Spanish

This course reflects on Spanish language education and its connection to basic principles of teaching and learning. It aims to create a critical sense of the importance of language teaching under a theoretical and conceptual framework for teaching Spanish. Furthermore, there is a focus on analyzing the theories, perspectives and approaches that make up the field of teaching of language and literature. Finally, the course teaches collaborative strategies to integrate knowledge while promoting the exchange of ideas in the field of language education and literature.

This course discusses violence, memory and exile in Latin America through the lens of literature and literary theory. It especially focuses on exile from Argentina and exiled writers living in Mexico. It aims to understand the relationship between literature, society and history. The class uses theoretical tools to analyze different literature from Latin America and aims to think about violence memory and exile in Latin America. The course includes texts and novels from Latin American writers, accompanied by Latin American movies as well as theoretical texts that serve to provide context for the class. Beyond the texts, the class aims to use cultural knowledge and understandings to clarify and elaborate the ideas and concepts of memory, exile and violence.

The course seeks to improve precise use of vocabulary and grammar rules in the oral and written communication in academic and social situations. The course emphasizes the acquisition of idioms and their use in the appropiate sociocultural contexts for reinforcing the communicative ability and fluency.

This course aims for students to understand the production context and the cultural fields associated with the generation of narrative discourses in circumstances of political and economic crisis, analyze from cultural matrices of meaning, narrative discourses created in 20th century Spain, interpret the political modelizations present in the narrative discourses generated by authors of different aesthetic and ideological currents in Spain in the first half of the 20th century, and determine the multiple relationships established by the narrative discourses of Spain in the first half of the 20th century. 

This course covers Cuban cinema since the creation of the film institute (ICAIC) in 1959. The course considers films by Cuban directors, and representations of Cuba by foreign filmmakers and Cuban filmmakers in exile, thus focusing on screenings of Cuba and Cuban topics from multiple viewpoints. Specific aesthetics are studied to contextualize applications of Cuban theoretical texts in relation to imperfect cinema, and the viewer's dialectics. Students explore the effects of non-chronological sequencing and distancing in film; black humor, subjectivity, and alterity; allegorical interpretations leading to censorship; the self and the State, with particular attention to gender and sexuality in relation to law; film autobiography as a genre; auteur cinema; revolution and the creation of the "new man"; revolutionary national identity and marginality; and diaspora, exile and inner exile, among other topics. Overall, the course studies film as a political medium across modern and postmodern contexts, using theoretical texts and key films to illustrate pivotal turning points in socio-historical contexts specific to Cuba and the impact of its 1959 revolution on all aspects of public and private life.

The course focus in expanding knowledge of vocabulary and grammar rules to be used with certain grade of naturality in the oral and written communication in social and academic contexts. Additionally, it aims to strengthen the capacity and fluency in interactions with native speakers in different contexts such as locals (Chileans) and in the Spanish speaking culture with the goal of further develop the intercultural competence.

In this course, students identify the main historical phases in the development of Spanish, from its Latin roots to the modern language it is today.  Students learn to appreciate the influence of the different language varieties which shared, or share with Spanish the geographical space of the Iberian Peninsula, on its linguistic structures. This course helps students recognize the role of the Castilian dialect as the basis of Modern Spanish, and defines the process of its standardization. Students will discuss the role of Spanish as the primary medium of Spanish colonization.

This course covers the topic of food to explore the history of Mexico and its diaspora from the time of the Conquest, with a particular focus on food as national and cultural identity as reflected in cinema and literature. It will also explore how food provides a multifaceted lens through which to examine issues such as food and poverty, food as a transnational site of both community and exclusion, and ecological issues, such as control of natural resources essential to food production and security. Students will examine the topic of food as both a political issue and a source of creative inspiration through our analysis of texts, art, films and television series.

In this course students will improve: (i) their mastery of the fundamentals of Spanish grammar and the development of student’s linguistic and socio-linguistic competence in the use of Spanish language. (ii) their comprehension of written and spoken Spanish from authentic sources (iii) their fluency in oral communication and competence in written expression.

This advanced course is designed for students who are preparing to study Spanish extensively or enter a major. Students learn about grammar and writing styles and then develop their writing skills through writing practice and academic essay editing practice, and receive editing feedback from the instructor during this process. Presentations and various activities will be conducted in Spanish. 

This course is intended for students who have taken Intermediate Spanish 1 or have equivalent Spanish skills.