Hispanic Studies (HISP)

An exploration of a “big idea” in the Hispanic world—the American Dream; the Book; Censorship; Human Rights, among others—that has shaped literary and cultural production in particular historical moments. First-year students investigate the ways that communities’ core beliefs, identities, values, and creative visions may be expressed through written media, film, art, social practices, performance or material culture. Students hone communication skills beyond the written word. May be taught in English; if taught in Spanish, for high school students who completed Spanish 4 or 5 or AP/IB.

HISP 101//102 is a beginners' Spanish course offered only in the summer. Training in grammar, pronunciation, aural-oral skills, reading and writing. The work includes intensive practice in speaking and understanding. All scheduled sessions associated with the course are required. OFFERED ONLY IN THE SUMMER.

HISP 101//102 is a beginners' Spanish course offered only in the summer. Training in grammar, pronunciation, aural-oral skills, reading and writing. The work includes intensive practice in speaking and understanding. All scheduled sessions associated with the course are required. OFFERED ONLY IN THE SUMMER.

HISP 103 is a beginners’ Spanish course that prepares students for the intermediate course HISP 203. It is for students who have never studied Spanish; or who have placed into this level via online placement. Students who have taken HISP 102 at W&M or who received credit for an approved equivalent are not eligible to enroll in this course. The structure of HISP 103 is based on the premise that the best way to learn a foreign language is through meaningful exposure to the language in interaction with others. The student will study and practice language structures outside of class, which will be used in interactive activities in class. Classes are conducted in Spanish. For additional placement information, please see the Modern Languages and Literatures website.

The purpose of this course is to give students the opportunity to learn the language through immersion, exposing them to real-life situations and culture. This course will help students develop listening and speaking skill, and will also have a writing, and reading component. The design of this course assumes that students have had some exposure to Spanish. Spanish for Cultural Immersion is a 3 credit course consisting of a classroom component which will meet two hours a day, and a Living Language Lab. The classroom content of the course will be designed specifically for students to use their Spanish in the daily work on the farm and in the weekend cultural excursions. This course is designed for students with a lower intermediate level of Spanish and it is not connected to the HISP 103/ 203 language sequence. Furthermore this course does not satisfy the WM FLP requirement. Upon returning to W&M, if a student wants to continue their training in Spanish language, they should take the placement exam.

Based on close readings, group discussions, and frequent writing opportunities, this class introduces first-year students to a particular cultural studies topic about the Hispanic world, such as: indigenous cultures of Latin America; the cultural history of Madrid; US/Mexico border theory; Basque cultural identity. Students develop methods of scholarly research and strengthen analytical writing skills, as they explore Spanish, Latin American or Latinx cultural production through written media, film, art, social practices, performance or material culture. May be taught in English; if taught in Spanish, for high school students who completed Spanish 4 or 5 or AP/IB.

HISP 201 is an intermediate level course offered only in the summer. Enrolled students have taken and passed HISP 103 at W&M or HISP 102 at another institution. Heritage students with an intermediate level of Spanish should take HISP 205. Students who have completed 4 years of high school Spanish may not take HISP 201 for credit. The structure of HISP 201 is based on the premise that the best way to learn a foreign language is through meaningful exposure to the language in interaction with others. The student will study and practice language structures outside of class, which will be used in interactive activities in class. Classes are conducted in Spanish. For additional placement information, please see the Modern Languages and Literatures website. OFFERED ONLY IN THE SUMMER. For additional placement information, please see the Modern Languages and Literatures website.

HISP 202 is an intermediate level course offered only in the summer for students who have taken and passed HISP 201 at W&M or have taken an approved equivalent elsewhere. Completes the foreign language requirement. Heritage students with an intermediate level of Spanish should take HISP 205. The structure of HISP 202 is based on the premise that the best way to learn a foreign language is through meaningful exposure to the language in interaction with others. The student will study and practice language structures outside of class, which will be used in interactive activities in class. Classes are conducted in Spanish. For additional placement information, please see the Modern Languages and Literatures website. OFFERED ONLY IN THE SUMMER. For additional placement information, please see the Modern Languages and Literatures website.

HISP 203 is an intermediate-level course that fulfills the language requirement in one semester. It does not count as one of the three courses above the level of 202 required for a major in International Relations. Students who enroll in this course have taken and passed HISP 102 or 103 at W&M; or have taken an approved equivalent elsewhere; or have placed into this course via online placement. Heritage students with an intermediate level of Spanish should take HISP 205. The structure of HISP 203 is based on the premise that the best way to learn a foreign language is through meaningful exposure to the language in interaction with others. The student will study and practice language structures outside of class, which will be used in interactive activities in class. Classes are conducted in Spanish. For additional placement information, please see the Modern Languages and Literatures website. For additional placement information, please see the Modern Languages and Literatures website.

A course designed specifically for native or heritage speakers of Spanish with oral proficiency but little or no formal training in the language. It is for heritage speakers who have an intermediate level of Spanish and are interested in improving their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. This is not a course for heritage students that have completed advanced level classes in Spanish. Language skills are emphasized via cultural and community activities. Fulfills W&M’s Foreign Language Proficiency Requirement.

A course beyond the College’s foreign language requirement proficiency level. Stresses the cultural and linguistic notions of oral discourse in developing communicative ability in the language. Practice in simulated foreign cultural contexts through discussion and student presentation on themes in contemporary Hispanic life.

This upper-intermediate Spanish course presents students with opportunities to enhance listening, speaking, analytical writing skills, and improve grammatical and cultural competence. An introduction to the cultural portrayals of difference and the politics of belonging, including representations of marginalized communities in Spanish-speaking countries. Course material from the fields of journalism; the visual arts; literature; and digital media seeks to foster cross-cultural reflection and encourage critical thinking about topics related to immigrants and displaced peoples; race; social class; gender; and people with a disability. Students explore the capacity of the arts to promote tolerance, comprehension, and empathy for communities of difference. Does not count for the Hispanic Studies minor or major.

An introduction to the analysis of cultural texts (literary, artistic, cinematic, journalistic) and cultural criticism from an array of Spanish-speaking countries and cultures. Students learn to read, discuss, and write about Hispanic cultural production by using cultural studies methodologies, while they improve their linguistic competencies in Spanish.

HISP 209 - Spanish for the Professions is a course designed to develop communication skills in Spanish for student interested in working with the Spanish speaking world in different professional areas like business, health, law enforcement, government, human resources, or real state. HISP 209 will emphasize terminology, reading, writing, and comprehension of cultural nuances in the different Hispanic countries.

1-credit requirement designed for students who have been accepted into W&M’s summer program based in the seaside city of Cadiz. Provides historical and cultural background of program site. Introduces social and political issues of today’s Spain. Students will develop working proposal for the research project they will conduct on-site. Formerly HISP 376. Pre-requisite for HISP 235.

Pre-Reqs: HISP 207 or 208 or 209 or 150 (when taught in Spanish). Student must contact instructor if using HISP 150 when taught in Spanish as a pre-req. This course focuses on writing skills and helps students transition into an Advanced level. Students explore different kinds of discourse (with special emphasis on argumentative essays), in tandem with a thorough review of Spanish grammar. The course provides ample opportunities to enhance students’ cultural understanding of the Hispanic world, and to promote critical analysis of issues and cultural artifacts. Formerly HISP 305.

Hispanic studies Spanish-language courses taken abroad as part of the William & Mary global education programs. Course may be repeated for credit if the topic changes.

This course is linked directly to the Hispanic Studies study abroad program in Quito, Ecuador. The purpose of this course is to give students the opportunity to learn Spanish through immersion, exposing them to real-life situations and culture. This course will help students develop listening and speaking skills, with writing and reading components. This course is designed for students who have an intermediate level of Spanish, equivalent to HISP 203 or higher. Advanced Spanish for Cultural Immersion is a 3 credit course consisting of a classroom component which will meet two hours a day, and a Living Language Lab. The classroom content of the course will be designed specifically for students to use their Spanish in the daily work on the farm and on the weekend cultural excursions. HISP 231 does not satisfy the FLP.

Students conduct a research project on Spanish culture as part of the W&M summer program in Cádiz or semester program in Sevilla; or as part of a W&M faculty-mentored fieldwork activity in other Spanish locales. Taught in Spanish.

This course provides an overview of the field of Hispanic Studies through an examination of film, literature, visual arts and other forms of cultural production. Lectures in English or Spanish. Discussion sections in Spanish. Required course for all Hispanic Studies minors and majors.

In this second-year reading and writing intensive course in Spanish, students examine a topic of key significance expressed through diverse forms of cultural production in the Hispanic world, including issues, for example, related to: the politics of food; the Spanish Civil War; the Latino novel; or indigeneity in Latin America. Although topics vary, all courses emphasize developing critical, linguistic and cultural competencies necessary for advanced work in Hispanic literary and cultural studies. (Formerly HISP 290)

An introductory course on the nature and structure of the sound system of the Spanish language. This course is offered to students who need a solid grounding of Spanish phonology and—in the case of non-native speakers of Spanish—a systematic practice of pronunciation patterns. We will also address dialectal variation in Spanish where relevant throughout the course. Lectures and discussions will be based on the required textbook and on additional materials (both written and audio). Exercises in phonetic transcription, diction and analysis of pronunciation. Fulfills a requirement for Spanish teacher certification and the TESL/TEFL minor. Not available to students who have studied Spanish phonetics abroad. Not intended for freshmen. This course is taught in Spanish. (Formerly HISP 287)

Focus on close reading of a variety of texts (literary, visual, etc.) about a specific theme, critical analysis of scholarship, and the use of cultural studies theory in formal oral presentations and academic writing. (Formerly HISP 325)

Service-learning and/or research course coordinated by Hispanic Studies sponsoring faculty and on-site internship supervisors for W&M Sponsored semester/summer programs in Spain and Argentina. May also be completed in other Spanish speaking countries when W&M faculty teach the course. Readings; journal writing; volunteer placements. May be repeated for credit if different site. (Formerly HISP 399)

In this introduction to Hispanic cinema, students learn the basics of film language and methodology through the study of film in national and/or transnational context. Readings on film theory, criticism, and cultural history inform case studies drawn from Spanish, Latin American, and/or U.S. Latino traditions.

Puerto Rican cultural production is positioned at the crossroads of Caribbean, Latin American and American national culture; further knotted by its African, Indigenous, and Spanish cultural strands. Additionally, Puerto Rico or Borikén, its Indigenous name, has the longest ongoing history of colonization in the globe. How Borikén, Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans have expressed their cultural, national and ethnic process of ‘creolization’ or ‘marronage’ in visual art and literature? This course surveys and explores samples of Puerto Rican visual artworks and literature that showcases expressions of cultural creolization. Each semester we will review and examine illustrative Puerto Rican artworks from the 19th century to the present from artists such as Francisco Oller, Francisco Rodón, Mirna Báez, Nidza Tufiño, Daniel Lind-Ramos and more. Similarly, we will engage with key literary texts, namely poems, short stories, essays and a play from authors such as José Luis González, Luisa Capetillo, Julia de Burgos, René Marquéz, Abelardo Díaz Alfaro, Eduardo Lalo, and more. Each Puerto Rican cultural text will provide us with a view of national culture that is beyond the confines of nationalism, traditional history, and politics.

This course analyzes border issues, local/global markets and national/ regional identities. It focuses on the negotiation of power in relation to these themes. Students analyze texts by authors whose works address Mexican culture from the colonial period to the present although contemporary culture is emphasized.

This course explores how the sites of Spanish culture (monuments, canonical works of art, literature, music, political/cultural heroes, iconic historical events) tell the story of Spanish history, encode national myths, or may be subverted to express marginalized/alternative forms of identity. (Formerly HISP 385)

Themes in Hispanic cultural production. May be repeated for credit if theme changes. (Formerly HISP 392)

Development of speaking skills in the field of medicine, and public health. Acquisition of vocabulary, cross-cultural communication, ethics of interpretation. Assessment based on recorded performance, tests & essays. Taught on campus; may require site visits off campus and may facilitate possible summer internship on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. (Formerly HISP 307.)

Prerequisite(s): HISP 240 and 1 HISP course numbered between 250-330, or consent of instructor. An introduction to the theory and practice of Spanish-English translation. Students engage in daily discussions and problem-solving exercises based on the translation of a variety of documents. Group and individual assignments may include producing English subtitles for Spanish-language films, or collaborative production of edited interviews. Student translators design final research projects based on particular academic and professional interests, including for example, art, music, public health, law, politics, environmental issues or Hispanic cultural studies more broadly. Students should expect to enhance their linguistic and cultural competencies. (Formerly HISP 388)

Prerequisite(s): HISP 240 and 1 HISP course numbered between 250-330, or consent of instructor. This course examines how authors and artists imagine their environments and intervene on its behalf. Select readings focus on spirituality and the transformation of external landscapes into psychological terrain. The representation of bureaucracy, development, and the terms of material consumption are also highlighted within select cultural and social movements in the Americas. (Formerly HISP 360)

Prerequisite(s): HISP 240 and 1 HISP course numbered between 250-330, or consent of instructor. Following the retreat of Spanish colonialism, material culture served to identify competing ideologies at a decisive moment of political change. This course is about the nation building process, citizenship, and social constructs as understood through the evolution of Argentine fiction and artifacts. (Formerly HISP 394)

Prerequisite: HISP 240 and 1 HISP course numbered 250-330, or consent of instructor. This class focuses on the cultural production of the Iberian Middle Ages between 711 and 1492. Students get hands-on experience with artifacts of material culture, and analyze a variety of texts (short stories, epic, scientific prose, theatre, music, maps, etc.) so they can understand how these texts are the result of a period of great racial, religious, and linguistic diversity. The dialectics of social and military struggle for the political hegemony and cultural co-production is key to understanding medieval Iberian culture. (Formerly HISP 324)

Prerequisite(s): HISP 240 and 1 HISP course numbered between 250-330, or consent of instructor. An introduction to the Spanish empire as “imagined” in the early modern period. We examine cultural artifacts (novels, theatrical representations, chronicles, etc.), the ideological foundations upon which the Spanish empire legitimizes itself, and investigate the subordinating representation of women, Muslims/moriscos, indigenous peoples, and their dissent and resistance. (Formerly HISP 374)

Prerequisite(s): HISP 240 and 1 HISP course numbered between 250-330, or consent of instructor. This course addresses the works of canonical writers (may include, e.g. Cervantes, Galdos, Borges, Garcia Marquez, etc.). The theoretical perspectives presented are driven by the interdisciplinary concerns that reflect current scholarship in Hispanic Studies, including the role of cultural ‘masterpieces’ in the creation of community, the role of the market in canon formation (what sells? where? why?), and the relationship between social movements, literacy, and canonical literature. May be repeated for credit if topic varies . (Formerly HISP 391)

This seminar analyzes how different communities across the early modern Hispanic Atlantic (c. 1492-1700) conceptualized bodies, gender, and sexual desire. This seminar reconstructs the Galenic medical discourse prevalent in the early modern West, as well as paradigms from indigenous communities across the so-called “New World,” in order to analyze varied verbal and visual artifacts that problematize physiologies, gender roles, and desire.

An examination of issues within an interdisciplinary context. Topics and texts relevant to Spanish, Latin American and/or U.S. Latino context/s. Taught in English.

An examination of issues within an interdisciplinary context. Topics and texts relevant to Spanish, Latin American and/or U.S. Latino contexts.

A mentored teaching internship experience for students to work closely with a faculty member in teaching either a language or content course. May be repeated up to a maximum of 4 credits.

Issues-based, interdisciplinary research seminar on particular semester topics relevant to Latin American, Spanish, and/or U.S. Latinx culture, which may include: banned books and Latinx ethnic studies; the politics and linguistic practices of bilingualism; cultural phantasms of the Franco dictatorship; economic thought and socio-cultural practices of Early Modern Spanish Empire; the cultures of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam of the Iberian Middle Ages Course content will vary. May be repeated if topic varies.

A advanced research tutorial designed primarily for Hispanic majors who wish to pursue an independent study about a particular issue in Hispanic Studies. Programs of study will be arranged individually with a faculty member. Does not count as required HISP 400-level research seminars; does not fulfill COLL 400.

The opportunity to design and conduct a faculty-mentored, two-semester research project in Hispanic Studies. For eligible majors (with a 3.0 GPA) who have applied and been accepted into the Departmental Honors program coordinated by the Charles Center, https://www.wm.edu/as/charlescenter/student-research/honors/index.php this senior course comprises the first semester of the year-long Honors thesis project.

The second semester continuation of the Honors project in Hispanic Studies. In this course, the student’s research culminates in the submission of the completed thesis and an oral defense.

Research Internship course coordinated by Hispanic Studies sponsoring faculty and on-site internship supervisor. Partnerships with select institutions, organizations and archives in the United States and abroad offer students intensive research opportunities mentored by William and Mary faculty. Readings; research; dissemination.