A beginning course designed for students who wish to start their study of Portuguese and have no proficiency in another Romance language. The four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing are developed at the basic level.
Prerequisites: a score of 0-279 in the department's Placement Examination.
An introduction to Spanish communicative competence, with stress on basic oral interaction, reading, witting, and cultural knowledge. Principal objectives are to understand and produce commonly used sentences to satisfy immediate needs; ask and answer questions about personal details such as where we live, people we know and things we have; interact in a simple manner with people who speak clearly, slowly and are ready to cooperate; and understand simple and short written and audiovisual texts in Spanish. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites:
PORT W1101
or the equivalent.
A course designed to acquaint students with the Portuguese verbal, prepositional, and pronominal systems. As a continuation of Elementary Portuguese I (
PORT W1101
), this course focuses on the uses of characteristic forms and expressions of the language as it is spoken and written in Brazil today.
Prerequisites: SPAN UN1101 or a score of 280-379 in the department's Placement Examination.
An intensive introduction to Spanish language communicative competence, with stress on basic oral interaction, reading, writing and cultural knowledge as a continuation of SPAN UN1101. The principal objectives are to understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of immediate relevance; communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a direct exchange of information on familiar matters; describe in simple terms aspects of our background and personal history; understand the main point, the basic content, and the plot of filmic as well as short written texts. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
This course, conducted in English, is designed to help graduate students from other departments gain proficiency in reading and translating Spanish texts for scholarly research. The course prepares students to take the Reading Proficiency Exam that most graduate departments demand to fulfill the foreign-language proficiency requirement in that language. Graduate students with any degree of knowledge of Spanish are welcome. A grade of A- or higher in this class will satisfy the GSAS foreign language proficiency requirement in Spanish.
An extensive introduction to the Catalan language with an emphasis on oral communication as well as the reading and writing practice that will allow the student to function comfortably in a Catalan environment.
Prerequisites: This course is an intensive and fast-paced coverage of both SPAN UN1101 and SPAN UN1102. Students MUST meet the following REQUIREMENTS: 1. A minimum of 3 years of high school Spanish (or the equivalent) AND a score of 330 or above in the Department's Placement Examination, OR 2. fluency in a language other than English (preferably another Romance language). If you fulfill the above requirements, you do not need instructor's permission to register. HOWEVER, the instructor will additionally assess student proficiency during the Change of Program Period. Students who do not have the necessary proficiency level may not remain in this course. Replaces the sequence SPAN UN1101-SPAN UN1102. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites: knowledge of Spanish or another Romance language.
An intensive beginning language course in Brazilian Portuguese with emphasis on Brazilian culture through multimedia materials related to culture and society in contemporary Brazil. Recommended for students who have studied Spanish or another Romance language. The course is the equivalent of two full semesters of elementary Portuguese with stress on reading and conversing, and may be taken in place of
PORT W1101-W1102
. For students unable to dedicate the time needed cover two semesters in one, the regularly paced sequence
PORT W1101-W1102
is preferable.
Prerequisites:
CATL W1120
.
The first part of Columbia University┬┤s comprehensive intermediate Catalan sequence. The main objectives of this course are to continue developing communicative competence - reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehension - and to further acquaint students with Catalan cultures.
Prerequisites:
PORT W1120
or the equivalent.
General review of grammar, with emphasis on self-expression through oral and written composition, reading, conversation, and discussion.
Prerequisites: SPAN UN1102 or SPAN UN1120 or or a score of 380-449 in the department's Placement Examination.
An intensive course in Spanish language communicative competence, with stress on oral interaction, reading, writing, and culture as a continuation of SPAN UN1102 or SPAN UN1120. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites: SPAN UN2101 or a score of 450-625 in the department's Placement Examination.
An intensive course in Spanish language communicative competence, with stress on oral interaction, reading, writing and culture as a continuation of SPAN UN2101. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites: SPAN UN2101 or a score of 380-449 on the Department’s placement examination.
This is an intensive course in Spanish language communicative competence with an emphasis on oral interaction, reading, writing, and culture at an Intermediate II level with focus on health-related topics in the Spanish-speaking world.
In an increasingly interconnected world, and in multilingual global cities such as New York City, the study of a foreign language is fundamental not only in the field of the humanities but also in the natural sciences. This interdisciplinary course analyzes the intersection between these two disciplines through the study of health-related topics in Iberian and Latin American cultural expressions (literature, film, documentaries, among other sources) in order to explore new critical perspectives across both domains. Students will learn health-related vocabulary and usage-based grammar in Spanish. Students will develop a cultural understanding of medicine, illness, and treatment in the Spanish-speaking world. Finally, students will be able to carry out specific collaborative tasks in Spanish with the aim of integrating language, culture, and health.
* This course fulfills the last semester of the foreign language requirement. Therefore, students who have taken SPAN UN 2101 (Intermediate Spanish I), or have a score of 380-449 on the Department’s placement exam, and are interested in health-related topics may proceed and enroll in SPAN UN 2103 (Intermediate Spanish II: Health-Related Topics in the Spanish-Speaking World). Pre-med and pre-health students, as well as those students majoring in the natural sciences—including biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, and physics—will be given registration priority. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites:
PORT W1102
or
PORT W1320
.
Prerequisites: this course is an intensive and fast-paced coverage of both PORT UN2101 and PORT UN2102. Students MUST demonstrate a strong foundation in Portuguese and meet the following REQUIREMENT: A- or higher in PORT UN1102 or PORT UN1320. If you fulfill the above requirement, you do not need the instructor's permission to register. HOWEVER the instructor will additionally assess student proficiency during the Change of Program Period. Students who do not have the necessary proficiency level may not remain in this course. This course replaces the sequence PORT UN2101-PORT UN2102.
Prerequisites: This course is an intensive and fast-paced coverage of both SPAN UN2101 and SPAN UN2102. Students MUST demonstrate a strong foundation in Spanish and meet the following REQUIREMENTS: a score ABOVE 480 on the Department's Placement Examination; or A- or higher in SPAN UN1120. If you fulfill the above requirements, you do not need the instructor's permission to register. HOWEVER, the instructor will additionally assess student proficiency during the Change of Program Period. Students who do not have the necessary proficiency level may not remain in this course. Replaces the sequence SPAN UN2101-SPAN UN2102. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites:
PORT W1220
.
This conversation class will help students develop their oral proficiency in Portuguese. We will discuss current events, participate in challenging pronunciation exercises, improve understanding of Portuguese idioms, develop conversation strengths, confront weaknesses, and increase fluency in spoken Portuguese.
Corequisites: PORT UN1220
An intensive exposure to advanced points of Portuguese grammar and structure through written and oral practice, along with an introduction to the basic principles of academic composition in Portuguese. This course is required for the concentration in Portuguese Studies. "This course is intended to improve Portuguese language skills in grammar, comprehension, and critical thinking through an archive of texts from literature, film, music, newspapers, critical reception and more. To do so, we will work through Portuguese-speaking communities and cultures from Brazil, to Portugal and Angola, during the twentieth and twenty-first century, to consider the mode in which genre, gender and sexuality materialize and are codified, disoriented, made, unmade and refigured through cultural productions, bodies, nation and resistant vernaculars of aesthetics and performance, always attentive to the intersections of gender with class and racism.
Prerequisites: SPAN UN2102 or AP score of 4 or 5; or SAT score.
An intensive exposure to advanced points of Spanish grammar and structure through written and oral practice, along with an introduction to the basic principles of academic composition in Spanish. Each section is based on the exploration of an ample theme that serves as the organizing principle for the work done in class (Please consult the
Directory of Classes
for the topic of each section.) This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies. Formerly SPAN W3200 and SPAN BC3004. If you have taken either of these courses before you cannot take SPAN UN3300. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites: SPAN UN2102 or AP score of 4 or 5; or SAT score.
An intensive exposure to advanced points of Spanish grammar and structure through written and oral practice, along with an introduction to the basic principles of academic composition in Spanish. Each section is based on the exploration of an ample theme that serves as the organizing principle for the work done in class (Please consult the
Directory of Classes
for the topic of each section.) This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies. Formerly SPAN W3200 and SPAN BC3004. If you have taken either of these courses before you cannot take SPAN UN3300. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites: SPAN UN2102 or AP score of 4 or 5; or SAT score.
An intensive exposure to advanced points of Spanish grammar and structure through written and oral practice, along with an introduction to the basic principles of academic composition in Spanish. Each section is based on the exploration of an ample theme that serves as the organizing principle for the work done in class (Please consult the
Directory of Classes
for the topic of each section.) This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies. Formerly SPAN W3200 and SPAN BC3004. If you have taken either of these courses before you cannot take SPAN UN3300. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites: SPAN UN2102 or AP score of 4 or 5; or SAT score.
An intensive exposure to advanced points of Spanish grammar and structure through written and oral practice, along with an introduction to the basic principles of academic composition in Spanish. Each section is based on the exploration of an ample theme that serves as the organizing principle for the work done in class (Please consult the
Directory of Classes
for the topic of each section.) This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies. Formerly SPAN W3200 and SPAN BC3004. If you have taken either of these courses before you cannot take SPAN UN3300. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites: SPAN UN2102 or AP score of 4 or 5; or SAT score.
An intensive exposure to advanced points of Spanish grammar and structure through written and oral practice, along with an introduction to the basic principles of academic composition in Spanish. Each section is based on the exploration of an ample theme that serves as the organizing principle for the work done in class (Please consult the
Directory of Classes
for the topic of each section.) This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies. Formerly SPAN W3200 and SPAN BC3004. If you have taken either of these courses before you cannot take SPAN UN3300. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites: SPAN UN2102 or AP score of 4 or 5; or SAT score.
An intensive exposure to advanced points of Spanish grammar and structure through written and oral practice, along with an introduction to the basic principles of academic composition in Spanish. Each section is based on the exploration of an ample theme that serves as the organizing principle for the work done in class (Please consult the
Directory of Classes
for the topic of each section.) This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies. Formerly SPAN W3200 and SPAN BC3004. If you have taken either of these courses before you cannot take SPAN UN3300. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites: SPAN UN2102 or AP score of 4 or 5; or SAT score.
An intensive exposure to advanced points of Spanish grammar and structure through written and oral practice, along with an introduction to the basic principles of academic composition in Spanish. Each section is based on the exploration of an ample theme that serves as the organizing principle for the work done in class (Please consult the
Directory of Classes
for the topic of each section.) This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies. Formerly SPAN W3200 and SPAN BC3004. If you have taken either of these courses before you cannot take SPAN UN3300. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
This course is a comparative study of the cultures and ethnicities of Latin America, with a focus on Asian migration, settlement, and visual culture. Course readings, in-class mapping workshops, and discussions will examine Asian diasporic artistic production, performance, and visual cultures. We will pair visual and cultural analysis with studies about spatial theory and cultural geography, including the relationship between perception and space to race, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender. We will question how visual culture, artistic practice, and performance have interrupted static understandings of ethnicity, race, gender, and sexuality. We will read theories about cultural hybridity, performance, affect, memory, and migration and examine artistic production from Latin America. We will also analyze the symbolic value and socio-economic positions of ethnic neighborhoods like Chinatown in Cuba or Japantown in Brazil. In addition, we will examine representations of Asian-ness in a variety of popular culture and media. Using mapping software, students will create digital media projects that highlight Asian diasporic artistic practices in Latin America.
Prerequisites: L" course: enrollment limited to 15 students. Completion of language requirement, third-year language sequence (W3300).
Provides students with an overview of the cultural history of the Hispanic world, from eighth-century Islamic and Christian Spain and the pre-Hispanic Americas through the late Middle Ages and Early Modern period until about 1700, covering texts and cultural artifacts from both Spain and the Americas.
This course surveys cultural production of Spain and Spanish America from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Students will acquire the knowledge needed for the study of the cultural manifestations of the Hispanic world in the context of modernity. Among the issues and events studied will be the Enlightenment as ideology and practice, the Napoleonic invasion of Spain, the wars of Spanish American independence, the fin-de-siècle and the cultural avant-gardes, the wars and revolutions of the twentieth century (Spanish Civil War, the Mexican and Cuban revolutions), neoliberalism, globalization, and the Hispanic presence in the United States. The goal of the course is to study some key moments of this trajectory through the analysis of representative texts, documents, and works of art. Class discussions will seek to situate the works studied within the political and cultural currents and debates of the time. All primary materials, class discussion, and assignments are in Spanish.
This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies.
Prerequisites: Knowledge of written and spoken Spanish.
Founded to combat Christian heresy in the late fifteenth century but based on previous medieval models, the Spanish Inquisition is notorious as an institution of religious persecution. Converts from Judaism and Islam to Christianity, not to mention a host of other minority Christian communities, often fell under inquisitorial suspicion. The interrogation and censorship tactics employed by inquisitors and their agents to police these communities sometimes but not always entailed violence. Punishments for those convicted of infractions similarly ranged widely, from the notorious
auto-de-fé
to more minor acts of contrition. In this course, we will study these inquisitorial procedures and their underlying theological presuppositions. We also will examine how the “Holy Office,” as it the inquisition was likewise known, fit into the broader religious and political cultures of the Iberian world during the sixteenth century. That is, both Catholic and Protestant reformers of the period often emphasized inquisitorial violence in order to smear their adversaries or make Spain seem backward, while some apologists for Spanish empire and orthodoxy insisted upon the noble intentions driving inquisition These early modern tensions have shaped our late modern understanding of inquisition history. Over the course of the semester we will aim to test these “black” and “white” legends of Spanish inquisitorial and imperial violence not only against a range of primary sources and archival documents from the sixteenth century, but also against our own presuppositions about tolerance and intolerance, religious freedom, and the relationship between religion and secularism in the present. Readings include inquisitorial case archives, polemical and pedagogical works by Nicolas Eimeric, Hernando de Talavera, Tomás de Torquemada, and other early inquisitors and their critics, and articles and book chapters by modern scholars such as Christine Caldwell Ames, Wendy Brown, Michel Foucault, Carlo Ginzburg, Henry Kamen, Doris Moreno, and others.
Peruvian social thinker José Carlos Mariátegui called for the invention of a Latin American Marxism that would serve as “neither blueprint nor copy” (
ni calco ni copia
) of its European forbearers. Rather than studying the reception of Marxist theory in Latin America, this course will examine the ways in which leftist thinkers and artists produced new theories and forms in an attempt to respond to the historic specificity of the social processes and political movements around them. Beginning with the evolution of Marx’s own thought on the potential for socialist revolution in Latin America, we will read and analyze social theory, narrative, film and ethnography in order to grasp the disjunctive and overlapping historical temporalities and social forms that characterize the articulation of capitalism in Latin America, as well as the unique political movements and theories that responded to it. In so doing, we will address questions such as the role of Spanish colonialism in the birth of the global capitalism; the co-existence and transformation of pre-capitalist and capitalist societies; the question of the nation as ideology and as political tool; the relationship between economic underdevelopment and political insurrection; and the dynamics of exploitation and political organization contemporarily. Authors to be studied include Marx, Martí, Mariátegui, Zavaleta Mercado, García Linera and Svampa, among others.
Each week, a historical period is studied in connection to a particular theme of ongoing cultural expression. While diverse elements of popular culture are included, fiction is privileged as a source of cultural commentary. Students are expected to assimilate the background information but are also encouraged to develop their own perspective and interest, whether in the social sciences, the humanities (including the fine arts), or other areas.
This course examines the role of nature and the environment in both contemporary literature and the arts, and attempts to explore a conceptual framework for the definition of environment as a cultural and material production. Environmental peculiarities and historical discontinuities and continuities have created social and political conjunctures in the Iberian Peninsula in which questions concerning nature, space, landscape, and urban and rural experiences have become central to the cultural and the critical imagination in the 20th & 21st Centuries. From the debate over the privatization and erosion of communal rights and the environmental dispossession (and repossession) of the resources to the history of the constructions of nature(s) in literary and cinematic landscapes, the guiding question is how cultural and social practices interfere in the production of what Rob Nixon has called ‘slow violence’, that is, the incremental dynamics of environmental violence that intensify the vulnerability of populations and natural ecosystems. To address this issue, we will not only read a number of novels, essays, poems, short stories and theoretical production, but also engage in the study of artwork and new Iberian democratic experiences, and the development of the cultural environmental studies and ecocriticism in literature and the arts today. The class will be conducted in Spanish and all written assignments will also be in that language.
Prerequisites: Seniors (major or concentrator status).
SENIOR SEMINAR ,
Section 001 - "Iberian Globalization"
, A seminar based on a great variety of primary sources and theoretical texts that help to rethink, from the vantage point of the early modern period, the most unexpected sides of a process today called "globalization." ,
Section 002 - "Emotions in Modern Spanish Culture"
, The Spanish transition to modernity (in politics, class relations, social roles) involved both the appearance of historically new emotions and the establishment of emotional regimes regulating feelings and practices. We will explore this process through readings in affect theory and nineteenth-century print culture (literary and nonliterary). Seniors will write about related problematics in the cultural production of 19th-21st century Spain.
The choice of “Náhuatl from the center” dialectal varieties for this course obeys, among other reasons, the fact that they are the most documented dialectal varieties. They hold a greater amount of descriptive and normative works (Cfr. Lockhart 1999; Hill 1994; Hill and Hill 1986; Lastra de Suárez and Horcasitas 1979; Nava Nava 2008). Furthermore, these dialectal varieties are those that historically have been taken as representative of the Mexican
“nahua”
identity, although various researchers (Cfr. Canger 1988) have drawn attention to the linguistic diversity that exists in the broader Mexico center.
The second argument that supports the study of these “Náhuatl from the center” dialectal varieties is the fact that it allows to establish a historical, social, linguistic and cultural link from which the student will be able to access, without much difficulty, Náhuatl dialectal varieties spoken in other regions of the country, given that the basic grammar structure is similar among the majority of the
“nahua”
dialects that are spoken in Mexico. Likewise, the study of these “representative” Náhuatl dialectal varieties allow for a much richer appreciation of the language as a continuous phenomenon that has adapted to different historical and sociocultural circumstances, from the start of the pre-Columbian era to the present day.
However, although this course pays more attention to the dialectal varieties manifested within the center of Mexico, they are not the only ones subject to analysis, as other Náhuatl dialects are studied, specially those located in the states of Veracruz, Guerrero, Hidalgo and San Luis Potosí. Additionally, this course will constantly refer to the “Classical Náhuatl” due to the quantity and quality of work (Launey 1992; Sullivan 1998; Olmos 2002; Carochi 1983) that has been developed around this category, and that often constitutes the theoretical foundation for the analysis and learning of contemporary Náhuatl dialectical varieties.
Prerequisites: graduate standing.
A course on the didactics of language that covers general questions about teaching methodology and the teaching of Spanish specifically. The course is composed of fifteen units that will address the following abstract and practical issues among others: the epistemology of language teaching and learning as reflected in the various methodologies, general and applied linguistics, the role of the teacher and the student, the planning of a curriculum, the preparation of syllabi, the evaluation of textbooks, the focus on form, and the cultural component of language teaching. Each topic will be accompanied by a bibliography, both in English and Spanish, produced by specialists from the United States, Latin America and Spain. Weekly class sessions will be complemented by class observation of student performance by the instructor.
This graduate seminar will examine affect, mood, taste, and feeling as critical sites in Brazilian studies about race and gender. Particular attention will be paid to the “affective turn” in critical race and queer theory. We will examine a number of issues related to affect theory, beginning with, what is affect? Can we study affect historically and geopolitically? How is affect racialized or gendered? What can affect theory bring to cultural memory studies? By drawing on theories of affect, cultural memory, food studies, historical, and anthropological studies about racial and ethnic formation, we will discuss how affect illuminates the intersecting realms of aesthetics, politics, ethics, and cultural memory, and plays out across bodies in mundane and spectacular ways.
Between 1928 and 1929 Le Corbusier traveled for the first time to Spain and Latin America. Despite the scarcity of his built works, he was already an undisputed emblem of modern architecture. His extraordinarily influential ideas had been avidly incorporated and reproduced by many authors with the desire to be identified as “Modern.” Not only architects but also painters and writers saw in the Swiss icon the incarnation of the Avant-Garde. The mutual contact between le Corbusier and the South was, nevertheless, far from a harmonic dialogue between different models of modernity across the Atlantic. Instead, prospects became dynamic misencounters with both sides systematically failing to fulfill each other’s expectations.
The establishment in Europe had accused Le Corbusier of an excess of modernity and had just rejected his ambitious project for the Society of Nations. Conversely, influential German Avant-Garde architects were criticizing him for bourgeois and reactionary tendencies. Le Corbusier travels to the South not only in search of new markets for his work, but also for new sources of legitimacy. There, he still was, or at least he thought he was, undisputedly “Modern.”
Quite often, in Spain and Latin America, his lectures were not sponsored by architectural institutions but rather by groups with wider artistic and pedagogic interests. It was thus that, after his first contacts in Paris with Latin American figures such as Tarsila do Amaral or Vicente Hidobro, Le Corbusier got in contact with the artists and intellectuals around Victoria Ocampo’s
Amigos del Arte
in Argentina, the environment of the
Residencia de estudiantes
in Spain including names such as Dalí, Lorca, Moreno Villa, or the Anthropophagic Movement in Brazil.
This course traces those intermedial and geographic transits of Le Corbusier’s ideas and images as a privileged field to questions transatlantic circulations of the Avant-Garde but also as a space of “expanded architecture” in which spatial ideas were transferred from urbanism, architecture, and design to literature and visual arts.
In this seminar we will study the vocabulary and practices of intellectual elaboration and composition during the pre-modern eras, within the context of
Philosophical and Scientific Fictions
. Some of our fields of inquiry will be: Iberian Studies, Mediterranean Studies, Medieval Theory and Philosophy, Manuscript Studies, and History of the Book. We will investigate these fields in dialogue with the construction and development of pre-modern disciplines.
We will to focus on mainstream views of intellectual creation, including poetics, rhetorics, dialectic, problem-creation, the lie as an intellectual fabrication, narrative of the self, oneirocriticism, legal fiction, sacred and lay exegesis, miracles, fables, and poetry with music. The survey covers two parts (scientific discipline versus experience) that hinge on the particular and even central problem of the narrative of the self—and in a way we will be traveling back and forth between discipline and experience trying not to disentangle them too much. This focus—perhaps a bit obscure for now—will become more evident as we read the different texts.
My suggested and recommended readings cover many other texts from the Antiquity to the (very) Early Modern period. In this sense, I aim to forge a broad intellectual context for a set of Iberian texts that might be considered within a theoretical survey of Medieval Iberian cultures.