Department of Romance Studies

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:

• Hispanic Studies Language Course Offerings (HISP 10–108) Spring 2023

• Hispanic Studies Upper-Level Courses Spring 2023

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 Lucía Reyes de Deu.

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/R 10:10 - 11:00 AM; T 10:00 - 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/R/F 9:05 - 9:55 AM, Gould
(2) M/W/R/F 11:15 AM - 12:05 PM, Gould
(3) M/T/W/R 9:05 - 9:55 AM, 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/W/R 12:20 - 1:10 PM; F 12:45 - 1:35 PM, Gould
(2) M/T/W/R 9:05 - 9:55 AM, Moreno
(3) M/T/W/R 11:15 AM - 12:05 PM, Moreno
(4) M/W/R 10:10 - 11:00 AM; T 10-10:50 AM, Peary
(5) M/W/R 1:20 - 2:10 PM; T 12:45 - 1:35 PM, Peary
(6) M/W/R 10:10 - 11:00 AM; T 10-10:50 AM, Moreno

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 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.*

(1) M/W/R 10:10 - 11:00 AM, Castro
(2) M/W/R 12:20 - 1:10 PM, Castro

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.

(1) M/W/R 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.

(3) M/W/R 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.

(1) T/R 2:20 - 3:40 PM, Reyes de Deu
(2) T/R 3:55 - 5:15 PM, Reyes de Deu

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.

(1) M/W/R 12:20 - 1:10 PM, Ariza

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.

(1) T/F 12:45 - 2:05 PM, Reyes de Deu

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

(1) T/R 2:20 - 3:40 PM, Rosenberg

Taught in Spanish. Prerequisite: HISP 109b, HISP 110a, HISP 111b, or permission of instructor. [DJW, Cross-listed with WGS]

We will study cultural texts (fiction, essay, film) to approach issues of gender and sexuality in Latin America. The last three decades have been characterized by the emergence of gender and sexualities as central to the articulation of dissident subjectivities, with profound impact on all aspects of social life. Queer/cuir, travesti/transgender, and radical feminist texts will be discussed.

(1) M/W 2:30 - 3:50 PM, Ariza

Taught in English. [DL, Cross-listed with LACLS and REL]

Latin America is haunted by the specters of countless colonial genocides, ritual sacrifices, fratricidal wars, thousands of disappeared. Its vast territory is swarming with ruins, ghost towns, the emptiness of devastated fauna and languages killed by ecocide. This course explores the numerous ways Latin American artists have made sense of their own experiences of the paranormal and the supernatural, developing a rich visual culture of the intangible. Some of the topics that we will address in this journey into the unknowable are: popular culture and the paranormal/supernatural; otherworldly visitors; aura, trauma, and art; avant-gardes and the supernatural; hauntology; contemporary witch culture; uncanny spaces. Works by Jayro Bustamante, Leonora Carrington, Guillermo del Toro, Mariana Enríquez, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Samanta Schweblin, Xul Solar, among others.

(1) M/W 4:05 - 5:25 PM, Ariza

Taught in Spanish. Prerequisite: HISP 109b, HISP 110a, HISP 111b, or permission of instructor. [NW, DJW, Cross-listed with LACLS, CAST]

Through a study of Latin American short stories, some of them by consecrated writers, some of them by less well-known, we will reflect on the power of storytelling and narrative to shape subjectivity and community. We will examine topics that traverse Latin American cultures and are expressed in these stories, such tensions between literacy and oral traditions, hegemonic and minority voices, cultural diversity, ethnicity, class, migration, as well as contemporary concerns around issues of gender and sexuality, and in relation to the natural world. This class has an optional creative writing component, as students will have the chance, if so inclined, to write fiction applying concepts and themes studied in class (instead of critical/analytical assignments).

(1) T/R 5:30 - 6:50 PM, Rosenberg

Taught in English. [OC, cross-listed with FTIM, IGS, LACLS]

We will study the dynamic between local and global imagination in the production, circulation, and consumption of films. ‘Traditional’ topics like cultural identity are refashioned for international consumption, and local issues are dramatized as already crisscrossed by global flows of commodities, money, people, and media images of which the films themselves partake. Close analysis of visual representation and film techniques will be combined with a study of historical and cultural background.