Spanish Language Program Mission Statement
The Spanish Program is designed to provide students the skills and knowledge needed to communicate effectively in Spanish and with Spanish-speaking people around the globe, both verbally and in written form. We are committed to re-centering our linguistic and cultural focus to the Americas and challenge our students to recognize, understand, and respond to the linguistic, historical, political, and cultural dynamics connecting Spain and the Spanish-speaking world, including the United States.
Spanish Major and Minor Program Mission Statement
The Spanish Program ensures that our students develop the linguistic and cultural competences necessary to think critically about Spanish-speaking countries from an interdisciplinary perspective. We focus particularly on the complex historical processes that have shaped their relationships in the past and continue to shape it today in our globalized world. We do so through the careful study of cultural documents (literature, film, visual arts, history, sociology, philosophy, etc.) produced within the Hispanic world by writers and artists working in Spanish, Spanglish, and a variety of indigenous and regional languages. Finally, we encourage our students to study abroad so that they may experience first-hand the cultural and linguistic complexities of the Spanish-speaking world today.
Spanish Learning Goals (Majors/Minors)
Upon completion of their course of study, Spanish majors and minors demonstrate:
● Advanced proficiency in Spanish across the four language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking), as well as a high level of cultural competency.
● The critical skills necessary to read, analyze and interpret a variety of texts through writing, discussion and other forms of analytical and creative expression.
● An interdisciplinary understanding of the cultural, political, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity of Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the United States.
● A sense of the histories of the Spanish-speaking world, including voices and perspectives from indigenous and marginalized communities, embracing the complexities that have shaped and continue to shape the lives of people and inform politics in the Spanish-speaking world.
● An awareness of how they can contribute to the diverse LatinX and Hispanic immigrant communities in the United States using their Spanish skills and cultural understanding in their chosen professions.
● Ability to produce independent research using information literacy and research skills.
