Course Descriptions - Undergraduate Calendar 2023-2024

This course is for students with no previous knowledge of Spanish. The basic elements of Spanish grammar will be studied, with emphasis on group and individual oral practice. Focus will be given to the development of skills in listening/comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing. Multimedia exercises accompany each chapter of the textbook. Students will be expected to use them in the multimedia language centre and at home.

This course is a continuation of SPAN 101, with emphasis being placed on more advanced elements of Spanish grammar and the spoken language. Students will be provided with a range of opportunities to gain practical insights into the customs and cultural contexts of the contemporary Spanish-speaking world.

Discover the vibrant diversity of Latin American cultures and societies from their genesis in conquest and colonization through to independence, and the post-colonial quest for identity and self-determination.

This course develops intermediate skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The primary goals are to build communicative competence and enhance social and cultural awareness of the Spanish-speaking world.

The course continues development of intermediate skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The primary goals of the course are the further enhancement of communicative competence, and social and cultural awareness. Particular attention is placed on the use of the subjunctive mood.

Practice makes perfect! In this course, students will continue to develop and hone their Spanish speaking and listening skills through discussions of current topics in Spanish-speaking countries.

This course will introduce and expose students to the Indigenous civilizations that embody the Americas. Students will look at the cosmogonies, histories, and cultures of Indigenous peoples from pre-Columbian times to the 20th century. They will analyze Latin America's Pueblos Originarios' perspectives on conquest, colonization, and independence, and compare such perspectives to those of First Nations and Native Americans. Through their study of colonial, social, economic, and political relations, students will examine how the meanings of these categories changed over time and how Indigenous peoples have contributed to the ethnically diverse regional societies that continue to characterize Latin America today.

This course provides a broad foundation to the varied and complex geographical, ethnic, social, and historical forces that have shaped contemporary Latin American nations from the early 19th-century independence period to current affairs. Students will be introduced to the diverse regions of the continent: Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, the Bolivarian republics, and the Southern Cone. Students will analyze and discuss nation-building factors such as European-African-Asian-New World interactions, ethnic mixtures, military takeovers, revolutions, U.S. interventions in the region, and migratory experiences. Discussions will also be aimed at contrasting and comparing the contemporary and diverse cultural manifestations of the peoples living in Latin America and the cultural transformation of Latin Americans who have emigrated to other parts of the world, as well as the perceptions of Latin Americans in other cultures.

This course introduces students to translation studies through the examination of different approaches to the discipline, along with practical experience. Students review the grammar of the Spanish and English languages within particular contexts as the basis for translation practices. The course also enhances students' lexical and semantic knowledge of the Spanish language through an experiential component in the community.

Students examine the work of various theorists, both historical and modern, who have contributed to the intellectual framework within which culture and cultural expression can be studied in order to deepen their ability to conduct critical inquiry into the formation of cultural identity.

This course promotes students' oral and written abilities, as well as their critical understanding of Latin American history and culture. Course components include: written and oral/aural practice of Spanish through oral reports, class discussions and debates on assigned topics, short literary works, and films. It offers a review of more advanced grammatical structures with the aim of achieving greater accuracy.

This course further develops the development of critical understanding of Latin American history and culture. Course components include: assigned readings in a variety of genres, critical cultural analysis, in-class discussions, written essays, and the viewing of films.

The African diaspora is central to understanding the historical development and contemporary expressions of Latin American identity. Through the study of historical events, cultural production, and current affairs, this course examines African cultural legacies in Latin America, and explains the economic, societal, and political challenges faced by Afro-Latin Americans today.

The aim of the course is to acquaint students with works by outstanding playwrights from Spain's Renaissance and Baroque periods. Students will look at the construction of character, the interplay between the sexes, and the struggle for justice.

This course explores how Spanish and Latin American films address the intersection of class, gender, and ethnicity, and the construction of regional, national, and cultural identities.

Special topics in Hispanic studies, as announced by the Department.

Study in a limited field under tutorial guidance.

This course analyzes women's cultural production in Latin America. Examining the construction and the representation of gender/sex differences, the course explores the power relations inherent in these representations, while also examining how gender roles and expectations are linked to representations of class, race, sexuality, age, nationality, and ability.

This course is designed for students enrolled in their third year of the General or Honours program in Spanish. A strong command of Spanish and English is required. Intense concentration of the Spanish language through oral and written work will focus on business-oriented fundamentals of communication such as letter writing, as well as the translation of primary source materials such as newspapers and business documents.

This course focuses on the actual practice of translating literature, not only as the transformation of textual expressions, but also as a process of cultural interpretation. Besides reinforcing vocabulary and grammar, students will also review and research notions of different literary genres (poetry, narrative, and theatre), and solidify their knowledge of cultural studies.

We remember the past to understand the present and imagine the future. With a focus on Latin America and Spain this course examines how the diverse forms of cultural production help develop our shared understanding of past violations of human rights to demand justice, build resilience, and develop tolerance.

This course explores the expressive avenues opened up by the confluence of verbal and visual representation in contemporary Hispanic cultural production. Through a close analysis of representative visual and literary works from Latin America and Spain covering a variety of genres and media, including poetry, novel, short story, theatre, painting, photography, and film, the many ways in which words and images interact with each other and make meaning will be examined.

This course will examine works by and about women in early modern Hispanic culture (16th and 17th centuries), with particular attention to engagements with and subversions of patriarchal culture in theatre, prose, and poetry. Authors to be discussed may include, among others, Santa Teresa de Avila, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Maria de Zayas, and Ana Caro.

This course is designed for students enrolled in the third and fourth year of the General or Honours program in Spanish. Fluency in both Spanish and English is required. The objective of this course is to refine translation techniques in order to enable the student to provide accurate and idiomatic translations of English texts in Spanish and vice versa.