Part of a series of seminars studying the parallel development of biological and architectural practices from the 18th c. to the present, this course focuses on recent ecological and environmental discourses through the writings of anthropologists, sociologists, material and environmental scientists, as well as architectural and literary critics. The seminar focuses on the effects of the diminishing distinction between the animate and the inanimate, the organic and the inorganic as well as the human and the non-human in the creation of living habitats and recreation of inequities within an environmentally challenged planet.

An overview of three of the most influential writers in the twentieth century, focusing on selected masterpieces. All three were fascinated by similar topics: dreams and memory; sexuality; Judaism. All three lived during traumatic historical periods. Proust during WWI; Freud during WWII; and Borges during Peronismo. Seminar will explore the relationship between literature modernism, politics, and religion.

Has travel ever been so easy-and so difficult? Who has the right to move freely, and why? This interdisciplinary course explores the paradoxes of globalization, where mobility is promoted while borders are reinforced. Through the study of literature, political theory, and art, from twentieth-century and contemporary Latin American writers and artists, we will examine how globalization both encourages and constrains movement. We will develop critical tools for reflecting on our own relationship with travel while understanding the broader dynamics of globalization-the movement it enables, the subjectivities it creates, and the spaces it shapes.

In this second course of the elementary Spanish sequence, students will continue to develop their communicative and intercultural competence by exploring social issues relevant to their lives, and by taking an in-depth look at the diversity of the Spanish-speaking world. The course integrates language and culture, and promotes all three communication modes (interpersonal, interpretative, and presentational). Cultural diversity is introduced through a variety of texts (news, short movies, podcasts, etc.). By the end of the course, the students will be able to perform at an intermediate proficiency level, and be ready for SPA 107.

SPA 107 is an intermediate/advanced language course that consolidates and expands the skills acquired in beginner's Spanish. Students will continue to develop their ability to comprehend and communicate in Spanish while using the four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Materials include oral, written, and audiovisual texts that present language in authentic contexts of use and interpretation. By the end of the course, students will be able to express more complex ideas, orally and in writing, with greater grammatical accuracy and communicative fluency.

SPA 108 is an advanced language course that aims at strengthening and consolidating comprehension and production of oral and written Spanish while fostering cultural awareness and cross-cultural examination. Students will improve their linguistic proficiency while exploring the various mechanisms that affect how our identity is constructed, negotiated, and/or imposed. Particularly, the course will examine the ways in which gender and national identities develop and consolidate themselves by exploring cultural production (journalism, literature, cinema and the visual arts, etc.) in the Spanish speaking world and beyond.

The main purpose of the course is to deepen language skills while exploring health-related topics in Latin America. The first part of the semester will focus on learning about a country (Ecuador or Colombia): its health system, main diseases, health disparities etc. Students will research the characteristics of the area as well we later visit. During Spring break, we will travel to one country and participate in some medical caravans. Upon returning from the trip, students will conduct in-depth research to present their findings to the class and subsequently produce a final paper.

An advanced Spanish-language course that focuses on medical and health topics in the Hispanic/Latino world. Students will learn and practice specific vocabulary and structures useful for conducting a medical interview in Spanish. Aspects of Latin American and Hispanic/Latino cultures in the health and medical fields are explored by means of examining authentic texts and through the contribution of guest speakers. There is a mandatory community service project.

An advanced-level course on legal, international relations, and business Spanish. This course aims to familiarize students with the vocabulary, grammatical structures, style and register of the language that is used in legal (criminal), diplomatic, and business settings. Through the study of key texts, case studies and videos, students will be introduced to the basic differences between the business cultures and legal systems of the Spanish speaking countries and the Anglo-American world. This is complemented by class discussions, role-plays, presentations and independent research.

SPA 207 seeks to develop advanced language skills and to raise cultural awareness by studying language in its contexts of use and at the level of the formality that will be needed in the higher-level courses. This course focuses on underrepresented communities in the Spanish speaking world, examining issues of class, race and migration. An exciting selection of literary and multimedia productions provide the basis for a critical discussion of cultural meanings and social relations, while offering the chance to explore different registers and styles.

A course designed to improve speaking abilities while learning about Hispanic cultures and cinema in context. The course aims to provide the students with lexical and grammatical tools to allow them to engage in formal and informal discussion on a variety of topics informed by the films provided. Additionally, there will be several writing exercises throughout the semester that will help students improve their writing abilities. By the end of the course, students should have a better command of all linguistic skills, especially listening comprehension, fluency and accuracy in their speech.

Offered as an overview of the social, cultural, and political aspects that forge linguistic variation in the Spanish-speaking world, students discuss issues of power, identity, globalization, policymaking, social status, gender, and ideology to understand cases of linguistic variation and change. Students will recognize particular features distinguishing one dialect from another, while gaining knowledge of the development of these differences. This course will enrich a student's view of Spanish as a social construct, either as a native/heritage speaker or as a Spanish learner, and will allow students to develop their analytical skills.

Love is the subject of the world's greatest stories. The passions aroused by Helen of Troy brought down a city and made Homer's masterpiece possible, while the foolishness of those in love inspired Shakespeare and Cervantes to create their most memorable characters. Many powerful Latin American and Spanish stories deal with the force and effects of love. In this course, we will study a group of films and literary fictions that focus on different kinds and forms of love. We will pay special attention to the forms of narrative love (quest, courting, adultery, heartbreaking), as well as the translation of love into language, body, and image.

An introduction to modern Latin American cultures and artistic and literary traditions through a wide spectrum of materials. We will discuss relevant issues in Latin American cultural, political, and social history, including the legacies of colonialism, the African diaspora, national fictions, gender and racial politics. Materials include short stories by Jorge Luis Borges and Samanta Schweblin; poems by Afro-Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén and Mexican poet Sara Uribe; paintings by Mexican muralists; films by Santiago Mitre and Claudia Llosa; writings by Indigenous activist Ailton Krenak.

Children, women, the elderly, minorities, people with special conditions... Spanish culture is full of characters that represent subjects characterized as weak, helpless or subalterns. This course is an introduction to modern and contemporary Spain through the representations of these groups and the alternative social and cultural landscapes that they shape. Drawing on some basic ideas of feminism, decolonialism, queer theory, or environmentalism, we will analyze literary texts, films, comics and other genres to explore how and why vulnerability has become a central concept in the present.

This course will explore dominant ideas of "nature" that have shaped Latin America as a space of "natural frontiers" for commercial exploitation, territorial power, adventure, and exuberance. We will also become familiar with the specific histories from which these ideas emerge, their ecological and planetary impacts, and how Latin American ordinary people, creators, and intellectuals (including women, Indigenous peoples, and Afro-Latin Americans) have challenged these imaginaries by foregrounding their forms of world-making with the non-human. Ultimately, this course will explore dominant and alternative forms of inhabiting the planet.

This course explores the issues and controversies surrounding the linguistic subordination and maintenance of Spanish within Latino communities, situating them within the broader social and historical context of the United States. Students will gain critical insights into bilingualism, the interplay between language and identity, language policy, and the racialization of linguistic minorities. Additionally, the course introduces fundamental concepts of second language teaching, preparing students for the community-engaged component in which they will volunteer as ESL instructors with El Centro.

In SPA 307, students improve their linguistic abilities to become expert readers and writers in Spanish. We study the stylistic and formal features of diverse types of texts, including essays, short stories, memoirs, interviews, news, ephemera, and poetry, and we use these texts as models for our own writing. We engage in multiliteracy exercises designed to draft, edit, rewrite, and critique texts, and to reflect upon norms and expectations within and across academic cultures, as evidenced through texts. By the end of the semester, students bring together form and function to read and write sophisticated pieces. Taught in Spanish.

This class will combine the study of modern and contemporary Spanish poetry with creative writing exercises. It will explore the links between poetic expressions and social, cultural, and political trends in which they arise. It will deal with various conceptions and performances of poetics, from avant-garde experimentalism to popular music, from hip-hop to poetic public interventions.

In this course, we will analyze the place of racism in the link between culture and power in processes of nation building in Latin America. We will study three historical milestones associated with specific intellectual and political moments: the positivism of the early twentieth century, the developmentalism of the 1950s, and the current neoliberal era. We will analyze how ideas of race have changed over time and their role in the construction of national projects in Argentina, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic. This course will be taught in Spanish.

This course is an introduction to the practice of literary translation from Spanish to English, with a focus on fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. After a series of translation exercises, each student will select an author and work to be translated as the central project for the class, and will embark on the process of revising successive drafts. Close reading of the Spanish texts is required, as is a deep engagement with the translations of fellow students. Subjects of discussion will include style, context, the conventions of contemporary translation, and the re translation of classics.

In Latin America, writers have a special relation to politics: some (Sarmiento) ruled their countries; others, like Mario Vargas Llosa, tried to become presidents; some, like García Márquez, cultivated friendships with powerful leaders like Fidel Castro; almost all writers have used the novel form to analyze, discuss, and question their country's political history, including the darkest episodes of dictatorship and repression. We will read a selection of authors who have played key roles as politicians, either formally or informally, and who have written stories that encapsulate the complex tangle linking money, power, and language.

In response to the rise of neoliberalism, Latin(x) American artists and writers turned to memory as a poetic force to challenge the monumentalization of history. This course examines how feminist and queer perspectives highlight the tension between fragments and totality, residues and fixed narratives, reimagining memory as a form of resistance. It explores memory across various media, analyzing themes of gendered violence, feminicide, post-dictatorship trauma, and racial marginalization in the works of artists and writers like Cecilia Vicuña, Óscar Muñoz, and Rosana Paulino, among others.

An exploration of material culture with the first modern novel of the Western world. It is about contemporary, 21st-century reading practices as well as those that prevailed at the time of the Quixote's production. We will survey intersections of material and digital objects in addition to digital surrogates. Hands-on experience of Firestone's rare books will introduce us to the dramatic effects of varying formats. Our modern, paperback versions will also reveal how media shape our understanding of the text. Images and contemporary reading practices of the "app generation" will increase our grasp of how media shape textual interpretation.

This course offers an introduction to key terms, concepts and issues in the fields of second-language acquisition and language-teaching pedagogy as it relates to the teaching of Spanish and Portuguese. Students acquire knowledge, as well as develop and practice skills that prepare them to teach foreign languages, select content and create materials, assess student performance, and reflect upon their own teaching practice. The course's theoretical principles are applied to the teaching of the four linguistic skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The teaching of culture and use of new technologies are also addressed.

The cultural productions of the Spanish empire of the early modern period often appear to have a veneer of social neatness and structured compliance. Closer readings, however, reveal a messy social world in which the disenfranchised, or those who identify as such resist and respond to dominant forces and ideologies. In this course, we examine literary and documentary texts with the purpose of reading them against the grain and with a focus on uncovering their hidden scripts of dissent. Our approach emphasizes methods of close analysis and discussions revolve around issues of race, gender, and class.

Every archive is a posthumous device. To archive is to die a little bit, even when the archived author still lives. This seminar explores another function of archives, namely, that they go beyond the funereal and give rise to somatic permutations that challenge the division between living and dying, between an author's material end and the cessation of artistic production. We look beyond death to examine the creative and plastic afterlife, or what develops and survives independent of the author's living hand. To write again, the dead author relies on the prosthetic hands of others. The archive lies beyond life's closed circuit.