This course explores the social and political history of melodrama in Latin America. We will discuss the role melodrama has had within Latin American media following a long-term chronological approach that begins with nineteenth-century serialized novels (folletín) and ends with recent telenovelas from Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina. As a language of emotions and familiarity, Spanish-speaking melodrama has been a key tool to reflect on the most critical social and political issues, from mid-twentieth-century populisms to globalization, from modernization to the human rights...

What is “theory”? What do we do with it? How does theory allow us to see our objects of study differently, or even to formulate new objects of inquiry? This course provides an advanced introduction to a wide range of critical theories and schools of thought for the analysis of literary and cultural objects. The course proposes a long-term approach from the early twentieth century to the present, covering foundational paradigms as well as the more recent turns, including: New Criticism, Formalism, Marxism, Post-Structuralism, Feminism, Gender Studies and Queer Theory, Post-Colonial Theory,...

Scary stories help us process deep human fears and anxieties, but they also offer a reflection of larger cultural anxieties. We’ll examine stories and films from a variety of historical periods and Spanish-speaking regions, allowing ourselves to experience them both emotionally and intellectually. Taught in Spanish.  Prerequisite: SPAN 228.CRN 79680T/TH 2:00 – 3:20; 301 Architecture Bldg.Instructor: Joyce TolliverImage credit: The Souls of the...

This course explores the intersections of tourism, modernization, and the environment in contemporary Spain through the analysis of diverse forms of cultural production from 1880 to 2025. Focusing on the country’s process of economic modernization—especially in the contexts of developmentalism, neoliberalism, and the changes resulting from the 2008 economic crisis—we will examine how mass tourism has shaped urban growth, the construction of national and regional identities, and the circulation of discourses about Spain’s cultural difference (“Spain is different,” according to the famous 1960s...

The focus of SPAN 312 is the critical analysis of selected texts and periods representative of Spain's literary production from the 18th century to the present, with special attention paid to broader literary and cultural contexts. In this section of SPAN 312, we will study texts within the thematic frame of ‘strange worlds’: fictional works that portray seemingly otherworldly, fantastic, and speculative experiences, ranging from strange encounters with robots and ghosts, tales of madness, to horrific depictions of warfare and strange post-apocalyptic stories of survival. We will study how...

 This course explores how Mexican literature and culture have been conceived, experienced, and represented during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Through lectures and group discussions, we will follow a chronological examination of cultural production in Mexico, covering key periods such as the Revolución Mexicana, Modernidad, Guerra Sucia, and contemporary Mexico. We will reevaluate these cultural moments in light of contemporary topics, including indigenous studies, gender studies, border culture, and transnationalism.The course employs methodologies from literary studies,...

This course focuses on the rich and diverse cultural expressions found throughout the Spanish-speaking world. Our world is filled with diverse and often contradictory cultural messages. In this class, students will examine how culture shapes values, beliefs, habits, and artistic production in Iberian, Latin American, and/or Latinx communities. Focusing on issues relevant to the Spanish-speaking world, students will analyze a range of cultural objects and practices, such as film, visual art, social media, food, music, and literature. Instruction in Spanish. ...

This interdisciplinary graduate seminar explores the connections between linguistic variation, language perception, and applied settings, such as healthcare, law, business, risk communication, and more.  It will be dedicated to using sociolinguistics to make interdisciplinary connections via applied research. Readings will include topics related to linguistic variation and perceptual dialectology, as well as work that applies sociolinguistic concepts to contexts such as healthcare, risk communication, business, education, artificial intelligence, and law. Students should have graduate...

When we talk about “adventurers”, “explorers”, or “travelers”, we tend to imagine them embodied in a masculine figure. In this course, we will focus on the limits of this idea of travel, analyzing travel as a gendered and racialized experience. Throughout the semester, we will study different types of mobility, travel, and travel literature created by women from the nineteenth century to the present, debunking stereotypes of female immobility and immanence. From the Peruvian rabonas to the Mexican Revolution’s soldaderas, from pleasure trips to forced exiles, we will read...

This course examines questions of gender, sexuality, and identity in contemporary Latina/Latino culture through a discussion of novels, performance pieces, essays, and films. It explores how gender and sexual identities and practices are shaped by intersecting structures of power—such as race, class, and nation—both within the larger U.S. context and across borders. Taking a hemispheric approach, it emphasizes Latinx and Latin American activisms and their repercussions throughout the continent. We will read and discuss critical and creative work and analyze popular representations of gender...