Academic Program

The curriculum of the Department of Spanish is designed to deepen students’ understanding of cultural difference and diversity through a language program that fulfills the all-college language distribution requirement and an academic major program.

In its commitment to the study of foreign languages, the Department of Spanish strives to prepare students for active engagement in the Spanish-speaking world, both within the United States and abroad. Our language courses facilitate oral and written communication by presenting grammar in a cultural context. The language classroom provides a space for students to appreciate cultural connections and differences and to grow into their role as global citizens.

The academic major program offers a course of study in Spanish, Latin American, and U.S. Latino literature and culture. Spanish majors attain depth and breadth of literary and cultural knowledge across historical periods and geographical areas.

The program is committed to promoting greater critical awareness of the differentials of power that perpetuate social injustice and inform cultural and cross-cultural assumptions. Students acquire the skills to become close readers and critical thinkers and to explore different modes of cultural production within specific social, political, and historical contexts. Our pedagogical goal is to prepare students to be productive critics of the world beyond the texts. To that end, students examine the ways in which different texts challenge or affirm aesthetic conventions and dominant social narratives, including race, class, gender, sexuality, nationality, and imperialism. In the process, our majors are encouraged to analyze the connections among systems of domination and to develop as scholars and promoters of social justice.

Learn more about the beginnings of the Spanish department in the article His Gift Was Language from Colby Magazine.