Current New & Special Courses

New and special topics courses in Spanish and Portuguese for the 2023-2024 academic year.

In addition to our regular offerings, we are happy to share the course descriptions for new and special topics courses offered this academic year. These courses count for the minor and the two majors (Hispanic Studies and Romance Languages) in our department. If you have questions about a specific course, feel free to email the professor teaching the course.

Block 2

SP360. Studies of Periodization: Perspectivas indígenas y procesos coloniales en las Américas.
This course will explore Indigenous attitudes and discursive practices during the process of European colonization of the Americas. While centering Indigenous perspectives, we will also discuss the creation of “Indian” as a racial category during the colonial period, and how the term is both historically determined and ever evolving. How did the original inhabitants of this continent choose to self-represent in the face of unprecedented violence and dispossession? What discursive practices did they adopt to understand, describe, and adapt to these new realities, as well as preserve their cultural heritage? With a focus on Maya, Nahua, and Quechua literature and art, we will see how cultural expression is intricately related to social, political, and economic issues. We will close with an overview of significant early Indigenous rebellions that challenged the legitimacy of the Spanish Empire and continue to inspire current Indigenous struggles for self-determination. Prerequisite: SP 306.  Professor: Andreea Marinescu.

PG308. Bahian Social Movements.
This co-taught course focuses on social movements with roots in Afro-Diasporic knowledges and arts from the early twentieth century to the present. From the early roots of samba music and dance to Abdias Nascimento and the Teatro Experimental Negro (TEN), Tiffany Odara and trans-rights in Candomblé, and queer painter and street artist Ani Ganzala, students will learn about the history of key social movements and debates through the proliferation of Afro-Brazilian arts-activism in the northeastern region of Brazil. Students are not required to speak advanced Portuguese but will be continue language study through ongoing courses and bilingual reading options. Taught abroad as part of the CC in Latin America program in Salvador, Brazil.  Prerequisite: admission into the 2023 CCLA Program. Professors: Naomi Wood and Feva Omo Iyanu.

Block 3

SP312. Afroméxico: Literature, visual art, and cinema
This course explores literature, cinema, and visual arts written and produced by Afro-Mexican writers and artists. We will read the work of Aleida Violeta Vázquez and Malaika Daren and study the meaning of “la tercera raíz.” Students will have a weeklong workshop & festival with Afro-Mérida artists to look at diasporic movements in the Yucatán region.  Taught abroad as part of the CC in Latin America program in Mérida, Mexico. Prerequisite: SP201 (SP304 and/or SP305 preferred) and admission into the 2023 CCLA Program. Professor: Angela Castro.

Block 5

SP 316. Topics in Hispanic Literature and Culture: Queer Latinoamérica
This course explores “queer” as an identity category, theoretical term, and verb as it emerges from, traverses, and transforms across the Americas. This course will focus on literary texts, performance and visual arts. Specifically, we will examine the ways that the artists and authors explored in this class confront legacies of white supremacist and heteropatriarchal social structures to both embrace “deviant” gender and sexual identities and also to confront colonial legacies. Prerequisite: SP306. Professor: Naomi Wood.

Block 6

SP350. Transatlantic Studies: Indigenous & Black Voices.
This course offers a critical exploration of Indigenous and Black presence across seas. We will maintain a transnational, transatlantic perspective throughout the course, focusing on the narratives and discourses created by Indigenous and Black peoples from the moment of contact to the present. What have been some of the representations of Indigenous and Black peoples in the Iberian Peninsula, the Americas, and Africa? How have Indigenous and Black peoples countered and resisted dominant narratives? We will survey a wide range of cultural and literary works such as film, photography, hip/hop/rap music, poetry, short stories, letters, and textiles, to gain a better understanding of the ways Indigenous and Black media makers have and are reaching a wider audience with their works. Students will have the opportunity to engage in conversations on issues of representation, resistance, trauma, movement, displacement, and violence to name a few. We will center Indigenous and Black voices that challenge, create, and respond to dominant monolithic viewpoints. Prerequisite: SP306. Professor: Jessica Sánchez Flores.

Report an issue - Last updated: 07/18/2023