Spanish

From native Indigenous societies who inhabited the Americas, to the Europeans in search of imperial expansion, to the forced arrival of enslaved Africans to American territories, this class will...

How does the category of ‘other’ disrupt the boundaries of what we might consider natural, normal, and even real? This course examines the ways in which the category of ‘other’ disrupts the borders...

This course will analyze the multiple uses of humor and laughter in contemporary Spain (20th-21st century). By looking at literary texts, films, TV series, comics, and other cultural expressions,...

Centralizing “trans” as not only short for “transgender,” “transexual," etc., this course lingers in the possibilities of the “trans” as that which calls us to “move across.” Through art, narrative,...

Problematizing what we mean by “feminism,” this course complicates and extends ideas of who or what is the modern Latinx woman. From art, Latin Trap, literature, and film this is a course that brings...

This course aims to look at racialized feminist practices of resistance across contemporary Latin American and Caribbean culture. Beginning with Victoria Santa Cruz’s “Me gritaron negra,” students...

This sociolinguistics course provides a ‘structural’ (linguistic) and ‘critical’ (sociopolitical) overview of the language practices of various Spanish-speaking communities in the U.S. The main...

What does it mean, in social and linguistic terms, to grow up speaking two languages or to learn a second language? This course is an introduction to the fundamental issues in the study of...

Is she a traitor, a mother, or a visionary? From Mesoamerican figures and deities to colonial figures, this course reads the figure of the “woman” against the grain by placing Malinche at the center...

Let’s problematize what we mean by “feminism.” Let’s complicate ideas of who or what is the modern Latinx woman. From art, Latin Trap, literature, and film this is a course that...

In this seminar, we will examine the main issues concerning the study of code-switching. Defined as the alternation of two languages within the same discourse, code-switching can be...

From ‘teatro irrepresentable’ to ‘poemas representables’ and ‘novelas cinematográficas,’  this course examines experimental intervention in theater, poetry, and the novel in the first decades of the...

How have Latin American nations defined equality? What were the struggles for social justice during the first century of independence? How have those forces shaped the region? The 19th century is a...

A new course that explores how language, culture, race, public discourse and public policy intersect with the health and wellness of US Latinx communities. We will cover a variety of topics, but our...

Learn about and from Latinx immigrants living and working in Champaign-Urbana. As you learn about their strengths and challenges, you will see how their realities reflect larger issues of immigration...

 TAUGHT IN ENGLISH, Gen Ed for “Literature and the Arts” and “US Minority Cultures;" This course studies the relationships between Latinx and Latin American culture through exciting...

Why is extractivism the dominant paradigm for development in Latin America? And how can cultural production, from literature to film, help contest its damaging effects and imagine other ways of...

In this class, students examine how culture shapes the values, beliefs, and artistic production of Iberian, Latin American, and Latinx communities. We will focus on a range of issues relevant to the...

In this class you will actively use your Spanish every day, learn about being an effective bilingual professional and develop fundamental intercultural skills. CRN 32868     T/R 9:30 – 10:50 ...

Learn about and from Latinx immigrants living and working in Champaign-Urbana. As you learn about their strengths and challenges, you will see how their realities reflect larger issues of immigration...

This course will examine the role of music in Latin American self-expression. From tango to reggaetón, Latin American musical forms have become global sensations. At the same time, they have been...

SPAN 433 (49433 for graduate students, 49678 for undergraduate): Through this course students will learn the fundamental theories and practices of how languages (i.e. Spanish, English, Portuguese)...

SPAN 308 (Section F, 60345): This sociolinguistics course, cross-listed with LLS 308, provides a ‘structural’ (linguistic) and ‘critical’ (sociopolitical) overview of the linguistic practices of...

In this course, we will explore the construction of the image of Spain for foreign consumption from the turn of the twentieth Century to the present. We will analyze the presence of Spain beyond its...

What have been the political and cultural relations between Spain and Latin America in recent years? From a transatlantic perspective, we will explore key issues in Hispanic culture today through the...

A Spanish minor allows you to continue developing your language skills and cultural insights, no matter your major. With six courses, you can complete a ...

How we understand Latin American culture through the contributions of African slaves and African descendent people since the formation of the colonies to the present. How do we understand Latin...

Did you know that the United States now has over 50 million Spanish-speakers, making it the second largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, after Mexico? In this course, we will explore the...

This course explores the transnational cinema of Mexican director Guillermo del Toro as a complete oeuvre with a particular aesthetic, technical and ideological project. It is a comprehensive study...

What does it mean, in social and linguistic terms, to grow up speaking two languages or to learn a second language? This course is an introduction to the fundamental issues in the study of...

Taught in English, this course considers how gendered and sexed bodies have been imagined in contemporary Latina/o literature and visual culture (photography, digital graphics, murals, mixed media,...

An introduction to cultural analysis and interpretation. Students will analyze a range of cultural objects, including film, visual art, and literature, to think about how culture shapes our...

This course is an introduction to the classics of Mexican Cinema, from silent film until today. How has cinema shaped ideas about Mexican identity? How does it help us understand important events...

In this course, we will explore the construction of the image of Spain for foreign consumption from the turn of the twentieth century to the present. We will analyze the presence of Spain beyond its...

This course will examine how both emigration and immigration have been portrayed in the Spanish literature and in others cultural manifestations since 1900 to the present. In order to analyze the...

Learn about and from Latinx immigrants living and working in Champaign-Urbana. As you learn about their strengths and challenges, you will see how their realities reflect larger issues of immigration...

Learn the fundamentals of social entrepreneurship, a practice that seeks opportunities at the nexus of languages, cultures and communities. We will focus on the question of how to create...

For Undergraduate Student Diversity and Merit-Based Scholarships and Resources see: UNDERGRADUATE ADMISSIONS MERIT BASED...

CAMPUS RESOURCES FOR DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION: Office of the Vice Chancellor for DIVERSITY, EQUITY and INCLUSION The...

This page contains Academic Job Market information and resources specifically tailored for our graduate students in Spanish and Portuguese, including workshop videos and other related information. We...

I. RESEARCH AND TEACHING As part of our commitment to excel in research and teaching as one of the top Spanish programs in the U.S., we have made two recent tenure-line hires in the...

This course will analyze dramatic texts from seventeenth-century Spain, paying especial attention to issues of racial, gender, and class identity, and how these themes can resonate to contemporary...

TAUGHT IN ENGLISH, Gen Ed for “Literature and the Arts” and “US Minority Cultures;" The aim of this course is to study the relationships between Latinx and Latin American culture...

One hundred twenty-nine years of Spanish at the University of Illinois By Professor Mariselle Meléndez In the midst of a pandemic, reflecting about the past offers us an...

According to Jacques Rancière art, like politics, is not by nature consensual, but rather “dissensual.” This is because of art's capacity to create not only identifications that are different from...

This course examines the relationship between food, culture and society in colonial Latin America and its impact on our society today including the US. Why we eat what we eat is a product of the...

This course serves as a panoramic introduction to Spanish literatures and cultures from the perspective of the non-heteronormative subject, from 1898 through the present. Under the label of queer...

In this course, we will explore the construction of the image of Spain for foreign consumption from the turn of the twentieth Century to the present. We will analyze the presence of Spain beyond its...

We will analyze some of Basque (Euskera), Galician, Catalan literature masterpieces by paying attention to issues of linguistic deterritorialization, politicization, visibility, and cultural...

An overview of critical theories for the analysis of literary and cultural texts since the mid-20th century, including Spanish, Latin American, Luso-Brazilian, and U.S. Latinx schools of thought. On...

An in-depth investigation of the structure of Spanish, with a secondary focus on syntactic variation, especially structural differences with English. Introduces concepts and techniques essential for...

During the mid- and late-20 century, Latin American novels and short stories became international sensations, enjoying unprecedented commercial and critical success. “Fantastic Fictions” will...

In this class you will actively use your Spanish every day, learn about being an effective bilingual professional and develop fundamental intercultural skills. CRN 32868     T/R 9:30 – 10:50 ...

In this service-learning course, you will learn with and from local Latinx immigrants as you volunteer two hours each week with a local organization that serves our immigrant community. Time in the...

Did you know that the United States now has over 50 million Spanish-speakers, making it the second largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, after Mexico? In this course, we will explore the...

In this course, we will explore the construction of the image of Spain for foreign consumption from the turn of the twentieth Century to the present. We will analyze the presence of Spain beyond...

This course will examine how both emigration and immigration have been portrayed in the Spanish literature and in others cultural manifestations since 1900 to the present. In order to analyze the...

This course examines how the experiences of African slaves since their arrival with colonizing Spaniards to the Americas in the 16th century, culturally shaped what is known today as Latin America...

In this service-learning course, you will learn with and from local Latinx immigrants as you volunteer two hours each week with a local organization that serves our immigrant community. Time in the...

Learn the fundamentals of social entrepreneurship, a practice that seeks opportunities at the nexus of languages, cultures and communities. We will focus on the question of how to create...

This course is an introduction to the classics of Mexican Cinema, from silent film until today. We will examine genres like melodrama, horror, comedy, and the comedia ranchera, in order to think...

This course explores why many authors turned to romance in order to rethink categories of race and gender. We will delve into stories of forbidden love that feature slaves, bandits, lepers, and...

In this course, we will engage with the diverse and unique ways writers and artists perform and tell stories about their Latinidad. With special attention to deviance and divadom, the course...

This seminar focuses on the implications, possibilities, and failures of a Latin America “of sex” or rather a Latin America “with a sexuality.”   In The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1, Michel...

Ann Abbott recently published a piece in the Chicago Tribune op-ed section. Ann offers a very insightful take on the issue of "accents" in comedy, politics and immigration as a result of the...

What do tangible objects such as textiles, silverwork, maps, books, jewelry, paintings, clothing, furniture, kitchen utensils, and food tell us about the history and culture of Latin America? How...

As one of the most divisive issues of our time, immigration has quickly become a major topic of focus in literature, film, and journalism. This course will examine Latin American immigration and...

This course will critically consider the construction of a new Latin American international cinema from a Cultural Studies approach, investigating how it fulfills or disrupts desires for a borderless...

Faculty: Xiomara Verenice Cervantes-Gómez, Assistant Professor...

Faculty Melissa Bowles, Associate Professor (classroom second language acquisition, heritage language learners, second language...

The faculty members of the Spanish Literatures and Cultures program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign research and teach about the literatures and cultures of the Iberian Peninsula...

  The focus of research and teaching of the Spanish Linguistics Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is on descriptive, theoretical, and experimental linguistics, with special...

Read the past Spanish and Portuguese Newsletters we have archived for you! SP NEWSLETTER WINTER 2017-18.pdf...

Mary (Kranos) Rubio (LAS 1943) was a graduate student in Spanish in 1943 and 1944. She worked as a part-time secretary to the head of the department, John van Horn, with whom she...

  See menu to the right for full array of Graduate Student resources.

Download the departmental bylaws as pdf

Granada / Bilbao / Costa Rica / Ecuador / Other programs / ...

The course will explore the politics, emotions and aesthetics of change in the context of modern and contemporary Spanish culture. “Change” will be understood in a broad sense, including conversion...

Buenos Aires. Mexico City. Bogotá. Rio de Janeiro. The Virtual City. How does one “read” the contemporary urban metropolis of Latin America, whether real or imagined? Megacities are ever-present in...

The graduate program in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is ranked nationally as one of the top graduate programs at public research...

Hola. We welcome you to Spanish at Illinois, where we offer programs and courses that will improve your Spanish, increase your knowledge of Hispanic cultures and prepare you to thoughtfully...