Major courses for Spanish for the spring semester of 2026
Spanish 250: Family and Gender Roles in Spain: 1900 to Present
GE: FOL-S & WRI (OLE CORE: WLC / WAC)
Taught by León Narváez, T 9:35-11:00 / Th 9:30-10:50
Prerequisite: Spanish 232 or Placement into Spanish 250/251
Since 1975, Spain has undergone a “revolución familiar” – dramatic changes in family
structures and, in some cases, gender roles, the rights of women and the acceptance of
minorities, and the relationships between generations. While some of these changes parallel
those that have occurred in other countries (including the U.S.), Spain is a remarkable example
of rapid change. In this class, we’ll explore the history of families and gender roles from the
early 1900s to the present day through the analysis of “cultural texts” – from statistical data to
articles to films to a historical novel that will help us imagine the lives of two teachers at a time
when new ways of interpreting the world and behaving challenged traditional values. You will
continue to develop your oral expression in Spanish through class discussions and other
activities, and through various modes of academic writing. The course includes participation in
three out-of-class conversation groups.
Key course materials: Novel, Historia de una maestra (Josefina R. Aldecoa);
film and videos, packet of readings from a variety of sources and a packet of ACTIVIDADES
Spanish 250 or 251 is required for the Spanish major (only one of the two courses can count for
the major).
Note: Spanish 250 (equivalent to Spanish 251) is the first course in the Spanish major but is open to any student who has completed Spanish 232 or placed into the 250-level. 250-level courses cannot be repeated, and students cannot count both 250 and 251 for the Spanish major. Either Spanish 250 or 251 counts as the prerequisite for 270-level courses and above.
Spanish 250 or 251 is required for the Latin American Studies major.
Counts Toward Majors: Gender & Sexuality Studies, Latin American Studies, Performance,
Political Science, and Women’s and Gender Studies
Counts Toward Concentrations: Family Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, International
Relations, Management Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies
Spanish 251: Gender and Race in Latin America
GE: FOL-S & WRI / OLE CORE: WLC & WAC
Prof. Mariana Reyes-Payán MWF 12:55-1:50
Prerequisite: Spanish 232 or placement into Spanish 250/251
This course focuses on gender and race in Latin America and explores gender roles, femicide,
intersectionality, activism, and Latin America’s deep-rooted history of activism and resistance to
oppression. To capture a wide range of experiences and voices, we work with short stories,
articles, podcasts, films, songs, and poems from across Latin America. We include objective
sources that focus on providing information, as well as subjective sources that narrate human
experiences – people’s stories. In the process, we also work on developing our academic
language skills in Spanish, especially through writing with the use of textual evidence. Includes
participation in 3 out-of-class conversation groups.
Spanish 250 or 251 is required for the Spanish major (only one of the two courses can count for
the major).
Note: Spanish 250 or Spanish 251 is the first course in the Spanish major but is open to any
student who has completed Spanish 232 or placed into the 250-level. 250-level courses cannot be repeated, and students cannot count both 250 and 251 for the Spanish major. Either Spanish 250 or 251 counts as the prerequisite for 270-level courses and above.
Spanish 250 or 251 is required for the Latin American Studies major.
Counts Toward Majors: Gender & Sexuality Studies, Latin American Studies, Performance,
Political Science, and Women’s and Gender Studies
Counts Towards Concentrations: Gender and Sexuality Studies, International Relations
Spanish 273: Cultures of the Latinx/a/o U.S.
Topic: Imagining Latinidad: Hemispheric Perspectives on Culture, Citizenship, and Creativity
GE: MCD / OLE CORE: PAR
Instructor: Prof. Américo Mendoza-Mori ,T 11:45-1:10 Th 12:45-2:05
Prerequisite: Spanish 250 or 251 (or permission of instructor)
Building on your previous courses in Spanish and Latin American cultural analysis, this class
invites you to explore how Latine communities imagine, contest, and reshape Latinidad, the
diverse sense of belonging that connects peoples of Latin American descent in the United States. We will examine how migration, language, race, and memory inform Latinx identities and how artists, writers, and activists represent these experiences through literature, visual arts, music, and digital media.
Guided by frameworks of decolonial thought and hemispheric history, students will analyze how the terms Hispanic, Latino/a/e/x, and Latinidad have emerged, evolved, and been challenged in
public discourse. As part of this exploration, we will consider Latinidad as not only a U.S.-based
category but also a hemispheric phenomenon shaped by dialogues, migrations, and cultural
exchanges across the Americas, including Indigenous and Afro-diasporic communities whose
histories and contributions are central to these processes. We will engage with works by
different authors, along with media and community initiatives that reflect the vitality of
Latinidad today.
Intended Learning Outcomes:
1. Recognize the historical and cultural processes that shape Latinx identities in the United
States.
2. Develop critical vocabulary to analyze issues of race, ethnicity, language, and migration from a Latinx and decolonial perspective.
3. Examine how cultural production in literary, visual, musical, and digital forms constructs and challenges ideas of belonging and citizenship.
Counts Toward Majors: Latin American Studies, Performance, Political Science, Spanish,
Race and Ethnic Studies
Counts Towards Concentrations: International Relations, Latin American Studies, Race and
Ethnic Studies
Spanish 275: Exploring Hispanic Literature
Topic: Intertextualidades Masculinas en la Literatura Latinoamericana con un enfoque caribeño
GE: ALS-L / OLE CORE: CRE
Prof. Kristina Medina-Vilariño, T 9:30 – 11:00, Th 9:30 – 10:50
Prerequisite: Spanish 250 or Spanish 251
El cantante puertorriqueño de trap, Bad Bunny, se presentó en febrero del 2020 en el Tonight
Show vestido con falda. La imagen impresa en su camisa llevaba un reclamo de que “mataron a
Alexa [,] no a un hombre con falda.” Alexa fue una mujer transgénero asesinada en un violento
crimen de odio en Puerto Rico que aún queda sin resolver. Este violento incidente se convirtió
en un punto de referencia crucial en la sociedad moderna puertorriqueña, y criticaba las
representaciones del género o la sexualidad de Alexa publicadas en los medios masivos de
comunicación en PR. Las masas de fans aplaudían el acto de Bad Bunny, en persona y online,
incluyendo algunos escritores y artistas activistas LGBTQ+. Sin embargo, en mayo del 2021, un
sector del senado en el Capitolio de Puerto Rico, defendía la legalidad de las terapias de
conversión. Estas últimas han sido reconocidas como “tortura” por muchos sectores sociales que defienden los derechos humanos, y ven las terapias de conversión sexual como una práctica violenta de homofobia y transfobia.
Este contraste refleja el choque de distintas ideologías que operan entre las comunidades
caribeñas más allá de Puerto Rico y alcanzan a sus diásporas. Mientras que el contrato social de
gran parte de lo/a/e s jóvenes caribeños en el 2024 pareciera ser la aceptación de una mayor
libertad sexual y el rechazo de cualquier binario de género, la realidad diaria nos recuerda que
las expectativas culturales no han cambiado del todo.
Este curso explora el concepto de la masculinidad en el caribe latinoamericano a través de la
literatura, el cine y la cultura popular. Analizaremos textos literarios, incluyendo poesía, novela,
crónica y ensayo. Los estudiantes explorarán la relación entre intertexto, cultura, raza, política y
masculinidad dentro de movimientos sociales y políticos, con un énfasis en el discurso literario
anticolonialista. Algunas secciones de los textos incluidos en esta clase contienen un lenguaje
sexual gráfico.
Al final del semestre los estudiantes crearán un proyecto digital comparativo, enfocado en el
tema del curso y sus respectivas profesiones.
Counts Toward Majors: Latin American Studies, Performance, Political Science, Spanish
Counts Towards Concentrations: International Relations
Spanish 276: Spanish as a First and Second Language
Prof. Kris Cropsey MWF 12:55-1:50
Prerequisite: Spanish 250 or 251
¿De qué se trata Español 276? En este curso estudiaremos diferentes aspectos relacionados al uso y adquisición de la lengua española en contextos transnacionales y transculturales. En particular, usaremos una aproximación crítica para estudiar el español de los Estados Unidos, en Hispanoamérica y en España. Durante el curso haremos particular hincapié en los procesos de adquisición del español como primera y segunda lengua en cuanto atañe a los hablantes del
inglés como primera lengua y a los hablantes de herencia del español en los Estados Unidos.
Tentative reading list:
Packet of journal articles and book chapters (available through the Bookstore)
Mi mundo adorado by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor (available through
the Bookstore)
Materiales para SPAN 276 (course handouts available through the Bookstore)
This course is required for the Spanish major. Spanish 276 cannot be repeated.
Counts Toward Majors: Latin American Studies, Race and Ethnic Studies, Spanish
Counts Toward Concentrations: Applied Linguistic Studies, Latin American Studies, Race and
Ethnic Studies, and International Relations
Spanish 314: Borders, Bodies, and Belonging: Resistance and Care in Latino/x/américa(s)
Prof. Mariana Reyes Payán. MWF 10:45 – 11:40
GE: ALS-L / OLE CORE: WRITING IN THE MAJOR
Prerequisite: Spanish 275
Focusing on the relationship between the body and various contested geographies and forces, we examine how key contemporary global issues, particularly those connected to human rights, are depicted and also contested in Latin American (particularly Mexican) and U.S. Latinx cultural, artistic, and literary productions. The course centers on the body as the primary site where violence(s) and the struggle for humanity and belonging are enacted under continuous pressure. We will ask: what it means to be/have/experience a normative body, as well as a non-conforming body in Mexico and other Latin American countries, as well as in the in Latinx U.S. diaspora? To reflect on this question, we will engage with literary forms of resistance that challenge institutional control over citizenship, gender, race, and sexuality, as well as imagine alternative futures.
The course will also function as a study space of the processes through which bodies are
recorded, registered, and/or narrated to make sense of them. This, whether by the state (through documentation and policing) or by themselves (through literature, testimonies or artivism). The question of the body as a living archive allows us to ponder about its need to be protected and taken care of. By thinking about these transnational non-conforming subjectivities, we are called to consider how kinship, communities, and languages function as vital tools of resistance at both the global and local levels.
Pre-selected texts include: El invencible verano de Liliana (2021) by Cristina Rivera Garza,
Salón de Belleza (1994), by Mario Bellatín, Brujas (2011), by Brenda Lozano, When Language
Broke Open (2023), edited by Alan Pelaez Lopez, as well as theoretical selections from texts by
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Rita Segato, Anna Tsing, Gloria Anzaldúa, Sayak Valencia, and Cherríe
Moraga, among others. This is a writing-intensive course. Taught in Spanish. Includes a digital
community-engaged project component.
Counts Toward Major: Performance
Counts Toward Concentration: International Relations
Counts as a 300-level course required for the Spanish major. Spanish 314 may be
repeated with a different topic.
Spanish 315: “Migration and the Forging of Identity”
Prof. Jonathan O’Conner T 11:45 – 1:10, TH 12:45 – 2:05
Prerequisite: SPAN 250 or SPAN 251 and at least one 270-level course.
The UN estimates that as of mid-2024, there were 304 million international migrants in the
world. Millions more have grown up as children of those who migrated. The Spanish-speaking
world is no exception to this reality. This seminar explores stories of individuals whose lives and
identities have all been marked by migration, whether their own or their parents’. We will
analyze how movement across national, social, and cultural borders transforms identity and
challenges monolithic notions of belonging. The course examines narratives in two spheres: 1) Africa and Spain and 2) Central America and the United States. Lucía Asué Mbomío Rubio’s novel, Hija del camino (2019), tells a story of African diaspora and return. These same themes are echoed in Santiago Zannou’s film, La puerta de no retorno (2011). Maya (Q’janjob’al) author Gaspar Pedro González’s novel Un maya migrante: Un viaje sin retorno (2021) tells the story of a Guatemalan migrant who leaves for the United States. Fernando Frías’s 2019 film I’m No Longer Here follows the experiences of the young Ulises who is forced to leave his Mexican community behind and flee to New York City. We will use these diverse sources to examine how contemporary narratives describe the complex relationships between migration and cultural hybridity in a post-colonial world. We will focus on how people seek to forge individual identities in an increasingly multicultural world.
Counts Toward Majors: Performance, Political Science, Spanish
Counts Toward Concentration: International Relations