Undergraduate Content Courses Fall 2023
Beach, Samba, Soccer – PORT 3207
MW 5:00-6:15pm
Instructor: Sarah Lucena
This course examines the construction and reproduction of foundational stereotypes of Brazilian
society. By working with historical and cultural products from Lusophone and non-Lusophone
countries, students will develop a critical understanding of how narratives model societies and
explore what constitutes Brazil beyond its stereotypes. Prerequisites: PORT-1500 or permission
from the instructor. Attributes: Diversity/Global DIVG
Intermediate Spanish for Public Health – SPAN 1020
TTh 5:00-6:15
Instructor: Professor Héctor Campos
This course aims to give the low or mid intermediate students of Spanish a solid foundation in
health care vocabulary, basic health care and cultural concepts, and intensive situational practice
that will prepare them to function competently in today’s Spanish-speaking world. No previous
knowledge of health care is required.
Advanced Spanish for Heritage Speakers I – SPAN 2105
MW 5:00-6:15
Instructor: Professor Ana Levenson
This course has been designed for students who have been raised in Spanish-speaking homes
and/or communities across the United States and schooled, for the most part, in English. This
course aims to strengthen grammar and vocabulary knowledge as well as reading, writing, and
speaking skills for academic and professional settings. Some topics discussed include language
and identity, Spanglish, being bilingual in the US.
Advanced Spanish for Health Sciences – SPAN 2202
M W 12:30-1:45 PM
Instructor: Professor Francisco Cornejo
This course aims to give Advanced students of Spanish a solid foundation in medical- related
vocabulary, basic health and cultural concepts, and intensive situational practice that will prepare
them to function competently in today’s Spanish-speaking world. No previous knowledge of
medicine is required.
Advanced Spanish for Business – SPAN 2209
MW 3:30-4:45
TTh 5:00-6:15
Instructors: Jorge Ramos and Alyssa Yarbrough
This course aims to give Advanced students of Spanish a solid foundation in business
vocabulary, basic business and cultural concepts, and intensive situational practice that will
prepare them to function competently in today’s Spanish-speaking world. No previous
knowledge of business is required.
Gateway to Culture – Spanish 3000
MWF, 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Professor Maria Moreno
MWF, 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Alexandra Mira Alonso
MWF, 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Drue Edney
MWF, 11:00-11:50
Instructor: Monserrat Garcia Rodenas
An introduction to the upper-level courses in the field of Cultural Studies, this course examines
what culture is and how it relates to the construction of identity. We critically analyze national
cultures, popular and underground cultures, in different sociopolitical contexts in the
Spanish-speaking world. Students build confidence in their oral, writing, and reading skills in
Spanish for the academic milieu.
Gateway to Linguistics – Spanish 3000
MWF, 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Katherin Vargas Henao
An introduction to the study of the different components of language, language acquisition, the
interaction between language, identity and society, dialectal variation, history of the language,
and languages in contact, as preparation for the upper-level Spanish linguistics courses. Students
will build confidence in their oral, writing, and reading skills in Spanish for the academic milieu.
Introduction to Spanish Linguistics – SPAN 3210
Instructor: Maja Nikolic
Time: T Th 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Conor McKeon
Time: M W 12:30 – 1:45
This course introduces students to the basics of the scientific study of Spanish. We discuss what
constitutes the largely unconscious knowledge that allows Spanish speakers to produce the
sounds of the language, to put them together to form words and then to combine these words to
create meaningful sentences. We will also analyze how speakers do this slightly differently
depending on where they live and, relatedly, how the properties of Spanish have gradually
changed over time. No previous background in linguistics is required.
Spain: Literature & Culture I – SPAN 3241
TTh 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Molly Borowitz
This course explores primary sources created on the Iberian peninsula in the eleventh through
eighteenth centuries. Students will examine works of prose fiction, poetry, and drama along with
history, philosophy, hagiography, autobiography, and politics. In their analyses of these materials,
students are encouraged to trace connections between the medieval and early modern periods and
contemporary Spanish and American culture and politics.
Latin America: Literature & Culture I – SPAN 3261
MW 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Sebastián Moreno
This course explores primary sources created on the American continent in the fifteenth through
eighteenth centuries, including codices, texts, visual art, and architecture. Students will examine
Indigenous- and Spanish-created histories, autobiographies, chronicles, poetry, drama, and works
of other genres. In their analyses of these materials, students are encouraged to trace connections
between the early modern period and contemporary Latin American and North American culture
and politics.
Latin American Literature and Culture II – SPAN 3262
Instructor: Leopoldo Gonzalez Barajas
TTh 12:30-1:45
In this course we will read texts by noteworthy Latin American authors from the late 19th
century through today. Our aim will be to appreciate and analyze literature from a variety of
genres and to learn about the cultural heterogeneity of Latin America. Topics covered may also
include visual arts and music, sociocultural movements, and representations of U.S. Latino
identities.
Intersectional Approaches in Latin American Narratives – SPAN 3267
T/Th 2:00-3:15pm
Instructor: César Salgado Portillo
El objetivo del curso es estudiar y utilizar el marco teórico de la interseccionalidad para que nos
ayude a analizar las conexiones de narrativas subalternas híbridas (literatura, teatro, cine, música,
performance, etc.,) con cuestiones raciales, sexuales, políticas, nacionales y sociales que
históricamente han afectado a comunidades marginadas.
Latin American Film – SPAN-3268
MW 09:30-10:45
Instructor: Vivaldo Santos
This course provides an overview of the significant National Cinemas of Spanish American
countries in the hemisphere, including Brazil. Within the overarching framework of society and
culture, specific topics such as representation, adaptation, ideological constructs, docudrama and
cinematographic techniques as markers of meaning serve to sharpen the close-film analysis as
well as a micro/macro-examination of contemporary Latin America, Mexico and Cuba.
Bilingualism: Mind and Context – SPAN 3314
TTh 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Sara Ramirez
In this course, students will learn to identify patterns in Spanish bilingual speech communities in
the US, Latin America, and Spain. Likewise, they will learn about the external
conditions–language policy, bilingual education–that determine individual bilingualism, as well
as the relationship between cognitive development, cognition, and the individual’s ability to
speak two languages. Critical thinking skills and research methods are stressed. (Fulfills Spanish
Linguistics and College Social Science requirements).
Spanish Phonetics – SPAN 3319
Instructor: Professor Alfonso Morales-Front
Time: TTh 12:30-1:45
An introduction to the fundamental principles of phonetic analysis, with attention to how Spanish
sounds are produced, and the changes they undergo in different environments. Analyzing
differences between the Spanish and English segmental and suprasegmental systems (syllable,
stress, and intonation) as well as the systematic review of the major differences between
Peninsular and American dialects, will help you improve your Spanish pronunciation.
Research Practicum in Spanish Linguistics – SPAN 3333 1 credit
W 11
Instructor: Professor Cristina Sanz
SPAN 3333 provides students with an opportunity to engage deeply with a research project on
Spanish Linguistics over the course of a semester. Students will work with a faculty or graduate
student mentor on a project of their choice on a weekly basis. Class meetings include
presentations by students and by guest speakers, and additional training on research methods.
Modern Spain: Politics, Art, Society – SPAN 3336
MW 3:30-4:45
Instructor: Profesor Alejandro Yarza
This course explores the intersection between culture (as expressed through art and literature)
and politics in Modern and Contemporary Spain. Particular attention will be paid to the
formation and further development of the concept of Spanish national identity.
Hispanic Cinema: Spain – SPAN 3341
MW 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Professor Alejandro Yarza
This course examines representations of Spanishness in cinema since the 1940s to the present.
It will also serve as an introduction to key critical concepts and historical contexts of Film
Studies. Throughout, we will become familiarized with the formal vocabulary of film analysis
and embark on a critical interpretation of images to unveil their ethical, aesthetic, and ideological
foundations.
CBL Spanish in the Community – Spanish 4180
WF 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Professor Maria Moreno
This is a community-based learning course on the construction of Latinx communities in the U.S.
through the lens of critical discourse analysis. Topics covered include: Latinx identity and
political and media discourse; nation, racism, migration, labor; immigration law, policy, and
history; access to education, language ideologies, and translanguaging in the U.S. This course
also includes community work with local organizations serving the DMV’s Spanish-speaking
communities for a fourth credit.
CBL Spanish Sociolinguistics: Race, Nation and Language – Spanish 4196
MW 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Professor Maria Moreno
This is a community-based learning course on language, power and identity in the
Spanish-speaking world. Using the lens of critical discourse studies, we examine the central role
of Language in the social construction of Race and Nation through capitalism, colonialism,
racialization, and nation-building. We also explore the transformation of racial/ethnic, and
linguistic practices and ideologies through our fourth-credit community work with indigenous
and local organizations in Guatemala.
Literature, Film, Music and Human Rights – SPAN 4198
MW 11-12:15
Instructor: Professor Adam Lifshey
Este seminario examina diversas intersecciones de las artes y los derechos humanos. Al estudiar
literatura, música, cine y otras artes, los estudiantes analizarán representaciones de los abusos de
los derechos humanos de una variedad de individuos y grupos en las Américas. A lo largo del
semestre, también se discutirán conexiones transnacionales a instituciones, ideas e individuos
que provienen de Washington.
Brazilian Lit in Translation (in Spanish) – SPAN 4575
W 3:30-6:00
Instructor: Professor Vivaldo Santos
A survey of Brazilian literature from 1500 to the present. Students will engage in a wide variety
of texts, including representative works of colonial period, 19th and 20th century, as well
contemporary literary productions. Special consideration will be given to the idea of a national
literature, looking at issues such as local and “universal”, “modernity”, country and city,
representations of race, gender, class, and sexuality. Readings in Spanish and English.
Asian Literatures and Cultures in Spanish – SPAN 4576
MW 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Professor Adam Lifshey
What map of the Spanish-speaking world do you have in your mind? Whatever it is, it probably
does not include Asia. Yet the premise that cultures in Spanish exist only in Europe and the
Americas will be proven entirely wrong in this course, which will focus on cultural production in
Spanish from Asia and by individuals elsewhere of Asian heritage.
Literature and Rural Modernity in Latin America – SPAN 4577
Th 3:30-6:00
Instructor: Professor Nicolás Campisi
This course will examine literary representations of rural territories (deserts, highlands, and
jungles) in modern and contemporary Latin America. We will read the work of women writers
who used modern literary techniques to question forms of land-based and sexual oppression and
Indigenous writers who destabilize traditional debates about civilization versus barbarism and
Latin America’s insertion into the global economy.
Senior Capstone: Environmental Literature and Film – SPAN 4960
F 12:30-3:00
Instructor: Professor Nicolás Campisi
This course will introduce students to how filmmakers and writers have represented Latin
America’s ecosystems and raised awareness about critical environmental issues in the region.
The course revolves around five case studies: forest and rivers, the desert and the mountains,
agriculture and slaughterhouses, and waste and recycling. This capstone seminar will help
students develop their senior theses.