Courses - Fall 2026
SPAN103
Elementary Spanish for Intercultural Communication I
Credits:
4
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: Must have appropriate World Language Placement (WLP) score.
Restriction: Must not be a native/fluent speaker of Spanish. Native/fluent speakers of Spanish or students who have previously attended school in Spanish speaking countries should take the WLP and see the Spanish Undergraduate Advisor to identify the correct Spanish course for which to register.
Credit only granted for: SPAN102 or SPAN103.
Develops students' communicative competence at the novice mid/high level of proficiency. Introduces students to global Hispanophone cultures.
SPAN203
Elementary Spanish for Intercultural Communication II
Credits:
4
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: SPAN103; or must have appropriate World Language Placement (WLP) score.
Restriction: Must not be a native/fluent speaker of Spanish. Native/fluent speakers of Spanish or students who have previously attended school in Spanish speaking countries should take the WLP and see the Spanish Undergraduate Advisor to identify the correct Spanish course for which to register.
Continues to develop students' communicative competence at the novice high/intermediate low level of proficiency. Furthers the introduction to global Hispanophone cultures.
SPAN204
Intermediate Spanish for Intercultural Communication
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: SPAN203; or must have appropriate World Language Placement (WLP) score.
Restriction: Must not be a native/fluent speaker of Spanish. Native/fluent speakers of Spanish or students who have previously attended school in Spanish speaking countries should take the WLP and see the Spanish Undergraduate Advisor to identify the correct Spanish course for which to register.
Further develops students' communicative competence at the intermediate mid/high level of proficiency. Fosters expanded knowledge of and appreciation for global Hispanophone cultures.
SPAN206
Spanish for Heritage Speakers I
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: Native or near native knowledge of and no formal education in Spanish.
Review of oral and written Spanish for students who have native or near native knowledge of, but no formal education in Spanish. Taught in Spanish.
Students new to language courses in SLLC must take the World Language Placement Test in order to register.
SPAN207
Reading and Writing in Spanish
Prerequisite: Must have completed or be concurrently enrolled in SPAN204; or must have appropriate World Language Placement (WLP) score.
Selected readings with emphasis on reading comprehension and the development of reading strategies. Work in composition writing and a review of selected grammatical topics. Complements material of SPAN204.
SPAN234
Issues in Latin American and Caribbean Studies I
Cross-listed with: LACS234, PORT234.
Credit only granted for: LASC234, PORT234, SPAN234, or LACS234.
Formerly: LASC234.
Interdisciplinary study of major issues in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Latin America's cultural mosaic, migration and urbanization. Democratization and the role of religions. Taught in English.
SPAN234H
Issues in Latin American and Caribbean Studies I
Cross-listed with: LACS234, PORT234.
Credit only granted for: LASC234, PORT234, SPAN234, or LACS234.
Formerly: LASC234.
Interdisciplinary study of major issues in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Latin America's cultural mosaic, migration and urbanization. Democratization and the role of religions. Taught in English.
Open to Honor students only.
SPAN301
Advanced Grammar and Composition I
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: Must have completed or be concurrently enrolled in SPAN207.
Practice of complex grammatical structures through reading and writing of compositions and essays. Specific lexical, syntactic, rhetorical, and stylistic devices will be highlighted.
SPAN303
Approaches to Cultural Materials in the Hispanic World
Prerequisite: SPAN301.
Recommended: May elect to take SPAN311 and/or SPAN316 in same semester as SPAN303.
Development of proficiency in critical thought through the reading, viewing, and analytical discussion of major genres and styles of cultural materials selected from Spanish-speaking world. Taught in Spanish.
SPAN306
Spanish for Heritage Speakers II
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: SPAN206.
Practice of complex grammatical structures through reading and writing of compositions and essays. Specific lexical, syntactic, rhetorical and stylistic devices will be highlighted. Designed for Spanish speakers educated in English. Taught in Spanish.
SPAN311
Advanced Communication I
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: SPAN301; and must have completed or be concurrently enrolled in SPAN303.
Restriction: Must not be a native/fluent speaker of Spanish.
Further development of listening, speaking, and writing skills in Spanish. Opportunity to develop oral and written fluency, improve pronunciation and increase vocabulary. Individual and/or group oral presentations. Taught in Spanish.
SPAN316
Spanish Translation I
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: SPAN301; and must have completed or be concurrently enrolled in SPAN303.
Translation of texts into Spanish and/or English. Taught in Spanish.
SPAN325
Hispanic Linguistics I: Grammar and Society
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: SPAN303; and (SPAN311 or SPAN316).
Credit only granted for: SPAN310 or SPAN325.
Formerly: SPAN310.
Sociolinguistic approach to Spanish grammar focusing on real-life exploration of the ways linguistic structures change and are used in different parts of the Spanish-speaking world. Taught in Spanish.
SPAN331
Spanish Culture, Civilization and Literature I: Medieval Times
Prerequisite: SPAN303; and (SPAN311 or SPAN316).
The exploration of cultures of the Iberian Peninsula from its origins until the 15th century as well as the study of historical and political events that gave rise to the Spanish state. Taught in Spanish.
SPAN333
Spanish Culture, Civilization and Literature III: Modern Times
Prerequisite: SPAN303; and (SPAN311 or SPAN316).
An overview of cultural and literary production of Spain from the late 17th century through the present day, exploring the production of literary texts in their socio-historical, political, religious and cultural contexts and development. Taught in Spanish.
SPAN361
Latin American Literatures and Cultures I: From Pre-Columbian to Colonial Times
Prerequisite: SPAN303; and (SPAN311 or SPAN316).
Overview of cultural history of Latin America from pre-Columbian civilizations to the Colonial period, exploring the foundations of the Spanish American cultural and literary tradition to approximately 1770. Taught in Spanish.
SPAN363
Latin American Literatures and Cultures III: From Modernism to Neo-Liberalism
Prerequisite: SPAN303; and (SPAN311 or SPAN316).
An overview of cultural and literary production of Latin America from the late 19th through the early 21st centuries, exploring the production of literary texts in their socio-historical, political, and cultural contexts and development. Taught in Spanish.
SPAN370
Spanish for Business I
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: SPAN303; and (SPAN311 or SPAN316).
Business Spanish terminology, vocabulary and practices. Emphasis on everyday spoken and written Spanish. Readings and discussions of Spanish commercial topics. May include exposure to Spanish commercial topics. May include exposure to Spanish business environments. Taught in Spanish.
SPAN371
Spanish for the Health Professions
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: SPAN303; and (SPAN311 or SPAN316).
Exploration of cultural and linguistic skills for the health professions including vocabulary, listening, speaking, reading and strategies. No experience in the professional area necessary. Taught in Spanish.
SPAN372
Spanish and the Law
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: SPAN311 or SPAN316.
Offers students the opportunity to enhance Spanish linguistic and intercultural communication skills in contexts of legal practice through the translation of a variety of legal documents. Introduces Spanish legal terminology in areas such as immigration, consumer protection, and criminal/employment/housing/family law. Students will learn how to apply these language and cultural skills as future legal practitioners interacting with clients who possess limited English proficiency. Native or fluent guest participants will expose students to legal terminology, registers, and dialects from various Spanish-speaking countries. The goal of the class is to enable students to, at a minimum, conduct intake interviews in a culturally competent fashion with Spanish-speaking clients without the assistance of interpreters. The course is designed to be beneficial for students with varying levels of Spanish language ability, up to and including students who are native or heritage speakers of Spanish. Taught in Spanish
SPAN374
Spanish in the Community
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Prerequisite: SPAN303; and (SPAN311 or SPAN316).
Provides students with context for understanding, communicating with, and working with the Spanish-speaking community. Topics include Latino/a demographics, cultures, communities, work opportunities and local uses of Spanish. Requires outside service-learning work.
SPAN375
Spanish in the Life Sciences
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: SPAN303 and SPAN311; or SPAN316; or permission of instructor.
Communication and critical thinking skills in Spanish through the study of materials related to science. The course engages students in class discussions about a variety of topics in different formats, such as book chapters, articles, film, art, and literary works. The course is divided into five units that will allow the study of specific geographies, topics, and cases in the Spanish-speaking world. Assignments include a research proposal and visits to the National Zoo and the National Museum of Natural History. No technical knowledge is necessary, as we will emphasize the language of science, not the content itself. Taught in Spanish.
SPAN386
Experiential Learning
Credits:
3 - 6
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F
Prerequisite: Permission of ARHU-School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures department.
Restriction: Junior standing or higher.
SPAN388W
Writing Center Internship
Prerequisite: Permission of the Writing Center (1205 Tawes Hall). Repeatable to 12 credits.
Cross-listed with: ENGL388W.
Credit only granted for: ENGL388W or SPAN388W.
Examines face-to-face and online writing center theory and practice through readings, exercises, and supervised tutoring. Students investigate the writing process and help other writers to negotiate it.
SPAN399
Independent Study in Spanish
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: permission of department.
SPAN425
Hispanic Linguistics II: Structures of Spanish
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: SPAN303; and SPAN311 or SPAN316 or SPAN325.
This course begins with an introduction to general concepts in linguistics, from language function and the brain to communication, culture, and thought, and their relation to other disciplines in the social sciences. The main purpose of this course is to provide an overview of Hispanic linguistics through multiple perspectives, while exploring the areas of Spanish morphology, syntax, and semantics. This course will also focus on the structural tendencies of Spanish through a variety of practical activities. Taught in Spanish.
Jointly offered with SPAN625. Credit granted for SPAN425 or SPAN625.
SPAN434
The Usable Past: Reflecting on Archives in Contemporary Fictions and Films from the Southern Cone
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: SPAN331, SPAN332, SPAN333, SPAN361, SPAN362, or SPAN363; or permission of instructor.
Credit only granted for: SPAN434 or SPAN408F.
Formerly: SPAN408F.
Additional information: Taught in Spanish.
Che Guevara on a t-shirt, Eva Peron in a Broadway musical, Bolivar as trans on a postcard, Gabriela Mistral on a peso bill, Pablo Neruda as a postman's friend, Frida Kahlo as a feminist icon, Artigas in a blues band ... The list goes on. Nevertheless, what all these cultural appropriations have in common is that the present has used the past to inscribe a functional narrative for that time. This course will not ask if we can know past events as they really happened, but rather it will explore how contemporary fictions, films, and visual art from the Southern Cone construct usable cultural archives for their present. Also, this seminar traces the ways in which contemporary authors, filmmakers, and visual artists reflect on the past in order to critically read their present. Concentrating on the past as both the subject of fiction and as a force for inscribing fiction, this seminar inscribes an approach to time that moves away from a linearity.
SPAN456
Construction of Gender and Sexuality in the Spanish Realist-Naturalist Novel
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: One of the following: SPAN331, SPAN332, SPAN333, SPAN361, SPAN362, or SPAN363; or permission of instructor.
Recommended: SPAN333.
Examines 19th-century Spanish normative notions regarding gender expression and identities as well as men's and women's sexualities in the Realist and Naturalist novel. Also, we will discuss representations of men and women whose behavior ran afoul of a heteronormative system that valued domestic privacy as a space of honor and virtuous masculinity and femininity. Taught in Spanish.
SPAN476
Central Americans in the DMV
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: SPAN331, SPAN332, SPAN333, SPAN361, SPAN362, or SPAN363; or permission of instructor.
Credit only granted for: SPAN408W or SPAN476.
Formerly: SPAN408W.
Explores the history, migration, and cultural representation of Central Americans in the DMV (DC, Maryland, and Virginia) in the larger context of transnational relations between Central America and the United States. We ask how and why the DMV is home to one of the largest concentrations of Central Americans, especially Salvadorans, in the nation, as well as examine the diaspora as a transnational process. We study plays, short stories, poetry, spoken word/ performances, films, music, photography, zines, social media, and other interdisciplinary re/sources, and engage one-on-one with local and international artists, activists, and community organizations. Course format consists of lectures, discussions, group work, short essays, presentations, and examinations. Students should expect to participate in a community engagement project. Taught in Spanish and discussions in Spanglish.
SPAN479
Honors Thesis
Credits:
3 - 6
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
SPAN495
Honors Reading
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: Must be in Spanish and Portuguese Honors; or permission of ARHU-School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures department.
Supervised reading.
SPAN605
Teaching Spanish I
Credits:
1
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Prerequisite: Permission of ARHU-School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures department.
Restriction: Must be a Spanish teaching assistant.
Methods and materials for teaching Spanish in higher education.
Restricted to SPAP graduate students or by permission of instructor only.
SPAN611
Current Trends in Hispanic Applied Linguistics
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Restriction: Permission of ARHU-Spanish & Portuguese Languages & Literatures department.
Introduction to current trends in Hispanic Applied Linguistics, emphasizing learning and teaching in Spanish-language contexts.
SPAN625
Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics I:Basic Concepts
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Introduction to basic terms and definition in Hispanic Linguistics. Fundamental aspects of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, and pragmatics.
Jointly offered with SPAN425. Credit granted for SPAN425 or SPAN625.
SPAN699
Independent Study in Spanish
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
SPAN798A
Open Seminar; Contemporary Afro-Latin American Fiction
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud, S-F
Explores Afro-Latin American fiction of the last 60 years. We will disc uss what techniques Afro-Latin American writers have experimented with as well as the themes they have delved into. We will be reading authors such as Zapata Olivella, Marta Rojas, Mayra Santos-Febres, Washington Cucurto, and Marcial Gala.
SPAN798N
Open Seminar; Transnational Theory and Literature
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud, S-F
Examines the emergence of transnational theory in literary and cultural studies and its challenge to the nation-state as the dominant frame for analyzing culture. We will approach transnationalism both as a historical condition shaped by the global circulation of people, capital, and ideas, and as a critical methodology for understanding aesthetic production beyond national borders. The seminar places transnational theory in dialogue with adjacent frameworks such as world literature and cosmopolitanism. Through close engagement with key theoretical texts andliterary works, we will address questions of circulation, translation, linguistichegemony, and literary world-building. Taking Brazilian and Hispanic American literature as primary case studies, the seminar also encouragesstudents to approach these cultural regions from a transnational perspective, examining the ways literary and cultural production in Latin America participates in broader global circuits of exchange, influence, and interpretation.
SPAN798V
Open Seminar; Puerto Rican Literature and Musicality: The Potens of the Fiesta
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud, S-F
Explores the imaginal world running through literature and music in Puerto Rico, considering the fiesta as a becoming and a shared epiphany of Puerto Rican sociability. Rather than tracing filiations or genealogies,we listen to how verse is infected by the drum, and which images and narratives insist through danza, bomba, plena, salsa, and reggaeton. Areresistance or identity privileged themes? What does it mean to listen? What do we listen to between rhythms and words? When andhow does the fiesta destitute and revolt against the political order?The course studies potens as the becoming of another world: energyand intensities that create world in text, song and dance and askswhether music can be thought without domestication. We will also examinethe limits and fixations of current academic, critical, and political discourse. Taught in Spanish.
SPAN799
Master's Thesis Research
Credits:
1 - 6
Grad Meth:
S-F
SPAN898
Pre-Candidacy Research
Credits:
1 - 8
Grad Meth:
Reg
SPAN899
Doctoral Dissertation Research
Credits:
6
Grad Meth:
S-F
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