Courses

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Spring 2024 Course Listings

All schedule information is tentative. Please see the Registrar's site for the latest information.

For full lists of courses offered next semester, download the PDF brochures:

For short video introductions to many of our courses, click on the course titles.

Questions about major/minor requirements, course offerings, or studying abroad? Contact our Undergraduate Advising Head: Professor Zoila Castro.

Language Courses

For more information about HISP 10-108 placement/enrollment, please see our Language Programs Placement page. If you have any questions, please contact Prof. González Ros.

(1) M,W,Th 10:10–11:00; T 10–10:50 AM, González Ros

Prerequisite: Permission required (please see instructions on our Language Programs Placement page).

For students who have had no previous study of Spanish. An introduction to the Spanish language and culture, this course focuses on the acquisition of basic communication skills in Spanish and cultural awareness. Students will actively speak, write, listen, and read in the target language. A variety of media and texts relating to authentic familiar topics will be used. Active participation is essential.

(1) M,W,Th,F 9:05–9:55 AM, Mederos
(2) M,W,Th,F 11:15 AM–12:05 PM, Mederos
(4) M,W,Th,F 11:15 AM–12:05 PM, Peary

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in HISP 10a or the equivalent. Permission required (please see instructions on our Language Programs Placement page).

For students with some previous study of Spanish. Students will continue the development of all language skills (speaking, reading, listening, writing, and culture) using a variety of media and texts relating to authentic familiar topics. The focus of the class is to communicate effectively and to learn more about the cultures of the Spanish–speaking world. Active participation is essential.

(1) M,T,W,Th 11:15 AM–12:05 PM, Turpin
(2) M,W,Th,F 9:05–9:55 AM, Peary
(3) M,W,Th 12:20–1:10; F 12:45–1:35 PM, Peary
(4) M,W,Th 10:10–11:00; T 10–10:50 AM, Reyes de Deu
(5) M,W,Th 1:20–2:10 PM; T 12:45–1:35, Reyes de Deu

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in HISP 20b or the equivalent. Permission required (please see instructions on our Language Programs Placement page).

Students in HISP 32 will bring their proficiency up to an intermediate level. Prepares students to communicate on a variety of topics which are familiar or of personal interest. All language skills will be practiced with a special emphasis on interpersonal communication and cultural competence.

*HISP classes listed below (104 and above) are conducted in Spanish, unless otherwise noted.*

On blue background: HISP 104b: Peoples, Ideas, and Language of the Hispanic World. Image 1: a rally of indigenous peoples, 3 of whom face us in front of banner. One has loudspeaker, the other two cheer.  Image 2: cover for “Bebe diferentemente iguales” a song. Image 3: two dancers in vibrantly colored clothing, the woman in ruffles. Image 4: from the film, La Buena vida, of old man lying in hammock. Image 5: brick wall painted white with 3 cartoon figures. The words on wall read: No es: lo que tienes, Lo que haces sino lo que eres which is crossed out and replaced by sos.

(1) M,W,Th  10:10–11:00 AM, Castro
(2) M,W,Th 12:20–1:10 PM, Castro
(3) M,W,Th 1:20–2:10 PM, Turpin

Prerequisite: HISP 32 or 34. Permission required (please see instructions on our Language Programs Placement page).

Participants will expand their language skills in Spanish while deepening their understanding of Hispanic cultures. Students will explore how their identity and those of others is expressed through language, images, and cultural practices.

HISP 105-1: Sustainability. Portrait of Berta Cáceres, painted on a brick wall with Berta Caceres vive written below.  The caption reads (assassinated 2016) rallied the indigenous Lenca people of Honduras and successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam. What can we learn from her model of activism?  Oral Communication through Cultural Topics

(1) M,W,Th 1:20–2:10 PM, Castro

Prerequisite: HISP 104b or the equivalent. Permission required (please see instructions on our Language Programs Placement page).

How do we persuade others to enact meaningful change? In this special topics section of Hisp 105, students will improve their speaking skills as they explore issues of sustainability in the Spanish–speaking world. We will reflect about the global consequences of individual actions, debate about the feasibility of ecotourism, and tell the stories of indigenous and Latin American climate activists.

HISP105B.3 Health Photo of 2 pairs of arms, one darker set, one lighter. The darker set is taking the other’s blood pressure. Photo by @rawpixel.com on nappy.co

(3) M,W,Th  9:05–9:55 AM, González Ros

Prerequisite: HISP 104b or the equivalent. Permission required (please see instructions on our Language Programs Placement page).

Students will improve their oral communication skills through active participation in practical tasks in contexts related to the way the Spanish–speaking world views the concepts of health and wellbeing. Students will present information, conduct interviews, persuade and debate, among other communicative functions. This course is appropriate for students in any field where they would interact with Spanish speakers regularly.

On blue background: in white cloud shape is HISP 106B Spanish for Written Communication through Contemporary Culture. Below is pencil in shape of a rocket with words, writing is power, repeated on its smoke-trail.

(1) T,Th  2:20–3:40 PM, Turpin

Prerequisite: HISP 105a or the equivalent. Permission required (please see instructions on our Language Programs Placement page). [WI]

Students will develop their writing skills in order to communicate effectively in a variety of contexts and for different audiences. Examples may include creative, professional, and academic texts.

poster for HISP 108

(1) M,W,Th 12:20–1:10 PM, Mederos

Prerequisite: HISP 105a or the equivalent. Permission required (please see instructions on our Language Programs Placement page). [WI, Cross-listed with LACLS]

Designed specifically for students who grew up speaking Spanish and who would like to enhance existing language skills while developing higher levels of academic proficiency. Assignments are geared toward developing skills in reading, writing, and critical thinking about U.S. Latino/as and the Spanish-speaking world. Students may use this course to fulfill the foreign language requirement.

Literature and Culture Courses (Taught in English)

poster for HISP 85
HISP 85A Introduction to U.S. Latinx Literatures and Cultures

(1) T,F  11:10 AM–12:30 PM, Durán

Taught in English. [DEIS-US; DJW; DL; Cross-listed with LACLS, ENG]

This discussion-based course introduces students to U.S. Latinx cultural productions and to the interdisciplinary questions that concern U.S. Latinx scholars, peoples, and communities. Latinxs have played a vital role in the history, politics, and cultures of the United States. U.S. Latinx literary works, in particular, have established important socio-historical and aesthetic networks that highlight Latinx expression and lived experiences, engaging with issues including biculturalism, language, citizenship, systems of value, and intersectional identity. Though the Latinx literary tradition spans more than 400 years, this course will focus on 20th and 21st century texts that decolonize nationalist approaches to Latinidades and therefore challenge existing Latinx literary “canons.” 

Upper-Level Courses (above HISP 108)

poster for HISP 111

(1) T,Th  2:20–3:40 PM, Reyes de Deu

Taught in Spanish. Prerequisite: HISP 106b, or HISP 108a, or permission of instructor. [DJW; Cross-listed with COML, IGS, LACLS, and MUS]

Examines key Latin American texts of different genres (poems, short stories and excerpts from novels, chronicles, comics, screenplays, cyberfiction) and from different time periods from the conquest to modernity. This class places emphasis on problems of cultural definition and identity construction as they are elaborated in literary discourse. Identifying major themes (coloniality and emancipation, modernismo and modernity, indigenismo, hybridity and mestizaje, nationalisms, Pan-Americanism, etc.) we will trace continuities and ruptures throughout Latin American intellectual history.

poster for HISP 142
HISP 142B Literature, Film, and Human Rights in Latin America

(1) T,Th 3:55–5:15 PM, Rosenberg

Taught in Spanish in spring 2024. Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor. [WI; DJW; Cross-listed with CAST, IGS, & LACLS.]

Examines literature, film (fiction and non-fiction) and other artistic expressions from Latin America, in conversation with the idea of human rights—from the colonial arguments about slavery and the 'natural rights' of the indigenous, to the advent of human rights in the context of post-conflict truth and reconciliation processes, to the emergence of gender and ethnicity in the human rights framework, to the current debates about rights of nature in the midst of a global ecological crisis.

 

poster for HISP 164b
HISP 164B Studies in Latin American Literature

(1) M,W 2:30–3:50 PM, Herrera Díaz

Taught in Spanish. Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor. Course may be repeated for credit. [fulfills OC in spring 2024; DJW; Cross-listed with CAST, COML & LACLS]

Topic for spring 2024-- Staging Transgression: Latin American Theater and Performance

This course explores an array of rituals, performances, and plays in Latin America from colonial times to the present. We will examine the transgressive nature of theater and performance in multiple dimensions: as alternative sites of cultural memory versus hegemonic texts and archives, as disruptors of media boundaries and realities, and as transformational acts that frequently challenge structures of power and oppression. Special attention will be devoted to Black theatrical practices and aesthetics: religious ceremonies, spirit possession, carnival, and related subgenres and movements such as Teatro bufo (a variant of Cuban blackface) and Teatro Experimental do Negro (one of the first and most influential Afro Brazilian theater groups). Our discussions will include not only works by renowned playwrights (Nelson Rodrigues in Brazil, Lola Arias in Argentina, Eugenio Hernández Espinosa in Cuba, and Sergio Blanco in Uruguay, among others), but also collective initiatives like Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani in Perú and Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol in Mexico. A critical question to be addressed is how the complex and unstable relationship between theater and categories such as space, liveness, hauntology, and the body can problematize Latin American experiences of nationhood, political violence, forced disappearance, and racial and gender narratives.

Also taught by Hispanic Studies Faculty:

LACLS 1A Into to US Latinx Lit and Culture

(1) T,F  9:35–10:55 AM, Durán

Taught in English. [NW, OC, Cross-listed with IGS]

Provides a broad overview of the histories, cultures, and politics that continue to shape the Americas; specifically of the vast regions and populations of what came to be labeled as "Latin America," "the Caribbean" and what we now call "Latinx " populations in the USA. The class provides an introduction to Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies. It draws from different disciplines and fields of study that compose this field, such as history, anthropology, literature, visual arts, film, political science, among other perspectives and methodologies.