We tell stories for many reasons: to entertain; to seduce; to complain; to think. This course draws upon the literatures and cultures of the romance languages to explore the role of narrative in our construction and understanding of the world.

Full details for ROMS 1102 - FWS: The Craft of Storytelling

What is a culture, and how do we know one when we see it? This course draws upon the histories and texts of French, Spanish, Italian, and/or Portuguese speaking worlds to discuss issues of identity, difference, politics, place, and community.

Full details for ROMS 1108 - FWS:Cultural Identities; Cultural Differences

Some of the most important and intriguing thinkers, from the Middle Ages to postmodernity, have done their thinking in the romance languages. This course explores a body of work that would be called philosophical by some, theoretical by others, and that, beyond these names, struggles to articulate fundamental concepts, problems, discourses, and situations.

Full details for ROMS 1113 - FWS: Thinking and Thought

The Romance languages are the lasting imprint of all that happened to the Latin language as it moved through time, territories, and people of many ethnicities. While the Latin of antiquity retained its prestige in high culture, the natural untutored usage of ordinary people was always free to go its own way. This course covers the following topics, selected to create a panoramic view: Formation of the general Romance seven-vowel system from Latin. Early and widespread sound changes in popular Latin. Finding and interpreting evidence for trends in popular Latin pronunciation. The comparative method and its limitations. Essential later sound changes, some of which ceate a whole new order of consonants unknown to Latin but conspicuous in Romance. Nouns and adjectives from Latin to Romance. Formation of the present indicative: the competing forces of sound change and analogical adjustment. A brief overview of Portuguese. Variants of the seven-vowel system. Salient features of Romanian. Factors that helped shape the vocabulary of Romance. Medieval diglossia. Emergence of Romance vernaculars newly recognized by their speakers as languages distinct from Latin and from each other. Close analysis of the oldest surviving document written unmistakably in Romance (842 C. E.).

Full details for ROMS 3210 - History of Romance Languages I

If humanistic research consists of finding consensus positions, articulating simple expressions, summarizing texts, standardizing identities, or doing passable translations, then this it: we arrived at the place where artificial intelligence is able to accomplish these missions to a convincing degree. However, we erred if we ever thought such tasks would constitute the humanities. Combining theory and practice, this interdisciplinary class aims to show what AI can generate, and capture… and what the humanities can create, and think. A critique of AI is essential, but it needs to be both scientifically sound and scholarly robust. Our course will look at key issues about language, cognition, textuality, or creativity, while taking advantage of ongoing research and editorial projects hosted by the Humanities Lab.

Full details for ROMS 3526 - Humanities in the Time of AI

In the field of aesthetics, the uncanny refers to an affective state, most commonly the sensation of encountering something-an object, a place, a situation- as both familiar and strange a the same time. Such experience of the "strange-familiar" (unheimlich) produces a disquieting sense of uncertainty, uneasiness, or doubt and may even spark extreme feelings of alienation, anxiety, dread, horror, and repulsion. This seminar explores the philosophical origins and conceptual terrain of the uncanny in relation to 20th and 21st century cinematic production.

Full details for ROMS 4196 - The Uncanny

This practicum is designed to better enable the TAs to meet the needs of their students in the understanding and acquisition of the linguistic forms, notions, and functions covered in their course.

Full details for ROMS 5080 - Pedagogy Practicum

Designed to give insight into how to formulate projects, conduct research, and publish one's work, the colloquium offers a venue for faculty-graduate student dialogue in a collegial, intellectual setting. Meetings are biweekly, 2-3 hours, and are open to all students and faculty in Romance Studies, but required for first year students in the program. Each meeting, two faculty members will be invited to discuss their scholarship and also a short text of their choice, to be distributed beforehand.

Full details for ROMS 6100 - Romance Studies Colloquium

FREN 1210-FREN 1220 is a two-semester sequence. FREN 1210 is the first half of the sequence designed to provide a thorough grounding in French language and an introduction to intercultural competence. French is used in contextualized, meaningful activities to provide practice in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Development of analytical skills for grammar leads students toward greater autonomy as language learners. Students develop their writing skills by writing and editing compositions. Readings are varied and include literary texts. Daily preparation and active participation are required.

Full details for FREN 1210 - Elementary French

FREN 1210-1220 is a two-semester sequence. This is the second half of the sequence designed to provide a thorough grounding in French language and an introduction to intercultural competence. French is used in contextualized, meaningful, and critical thinking activities to provide practice in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Development of analytical skills for grammar leads students toward greater autonomy as language learners. Students continue developing their writing skills by writing and editing compositions. Readings are varied and include literary texts and a short novel.

Full details for FREN 1220 - Elementary French

FREN 1230 is an all-skills course designed to improve oral communication, listening comprehension, and reading ability, to establish a groundwork for correct writing, and to provide a substantial grammar review. The approach in the course encourages the student to see the language within the context of its culture.

Full details for FREN 1230 - Continuing French

This course is specifically designed for premed students and students at large with an interest in medical related topics who wish to be better equipped with language skills that will enable them to convey more empathy and multicultural sensitivity while communicating with diverse patient populations throughout the Francophone world. This course aims as well to prepare students to engage in global health equity and promote awareness of language barriers in today's medical field, both domestically and abroad. This is a mid-intermediate level course, and as such, it will continue to develop and reinforce writing, reading, speaking, listening and presentational skills via an array of communicative tasks based on real-life situations.

Full details for FREN 2070 - Medical French

This intermediate-level course is designed for students who want to focus on their speaking and writing skills. Emphasis is placed on strengthening of grammar skills, expansion of vocabulary and discourse levels to increase communicative fluency and accuracy. The course also provides continued reading and listening practice as well as development of effective language learning strategies.

Full details for FREN 2090 - French Intermediate Composition and Conversation I

This advanced-intermediate course is highly recommended for students planning to study abroad as it aims to develop the writing and speaking skills needed to function in a French speaking university environment. A comprehensive review of fundamental and advanced grammatical structures is integrated with the study of selected texts (short stories, literary excerpts, poems, articles from French periodicals, videos) all chosen for thematic or cultural interest. Students write weekly papers, participate in class discussions of the topics at hand, and give at least one oral presentation in class.

Full details for FREN 2095 - French Intermediate Composition and Conversation II

This course, designed to follow FREN 2095, introduces students to an array of literary and visual material from the French and Francophone world. It aims to develop students' proficiency in critical writing and thinking, as well as presenting students with the vocabulary and tools of literary and visual analysis. Each section of FREN 2310 will have a different focus-for example, colonialism and the other, or the importance of women and sexual minorities in French and Francophone history, performance in literature and film, or image and narrative-but all sections of FREN 2310 will emphasize through writing assignments and in-class discussions, the development of those linguistic and conceptual tools necessary for cultural and critical fluency.

Full details for FREN 2310 - Introduction to French and Francophone Literature and Culture

This course adopts an interdisciplinary lens to reflect on how we can think difference productively in our current global condition, through examining some of the challenges that traditionally normative legislative systems (French secularism, shari'a laws in Francophone muslim countries) come up against when faced with increasingly multi-ethnic and pluralistic societies. We will examine a wide array of contemporary issues in the French metropole and the Francophone sphere, as well as their particular histories. Combining an interdisciplinary approach, we will look at a set of current events, legislations, and public debates, such as the burqa ban, terrorism, the same-sex marriage debate (marriage pour tous), and immigration 'queston'.

Full details for FREN 2692 - Thinking Difference in the 21st Century

Part theory, part textual analysis, and part creative writing, this course aims to help students develop a richer, more nuanced understanding and command of both the spoken and written language. As students refine their understanding of style and learn techniques for characterizing stylistic varieties, they apply these concepts both to the reading of a singular (and yet very plural) literary text. Raymond Queneau's Exercices de style, and to the writing of new exercices de style of their own. We also consider the relevance of stylistics to translation and of translation to Queneau's text. Seminar-style participation in class discussions and activities is expected.

Full details for FREN 3120 - French Stylistics

Modern capitalism is intimately connected to the ethics of play. Through French and Francophone literature, this course explores a host of capitalist players and the vexed moral questions they raise from casino gamblers and roulette addicts to bankers who invented speculative finance by domesticating fortune through probability, a middle-class founded on ruinous debts, and hustlers who create an informal economy in order to make their own luck in the capitalist game. Readings may include: Balzac, Flaubert, Zola, Guitry, Mabanckou, Carrere, among others.

Full details for FREN 3295 - Bankers, Gamblers, Hustlers

If humanistic research consists of finding consensus positions, articulating simple expressions, summarizing texts, standardizing identities, or doing passable translations, then this it: we arrived at the place where artificial intelligence is able to accomplish these missions to a convincing degree. However, we erred if we ever thought such tasks would constitute the humanities. Combining theory and practice, this interdisciplinary class aims to show what AI can generate, and capture… and what the humanities can create, and think. A critique of AI is essential, but it needs to be both scientifically sound and scholarly robust. Our course will look at key issues about language, cognition, textuality, or creativity, while taking advantage of ongoing research and editorial projects hosted by the Humanities Lab.

Full details for FREN 3526 - Humanities in the Time of AI

Guided independent study of special topics.

Full details for FREN 4190 - Special Topics in French Literature

This course studies philosophical, literary, and scientific conceptions of nature and the ethics and politics of human-nonhuman relations. We will cover a wide array of texts and global issues-such as animal cruelty, indigenous ecological thought, climate justice, plant ecologies, and ecological sovereignty-while trying to trace a history of French and Francophone ecological thought, from the 16th century to today. Our readings will address a number of related questions: what is our responsibility to nonhuman beings? How must our conceptions of nature, humanity, ethics, and politics change to become more ecological? And are these issues contemporary or have they been with us for centuries, even millennia? Students will closely study and collectively discuss texts while undertaking assignments ranging from the analytic to the experimental.

Full details for FREN 4250 - Ecological Thinking: Philosophy, Ethics, and Politics Beyond the Human

Consult director of undergraduate studies for more information.

Full details for FREN 4290 - Honors Work in French

This seminar will focus on the writings of the polymorphous Martinican poet and thinker, Edouard Glissant (1928-2011). We will attend to the historical context of French colonialism, particularly in the Caribbean, that gives his writing part of its impetus and to the anticolonial intellectuals with whom he engages (chiefly Aime Cesaire and Frantz Fanon) as well as to his major self-professed influences (William Faulkner, Saint-John Perse, Hegel) and to an array of interlocutors and fellow-travelers as well as a few dissenters. The seminar will examine the main preoccupations of Glissant's writing (world histories of dispossession and plantation slavery, creolization, Relation, opacity, flux, transversality, Caribbean landscapes as figures of thought, the All-World, etc.) but our focus will be on reading Glissant and attending carefully to the implications of his poetics and of his language for decolonial thought.

Full details for FREN 4368 - Reading Édouard Glissant

Feminism has a long history in France, from the work of Christine de Pizan (1364-1431), which instigated the centuries-long discussion of women's right and women's status known as the Querelle des femmes (the Quarrel about women), through Louise Labe and Marie de Gournay in the sixteenth century and Olympe de Gouges in the eighteenth, to modern and postmodern feminist such as Helene Cixous, Luce Irigaray, Monique Wittig, and more recently, Mona Chollet. The work of these authors will be seen in the light of premodern and modernmisogyny, witchcraf theory, queer theory, (Foucault and Judith Butler) and political theory (theories of sovereignty from Jean Bodin to the present. This course will be conducted in French.

Full details for FREN 4456 - French Feminisms

This seminar will focus on the writings of the polymorphous Martinican poet and thinker, Edouard Glissant (1928-2011). We will attend to the historical context of French colonialism, particularly in the Caribbean, that gives his writing part of its impetus and to the anticolonial intellectuals with whom he engages (chiefly Aime Cesaire and Frantz Fanon) as well as to his major self-professed influences (William Faulkner, Saint-John Perse, Hegel) and to an array of interlocutors and fellow-travelers as well as a few dissenters. The seminar will examine the main preoccupations of Glissant's writing (world histories of dispossession and plantation slavery, creolization, Relation, opacity, flux, transversality, Caribbean landscapes as figures of thought, the All-World, etc.) but our focus will be on reading Glissant and attending carefully to the implications of his poetics and of his language for decolonial thought.

Full details for FREN 6368 - Reading Édouard Glissant

Guided independent study for graduate students.

Full details for FREN 6390 - Special Topics in French Literature

This seminar considers the transformative ingress of ecological concerns into a number of fields, from philosophy and deconstruction to anthropology and literary studies. While acknowledging the unprecedented events - e.g., anthropogenic global warming-that have precipitated this eco-turn, our course will also sample millenary pre-history of environmental philosophy in the West and place it into dialogue with ecological thought and ethics from Caribbean and other non-Western, especially American indigenous culture. Our trajectory is threefold: we will study philosophical, literary, and scientific conceptions of nature, nonhuman beings, and human-nonhumans relations; we will grapple with the how to articulate the ontology and phenomenology of the environmental conditions; and we will investigate a handful of subfields of ecocriticism (such as animal studies, plant studies, and cold studies).

Full details for FREN 6848 - Environmentality: Being Ecologist in Philosophy, Criticism, and Ethics

This introductory course provides a thorough grounding in all the language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, with practice in small groups.

Full details for ITAL 1110 - Elementary Italian In Rome I

The Jewish community of Rome is the oldest one in all of Europe, dating back to 200 B. C., and the authors of some of the most important twentieth century works of Italian literature are Jewish. In this course we will examine how some of these writers (Moravia, Bassani, Primo Levi, Carlo Levi, Ginzburg, Sereni, Bruck, Loewenthal, Janaczek, Elkann and Pipermo) have articulated the self against the background of the historical events that have shaped the past hundred years; two world wars and different social movements of the pre- and post- WWII eras. This seminar includes two film screenings.

Full details for ITAL 1113 - FWS: Writing Italy, Writing the Self: Jewish-Italian Lit and the Long 20th Century

This introductory course provides a thorough grounding in all the language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, with practice in small groups.

Full details for ITAL 1120 - Elementary Italian In Rome II

ITAL 1201 is a fast-paced, introductory-level course, designed for students with no previous knowledge of Italian. Students will be guided in developing four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) in the context of everyday topics (school, housing, travel personal preferences, simple exchanges about past, future and possible events, etc.). They will also be introduced to culturally acceptable modes of oral and written communication in Italian, some fundamentals of Italian history, and select current social and political issues.

Full details for ITAL 1201 - Italian I

This is an all-skills course designed to improve speaking and reading ability, establish a groundwork for correct writing, and provide a substantial grammar review.

Full details for ITAL 2110 - Italian Intermediate Composition and Conversation I in Rome

This course provides a review of composition, reading, pronunciation, and grammar review, as well as guided practice in conversation. It emphasizes the development of accurate and idiomatic expression in the language.

Full details for ITAL 2130 - Italian Intermediate Composition and Conversation II in Rome

An intermediate-level course that aims to further develop intercultural, reading, listening, speaking, and writing abilities. Students will be guided in perfecting their communications skills, improving their cultural proficiency, and developing a critical eye toward printed and visual material drawn from literature, history, politics, arts in the Italophone world. Conversation skills will be practiced in daily discussions and in individual or group projects and presentations. A variety of written assignments will help students increase the range, accuracy, and stylistic appropriateness of their writing. Review of select grammar topics is part of this course, as is reading parts of contemporary novels.

Full details for ITAL 2201 - Italian III

In this class we will trace the genre of the mystery story in Italy from Pinocchio (the mystery of who or what qualifies as a human being) through the 20th century across Italian art, literature, and cinema. works by Carlo Collodi and Leonardo Sciascia will be featured along with classic cinema from Italy in order to answer a question that haunts Italian culture: who is the puppet and who is the master?

Full details for ITAL 2290 - Italian Mysteries

Pinocchio: The Adventures of a Puppet is of course a beloved tale of a puppet who wants to become a boy. Written in 1883 by the Italian author, Carlo Collodi, Pinocchio has been the subject of numerous books and films and in this course, we will take up some of them in order to ask important questions, including: what does it mean to be human and what makes one a puppet? Beginning with a close reading of the fable, we will then read different literary and philosophical retellings. We will also look at cinematic treatments, from Walt Disney to Spielberg to Garrone.

Full details for ITAL 3750 - Pinocchio: Adventures in Literature and Film

Guided independent study of special topics.

Full details for ITAL 4190 - Special Topics in Italian Literature

Consult director of undergraduate studies for more information.

Full details for ITAL 4290 - Honors in Italian Literature

This seminar is dedicated to an in-depth study of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (1340-51), a masterpiece of Italian literature whose popularity has been renewed as it has been proclaimed "the 14th-century Italian book that shows us how to survive "coronavirus" and the "medieval book to read while under quarantine." Particular attention will be dedicated to: gender; social class; the ethical dimension of literature; Boccaccio's refashioning of Italian, Latin, French, and Provencal source material. Knowledge of Italian is not required.

Full details for ITAL 4450 - Decameron

Guided independent study for graduate students.

Full details for ITAL 6390 - Special Topics in Italian Literature

This seminar is dedicated to an in-depth study of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (1340-51), a masterpiece of Italian literature whose popularity has been renewed as it has been proclaimed "the 14th-century Italian book that shows us how to survive "coronavirus" and the "medieval book to read while under quarantine." Particular attention will be dedicated to: gender; social class; the ethical dimension of literature; Boccaccio's refashioning of Italian, Latin, French, and Provencal source material. Knowledge of Italian is not required.

Full details for ITAL 6450 - Decameron

In this course, students will work on their four language skills: listing, speaking, reading, and writing as well as cultural competence. We will focus on practical communication. The instructor uses communicative language teaching (CLT) with an emphasis on structured input.

Full details for POLSH 1131 - Elementary Polish I

In this course, students continue working on their ability to speak, write, read, and understand contemporary Polish. Students will also enhance their intercultural competency. The instructor uses communicative language teaching with emphasis on structured input. Students use the textbook and workbook Hurra! Po polsku 2 supplemented by Polish-English chapter dictionaries. This class covers chapters 1-10. If a student is not sure of his or her language level, he or she can contact the Polish instructor, Ewa Bachminska, at eb583@cornell.edu.

Full details for POLSH 2033 - Intermediate Polish I

This course introduces students with no knowledge of Portuguese and with limited or no knowledge of Spanish to the Lusophone (Portuguese speaking) world. Emphasis is given to the development of language skills (e.g., speaking, listening, reading, and writing), as well as the appreciation and awareness of Global Portuguese-speaking cultures, prompting students to make comparisons to their own culture.

Full details for PORT 1210 - Elementary Portuguese I

This is an intensive introductory course for those who are native/near native speakers of Spanish. Emphasis will be given in the development of the four skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing), as well as the appreciation and awareness of Portuguese-speaking cultures. Students will engage with a broad range of topics related to Afro-Luso-Brazilian culture through art (e.g., painting, theater, cinema, literature, photography, dance sculpture, etc).

Full details for PORT 2010 - Intermediate Portuguese for Spanish Speakers I

While building language proficiency and accuracy through communicative activities, the course encourages students to actively interact with one another. The instructor facilitates communication and provides feedback and language learning strategies that guide students to take responsibility of their own learning and become active participants in the process. The course also introduces students to the many peoples and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world, prompting them to make comparisons with their own culture. Additionally, lectures provide students with opportunities to reflect on relevant grammar topics and assist students in developing language learning strategies. Class discussions are conducted entirely in Spanish. After 1210 students may take SPAN 1120 (fall) or SPAN 1220 (spring).

Full details for SPAN 1210 - Elementary Spanish I

While building language proficiency and accuracy through communicative activities, the course encourages students to actively interact with one another. The instructor facilitates communication and provides feedback and language learning strategies that guide students to take responsibility of their own learning and become active participants in the process. The course also introduces students to the many peoples and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world, prompting them to make comparisons with their own culture. Additionally, lectures provide students with opportunities to reflect on relevant grammar topics and assist students in developing language learning strategies. Class discussions are conducted entirely in Spanish. After 1220, students may take SPAN 1230, SPAN 2070, or SPAN 2090 depending on their LPS score.

Full details for SPAN 1220 - Elementary Spanish II

SPAN 1230 is the third course in the Spanish language sequence. It is designed to help students progress from the novice high level to the intermediate mid level in speaking, listening, reading and writing. The course is structured around four thematic units: fashion and art; the natural world; personal relationships; and health. In each unit, we will learn the vocabulary and grammar constructions that are necessary to talk about the unit's topic. Particular emphasis will be placed on the skill of giving and defending opinions. Throughout the semester, we will discuss and analyze a wide variety of art from the Hispanic world, including songs, fashion, visual arts, TV shows, films, performance art, newspaper articles, documentaries, film shorts and podcasts. The overall goal of this course is to develop students' ability to comprehend authentic materials in Spanish and formulate nuanced opinions about those materials.

Full details for SPAN 1230 - Continuing Spanish

This low-intermediate course expands Heritage students' confidence and competence in Spanish by providing opportunities to build upon the conversational skills they have. Through literary texts, other readings, music, films and the visual arts students broaden their vocabulary, improve grammatical accuracy, develop writing skills and enrich their understanding of the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. The heritage student grew up speaking Spanish and finished high school in the U.S.

Full details for SPAN 1250 - Spanish for Heritage Speakers I

Full details for SPAN 1305 - FWS:Narrating the Spanish Civil War

Designed to expand bilingual Heritage students' knowledge of Spanish by providing them with ample opportunities to develop and improve each of the basic language skills, with a particular focus on writing vocabulary. The heritage student has at least one parent of Hispanic origin and grew up speaking Spanish at home; s/he also finished high school here in the US. After this course, students may take SPAN 2095.

Full details for SPAN 2000 - Spanish for Heritage Speakers

Provides a conversational grammar review, with dialogues, debates, compositions, and authentic readings on health-related themes. Special attention is given to relevant cultural differences and how cultural notions may affect medical care and communication between doctor and patient. The objective of 2070 is to provide practice in real-life application, such as taking a medical history, calming a patient, and how to speak to a Hispanic patient in a culturally acceptable manner. After this course, a student may take or SPAN 2095.

Full details for SPAN 2070 - Intermediate Spanish for the Medical and Health Professions

This intermediate course develops accurate and idiomatic oral and written expression in a cultural context. Students achieve a higher level of syntactical and lexical competence through reading and discussing literary texts and viewing films. Particular emphasis is on writing and editing academic essays with peer/instructor feedback. Classes are in Spanish and the language is actively used in oral presentations and communicative, creative, and critical-thinking activities. Students review grammar structures on their own, with clarification and support of the instructor. After this course, students may take SPAN 2095.

Full details for SPAN 2090 - Intermediate Spanish I (Composition and Conversation)

This advanced-intermediate course is designed to prepare students for study abroad and is required for any Cornell CASA program in a Spanish speaking country. It also serves as an entryway into the major, and advanced-level courses. Students study stylistics, analyze and discuss texts, view films, and acquire advanced reading strategies. Continued emphasis is on writing and editing academic essays with peer and instructor feedback. Classes are in Spanish, and the language is actively used in oral presentations and communicative, creative, and critical-thinking activities. Students review grammar structures on their own, although the instructor may clarify as needed.

Full details for SPAN 2095 - Spanish Intermediate Composition and Conversation II

Introductory survey of modern Spanish literature. Students develop their analytical skills and learn basic literary concepts such as genre (drama, lyric, short story, and novel) and style (romanticism, realism, etc.) as well as male/female perspectives and the translation of literature to film language. The survey introduces students to Spain's cultural complexity through readings of works by authors representative of its diverse linguistic and literary traditions.

Full details for SPAN 2140 - Modern Spanish Survey

Readings and discussion of representative texts of the 19th and 20th centuries from various regions of Latin America. Among the authors considered are Sarmiento, Hernandez, Marti, Dario, Agustini, Cortazar, Garcia Marquez, Poniatowska, and Valenzuela.

Full details for SPAN 2150 - Contemporary Latin American Survey

This course explores major texts and themes of the Hispanic tradition from the 11th to the 17th centuries. We will examine general questions on literary analysis and the relationship between literature and history around certain events, such as medieval multicultural Iberia, the creation of the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th century and the expulsion of the Jews in 1492; the encounter between the Old and the New Worlds; the 'opposition' of high and low in popular culture, and of the secular and the sacred in poetry and prose. Readings may be drawn from medieval short stories and miracle collections; chivalric romances, Columbus, Lazarillo de Tormes, Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Calder?and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, among others.

Full details for SPAN 2170 - Early Modern Iberian Survey

This course, which is required for the major, is designed to help the learner develop increased accuracy and sophistication in writing in Spanish for academic purposes and continued oral practice in Spanish. To this end, there will be ample writing and revising practice, with a focus on specific grammatical and lexical areas, customized to the needs of the students enrolled in the course. All writing will be based on a particular theme relating to Latin America with a focus on film, literary texts, newspaper readings and conducting an interview.

Full details for SPAN 2180 - Advanced Spanish Writing Workshop

This course offers a broad introduction to modern and contemporary Spanish culture of the late 19 - early 21 centuries. Throughout the semester we will examine key works from various cultural genres, with particular emphasis on the visual arts, including film, painting, photography, poetry, documentary, newsreels, theater, and architecture, with the main objective being to explore diverse perspectives that are all unique to the ever-evolving place we call Spain. Additional topics of study include: empire and nation-state formation, Generaci?98, intellectual literary and artistic movements, architectural movements and styles, dictatorship and democracy, folklore and tradition, Catholicism, fascism, revolutionary aesthetics, the politics of censorship, modernization, la Apertura, counter-cultural movements (such as the NCE-nuevo cine espa?and La movida), gender and identity, Francoism, nationalisms and regionalisms, and the politics of Historical Memory.

Full details for SPAN 2230 - Perspectives on Spain

This course offers a broad introduction to modern and contemporary Spanish culture of the late 19 - early 21 centuries. Throughout the semester we will examine key works from various cultural genres, with particular emphasis on the visual arts, including film, painting, photography, poetry, documentary, newsreels, theater, and architecture, with the main objective being to explore diverse perspectives that are all unique to the ever-evolving place we call Spain. Additional topics of study include: empire and nation-state formation, Generaci?98, intellectual literary and artistic movements, architectural movements and styles, dictatorship and democracy, folklore and tradition, Catholicism, fascism, revolutionary aesthetics, the politics of censorship, modernization, la Apertura, counter-cultural movements (such as the NCE-nuevo cine espa?and La movida), gender and identity, Francoism, nationalisms and regionalisms, and the politics of Historical Memory.

Full details for SPAN 2235 - Perspectives on Spain in Spanish

Focuses on the practice of narrative writing in Spanish. Explores what makes a novel and a short story work, paying close attention to narrative structure, plot, beginnings/endings, character development, theme, etc. Students read classic novels and short stories as points of departure for the discussion. Because the course is a workshop, students are expected to write their own fiction.

Full details for SPAN 3170 - Creative Writing Workshop (in Spanish)

This course is an introductory survey of Latin American gender debates, feminist movements, and theories from the turn of the 20th century to today. Taking a regional perspective, we will examine the various defining strains of Latin American feminist tradition(s), including: 1) mass movements, activism, and mothers; 2) crossovers with anticolonial, indigenous, diversity, and transgender theories.

Full details for SPAN 3345 - Latin American Feminisms

Latin American culture has always been very receptive to outside influences; its intense participation in global networks has been a way to be modern. At the same time, throughout the twentieth century, Latin American culture has also spread globally and influenced people outside the region. In this course we will explore this complex cultural exchange, showing how the idea of modernity in the continent was born out of this relation with the rest of the world. We will read Latin American authors of world literature (Borges, Bola?Garcia Marquez, Lispector), and we will explore some Latin American icons and cultural phenomena popular abroad: Frida Kahlo, Che Guevara, soccer, Rigoberta Menchu, telenovelas, magical realism.

Full details for SPAN 3440 - Global Latin America

Foreign in a domestic sense is the perplexing way that the Supreme Court of the United States chose to define Puerto Rico's status in the so-called Insular Cases of the early 20th century. Written over 100 years ago, this contradictory ruling looms large over Puerto Rico's precarious legal standing, despite the fact that there are now more Puerto Ricans living on the US mainland than in the island itself. Seeking to counter the obfuscation of Puerto Rico in the US imaginary, in this course students will analyze how key historical, political, and social moments connected to diasporas, disasters, and dissent have galvanized Puerto Rican cultural production in the 20th and 21st centuries. (ENGL-GLS, ENGL-LOA, ENGL-PST)

Full details for SPAN 3675 - Diasporas, Disasters, and Dissent: Re-Thinking Puerto Rican Studies in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Documentaries are born out of the necessity to capture the real and to tell a truth. When we watch documentaries, we tend to comfortably rely on that claim and, often, take what they teach us as indisputable evidence of what reality is. In this course, we will put into questions the reality that documentaries portray-and the possibility itself of portraying reality-by discussing a selection of Latin American documentaries that raise important issues regarding the ethics and politics of representation. In our discussions, we will critically engage with the boundaries of the cinematic frame and debate the ethical responsibilities of the filmmaker, the value and the political and social impact of the image, the role of the spectator, and the implications of filming and being filmed by an other.

Full details for SPAN 3710 - Latin American Documentary

Guided independent study of special topics. For undergraduates interested in special problems not covered in courses.

Full details for SPAN 4190 - Special Topics in Spanish Literature

In the field of aesthetics, the uncanny refers to an affective state, most commonly the sensation of encountering something-an object, a place, a situation- as both familiar and strange a the same time. Such experience of the "strange-familiar" (unheimlich) produces a disquieting sense of uncertainty, uneasiness, or doubt and may even spark extreme feelings of alienation, anxiety, dread, horror, and repulsion. This seminar explores the philosophical origins and conceptual terrain of the uncanny in relation to 20th and 21st century cinematic production.

Full details for SPAN 4196 - The Uncanny

Consult director of undergraduate studies for more information.

Full details for SPAN 4290 - Honors Work I

This course is the senior seminar for Spanish majors and will explores the lyric traditions if the early modern Hispanic World. From courtly sonnets to villancicos and popular ballads, we will trace how poetry shaped and reflected early modern experiences of love and death, joy and anxiety, carnality and spirituality. Students will master their language skills as they practice with different approaches to reading poetry: from rhetorical analysis and recitation to close reading, critical theory and cognitive poetics. With these abilities, we will trace the birth of modern subjectivity with Garcilaso de la Vega, engage with satire and metaphysical anguish with Francisco de Quevedo, delve into the art of obscurity with Luis de Góngora, and we will discover the limits of knowledge with Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

Full details for SPAN 4446 - Golden Age Poetry and the Hispanic World

Moses Maimonides who was born in Cordoba (1138), moved to Fez as a youth and died in Cairo (1204) is regarded by Jewish, Islamic, and Christian tradition alike as the most important Jewish religious intellectual of the classical age of Islam/the High Middle Ages. This seminar will examine Maimonides as the product of his time and place including his complex relationship with Arabo-Islamic culture and, because of his stature as a communal figure, rabbinic scholar, court physician and philosopher, his role as a catalyst for cultural developments. For comparative purposes we also consider Maimonides' Andalusi contemporary, Ibn Rushd, the philosopher, Muslim jurist, physician and scholar of Islamic law.

Full details for SPAN 4540 - Moses Maimonides

Topic: Writing Through the Forest in Search of Trees. Hello, Humanities Student! Are you a plotter or a pantser? Not sure? Come and join us to find out, and to gain valuable insight into what kind of a writer you are, and how to manage that writer most effectively and productively. This theme-centered methods seminar, through a communal focus on trees, woods, glens, and copses in the pre-modern world, will hone in on the most indispensable tool in the humanist's belt: writing. From the generation of ideas, to their organization into an outline (or a blueprint, or whatever euphemism we, as a group or as individuals, decide to apply to the initial, tangled pile of yarn) to the first draft. Followed by frank and constructive criticism of the initial draft as a group and in pairs, and then on to the part that all students-really, all humanists?okay, all writers-find to be the greatest struggle: Your paper has some good ideas, but it really needs a rewrite. Now what do you do? As we write, and rewrite, we will also read widely. In addition to primary sources, scholarly articles and essays, we will include criticism, personal essay, theory, excerpts from fiction, and more, in an effort to open students' writing up to a myriad of possibilities for persuasive and compelling written communication.

Full details for SPAN 4570 - Methods in Medieval

This course provides an introductory overview to environmental thought in Latin America and the Latinx diaspora. We will discuss pre-Columbian approaches to the nonhuman and colonialism's transformative impact on ecosystems in the hemispheric America's. We will then turn to contemporary debates about whether nature should be treated as a resource or as a commons, with special attention paid to Indigenous philosophers like Ailton Krenak, Latinx scholars like Laura Pulido, and visual artists like Laura Aguilar and Carolina Caycdo.

Full details for SPAN 4690 - Latin American and Latinx Environmentalisms

This course explores the rich, global food cultures of Greater Mexico, that is, a idea of Mexican gastronomy that encompasses the country of Mexico, the Mexican American community in the US, and Mexican migrants around the world, as well as the practice of Mexican food culture by non-Mexicans. The course raises fundamental issues related to the ways in which the practice and representation of gastronomy allow the consideration of topics such as colonialism, globalization, gastrodiplomacy, economic development and sovereignty, while discussing the role of food culture in subjectivity and identity. These questions will be explored through an array of literary, artistic and cinematographic texts, as well as the critical work of scholars across the humanities and the social sciences.

Full details for SPAN 4875 - Global Food Cultures of Greater Mexico

In the field of aesthetics, the uncanny refers to an affective state, most commonly the sensation of encountering something-an object, a place, a situation-as both familiar and strange at the same time. Such experience of the strange-familiar (unheimlich) produces a disquieting sense of uncertainty, uneasiness, or doubt and may even spark extreme feelings of alienation, anxiety, dread, horror, and repulsion. This seminar explores the philosophical origins and conceptual terrain of the uncanny in relation to 20th and 21st century artistic, literary, architectural and cinematic production. If the uncanny traditionally signals a blurring of categories (familiar/unfamiliar, truth/fiction, reality/imagination) resulting in a fundamental distrust of observed reality, then what might its contemporary iterations reveal about our age of pervasive suspicion?

Full details for SPAN 6190 - The UnCanny

Guided independent study of specific topics. For graduate students interested in special problems not covered in courses.

Full details for SPAN 6390 - Special Topics in Spanish Literature

Topic: Writing Through the Forest in Search of Trees. Hello, Humanities Student! Are you a plotter or a pantser? Not sure? Come and join us to find out, and to gain valuable insight into what kind of a writer you are, and how to manage that writer most effectively and productively. This theme-centered methods seminar, through a communal focus on trees, woods, glens, and copses in the pre-modern world, will hone in on the most indispensable tool in the humanist's belt: writing. From the generation of ideas, to their organization into an outline (or a blueprint, or whatever euphemism we, as a group or as individuals, decide to apply to the initial, tangled pile of yarn) to the first draft. Followed by frank and constructive criticism of the initial draft as a group and in pairs, and then on to the part that all students-really, all humanists?okay, all writers-find to be the greatest struggle: Your paper has some good ideas, but it really needs a rewrite. Now what do you do? As we write, and rewrite, we will also read widely. In addition to primary sources, scholarly articles and essays, we will include criticism, personal essay, theory, excerpts from fiction, and more, in an effort to open students' writing up to a myriad of possibilities for persuasive and compelling written communication.

Full details for SPAN 6590 - Methods in Medieval

The fantastic and the supernatural are the fundamental elements of this course, in which we will analyze Latin American short stories, novels, and films, featuring ghosts, vampires, monsters, witches, zombies, haunted houses, and ecological horror. We will explore issues relating to colonialism, feminism, hybridity, and miscegenation. The texts range from the 19th century to present.

Full details for SPAN 6855 - Latin American Horror

This course is an introduction to the themes and ideas surrounding the formation of Latin American literary theory, through the reading of essential works. The course focuses on landmark debates, surrounding the question of literary historiography, the development of concepts such as transculturation and heterogeneity, and the development of sociocritical approaches seeking to relate literature to Latin America’s historical and geopolitical conditions. It also engages the ways in which Latin Americans debate theorists from the Frankfurt School, structuralism, poststructuralism and hermeneutics alongside the aesthetic development of the region’s literature. Authors to be discussed include Alfonso Reyes, Pedro Henríquez Ureña, Antonio Cándido, Ángel Rama, Antonio Cornejo Polar, Flora Sussekind and Beatriz Sarlo among others. This course will be taught in Spanish.

Full details for SPAN 6875 - Latin American Literary Theory: From the Foundations of the Rise of Cultural Studies