students to the main trends and topics of contemporary Spanish art, cultures and society. Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Dartmouth Foreign Study Program, Spain. Dist: ART; WCult: W.

This course presents an overview of major literary trends and cultural productions from the Middle Ages to the 17th century in both their Spanish and Spanish American contexts. Students will read a representative selection of major literary works from that period, both Peninsular and Spanish-American, and discuss theoretical, aesthetic, and critical issues pertinent to the Renaissance, the Baroque, colonialism, syncretism, etc. Texts may also be cultural, visual, and/or filmic. Prerequisite: SPAN 20. Dist: LIT; WCult: W.

This course presents a chronological study of major trans-Atlantic literary trends and cultural productions, corresponding to the cultural and aesthetic movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Students will read a representative selection of major literary works, both Peninsular and Spanish-American, from that period and discuss theoretical, aesthetic, and critical issues pertinent to modernity, empire, enlightenment, nationalism, gender, democracy, etc. Texts may also be, cultural, visual, and/or filmic. Prerequisite: SPAN 20. Dist: LIT; WCult: W.

This course presents a chronological study of trans-Atlantic major literary trends and cultural productions, corresponding to the cultural and aesthetic movements from the 1880s to the present. Students will read a representative selection of major literary works from that period, both Peninsular and Spanish-American, and discuss theoretical, aesthetic, and critical issues pertinent to modernismo, the avant-garde, revolution, post-modernism, etc. Texts may also be cultural, visual, and/or filmic. Prerequisite: SPAN 20. Dist: LIT; WCult: W.

This course studies socio-political events in the Southern Cone that have shaped the contemporary configuration of society in Argentina. Emphasis will be placed on key political figures, social movements, oppositional tensions, dictatorship and democracy, and their articulation in the cultural field. Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Dartmouth Foreign Study Program. Dist: SOC; WCult: NW.

This courses studies socio-political events in the Iberian Peninsula that have shaped the contemporary configuration of society in Spain. Emphasis will be placed on key political figures, social movements, oppositional tensions, dictatorship and democracy, and their articulation in the cultural field. Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Dartmouth Foreign Study Program, Spain. Dist: SOC; WCult: W.

This course is designed to offer students an opportunity to study a topic of interest in Spanish American literature and culture through the reading of a wide variety of literary and cultural texts. Emphasis will be placed on Argentina and the Southern Cone. Topics may vary. Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Dartmouth Foreign Study Program, Argentina. Dist: LIT; WCult: NW.

This course is designed to offer students an opportunity to study a topic of interest in the literature's and cultures of Spain through the reading of a wide variety of literary and cultural texts. Topics may vary. Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Dartmouth Foreign Study Program, Spain. Dist: LIT; WCult: W.

This course will focus on the study of the significant historical periods and cultural movements of the Hispanic world. It is organized according to chronological eras that are marked by distinct cultural and literary movements. Areas covered will be the Middle Ages, the culture of the Renaissance and the Baroque, the Colonial Period, Enlightenment and Modernity, Nineteenth-Century Romanticism and Realism, the Avant-Gardes, Post-modernism, and new developments in the contemporary period. One or more periods will be selected for study. Spanish courses numbered 40 and above may be repeated for credit when offered as different topics. Prerequisite: SPAN 20.

A literary genre is defined as an established category of written work employing a set of recognizable common conventions, such as technique, style, structure or subject matter. This course will focus on the study of Hispanic literatures and cultures and is organized around one or more basic genres like poetry, drama, novel, and essay. Other articulating categories for the course may include epic poetry, tragic drama, short-fiction narrative, the picaresque novel, and the melodrama, among others. The course will provide students with the appropriate critical vocabulary to understand the specificity of the genre or sub-genre examined in this course. Prerequisite: SPAN 20.

Summer 2024: Spanish 43.06: Tango Argentino: Music, Dance, Poetry, Community.

Since its birth the Argentine tango continues to be a complex art form with popular roots and international reach beyond the Southern Cone. The tango has stood the test of time as a form of popular culture that many consider a lifestyle, a religion, and a worldview. Since it is at once a type of music, a dance, a distinctive type of poetry and a community (social dance or milonga), the tango requires a variety of disciplines to interpret it. This course will provide students with tools to understand tango as music, poetry, dance, language (lunfardo), and melodrama, from the 19th century to its current state of political resistance and globalized commodification. The course will have an experiential component to allow space for listening to the music and learning basic tango salón footwork with invited guests. Dist.: ART; WCult.: NW. Professor Noelia Cirnigliaro.

This course studies the complex intersections between literatures, languages, cultures and their national, regional, and trans-Atlantic contexts in Spain, Latin America, and the US.  In this course, literary and cultural expressions are studied in relation to place in a wide array of historical contexts.  Issues may include literature and colonialism, "indigenismo," the city/country dialectic, regional and national languages and cultural interdependence, the arts as buffers of political/nationalistic violence, national borders and cultural identity, and the formation of national literatures. Prerequisite: SPAN 20.

Spring 2025: Spanish 45.08: Dreams and Nightmares of the Cuban Revolution.

The course's main objective is to examine how, when, where, and why opposing dominant narratives of the Cuban revolution developed, and how those narratives (and their perceptions) shifted over time. The Cuban revolution is one of the most debated processes of the 20th century, as defended as it is contested. Why did the Cuban revolution spawn such great dreams in some and such great nightmares in others? What did it mean to live in Cuba in the 1960's, and what does it mean to live in Cuba today? In this course, we will learn about the Cuban revolution from a variety of vantages: including but not limited to the cultural politics of the revolution, Che Guevara's new man, Fidel Castro's political speeches, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Bay of Pigs, black political activism, arts and intellectual polemics, Cuban exodus, private entrepreneurship, Barak Obama's 2016 visit to Cuba, and the country's current cultural scene. The goal will be to traverse two antagonist positions, the dreams of those who supported the revolution and the nightmares of those who fought against it, in order to understand the complexities of the process and to follow the changes undergone in these positions across time. We will analyze both the abstract utopic projects and the concrete realities of this revolution. Through a study of the intersections of society and politics with arts and culture, students will enrich their understanding of Cuba. They will study the social, political, and economic transformations led by the Cuban revolutionaries, what was missing, destroyed, or gained in the process, and the contradictions inherent in these projects. Students will also have the unique opportunity to converse one-on-one with Pulitzer Prize winner Ada Ferrer and world-renowned Afro-Cuban writer Leonardo Padura. Dist.: LIT; WCult.: NW. Ingrid Brioso Rieumont.

This course will explore how the study of gender and sexuality is integral to understanding the complexities of Hispanic societies and cultures. In addition to analyzing literary texts and cultural and artistic productions, students will also examine theoretical and critical approaches to the study of gender and sexuality. Topics may include feminist movements, the construction and performance of gender, the theories as they relate to Hispanic embodiments and representations in literature and culture. Prerequisite: SPAN 20.

Spring 2026: Spanish 50.05: Eroticism, Love and Sensuality in Hispanic Film.

The contemporary topics to be studied in this course should be approached with an open mind and with the willingness to challenge our prior knowledge of the concepts.  In order to do so, critical thinking is of the utmost importance.  In this context, critical thinking implies the ability to question and destabilize most—if not all—of our preconceived ideas about eroticism, love, and sexualityu that are no longer functional, i.e., that do not help us better understand society and our fellow citizens.  As we explore a variety of subfields within contemporary Hispanic film, the course will offer you a set of conceptual tools that will help you deconstruct some of the symbolic foundations of our existence.  The course will address a series of topics ranging from: identifying ways that "personal choice" sometimes poses as a way of implementing one, single, heteronormative, monogamous, sex/gender morally safe model of behavior; thinking about the historicity of the normative, the deviant, or the perverse; discovering that the intersectional framing of gender creates an avenue for strong political and existential alliances; and making sure that the identities that fall under the umbrella of the Queer Nation (LGTBiQ peoples) do not become a label of marginality but instead get universalized as a mode of praxis that expands those borders, hence our study of love in relation to monstruosity, ageing, queer identities, prostitution, and pornography under this paradigm. Dist: ART; WCult: WC. Txetxu Agudo. Cross-listed: WGSS 69.19.

The focus of study for this course will be the evolution of the Spanish language from its old and early modern manifestations to contemporary uses. Specific geographical contexts will be given special attention. Topics may include the constitution of Castilian as a national language and its relation to other peninsular languages; the history of linguistic change on all levels (phonetic/phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic); the influence of Arabic, indigenous languages of the Americas, English, and dialectal variants. Fundamental notions of rhetoric and poetics will be central to this course as well. Spanish courses numbered 40 and above may be repeated for credit when offered as different topics. Prerequisite: SPAN 20.

Spring 2026: Spanish 53.03: Hispanic Bilingualism.

This course examines bilingualism both as a linguistic and a social phenomenon. After taking this course, students will (a) gain a basic understanding of the relationship between cognitive development and language acquisition in bilingual speakers; (b) be able to identify and analyze linguistic patterns of language change and interaction in bilingual speech communities in Latin America, Spain and the United States; (c) reflect critically on issues related to language policy and bilingualism in education, and (d) examine representation of bilingualism in culture. Dist.: INT: W. LRP. Professor Roberto Rey Agudo.

This is an interdisciplinary course that studies through diverse representations in literature and the arts major sociopolitical realities that have shaken and transformed the Hispanic world such as the Conquest, colonialism, the rise of the modern nation states, the Mexican and Cuban revolutions, the Spanish Civil War, Latin America's "dirty" wars, etc.  The course will explore the interconnection between culture and politics allowing the student to read culture as a political text and political events as texts. Prerequisite: SPAN 20.

Spring 2026: Spanish 55.05: Indignant Spain.

This course exams the notion of "crisis" as a creative paradigm for rethinking traditional experiences of the political, social, and cultural spheres in today's Spain.  The course will focus on the deep connections between democracy and alternative ways of thinking about the political participation of citizens confronting the dismantling of their social, family, and individual welfare by global and national neoliberalist economic and social policies.  Students will read from a wide array of texts (literature, cultural and political theory) and also watch documentaries and films on the idea of "crisis" as it is currently playing itself out in Spain's 15-m and Indignados movements.  Works by: Martin Patino, Alvarez, Thorton, Grueso, Lacuesta, Arce among others. Dist.: SOC.: W. Annabel Martín.

Fall 2024: Spanish 55.09: Revoltosos/as: Forms of Rebellion and Revolution in Imperial Spain and Spanish America.

An indigenous rebellion helps overthrow a viceroy in Colonial Mexico; a woman in disguise joins the army and receives royal permission to live as a transgender male; a poet openly criticizes court politicians; a painter manages to question Catholic dogmas in his religious portraiture. It may be hard to imagine that there were multiple forms of rebellion and revolution under Absolutism in early modern Europe. But that is of course a prejudice from our modern times that need to be debunked in light of social attitudes towards power documented during that time period. We will explore salient cases from political revolution to subtle resistance in early modern texts and images of Spain and Spanish America. We will unearth impactful political upheavals as well as individual and collective forms of resistance relating gender, race, religion, etc., and forms of anti-establishment sentiment that occurred more often than we could imagine. Dist.: LIT; WCult.: WC. Noelia Cirnigliaro.

Summer 2024: Spanish 55.14: Sports Studies in Latin America. Cultures and Cults.

This course offers a critical cultural approach to Sports as spectacle, commodity, business, and competition in Latin America, and serves as a review to major trends in sports studies. The relationship between sports and nation, social class, race, and gender will help students examine both professional and amateur sports in their national and transnational dimension. Topics include: the meaning of games and sports in Latin American cultures, baseball and the byproducts Latino-diasporas, soccer and 19th century British imperialism, mass cultures and politics in relations to sports, and a host of case studies that illuminate the cultures and cults around competition, sportsmanship, and athleticism in Latin-American.  We will analyze fiction and non-fiction, films, photographic essays, and other media on baseball, soccer (futbol), basketball, rugby, boxing, lucha libre and MMA, running and motorsports. Dist.: SOC; WCult.: WC. Professor Sebastián Díaz.

Fall 2024: Spanish 55.15: The "Spanish Craze": Hispanic Culture in the United States.

This seminar will examine the impact and influence of Hispanic culture in the United States during the formative years of the new American nation (19th and early 20th centuries). Departing from the contributions of renowned Hispanists such as George Ticknor (Dartmouth class of 1807), Henry W. Longfellow, and historian William H. Prescott, students will also examine the political circumstances that led to the Spanish-American War (or 'Guerra de Cuba') in 1898 and its aftermath. Special attention will be paid to the Spanish craze in architecture, fashion, and the movies during the first decades of the 20th century. Not open to students who have received credit for SPAN 80.20. Dist.: LIT; WCult.: WC. Professor José del Pino.

Winter 2025: Spanish 55.10: Mexican Utopias: Science Fiction and Mexican Literature and Cinema.

This course explores the images of otherworldly places, perfect/dystopian communities and future societies in Mexican literature and film from the 20th and 21st centuries. We will focus on how recurrent topics of the science fiction genre (biological transformation of humanity, interstellar travel, alien invasion, among others) were adapted by Mexican writers and filmmakers to convey the particular tensions, hopes and fears of Mexico as a postcolonial and developing country. In a more general sense, through the analysis of some of the best examples of Mexican utopias we will examine to what extent science fiction can be a powerful tool to develop critical thinking and to imagine political alternatives. Dist.: LIT; WCult.: NW. Professor Jorge Quintana-Navarrete.

A common misperception about race and ethnicity is that they are uniformly defined and that one region’s understanding of these terms is identical to any other. How are race and ethnicity conceptualized and represented in Spain, Latin America, and U.S. Latino communities? This course will examine the particular historical, regional, and cultural factors that give rise to different notions of race and ethnicity in the Hispanic world. Individual offerings of this course may focus on one or more of the following: Moorish Spain and the Reconquista; the Jewish Diaspora in Spain and Latin America; indigenous societies in Latin America; racial and cultural “mestizaje”; whiteness, racial purity, and “blanqueamiento”; slavery, the African Diaspora, and “afro-latinidades.” Spanish courses numbered 40 and above may be repeated for credit when offered as different topics. Prerequisite: SPAN 20.

Film and the visual arts in Spain, Latin America, and/or the US will be studied under different approaches in order to: understand the historical evolution of film making within these contexts; examine the different film genres (surrealism, neorealism, melodrama, film noir, Hollywood realism, animation, documentary, etc.) in their Hispanic contexts; study the body of work of renowned Latino, Spanish, and Latin American filmmakers and visual artists; analyze important cultural or historical events through their visual representations (the Mexican Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, the Cuban Revolution, end of Francoism, etc.); etc. Students will become familiar with relevant concepts in film analysis, film theory, and cultural studies and learn how issues of representation in the visual arts are linked to their literary counterparts. Spanish courses numbered 40 and above may be repeated for credit when offered as different topics. Prerequisite: SPAN 20.

Fall 2024: Spanish 63.08: The Many Faces of Brazilian Cinema.

This course, directed to Spanish language students, aims to give a comprehensive vision of the richness and diversity of Brazil by introducing its culture and society through the study of Brazilian contemporary cinematic productions. Topics include: The Other's gaze in Brazil, redefinition of national identity and history, reassessment of African and indigenous roots, concepts of good and evil, rural and urban violence, popular culture, and representations of race and gender. Class discussion also focuses on documentaries, reviews, and critical articles. The course is conducted in Spanish. All movies are shown in Portuguese with Spanish or English subtitles. Dist.: ART; WCult.: NW. Professor Rodolfo Franconi. Cross-listed: PORT 63.08

Winter 2025: Spanish 63.10: Family Matters: Pedro Almodovar, Gender Reversals, and New Communities.

Pedro Almodóvar Caballero, Spain's most internationally acclaimed filmmaker will be studied in this course as representative of what critics have termed the New Spanish Cinema Movement.  Almodóvar's filmmaking, both in aesthetic and cultural terms, addresses issues which will appeal to students interested in understanding how culture, politics, and aesthetics get entangled in ways that "queer" gender identity, family structures, notions of community and the societal expectations and limitations surrounding them. The course will also compare his work with other contemporary filmmakers that have reconfigured in their films the boundaries of "family." Dist.: LIT; WCult.: CI. Professor Annabel Marín.

Spring 2025: Spanish 63.13: Black Crossroads of Cinema in Afro-Latin America.

Inspired by the coexistence of contradictions, this course is designed to introduce students to the main questions concerning cinema, image and Afro-Latin American culture in the 20th and 21st centuries.  Black Crossroads refers to the word "Exuzilhar", a verb coined by Afro-Brazilian writer Cidinha da Silva to define the coexistence of contradictions in any body movement or physical gesture that has political implications. The neologism considers the combination of "encruzilhada" (crossroads) and "Exu," the Orisha of the Yoruba religion responsible for the connection between humans and gods. As a mediation between forces from nature and human perceptions, cinema in Latin America and the Caribbean has a long and established tradition of genres and subjects that embody and explore these contradictions. An exciting selection of award-winning and experimental cinematic productions provides the basis for a critical discussion of cultural meanings and social relations, offering students the chance to explore a variety of directors and aesthetic proposals. The selection of films offers an overview of Brazilian, Cuban, Colombian, Venezuelan, Argentinian, Chilean and Peruvian cinema and its connections with genre and formal experimentation, as well as with themes such as memory, freedom, citizenship, nationhood, systemic racism and sexism, class hierarchies, and cultural subversion. Sixteen films will be discussed in class. Additionally, each student will watch a supplementary film and read literary pieces and critical approaches to analyze the materials. Dist.: ART; WCult.: CI. Professor Mauricio Herrera Acuña.

In our increasingly globalized society, what impact have transnationalism and new technologies had on the formation and articulation of local cultures in the Hispanic world? How do subjects remember and represent themselves as embodied actors in the spaces where conflicting and contestatory identities meet? How have television, the visual and graphic arts, and music redefined national space and identity in Spanish, Latin American, and U.S. Latino communities? Individual offerings of this course may focus on one or more of the following: theater, performance, and performativity; comics and the graphic arts; literature and the marketplace; the politics of mass media; sports and national identity; and popular culture's strategies of resistance. Spanish courses numbered 40 and above may be repeated for credit when offered as different topics. Prerequisite: SPAN 20.

Spring 2026: Spanish 65.17: Media and Environment.

At a time of increasing reliance on technology to enhance and even transform the environment, how do media shape our perception of the world around us? This course introduces students to environmental media studies methods and concepts through a focus on contemporary Latin America. As we work comparatively across a range of media—including film, photography, visual art, and virtual reality—we will consider the specific waysin which each can reveal or reformulate conceptions of the environmental. Among key topics, we will discuss the stakes of defining nature as media, the ecological materiality of media formats, and the role of environmentalist media in present-day Latin America. The course culminates in a project that asks students to simultaneously analyze and create media.

Conducted in English; no previous media experience required. Dist: ART: W. Martina Broner. Cross-listed: COLT 70.08 / FILM 48.08 / LACS 35.17.

Few novels of the Hispanic world have had greater resonance than Cervantes' Don Quijote (published between 1605 and 1615) and Gabriel García Márquez' Cien años de soledad (1969). Both have continually fascinated their readers and provoked myriad interpretations and reinterpretations. This course seeks to understand each text as an autonomous work of literature and as a highly creative response to the literary and cultural forces in which it was forged. Individual offerings of this course will focus on one of these literary masterpieces. Spanish courses numbered 40 and above may be repeated for credit when offered as different topics. Prerequisite: SPAN 20.

Fall 2024: Spanish 70.02: One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Few literary works have ever fascinated readers all over the world the way One Hundred Years of Solitude has. Gabriel García Márquez's novel opens up a magical world where the boundaries that separate fantasy and reality, fairy tale and history seem to dissolve naturally. And yet, no fictional work has ever been more deeply grounded in the reality and history of a people. The book tells the incredible story of the Buendía family as it develops through the successive cycles of destruction and rebirth that shape history in the mythical world of Macondo. As the story unfolds it illuminates the wonders and terrors of the history of Latin American countries, the complexities and contradictions that have defined their peoples, and shaped their cultures. In this course we will read enjoy and analyze One Hundred Years of Solitude as well as a selection of García Márquez's short stories and journalistic works. The works will be discussed within the framework of major theoretical and historical issues and in constant dialogue with a variety of secondary sources. Dist.: LIT; WCult.: NW. Professor Beatriz Pastor.

Spring 2025: Spanish 70.01: Don Quijote.

From the time of its publication in 1605 (Part I) and 1615 (Part II), Don Quijote has provoked radically different interpretations. Taking as point of departure both the comic and the romantic interpretations, the course will explore the meaning of the Quijote across the centuries. Its aim will be to understand the Quijote both as an autonomous work of literature and as a highly creative response to the literary and cultural forces from which it was forged. In addition to the historical context and social conflicts in the Hapsburg monarchy, the course will focus on the literary history and the novel as a literary genre and a product of the Medieval "mixtification" which flourished in the Renaissance. Dist.: LIT; WCult.: WC. Isabel Lozano-Renieblas.

This course is offered periodically with varying content so that writers, genres, historical contexts, or theoretical approaches not otherwise provided in the curriculum may be studied. The course can be offered any term and its distinct content, theoretical, or methodological approach will depend on the area of specialization of the instructor. Spanish courses numbered 40 and above may be repeated for credit when offered as different topics. Prerequisite: SPAN 20.

This course offers a workshop in creative writing to be taught by prominent writers in residence in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. It is designed for native speakers of Spanish, heritage speakers, and Spanish majors in their junior or senior years. Seminar-sized class meets twice or three times a week plus individual conferences when necessary. The class will consist of group workshops on student writing (fiction, poetry, and/or theater) and individual conferences with the instructor. Students will be admitted on a competitive basis and should submit a short writing sample of poetry, fiction, and/or a play to the Department's Administrator prior to obtaining permission to enroll. The limit for this class is 14. Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor.

This course is designed to help students develop excellence in writing as they prepare for upper level literature and culture courses in Spanish. Topics will vary according to term and faculty as well as the "texts" studied in the course (literary, filmic, cultural, and visual). Given that thinking, reading, and writing are interdependent activities, Spanish 77 is designed to offer students an opportunity to study a topic of interest in Hispanic literature or culture while simultaneously emphasizing the advanced writing skills required of a research paper. Frequent exercises in writing and close textual study are basic to this course. Prerequisite: SPAN 20 or permission of instructor. (PDF).

The capstone seminar in Hispanic Studies is designed to provide our majors with a small- group research and creative setting.  Students will be encouraged to explore a core problem that will guide their research and creative intervention throughout the term.  Conceived as a research laboratory, i.e., as a dynamic and experimental context, students will interactively develop a wide array of final projects.  Essay writing, visual arts explorations, performance pieces, photography, blogs, graphic novels, or short films are some examples of potential culminating projects.  The capstone seminar is open to senior majors and modified majors.

Winter 2025: Spanish 80.25: Picturing the End of Extraction in Latin America.

At a time of accelerating ecological devastation, how can images help us envision alternative futures? This capstone seminar explores the role that images play in both exposing urgent questions about extractivism, or the large-scale exploitation of nature as a resource, and pushing viewers to confront its effects in contemporary Latin America. We will consider the multilayered implications of extractive projects—from gold mining in Venezuela to soy monoculture in Argentina—as we analyze media including film, photography, and visual art. Paying special attention to the ways in which these objects suggest possibilities for life outside the politics of extraction, students will expand their understanding of how the study of media provides new perspectives on Latin America. Whether pushing for the legal rights of nature, centering Indigenous sovereignty, or shedding light on the role of women as community activists, the media we will study offer images of resistance and change in threatened territories. Throughout the term, students will acquire strategies to become more critical interpreters of images, and the seminar culminates in a collaborative project that combines visual analysis and research. Dist.: ART; WCult.: NW. Professor Martina Broner.

Spring 2025: Spanish 80.26: Indignant Spain Today: Crisis and New Social Movements.

This course exams the notion of "crisis" as a creative paradigm for rethinking traditional experiences of the political, social, and cultural spheres in today's Spain.  The course will focus on the deep connections between democracy and alternative ways of thinking about the political participation of citizens confronting the dismantling of their social, family, and individual welfare by global and national neoliberalist economic and social policies.  Students will read from a wide array of texts (literature, cultural and political theory) and also watch documentaries and films on the idea of "crisis" as it is currently playing itself out in Spain's 15-m and Indignados movements. Works by: Mart'n Patino, Alvarez, Thorton, Grueso, Lacuesta, Arce among others. Dist: Art; W. Professor Annabel Martin.

Spring 2026: Spanish 80.27: The Best Hispanic Poetry

This seminar proposes the study and in-depth analysis of some of the most relevant works of Hispanic poetry. Attention will be paid to the poetic form itself, since without this formal component, the full artistic scope of lyric poetry cannot be understood. On this basis, we will organize our course around several significant themes and authors: love and erotic poetry, poetry about transcendence, modern subjectivity in the face of urban civilization, poetry with social themes and a political vocation, concluding with the intersection of poetry and music in songs by well-known authors. Not open to students who have received credit for SPAN 43.04. Dist: Lit; W. Professor José del Pino.

A program of individual study directed by a member of the Spanish and Portuguese faculty. Spanish 83 will normally consist of a program of reading and research that is not covered in regularly scheduled course offerings. After consultation with the faculty advisor of the project, all Independent Study proposals must be submitted for approval to the Department. Only open to majors in Spanish or Romance Languages. Under normal circumstances, no student may receive credit for this course more than once. Students interested in pursuing and Independent Study must identify their topic and faculty advisor by the last week of the term prior to registering for Spanish 83. Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor.

Supervised independent research under the direction of a designated advisor. Honors majors will normally elect this course as the first in the required sequence (90 and 91) for completion of the Honors Program. SPAN 90 is intended to prepare the student for writing the Honors thesis, through readings in primary and secondary texts, theory and methodology. The course will include periodic written assignments and culminate in a final paper. Prerequisite: Admission to the Honors Program.

A prearranged program of study and research during any term of the senior year, on a tutorial basis, with individual faculty members (normally the thesis advisor). A thesis and public presentation are the expected culmination of the course. Prerequisite: Prior admission to the Department's Honors Program; clear evidence of capability to perform honors level work, normally indicated by completion of SPAN 90 with a grade of B+ or higher.