Majors & Minors

Spanish Studies

Students majoring in Spanish studies develop a critical understanding of cultural and linguistic production in the countries over 300 million Spanish-speakers call home. The major's core courses provide students with the critical methods and vocabulary that ensure success in more advanced courses. These advanced courses focus on the language, literature, and culture of Spain, Spanish America, and the United States. From Spain's multicultural, medieval past to its twentieth-century movement toward democracy, and from the colonial and postcolonial periods in the Americas to the growth of Latino culture in the United States, the major also emphasizes the changing sociohistorical context of the Spanish-speaking world.

Spanish-Portuguese Studies

Students in the Spanish-Portuguese studies major will learn about, in addition to the above, the language and diversity of cultures of more than 200 million speakers of Portuguese in Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia. Portuguese courses in the combined major are interdisciplinary and emphasize the historical and cultural connections that have shaped the Lusophone world from early modernity to the present. In these courses, special attention is given to cultural and historical analogies, contrasts, and discontinuities between the Hispanic and Lusophone worlds.