Tuesday, Thursday & Friday: 3:30pm - 4:45pm 

This is a four-credit intermediate to advanced level course for students who have a good command of the language. A descriptive review of grammar through the use of more sophisticated sentence patterns and vocabulary offers students the opportunity to think independently and to analyze the work of artists and writers. Short literary pieces and plays, works of art and news media are utilized to prompt writing responses, critical ideas and informed classroom discussions. The ultimate goal of this course to expand, refine and solidify your knowledge of the languages culture and communication in Portuguese. Prerequisite: PORT-UA 3; placement test or permission of the DLP.

Tuesday, Thursday & Friday: 11:00 am - 12:15pm
This is a four-credit course for advanced Spanish speakers with a very good command of Spanish and Spanish grammar that provides a comprehensive approach to Portuguese. Comparisons between pronunciation patterns, grammatical forms and the vocabularies of the two languages will ultimately make possible the transfer of skills from Spanish into Portuguese. Emphasis will be given to readings, the writing of essays and classroom discussion. Grammar and usage will be taught at an accelerated pace so that, by the end of the semester, students will be able to master essential communicative skills in Portuguese. Students in this class should have completed SPAN-UA 50 or SPAN-UA 51 “Advanced Spanish” or “Advance Spanish for Spanish Speaking Students.”

(in person, in English, with writing in English, Spanish or Portuguese, with optional readings in Portugese. This course can be used for Spanish majors to fulfill the Portuguese component of the major)

Tuesday, Thursday: 2:00-3:15pm
Jens Andermann

Spanning five continents and three oceans, filmmaking in Portuguese is among the most wide-spread in the world – but also the most difficult to watch, given the mutual remoteness of shooting locations and audiences, making for only a relatively small market share. Between East Timor, Mozambique, Brazil, Macau, and Portugal, no single, unified film culture exists but rather an archipelago of cinemas shot through with multiple Asian, African and Amerindian languages and cultures. And yet, film offers us an insight into this worldwide web of histories of colonization, revolution, migration and diaspora – themes that the Brazilian Cinema Novo of the 60s and 70s had already explored and that new African and Portuguese cinemas have revisited in recent years: racial and sexual difference, transnational migration, or the legacies of Empire and slavery, among others. Films studied include: Como Era Gostoso o Meu Francês (How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Brazil 1971), Sambizanga (Sarah Maldoror, Angola 1973), Nhá Fala (My Voice, Flora Gomes, Guinea-Bissau/Cabo Verde 2002), O Herói (The Hero, Zézé Gamboa, Angola 2004), Virgem Margarida (Virgin Margarita, Licínio Azevedo, Mozambique 2012), Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, Portugal 2014) and Bacurau (Kléber Mendonça Filho, Brazil 2019). The course will be taught in English but students and speakers of Portuguese will be offered additional critical readings in the Portuguese.

[The course number will change in the Fall to SPAN-UA 60]

Section 001: Monday, Wednesday & Friday: 12:30pm - 1:45pm TBA
Section 002: Monday, Wednesday & Friday: 11:00am - 12:15pm TBA
Section 003: Monday, Wednesdat & Friday: 3:30pm - 4:45pm TBA

Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 4 or its equivalent. This course is not for heritage speakers.

Advanced Spanish Conversation is a four-credit advanced-level course designed to expand students’ speaking skills beyond the practical, day-to-day language functions. The aim is to achieve a more elaborate and abstract use of the language through the practice of pronunciation, vocabulary, idioms, and structures, within the contexts of selected subject areas. Although the main concentration of the course is on the oral component, reading and writing skills are practiced as well, as a basis for oral expression. The goal of the course is to generate active participation through thought-provoking discussions and creative activities that stimulate critical thinking as well as conversation. This is achieved through authentic readings from contemporary sources — newspapers, magazines, literature, films, music, videos, etc. — that sensitize students to the actual concerns of Spanish. A process of recording, transcribing and editing actual conversations will also help students better their Spanish. Finally, various listening comprehension activities will be included to fine tune the student’s ear to Spanish sounds.

Tuesday & Thursday: 12:30-1:45pm
Zubieta, María José

Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 50/51 (formerly 100/111) OR APPROVAL OF DUS or Associate DUS.

This course will explore the principles and problems of translation through readings and in-class workshops. The theory will concentrate on ideas and issues about translation from the 20th and 21st centuries. Students will develop their skills in Spanish-English translation by working with different types of genre, such as poetry, short story, drama, film, comics, advertisements, and legal documents. The selected works will be translated into the student’s native language. Theoretical questions and problems will be addressed in the readings and discussed in class as they arise within the translation exercises. Reading assignments are in Spanish and in English, but the discussions will be conducted entirely in Spanish. In-class workshops will focus on practice that highlights the difficulties of translating from one language into another. Special attention will be paid to the structural differences between English and Spanish; the significance of tone and style; the author's "voice" and the translator's "ear"; and the on-going issues of fidelity, literalness, and freedom. Students will visit three sites in New York City that work with and depend on the Spanish-English bilingual community. These sites are: the Museo del Barrio, El Repertorio Español, and the Southern District of New York Interpreter’s Office. Students will write a report in Spanish on each of these three visits. THIS COURSE IS AN ADVANCED LANGUAGE ELECTIVE. It cannot be used to satisfy elective requirements for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

Tuesday & Thursday: 2:00-3:15pm
Lila Zemborain

Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 50/51 (formerly 100/111) OR APPROVAL OF DUS or Associate DUS.

El objetivo principal de este curso es ayudar a los estudiantes a reflexionar sobre el proceso creativo mientras elaboran y producen sus propios textos. En ambas secciones del curso, poesía y cuento corto, el estudiante podrá explorar y ampliar sus hábitos de escritura a través de ejercicios específicos y de la lectura de textos modelo. Se discutirá el trabajo de algunos de los poetas y cuentistas de habla hispana más influyentes del siglo XX, como Octavio Paz, Vicente Huidobro, Jorge Luis Borges y Silvina Ocampo, así como la obra de otros escritores contemporáneos. Simultáneamente, el estudiante aprenderá a refinar y a pulir sus textos. Se prestará especial atención a la lectura y revisión de acuerdo a las necesidades individuales. THIS COURSE IS AN ADVANCED LANGUAGE ELECTIVE. It cannot be used to satisfy elective requirements for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

Tuesday and Thursday: 11:00-12:15pm
Mariela Dreyfus

Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 50 (formerly 100) OR 51 (formerly 111) OR APPROVAL OF DUS.

Si te gusta escribir poesía y te interesa seguir experimentando con distintos formatos, este es tu curso. Estableceremos diálogos con ciertos formas y lenguajes híbridos, y correspondencias con las artes visuales, la música, la ecología, entre otras. Se leerán textos poéticos y ensayos escritos por poetas contemporáneos como María Negroni (Argentina), Myriam Moscona (México), Odi Gonzáles (Perú) y Urayoán Noel (Puerto Rico), que plantean nuevas formas de decir las crisis del siglo XXI.
La clase está organizada en forma de taller. A lo largo del semestre, el estudiante podrá explorar y ampliar sus hábitos de escritura a través de ejercicios específicos y de la lectura de textos modelo. Simultáneamente, el estudiante aprenderá a refinar y a pulir sus propios textos en base al trabajo colaborativo. Además, se prestará especial atención a la lectura y revisión de acuerdo a las necesidades individuales.
Como extensión de la clase los estudiantes entrarán en contacto directo con un poeta invitado, y deberán asistir a dos eventos poéticos a lo largo del semestre.
THIS COURSE IS AN ADVANCED LANGUAGE ELECTIVE. It cannot be used to satisfy elective requirements for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

Alternating Mondays, 4:55pm - 7:35pm
Lourdes Dávila

Prerequisite: Either SPAN-UA 200 or a SPAN-UA 300-level course

Esferas is a 2-credit course designed in tandem with the journal Esferas, the online and print on demand undergraduate journal of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. The journal works as an extension of the academic learning in the department, and each year features one of the subject areas covered in our courses. Fall 2021 will center on the topic of Migración/Migrations. Students will learn about the topic throughout the semester, perform peer reviews, and learn all the stages of online and print production of a journal, from sending contracts, to editing pieces, to laying out on InDesign. All students write an introduction to the chosen topic and the best introduction gets published with the journal. Students may do an interview with an artist in a related field. The journal includes work by undergraduate and graduate students, artists and creators, and critics working on the chosen topic for the year.
Note: Students can repeat this course and fulfill the requirements of one elective course for the major or minor. Advanced Spanish language preferred. Please contact Lourdes.davila@nyu.edu with any questions.

As of fall 2020 this course number will change to SPAN-UA 155.001

Friday: 11:00am-1:35pm TBA

Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 50 (formerly 100) OR 51 (formerly 111) OR APPROVAL OF DUS.

This 2-point seminar is a unique collaboration between the Dept. of Spanish & Portuguese at NYU and the Pro-Se Legal Clinic at the New Sanctuary Coalition (NSC). With record numbers of asylum seekers from Central America and beyond needing help in filing their asylum application, there is a huge need for Spanish-speakers to interpret Spanish/English and English/Spanish at the NSC Legal Clinic and translate documents and other materials into English. The seminar meets as a class every two weeks. At the beginning of the semester, we will introduce students to important legal terminology and criteria for asylum claims as well as to basic rules of interviewing, translating and interpreting. We will also provide background to recent political events in the most common countries of origin of asylum applicants. One of the requirements of the class is attending the weekly Legal Clinic (Wednesdays 5:30-9:00pm) and making themselves available as interpreters and/or translators. Faculty will supervise the work of translation and interpretation during the Clinic and will provide feedback and guidance. Students whose Spanish skills are not yet sufficient to operate independently as translators/interpreters will be given the opportunity to shadow experienced translators. Writing requirement: final report. Note: Students can repeat this course one time and complete a full elective course in the department. Prerequisite: Advanced Spanish; you need to contact the professor, ezequiel.zaidenwerg@nyu.edu for an interview.

Monday & Wednesday 11:00 am-12:15am
Lourdes Dávila

Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 50/51 (formerly 100/111) OR APPROVAL OF DUS or Associate DUS.

Julio Cortázar es uno de los escritores del Boom latinoamericano de mayor importancia. Sus incursiones en el género fantástico en el cuento, su teorización sobre la novela en Rayuela, su exploración de la cultura popular en textos híbridos como Vuelta al día en ochenta mundos, Humanario, Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires o la historieta Fantomas, sus ensayos políticos como Argentina: años de alambradas culturales, trazan no sólo su desarrollo como autor, sino también el desarrollo de la cultura y la política latinoamericanas en la segunda mitad del siglo veinte.
¿Cómo leer a Julio Cortázar hoy? ¿Cómo actualizar la lectura de sus textos? Este curso, dirigido mayormente a la obra cuentística del autor, tiene como propósito comparar su obra con la de otros escritores, estableciendo enlaces e influencias; considerar sus teorías sobre el género del cuento y analizar las articulaciones que establece con la política, la enfermedad, el arte (pintura, música, fotografía, baile), la animalidad; observar su manipulación tanto de la alta cultura como de la cultura popular y de la cultura de masas; explorar cómo la traducción es un elemento intrínseco de su obra.

Monday, Wednesday, 11:00 AM-12:15 PM
Mariano López Seoane

Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 50/51 (formerly 100/111) OR APPROVAL OF DUS or Associate DUS.

Mitos, Íconos y Tradiciones Inventadas seeks to make students familiar with the rich and complex history of Latin America through the study of some of its most known and iconic cultural expressions. It does also work as an introductory map to the most influential and widespread approaches in Latin American social sciences, cultural studies and literary criticism. Thus, students will not only have a first encounter with key historical processes that lie behind some well known cultural icons, but also will be introduced to arguments and ways of writing that help constitute modern Latin American educated Spanish. The course is structured in four topics. The first two weeks work as an introduction, and are devoted to ways of representing political authority in Latin America. The core of the course seeks to study and discuss three issues that are crucial for an understanding of our present: Violence in Latin America, Drugs and the Narco-machine, The Economy of Latin American Passion. Students will study these topics through a variety of cultural materials, including literary texts, film, papers from several disciplines, theater plays, art shows and songs.

Tuesday, Thursday, 11:00 AM-12:15 PM
Adriana Amante

Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 50/51 (formerly 100/111) OR APPROVAL OF DUS or Associate DUS.

El curso se plantea como una introducción gradual a la compleja obra de Jorge Luis Borges, uno de los más influyentes escritores del siglo XX para que, al entenderlo, sea concretamente posible leerlo, percibir su relevancia y en consecuencia disfrutarlo. Iremos descifrando cada texto atendiendo de manera particular, no solo a lo que las palabras significan para el diccionario, sino al más profundo sentido cultural que tienen. Así, podremos comprender lo que significan “el muddy, slow-moving Río de la Plata”; las orillas, el arrabal, el tango y el compadrito; las “mitologías caseras” que se articulan como en el juego del truco; o el criollismo. Abordaremos el estudio de los temas que se convierten en problemas clave de su proyecto estético (tigres, laberintos, bibliotecas, infinito, memoria); la configuración de Buenos Aires y su centro conceptual: el barrio de Palermo; el doble, los espejos y los modos de representación; y analizaremos la manera en que Borges reescribe la dicotomía civilización-barbarie propuesta por Sarmiento en el siglo XIX en el Facundo; la literatura gauchesca, cuya obra cúlmine es el Martín Fierro, de José Hernández; y el género policial clásico de Edgar Allan Poe. Buscaremos los procedimientos que nos revelen el modo en que las referencias a la alta cultura y las citas literarias o filosóficas son, no solo la enciclopedia de un escritor erudito, sino también una forma del juego y de la broma. Nos ocuparemos de la relación entre escritura y traducción (en especial, de las traducciones al inglés de sus textos); y de los aspectos políticos de su literatura (en relación con el peronismo y con el rosismo), así como también de las conexiones de Borges con otros escritores o artistas argentinos contemporáneos (Oliverio Girondo, Victoria Ocampo, Bioy Casares, Julio Cortázar)

As of fall 2020 this course number will change to SPAN-UA 360.001

Monday & Wednesday: 9:30-10:45am
TBA

Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 50/51 (formerly 100/111) OR APPROVAL OF DUS or Associate DUS.

In this seminar, we will spend the semester reading short stories from medieval Spain. We will read about wizards, matchmakers, people telling stories about animals, animals telling stories about people, racy love affairs, good kings, bad kings, knights in shining armor, women who can outsmart everyone around them, and miracles that help literary characters question or affirm their faith. Some of these stories have even been adapted into modern versions by well-known writers such as Salman Rushdie, Jorge Luis Borges, and Yasmine Seale; we will also explore some of these modern retellings, as well, and ask questions about what the Middle Ages can offer to modern readers. We will also pay close attention to the language of the text and spend time talking about the evolution of the Spanish language and the various regional dialects that were used to write medieval stories. We will start off the semester reading stories that have been adapted from medieval Spanish into modern Spanish, but by the end of the semester, students will develop skills and confidence in reading older and other forms of the language. Students will also have the opportunity to practice writing regularly in a variety of different forms related to the stories we will read.

Thursday: 2:00-4:30pm
Sara Nadal

Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 50/51 (formerly 100/111) OR APPROVAL OF DUS or Associate DUS.

Este curso estudiará la intermedialidad entre el cine y la poesía, pensamiento y ficción en los movimientos de vanguardia peninsulares. Nos centraremos en la ‘cinegrafía’ para pensar la relación entre la palabra y la imagen, con especial enfásis en el montaje, la metáfora y la ekfrasis. Los textos primarias incluirán a Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Federico Gacía Lorca, Rafael Alberti, Salvador Dalí, Rosa Chacel, Maria Zambrano, Ernesto Giménez Caballero, Joan Brossa, Luís Buñuel, José Val del Omar, Antoni Padrós, Ivan Zulueta, Eugenia Balcells, y Pere Portabella. Estos textos se complementarán con lecturas críticas que los estudiantes podrán leer en inglés.

Friday: 12:30-3:15
Víctor Sierra Matute

Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 50/51 (formerly 100/111) OR APPROVAL OF DUS or Associate DUS.

Theater was probably the most influential massive phenomena in 17th-century Spanish society: it was not only one of the most successful entertainment industries but also a powerful tool of political control and a space of subversion and dissent. Spanish drama generated heated controversies about what was licit for the bodies to represent on stage while arousing strong passions among critics and audiences. This course examines early modern Spanish theater through the lens of affect theory, a subfield that seeks to explain the role of affect and emotions in culture and society. Following the early modern obsession with humoralism (fluids and their meanings), our seminar will be structured around three modules: blood (violence and wars; lineage and kinship), sweat (labor and social class; diseases) and tears (joy, pain, sadness, and laughter). We will read plays by authors like Miguel de Cervantes, Ana Caro, Lope de Vega, María de Zayas, Calderón de la Barca, Marcela de San Félix, Leonor de la Cueva y Silva, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Juan Pérez de Montalbán. Critical readings will include texts by Eve Sedgwick, Sara Ahmed, Brian Massumi, Lauren Berlant and Silvia Federici, among others.

Tuesday, Thursday: 12:30-1:45
Jordana Mendelson

Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 50/51 (formerly 100/111) OR APPROVAL OF DUS or Associate DUS.

This class will study the ways that institutional histories are recorded, archived, and written. Our attention will be focused on University-supported centers with a specific case study in mind: the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at NYU. The center reaches a milestone in spring 2022 with the celebration of its 25th anniversary. As part of the activities surrounding this anniversary, our class will research the history of the center, interview past participants in the center's activities, review the university archives, and work together with Lourdes Dávila, the director of the undergraduate journal Esferas, and her editorial team in the development of a special issue of the magazine devoted to the center, to be published in spring 2022. Among the skills students will learn in this class: researching institutions and their histories, understanding how to use research and bibliographic tools in the library and special collections, undertaking interviews over zoom or in print, selecting historical and contemporary sources about the center, and working individually and with a group on a comprehensive research and writing plan in preparation of the special issue of Esferas.

Tuesday & Thursday: 9:30-10:45
Tess Rankin

Prerequisite: Any 300 level course or approval by DUS or ADUS

The course aims to provide training in forms of cultural analysis appropriate to different media, by introducing students to a range of Spanish cultural production from the 19th century to the present (the majority of the texts are from the 20th century). This time frame will also raise issues about the relation of cultural production to history. The material studied will include fiction and nonfiction, poetry, film, painting, poster art, photography, architecture, music, dance, and more. A central theme will be how various forms of cultural production function as responses to modernity. A key aim here is to challenge the idea of the exceptionalism of Spanish history and culture, showing how Spain has engaged with issues of modernity from a range of perspectives. We will pay attention to the ways in which cultural texts deal with the national past and engage with other cultures (including African American culture, North African culture, and Latin American culture). We will emphasize the ways in which cultural production helps to negotiate tensions surrounding memories of the past and new ways of imagining the future. We will also consider the role that culture has played in moments of political crisis (such as the Spanish Civil War and the Transition) and look critically at the roles of colonialism, gender, immigration, and youth culture. The overall aim of the course will be to show how cultural production gives us insight into social concerns that may or may not otherwise be articulated in national discourse. The course (including assessment) will be conducted in Spanish.

Formerly SPAN-UA 355.001

Monday and Wednesday: 3:30-4:45pm
TBA

Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 50 OR 51 OR APPROVAL OF DUS.

This course seeks to familiarize students with the historical, geographical, ethnic, and socio-linguistic factors that contributed to the large variety of Spanish dialects spoken in the Americas. Why do people in Costa Rica speak like those in Uruguay and not like their neighbors in Panama? Why do Colombians have a different vocabulary in Bogotá and in Cartagena de Indias? Or when are “tú”, “usted” or “vos” used as forms of addressing people, and by whom? A web of factors combined to create a wide range of variations to the Castilian Spanish brought to America, itself the result of drastic changes since its evolution from its Latin roots. The course is organized in four modules. Starting with the study of the origins of the language spoken by the colonizers arriving from Spain since the end of the fifteenth century, the first module will deal with the development of the distinct dialectal zones emerging in Spanish America through the intersection of political and geographical factors with the sociological, cultural and linguistic influence of indigenous and African groups. From the vantage point of standard Castilian Spanish, in the second module we will study the phonic, morpho-syntactic, lexical, and semantic changes undergone by the language, resulting in the distinct variations spoken today. The third module will cover the dialects of five salient geo-linguistic areas of Spanish America, through a historical overview of each region and its specific linguistic characteristics. We will complete this analysis in the fourth module, with a brief overview of the Spanish spoken in the United States, and the new “dialect”, Spanglish, that has emerged from it.

Thursday 3:30pm-6:10pm
Eduardo Subirats

Prerequisite: Any SPAN-UA 300 level course

Don Quixote is the most hilarious novel in world literature. He is a trickster: “a spirit of disorder, the enemy of boundaries…” in a world of increasing controls, surveillance, and borderlines. A) Una gran síntesis distingue el proyecto cervantino de Don Quijote: las épicas antiguas (Mahabharata, Odisea), las novelas caballerescas europeas (Parsival de W. von Eschenbach, Orlando Furioso de Ariosto), castellanas (Amadís de Gaula de G. Rodríguez de Montalvo) o catalanas (Tirant lo Blanc, de J. Martorell), el humanismo hebreo de Leone Ebreo y cristiano de Erasmus… Todo ello bajo el común denominador de dos principios estéticos específicamente cervantinos: la tradición picaresca islámica (maqama) que define la figura mitológica del trickster y el pícaro, y las filosofías neoplatónicas del amor en el misticismo sufí y en la filosofía de Leone Ebreo. B) Cuatro aproximaciones metodológicas a la novela Don Quijote de la Mancha: a) la interpretación paródica, humorística y de entretenimiento, y la interpretación moralista; b) el descubrimiento de Don Quijote como obra mitológica y simbólica por el romanticismo alemán (Tieck, Schlegel, Schelling); c) la reconstrucción historiográfica de la crítica de Cervantes de la sociedad española del siglo dieciséis por Américo Castro (las tres religiones y “castas” hispánicas); y d) el descubrimiento del trickster en la psicología, la antropología y la crítica literaria modernas (Kerényi, Jung).

Tuesday, Thursday: 2:00-3:15pm
Jens Andermann

(in person, in English, with optional readings in Portugese. This course can be used for Spanish majors to fulfill the Portuguese component of the major)

Spanning five continents and three oceans, filmmaking in Portuguese is among the most wide-spread in the world – but also the most difficult to watch, given the mutual remoteness of shooting locations and audiences, making for only a relatively small market share. Between East Timor, Mozambique, Brazil, Macau, and Portugal, no single, unified film culture exists but rather an archipelago of cinemas shot through with multiple Asian, African and Amerindian languages and cultures. And yet, film offers us an insight into this worldwide web of histories of colonization, revolution, migration and diaspora – themes that the Brazilian Cinema Novo of the 60s and 70s had already explored and that new African and Portuguese cinemas have revisited in recent years: racial and sexual difference, transnational migration, or the legacies of Empire and slavery, among others. Films studied include: Como Era Gostoso o Meu Francês (How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Brazil 1971), Sambizanga (Sarah Maldoror, Angola 1973), Nhá Fala (My Voice, Flora Gomes, Guinea-Bissau/Cabo Verde 2002), O Herói (The Hero, Zézé Gamboa, Angola 2004), Virgem Margarida (Virgin Margarita, Licínio Azevedo, Mozambique 2012), Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, Portugal 2014) and Bacurau (Kléber Mendonça Filho, Brazil 2019). The course will be taught in English but students and speakers of Portuguese will be offered additional critical readings in Portuguese.

(in person, in English, with optional readings in Spanish. This course is a requisite for new majors in Spanish and Portuguese)

Tuesday: 2:00-4:30pm
Gabriela Basterra

This course is a requisite for the new major in Spanish and Portuguese

This course aims to introduce students to an array of critical and methodological approaches to cultural production, particularly in relation to the Iberian, Latin American and Luso-Brazilian world. It presents interdisciplinary approaches to the formidably diverse cultural traditions and productions from these cultural geographies, their national/local particularities and their global projections. From oral and written cultures to performance and aural worlds, from colonial to neocolonial configurations, the study of Iberian, Latin American and Luso-Brazilian cultures requires an interdisciplinary, multi-perspectived approach. The structure of the course functions as an introduction to the cutting-edge research in our department, as different professors will present and discuss their research and offer an introduction to particular areas of study and expertise. Students will become acquainted with key critical notions that shape our fields of study at the same time that he/she will explore the research potential of these concepts by confronting diverse object of studies —from literature and the performing arts to film and print culture– in order to produce critical responses that will foster the development of analytical and writing skills. By the end of the course, the student will have an up-to-date sense of the critical discussions in the field, and an array of tools that will be central for his/her future courses in the department as well as in other lines of study.

(in English with recitations available in Spanish) formerly SPAN-UA 300

• Lecture: Tuesday & Thursday: 11:00am-12:15pm
  Victor Sierra-Matute
  
  
• Recitation, section 2 Thursday 9:30am-10:45am
  TBA
  
  
• Recitation, section 3 Thursday 9:30am-10:45am
  Taught in Spanish w/ Sierra-Matute

This course is a requirement for the major in Latin American and Caribbean Studies and can be used as one of the requirements for the Major in Spanish Portuguese.

No prerequisite. Recommended early in the major, concurrent with language study. This course is a requirement for the following majors: Spanish, Latin American Studies, and Iberian Studies. This course has a lecture on Tuesdays & Thursdays (taught in English) and two recitations on Thursdays; one recitation is taught in English and the other in Spanish. If you have completed SPAN-UA 200 “Critical Approaches,” you are strongly encouraged to enroll for section 3, taught in Spanish.

The Iberian Atlantic explores the early modern Iberian Atlantic from Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain) and indigenous America through the era of Spanish and Portuguese conquest and colonization that closely tied the Iberian Peninsula, Western Africa, and the Americas to one another in a vast oceanic inter-culture and political economy. The Iberian Atlantic refers to what is now the Portuguese and Spanish-speaking world, on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. The body of water functioned as a conduit allowing for contact between Europe and America through conquest and the migration, displacement, and circulation of people, goods, and capital. The course focuses on those objects of trade—as they work themselves into cultural, intellectual, and artistic production—to study the collective imagination of populations on both sides of the Atlantic. We encounter a range of key primary sources that include architecture, textiles, travel writing, poetry (wine poetry!), testimonies, and visual art. 

The course is divided between lectures (in English) and recitations (in either English or Spanish). Recitations are an opportunity to discuss that week’s readings and concepts introduced during lecture in a smaller group, run by the course professor. Field trips will be planned to several of the following: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The James Pierpont Morgan Library, The Jewish Museum, The Hispanic Society of America, The Cloisters, El Museo del Barrio, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Arts of the Islamic World gallery. Minors in Spanish who wish to take this course for the minor must be in the Spanish section and write their papers in Spanish (they also must have taken Critical Approaches).

(in English-fully online)

Tuesday, Thursday, 2:00-3:15 pm
Edgardo Dieleke

This course explores Tango as an aesthetic, social and cultural formation that is articulated in interesting and complex ways with the traditions of culture and politics in Argentina and Latin America more generally. During the rapid modernization of the 1920s and 1930s, Tango (like Brazilian Samba), which had been seen as a primitive and exotic dance, began to emerge as a kind of modern primitive art form that quickly came to occupy a central space in nationalist discourse. The course explores the way that perceptions of a primitive and a modern converge in this unique and exciting art. In addition, the course will consider tango as a global metaphor with deeply embedded connections to urban poverty, social marginalization, and masculine authority.

Lourdes Dávila

Students wishing to do an internship for credit should make an appointment to speak with Professor Dávila. Majors may apply for an internship for either 4 credits or 2 credits, depending on the number of hours they work. Interns must work at least 10 hours for the 2-credit internship; a 4-credit internship entails at least 16 hours per week. Consult our NYU Classes site to see available internships. You are welcome to pursue internship possibilities beyond those listed on the NYU Classes site: if you find an internship on your own, make an appointment with Professor Davila to discuss it. A 4-credit internship, or two semesters of 2-credit internship may count as one course toward the major requirements for all majors in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

Tuesday: 3:30-6:10pm
TBD

The Honors program in Spanish & Portuguese is a unique opportunity for students in one of our five major tracks to undertake a sustained research project. Students with a general and major GPA of 3.65 or above are encouraged to participate in the Honors Program. In the course of a year, students will be able to work closely with individual faculty members, while also having the chance to develop their own voice in scholarship and writing. The Honors program consists of a two-term sequence. In the fall semester, Honors students meet weekly in a workshop-type setting where they will develop their topics and projects under the guidance of the Honors Director and in discussion with their peers. By the end of the semester, every student will have a well-developed project, including a workable outline and a bibliography. Every student will also have found an individual faculty advisor with whom to work in the spring semester while finishing the Honors thesis. The spring segment of the Honors Seminar is devoted to the writing of the thesis (40-60 pages). Students will arrange for an independent study with their individual faculty advisors, with meeting times to be determined by each student and his or her faculty member. There are no regularly scheduled class meetings in the spring.