Fall

Fall

SP 9785A Interdisciplinary Approaches to Hispanic Studies
Constanza Burucúa
Fridays 9:30-12:30pm

This course is conceived as a space of dialogue and encounter, where specialists from different disciplines, all of which can be grouped under the broad category of Hispanic studies, will present their research work, and engage in conversation with our graduate students and with the wider academic community. From a broad range of theoretical and methodological approaches, while always with the Hispanic world at the core of the discussion, the course’s main objective is that exposing students to contemporary debates about culture and language as spaces of inter-cultural exchange and communication.

SP 9505A Research Methods and Professionalization
Constanza Burucúa
Tuesdays 9:30-12:30pm

This is a mandatory course for all graduate students in the Hispanic Studies Graduate Program. It is structured around a series of practical topics and activities to provide students with an understanding of academic work and fundamental resources in the program and the university’s library system and career education services. The course is designed to support students during the initial steps of their own research project, while exploring research methods, academic writing, and scholarly skills, covering topics such as finding the adequate literature, scholarship and grant applications, conference proposals, publishing, etc.

SP 9658A Queer/ Cuir Latin American Literature and Cinema 
Felipe Quintanilla
Wednesdays 5:30-8:30pm

This course will focus on Latin American texts and films from a queer/ cuir perspective. We will begin with a questioning of the term itself--as a concept derived from a North American context--as well as other terms with similar charge in Latin America, such as “lo torcido,” “lo raro”. We will briefly analyze the way in which the concept of the nation is informed by particular constructs/prescriptions of gender, and by the very erasure or silencing of the “queer other” in foundational narratives. We will continue with works of poetry from the early 20th century where homoerotic desire is coded as a secret. The rapture of this secret will then be seen in other texts where characters begin to reveal their desires, without a veil, pointing now more clearly to the possibility of desire and love beyond the heteronormative. We will then look at violence, whether represented as instances of historical memory or as an ever present threat imposed on queer subjects, or as the axis of homoerotic desire itself. All the while, we will touch on subjects such as cross-dressing, male prostitution, and AIDS, in order to arrive, finally, to other queer spaces in the 21st Century, with the full LGBTTTI spectrum now proudly and unapologetically represented on the screen and the page. (This course is taught in Spanish) 

SP 9028A Don Juan: Text, Performance, and Adaptation
Victoria Wolff
Thursdays 10:00-1:00pm

This seminar will study primary sources from Spain related to literary depictions of Don Juan. From the original seventeenth century text to today, students and professors will focus on a critical survey, as well as develop foundations in literary and cultural theory, theories of the theater, and adaptation and performance. Additionally, over the course of the semester, we will foster professional development skills, nurture academic research competences, advance teaching aptitudes, and engage with the wider community.

SP 9717A Sociolinguistics
Olga Tararova
Thursdays 1:30-4:30pm

This graduate seminar focuses on the study of linguistic variation across the Spanish speaking world. It covers the central issues in phonological, morphological, and syntactic variation, analyzed from a geographical as well as from a social point of view. Introduction to survey methods in sociolinguistics and techniques for critically assessing different issues concerning the effect(s) of gender, age, education, and class are provided so students will be able to develop a research paper, as part of the course requirement. The classes will be divided in two parts: 1) discussion of the weekly material, followed by 2) Goldvarb software use. During the course, students will have an opportunity to carry an experimental work of their choice (e.g., investigating phonetic or morphological variation among different social groups). 

SP 9720A L2 Speech Learning in Context
Yasaman Rafat
Wednesdays 1:30-4:30pm

In this course, we will be examining a variety of themes related to the acquisition of L2 phonetics and phonology including theories and models of L2 speech learning, the role of input, social and cognitive factors and universal phonetic principles. We will read and discuss empirical studies on important phenomena in L2 speech learning of a number of languages including English, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, Arabic, & Japanese. Experimental paradigms most often used in laboratory research will be presented.

WINTER

SP 9729B Bilingualism and Heritage Speakers
Olga Tararova
Mondays 10:30-1:30pm

A 3 hour seminar focuses on Spanish bilingualism from three different perspectives: linguistic (morphosyntactic), sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic. The course examines typical language contact phenomena with materials from Spanish. A number of case studies of Spanish in contact is provided to deepen students understanding. Introduction to survey methods in sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics, and techniques for critically assessing different issues are demonstrated so students will be able to develop an individual research paper, as part of the course requirement. 

SP 9734B Phonological Attrition
Yasaman Rafat
Tuesdays 13:00-1:30pm, STVH 3101

The goals of this course is to examine language change and relearning with a focus on phonology. We will discuss the effect of both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors that constrain language loss. Various first language change situations and languages such as Spanish, Italian, Arabic, Mandarin, Persian and Dutch will be examined.

SP 9673B The Cultural Platform
Juan Luis Suárez
Tuesdays 3:00-6:00pm

Description: An analysis on the reach of digital platforms (Cohen; van Dijck) to become global cultural platforms (for example, Google Arts & Culture, but also Amazon’s constellation around its online library, Goodreads, IMDB, Amazon Studios, Amazon Music), and the strategic paths of evolution traditional, analogue cultural networks (Suárez) like museums, libraries, and galleries are left with after the deepening of digitation occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. The course will also deal with the goals, organization, functioning and impact on art of crypto art platforms based on NFTs such as Nifty Gateway. 

SP 9029B The American Dream/El Sueño Americano 
Felipe Quintanilla
Wednesdays 5:30-8:30pm

From Saussure to Derrida, from Foucault to Butler, Marx to Žižek, Freud to Kristeva, Fanon to Hall and Muñoz, this course aims to introduce graduate students to the rich field of interdisciplinary cultural studies. Students will not only become familiar with relevant schools of thought, but also practice and develop interdisciplinary strategies to analyze social/literary issues. Facilitating our ambitious project will be a number of cultural artifacts informing a conversation around the possible meanings around the concept of the “American dream,” its vices, virtues, its concomitant politics of inclusion/exclusion. Along the way, we will also be mindful of how this “dream,” or "dreams," play a role in the framing discourses of empire, intervention, migration, gender, sex, class and ethnicity/race. We will be in great company, fighting wars overseas with Chicanos; road tripping with Thelma and Louise, Tenoch and Julio Zapata. From a postwar touch of evil to the easy riding of the late 1960s, from stories of migration to the dream-dealers of the dystopian future, this course will wrestle with that ever-elusive concept of the American dream, the nightmare, the sham, the saving graces.

Fall Term 2020

SP 9505A Information and Research Methods
Tuesday 9:30-12:30pm
Prof. Constanza Burucúa

This is a mandatory course for all graduate students in the Hispanic Studies Program. The course is organized around a series of practical topics to offer students a better understanding of the academic life and fundamental resources in the Graduate program. This course is designed to explore research methods, academic writing, and scholarly skills. We will cover topics such as finding the adequate literature, scholarship applications, conference proposals, publishing, and the job search.

SP 9025 The Nineteenth Century Novel: From Literature to Adaptation
Thursday 9:00 - 12:00pm
Prof. Victoria Wolff

This seminar will focus on selected novels from Spain and Spanish America and their adaptations into other genres, such as musical theater and film. Our primary sources will be  Pepita Jiménez (1874) and  Cecilia Valdés (1882). These works selected from the nineteenth century are an important part of what has been traditionally considered the literary canon. This course provides the occasion to develop foundational understandings of these works, as well as the opportunity to move beyond the literary canon into new directions. 

SP 9720A Second Language Speech Learning in context
Wednesday 1:30-4:30 pm
Prof. Yasaman Rafat

In this course, we will be examining a variety of themes related to the acquisition of L2 phonetics and phonology. We will discuss theories and models of L2 speech reading as well as empirical studies on L2 speech learning of a number of languages including English, Spanish, Italian, German, Estonian, Arabic, Farsi, & Japanese. Experimental paradigms most often used in laboratory research will be presented.

 
Winter Term 2021

SP 9672B The Digital Condition after the pandemic
Tuesday 1:00-3:00 pm
Prof. Juan Luis Suárez

The human condition is now digital. Most elements of human life, almost everything that conditions our life as human beings on Earth comes to us and we experience digitally.
This trend to digitize human existence has deepen as a result of the social distancing imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this course we will study how the human condition has become digital by combining the study of some cases we are exposed to in our daily lives with the close reading of thinkers such as Hannah Arendt, Clausewitz, Hegel, Jane Jacobs, Zuboff and Haraway. We will also study government documents and corporations’ discourses that call for more digital in human relations, health, politics, logistics, etc.
Themes will include: Digitality; All Digital is Real; Platforms; Friction; Trust; The Digital Limits; Humans.

SP 9648B Testimony Memory Fiction
Monday 5:00 - 8:00pm
Prof. Felipe Q. Quintanilla

This course will be devoted to the study of memory and its connections to writing modalities such as the testimonial, the  memoire, auto-fiction and fiction, in Latin American and in US/Canadian Latinx contexts. The texts, films and artistic installations we will be exploring will range from those centered on the bitter fruits of the Cold War in Latin America, but also on more recent phenomena such as the various indigenous/ student/ feminist movements of self-determination, as well as on the complex migration flows across  las Am éricas from the early 1970s to the present day. Along the way, we will be thinking about the nature of testimonial literature and its emergence in Latin America, its understanding as a literary genre and its positionality vis à vis the literary cannon and vis à vis political action. The concepts that will inform our discussions will be subalternity, voice, social justice, human rights, transnational solidarity, reparations, and memory. We will be listening to the voices from various struggles, from women, youth, combatants, and the indigenous. We will end, finally, on a consideration of fiction as a potential tool for remembering and imaginative healing.

SP 9732B Bilingualism, language change and relearning
Wednesday 1:30-4:30 pm
Prof. Yasaman Rafat

This course aims to study phonetic and phonological change/attrition and relearning/ reactivation in bilingual speakers. We will explore bilingual language change from both a synchronic and diachronic point of view. We will read and discuss empirical studies on important phenomenon in bilingual communities including heritage speakers around the world.

SP 9733B L2-L3 Acquisition of Morphosyntax
Tuesday 9:30-12:30pm
Prof. Olga Tararova

A 3-hour seminar in English (cross-listed with Linguistics) will provide students with an overview of some of the major theories and models in the acquisition of second and third languages. We will explore the role of first language transfer, input, language typology, and age of acquisition by focusing on theoretical frameworks and empirical studies. This will be accomplished by having students undertake an experimental study of a phenomenon of their choice. This graduate course complements other graduate courses in Hispanic linguistic by covering the two core areas of grammar: morphology and syntax. It also serves as the descriptive and theoretical basis for courses on acquisition and applied linguistics.

SP 9027L Catalina de Erauso: Life, Legend, Literature, and Culture
Prof. Victoria Wolff

“The Lieutenant Nun” Catalina de Erauso (1585/1592?-1650) was both a historical figure and a literary character. This course will examine this fascinating figure through her own words and in a myriad of re-writings of her life-story, taking us from the 17 ^th century to today. We will enlist a variety of perspectives such as Autobiography and Authorship, Transatlantic Studies, Adaptation and Performance, Gender and Sexuality, among others.


SP 9729 Bilingualism and Heritage Speakers
Prof. Olga Tararova

This seminar in Spanish focuses on Spanish bilingualism from three different perspectives: linguistic (morphosyntactic), sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic. The course examines typical language contact phenomena with materials from Spanish/English. A number of case studies of Spanish in contact is provided to deepen students understanding. Introduction to survey methods in sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics, and techniques for critically assessing different issues are demonstrated so students will be able to develop an individual research paper, as part of the course requirement.

Fall Term

SP 9785A Transatlantic Studies Seminar
Alena Robin
Fridays: 2:30-4:30pm, UC 3220

SP 9024A Federico Garcia Lorca y la opera: literatura y musica
Victoria Wolff
Tuesdays: 10:30-1:30pm, UC 3305

SP 9613A Principles of Language Teaching and Acquisition
Joyce Bruhn de Garavito and Ana Garcia-Allen
Fridays: 9:30-12:30am, UC 3325

SP 9700A/Ling 9600A Principles of Spanish Syntax
Joyce Bruhn de Garavito
Wednesdays 9:30-12:30pm, UC 2120

SP 9717A Sociolinguistics
Olga Tararova
Wednesdays: 12:30-3:30pm, UC 3320

Winter Term

SP 9505B Information and Research Methods
Alena Robin
Mondays: 1:30-4:30pm, UC 3325

SP 9023B Women Filmmakers
Constanza Burucua
Tuesdays 9:30-11:30am, UC 1401
Thursdays 9:30-11:30am, UC 2105

SP 9654B Magias totales del Quijote
Rafael Montano
Wednesdays: 1:30-4:30pm, UC 3325

SP 9657B US/Canadian Latin@/x Literature and Culture
Felipe Q. Quintanilla
Tuesdays: 5:00-8:00pm, UC 3325

SP 9671B Ethics, Technology and Social Impact
Juan Luis Suarez
Tuesdays: 1:30-4:30pm, WIRB 1110

SP 9731B Field Methods
Olga Tararova
Thursdays: 2:30-5:30pm, UC 3320

Linguistics students without a stats background should consider one of these courses: Stats Options

SP 9645/CL 9650 Narratives of Imperialism, 1492-Today
Lauren Beck
Blended course: half reading course and half in class
On-campus classes: July 15-26, 2019, 2:00-5:00pm
UC3325

Fall Term

SP 9505A Information and Research Methods
Alena Robin
Monday 1:30-4:30pm, UCC 54B

SP 9021A/CL 9733A Literature, Music, and Migration: Jose Maria Arguedas
Victoria Wolff
Thursday 10:30-1:30pm, UC 3325

SP 9720A Second Language Speech Learning
Yasaman Rafat
Tuesday 12:30-3:30pm, SH 3355

SP 9729A Bilingualism and Heritage Speakers
Olga Tararova
Wednesday 1:30-4:30pm, UC 3325

SP 9022A Hispanic American Theatre and Discourses of the Nation
Felipe Quintanilla
Tuesday 7:00-10:00pm, UC 3320

Winter Term

SP 9620B Discursos y poeticas en el cuento hispanoamericano
Rafael Montano
Wednesday 1:30-4:30pm, UC 3320

SP 9726B Child Phonology
Yasaman Rafat
Tuesday 12:30-3:30pm, SH 3355

SP 9631B/CL 9623B National (and Other) Identities in Film
Constanza Burucua
Monday 9:30-12:30pm, UC 3305

SP 9698B Topics on Spanish Acquisition
Olga Tararova
Monday 1:30-4:30pm, UC 3305

Linguistics students without a stats background should consider one of these courses: Stats Options.

Fall Term

SP 9785 Transatlantic Studies (Constanza Burucua)
Fridays 2:30-4:30pm, AHB 3B15

SP 9650A Historia en la novella y cine hispanoamericanos  (Rafael Montano)
Mondays 1:30-4:30pm

SP 9100A  Migration and Ethnic Relations in Colonial Latin American Art (ca. 1520-1810) (Alena Robin)
Wednesdays 3:30-6:30pm

SP 9720A/LING 9709A Second Language Speech Learning  (Yasaman Rafat)
Tuesdays 12:30-3:30pm

Winter Term

SP 9723B/LING 9723B First Language Acquisition  (Joyce Bruhn de Garavito)
Mondays 1:30-4:30pm

SP 9724B/LING 9724B Language Attrition  (Yasaman Rafat)
Tuesdays 12:30-3:30pm

SP 9125B Latin America in the Film Festival Circuit (Constanza Burucua)
Wednesdays 9:30-12:30pm

SP 9725B Inquisitorial Voices of the (His)panic World (Clelia O. Rodriguez)
Thursdays 12:30-3:30pm, STVH 2166

Full Year
SP 9505Y - Information and Research Methods (para los de Literatura) Marjorie Ratcliffe/Peggy Ellis
Mondays 3:30-5:30pm, LWH 2210

Fall Term 2016
SP 9652A Imágenes sagradas y lugares de devoción (Alena Robin)

El propósito de este curso es acercarse al mundo artístico hispano a través de diversos estudios monográficos sobre imágenes sagradas y lugares de devoción. Si bien el material del curso está centrado en el poder que la imagen sacra adquirió desde la temprana Edad Moderna, veremos que es algo que sigue vigente en la actualidad. También se contemplarán los problemas que pueden surgir en torno a la exposición de estas imágenes en los museos. La dinámica del seminario estará centrada en la lectura de diversas fuentes primarias y segundarias, su discusión en clase y su relación con obras de arte.
Wednesdays 9:30-12:30pm, UCC 53

SP 9623A - La Celestina y su crítica literaria (Marjorie Ratcliffe)

Siguiendo una serie de temas, este curso estudiará la crítica literaria de esta obra maestra hispánica escrita en el momento clave de la historia española en la víspera de la modernidad. Se supone una lectura previa del texto.
Wednesdays 3:30-6:30pm, LWH 2210

SP 9716A/LING 9621A - Fonología (Yasaman Rafat)

Our overall goal is to examine phonological phenomena using methods from experimental phonetics, to introduce you to important theoretical innovations and debates, and to strengthen your skills in instrumental and modeling techniques related to the study of sound structure. We will explore topics in speech production, acoustics, and perception centered on the broad theme of variation. We will focus on experimental studies on synchronic variation and diachronic sound change in non-contact situations, as well as first language sound change in bilingual and bidialectal speakers.
Tuesdays 12:30-3:30pm, STVH 3166

SP 9018A - Literature and Musical Theater in the Hispanic World: Los casos de Pepita Jiménez y Cecilia Valdés (Victoria Wolff)

This course will study two canonical works of literature from the transatlantic Hispanic world: The Spanish novel Pepita Jiménez (1874) by Juan Valera and the Cuban novel Cecilia Valdés (1882) by Cirilo Villaverde. Both novels were rewritten and adapted as libretti for musico-dramatic performances. We will study how collaborators on these projects transformed literary works into musico-dramatic performances, their particular views on literature, text, and music in their artistic creations, and position them within wider cultural debates on zarzuela and opera. We will focus on how writers, librettists, and composers used literature to reflect on significant cultural, political, and social issues linked to nation-state building. Also up for consideration are perspectives on gender and the changing roles of women, national regeneration and burgeoning nationhood, empire and its historical legacy, and modernization and its affects on the arts.* Please note that this course will be offered in an accelerated form. It will begin on Thursday, October 20, 2016 and continue to meet every Tuesday and Thursday until  Tuesday, December 6.
T/TH 9:30-12:30pm (October 20-December 6), STVH 1119

SP 9707/Ling 9500Q - Research Methods and Statistics (para los de lingüísitica) (Ilena Paul)

Winter Term 2017

SP 9653B - Pintura novohispana (Alena Robin)

El propósito de este curso es acercar el alumno al mundo artístico a través de la lectura, análisis y comentario crítico de textos que han sido fundamentales para el estudio de la pintura novohispana. Los textos son de diferentes índoles, desde la descripción de la Virgen de Guadalupe por el pintor virreinal Miguel Cabrera (1756), la primera historia de la pintura de novohispana de José Bernardo Couto (1862) en forma de diálogo, y escritos de Manuel Revilla. También las propuestas de Manuel Toussaint, Xavier Moyssen, y Jorge Alberto Manrique se examinarán. Asimismo, se revisarán algunos estudios más recientes sobre temáticas y materialidad de la pintura que son peculiar a Nueva España, para concluir con una reflexión sobre la postura del artista y su obra en la sociedad novohispana. 
Tuesdays 4:30-7:30pm, SH 3355

 SP 9020B - Memoria, Testimonio y Autobiografía Femenina Hispana (Marjorie Ratcliffe)

Este curso se enfocará en algunos textos literarios escritos por mujeres y para mujeres desde la Edad Media hasta principios del siglo XXI. Nos referiremos a perspectivas críticas de construcciones sociales de poder, de agencia autorial, de género y sexualidad.
Thursdays 9:30-12:30pm, WL 257

SP 9619B - Poéticas de la escritura y lectura: Macedonio  Fernández, Jorge Luis Borges y Julio Cortázar (Rafael Montano)

A partir de la segunda mitad del siglo pasado, el siglo XX, hubo una explosión de planteamientos en los campos de la filosofía y la crítica literaria para tratar de explicar o problematizar los complejos fenómenos de escritura y lectura, especialmente sobre el acto de la interpretación de textos y cómo el acto de escritura y lectura están íntimamente o incluso dialécticamente relacionados. Por tanto, este curso tiene un doble propósito. Por un lado, estudiar desde los campos de la filosofía y la crítica literaria algunas de las posturas más importantes y más recientes sobre la relación entre escritura, lectura e interpretación. Por otro lado, estudiar la reflexión que tres escritores argentinos, Macedonio Fernández, Jorge Luis Borges y Julio Cortázar, han realizado desde la práctica literaria sobre estos mismos temas que han preocupado a filósofos y críticos literarios. En el centro de este doble propósito se encuentra la relación que existe entre la creación literaria y la creación teórica para explicar o reflexionar sobre los fenómenos de escritura, lectura e interpretación. Escritores y críticos se nutren mutuamente  para abordar estos temas. Por esta razón, se han escogido estos tres autores argentinos porque en sus obras se manifiesta con bastante claridad, en forma práctica y teórica,  esta preocupación  por reflexionar y teorizar sobre los fenómenos de escritura, lectura e interpretación. 
Wednesdays 1:30-4:30pm, STVH 2166

SP 9717B - Sociolingüísitica Hispánica (Yasaman Rafat)

The goals of this course are two-pronged. First it will discuss the effect of both linguistic and social factors that have been traditionally discussed in the field of sociolinguistics such as, age, gender, class, education and social network. Second, it will encourage students to contribute to the field of sociolinguistics in a novel way by investigating how some of the particular social, cultural and political aspects of the Hispanic world may result in phonological or morpho-syntactic variation in their respective communities. The course will focus on both theory and sociolinguistic method of data collection and analysis.
Tuesdays 12:30-3:30pm, STVH 3166

 SP 9708B/ LING 9800B - L2 Acquisition (Joyce Bruhn de Garavito)

This course will examine the main issues in second language acquisition within a generative framework, including the initial state, the role of the first language, the role of input, variability in second language grammars and ultimate attainment. It will touch on the major theoretical debates regarding the explanation for differences between L2interlanguages and the target language. We will focus particularly on research on the acquisition of French, English and Spanish, although other languages will also be included. The course will be taught in English. It is advisable that students should have taken or be taking a course on generative syntax. 
Thursdays 10:30-1:30pm, WL 259

MER Students

The MER Colloquiums will continue in the fall on Thursdays from 4pm to 5:30pm.

For more information on previously taught courses, click here.