Spanish

Through Latin American and Caribbean films, and other media sources, this course studies images, topics, and cultural and historical issues related to modern Latin American and the Caribbean. Within the context and influence of the New Latin American Cinema and/or within the context of the World Wide Web, radio, newspapers, and television the course teaches students to recognize cinematographic or media strategies of persuasion, and to understand the images and symbols utilized in the development of a national/regional identity. Among the topics to be studied are: immigration, gender issues, national identity, political issues, and cultural hegemonies. Taught in advanced level Spanish. May be used toward foreign language Minor, or Major. This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter. This course satisfies the Inquiry Practicum requirement.

The basis of this course is a comparative study and analysis of specific Latin American and Caribbean business practices and environments, and the customs informing those practices. ID 3526/SP 3526 focuses on countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica. The course’s main objective is to study communication strategies, business protocol, and negotiation practices in the countries mentioned above. Through oral presentations and written essays, students will have the opportunity to explore other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Taught in advanced level Spanish. May be used toward foreign language Minor, or Major. This course will be offered in 2022-23, and in alternating years thereafter. This course satisfies the Inquiry Practicum requirement.

The course focuses on the linguistic concepts, terminology, and grammar involved in business and technical Spanish. Students will be required to produce and edit business documents such as letters, job applications, formal oral and written reports, etc. The objective of this course is to help students develop the basic written and oral communication skills to function in a business environment in Latin America and the Caribbean. This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter.

A survey of Caribbean literature and arts that takes a multimedia approach to examining the different voices that resonate from the Spanish Caribbean and what appears to be a constant search for identity. By studying the works of major authors, films, music and the plastic arts, we will examine the socio-cultural context and traditions of this region in constant search for self-definition. Special attention will be given to the influential role ethnicity, colonialism, gender and socio-economic development play in the interpretation of works from Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Venezuela as well as those of the Caribbean diaspora. This course is taught in Spanish. This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter.

Through Spanish films, and other media sources, this course studies images, topics, and cultural and historical issues that have had an impact in the creation of a modern Spanish nation. This course focuses on current political and ideo-logical issues (after 1936), the importance of Spanish Civil War, gender identity, and class, cultural and power relationships. This course is taught in Spanish. This course will be offered in 2022-23, and in alternating years thereafter. This course satisfies the Inquiry Practicum requirement.

This course introduces students to the field of Latino studies, paying particular attention to the cultural productions of U.S. Latinos in film, theater, music, fiction writing and cultural criticism. At the same time that this course reflects upon a transnational framework for understanding the continuum between U.S. Latinos and Latin American/Caribbean communities, we closely examine more U.S. based arguments supporting and contesting the use of Latino as an ethnic-racial term uniting all U.S. Latino communities. We examine the ways in which U.S. Latinos have manufactured identities within dominant as well as counter cultural registers. In this course, special attention is given to the aesthetics of autobiography and to how Latino writers experiment with this genre in order to address changing constructions of immigration, language, exile, and identity. This course is taught in English. This course will be offered in 2022-23, and in alternating years thereafter. This course satisfies the Inquiry Practicum requirement.

A very intensive course that will introduce the student to the basic grammar of Spanish, emphasizing the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. It will also introduce the student to different aspects of Hispanic cultures in the U.S. and in Spanish-speaking countries. Students who have taken Spanish in high school are urged to take a placement exam before enrolling in either level of Elementary Spanish. To enroll in this course, you must obtain written permission from one of the Spanish professors. This course is reservedfor those students with only one year of high school Spanish or with no previous experience. This course is closed to native speakers of Spanish and heritage speakers except with written permission from the instructor.

A continuation of Elementary Spanish I. This course is closed to native speakers of Spanish and heritage speakers except with written permission from the instructor.

A course designed to allow students to improve their written and oral skills, expand their vocabulary and review some important grammatical structures. Students will also read short stories and poems by some of the most representative Spanish American and Spanish authors, such as Horacio Quiroga, Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriela Mistral and Ana Marfa Matute. This course is closed to native speakers of Spanish and heritage speakers except with written permission from the instructor.

A continuation of Intermediate Spanish I. This course is closed to native speakers of Spanish and heritage speakers except with written permission from the instructor.

A course that continues to improve students’ language skills while deepening their understanding of Hispanic cultures. Some of the topics studied are: the origins of Hispanic cultures in Spain and Spanish America; family; men and women in Hispanic societies; education; religion. This course is closed to native speakers of Spanish except with written permission from the instructor.

A continuation of Advanced Spanish I. This course satisfies the Inquiry Practicum requirement. This course is closed to native speakers ofiSpanish except with written permission from the instructor.

An introduction to various aspects of life in Latin American countries from early times to the present. Focusing on the social and political development of Latin America, the course will reveal the unity and diversity that characterize contemporary Latin American culture. Typical topics for study include: the precolumbian civilizations and their cultural legacy; the conquistadores and the colonial period; the independence movements; the search for and the definition of an American identity; the twentieth-century dictatorships; and the move toward democracy. This course will be offered in 2022-23, and in alternating years thereafter. This course satisfies the Inquiry Practicum requirement.

This course, taught in the Spanish language, focuses on the major literary movements in Spanish America, from the “Modernista” movement at the turn of the century to the Latin American “Boom” of the 1960s to the political literature of the ‘70s and ‘80s. The work of representative authors, such as Ruben Dario, Julio Cortazar, Rosario Castellanos, Elena Poniatowska, will be discussed. This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter. This course satisfies the Inquiry Practicum requirement.

This course is an introduction to various aspects of life in Spain, from early times to the present. The main focus is on Spain’s social, political, and cultural development and its experience of diversity within its European context. Typical topics for study include: The Reconquista and the Arab influence in Spanish culture, the Spanish monarchy, its evolution into a democracy, the development of modern politics, the importance of the Spanish Civil war, and the influence of writers (such as Federico Garcia Lorca), painters (such as Pablo Picasso), and art in general in modern Spanish culture. This course is taught in Spanish. This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter. This course satisfies the Inquiry Practicum requirement.

This course introduces students to the study of Spanish literature through analytical readings of essays, poetry, drama, and fiction of representative Spanish writers from medieval to contemporary times. The selected authors to be studied reflect Spanish society’s cultural and political efforts conducive to a nation building process. Among the topics to be covered are: Literary and artistic movements, nationalist and religious discourses, cultural miscegenation, gender issues, regional, political and class conflicts, the role of the intellectual, and strategies for the construction of identities. This course is taught in Spanish. This course will be offered in 2022-23, and in alternating years thereafter. This course satisfies the Inquiry Practicum requirement.

This upper-level Spanish course explores the many ways in which Latin American authors, artists, filmmakers, photographers, and thinkers have responded to environmental concerns from colonial times to present day. Starting with Europeans’ first impressions of the New World, we will grapple with the interplay between local cultures and the expansion of global capitalism in Latin America by analyzing literary and cultural representations of, for instance, resource extraction of rubber, wood, and petroleum in the Amazon (Brazil, Perú, Ecuador); maquiladora contamination and environmental migration in the borderlands (U.S.-Mexico); water defenders and neoliberalism (Chile, Bolivia); indigenous social movements in defense of land & nature (Ecuador); eco-feminist parallels between oppression of women and nature (Honduras, Colombia); and natural disasters, especially in the age of the Anthropocene (Mexico, Puerto Rico). We will explore these issues and more to unearth the role of Latin American cultural production in bearing witness to and generating awareness of environmental crises. While always accounting for the region’s complex and interwoven history of coloniality, inequality, and dependency, we will look for environmental justice solutions proposed at the intersection of art and activism. Several questions will guide our interpretations, which will be grounded in ecocritical theory: what do the studied works aim to achieve by appealing to harmony between the human and the non-human? What similarities or differences exist across countries, contexts, and genres? And how does Latin America’s ecological consciousness differ from that of other peripheries and centers? This course would be especially beneficial to students interested in project work at WPI’s Project Centers in Latin America and the Caribbean and would count toward the HUA Requirement in Spanish, International and Global Studies, and Latin American & Caribbean Studies.
This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter.

This course explores past and present intersections between the arts and sciences in Latin America and the Caribbean through a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach. The purpose of this course is to examine areas or interaction between the arts, films, and literature with selected areas of knowledge related to STEM. In this manner, Latin America and the Caribbean are represented as in a creative and critical dialogue with aspects of Modernity and Modernization. This course is especially appropriate for students who expect to complete their IQP and MQP at WPI project centers in Latin America and the Caribbean.
This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter.