Hispanic Literatures and Cultures Major
Major Description
The Major in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures enables students to gain fluency in the Spanish language and knowledge of the diverse cultures of Latin America, Spain, and other Hispanophone communities in the United States and worldwide. The major emphasizes the history and cultural diversity of a world whose geographic reach is vast and whose legacy extends from the pre-colonial period in Latin America and European classical antiquity to the present. This interdisciplinary program focuses on literary and other modes of representation (such as film, performance, and the visual arts), while offering students opportunities to tailor their course of study to their broad intellectual interests. Study abroad in a Spanish-speaking country is highly encouraged and can count towards the major.
Students who major in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures develop an open-minded, inquisitive mindset and a global perspective. While improving their ability to communicate in Spanish, they acquire a deeper understanding of the vibrant and diverse cultures of the Hispanophone world, including its histories, politics, artistic and philosophical traditions. They also gain the language proficiency, communication and critical skills, and intercultural competencies to live, study, and work in a Spanish-speaking environment, in the United States or abroad.
Hispanic Literatures and Cultures prepares students to pursue their academic and professional interests in fields such as education, law, politics, international relations, social work, the arts, business and the medical professions, among others.
Admission to the Major
Students qualify for this major with a grade of B or better in SPAN 221 or the equivalent. Exceptions require a formal petition to the Spanish section.
Major Requirements
Nine (9) courses minimum numbered 203 and above.
- Five (5) courses minimum in SPAN numbered 221 or above taken from the Wesleyan Spanish section. To ensure majors work with at least three Spanish-section faculty members, explore the historical and geographic diversity of the Hispanophone world, and make an informed choice about their electives, these courses must be distributed as follows:
- one course SPAN230-249 (pre-1700)
- one course SPAN250-269 (post-1700 Spain)
- two courses SPAN270-299 (post-1800 Latin America)
- one elective
- At least one (1) course in SPAN at Wesleyan during the senior year
OTHER REQUIREMENTS
- A grade of B or better is required for courses taken for the major.
- Students who count SPAN 203 must also take SPAN 221.
- The following courses do not count toward the major:
- Tutorials (for theses, essays, independent study, and course assistants)
- Language courses taken abroad
- Service learning courses
- It is possible to count a credit earned elsewhere (e.g., over the summer) toward the major, but petitions must be pre-approved by the section. The student must establish the course meets our standards for equivalence. Criteria and conditions (along with the petition) are explained here: https//www.wesleyan.edu/romance/spanish/aptransferofcredit.html
- Exceptions require a formal petition to the Spanish section. On the petition process (including timelines), see below.
COURSES IN RELATED FIELDS TAKEN ABROAD OR ON CAMPUS
We strongly encourage students to pick courses abroad on topics not available in the Spanish section at Wesleyan. Courses taken in Spanish on selected programs abroad may count toward the major if they have a strong interpretive dimension, with a focus on reading, writing, discussion, representation, or form (e.g., how genre, rhetoric, and/or style shape meaning). Such courses may also treat the subject’s history or the debates within it. Courses that meet these criteria are ordinarily found in anthropology, art history, history, music, philosophy, and sociology. They can also be found in economics, government, and psychology when the course focuses primarily not on quantitative analysis or method but on the field’s history or its use in public debates or contexts.
With the advisor’s approval, majors may count courses in related fields as follows:
- Students who study abroad may count up to four (4) courses taken in Spanish on selected programs. Students who count courses taken abroad should aim for as much chronological and geographic diversity as possible.
- Students who do not study abroad may count up to two (2) related-field courses taken in English at Wesleyan on Latin America, Spain, or Latinx US. However, bear in mind you can create your own immersion experience at Wesleyan by taking more than one course in Spanish per semester as you would abroad. While you cannot replicate the full experience here, we offer such a wide range of seminars you can replicate the academic one.
PETITIONING FOR EXCEPTIONS TO MAJOR REQUIREMENTS
To ensure students are on-track to fulfill the requirements for the major, the Spanish section collectively reviews the academic histories of all juniors in February of each year, that is, before course selection for the senior year. Students may petition the Spanish section for exemption from a requirement by writing to the head of the section. Such requests should only be made in exceptional circumstances, taking into account the learning goals and rationales for the major requirements explained above. Students and their advisors should plan course selection accordingly, to ensure completion of the major regardless of the petition’s outcome. Petitions should be submitted by March 30.
Student Learning Goals
Students who complete the major in Hispanic literatures and cultures have the knowledge and skills needed to successfully pursue their academic and professional interests:
- the language proficiency to live, study, and work in a Spanish-speaking environment, in the United States or abroad;
- strong communicative skills, in both Spanish and their native language;
- the capacity to understand diverse points of view;
- the ability to draw on a wide range of sources to stimulate their own creative and critical capacities; and
- a sense of the rich diversity and creative power of Hispanophone literary texts and films spanning ten centuries (five of them in Latin America) and five continents.
Study Abroad
The following programs abroad are recommended for majors in Hispanic literatures and cultures:
- Vassar-Wesleyan Program in Madrid (Spain)
- Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá (Colombia)
- CIEE in Buenos Aires (Argentina)
- Middlebury in Chile (Various cities)
- CIEE in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic)
- IFSA Butler at the Universidad Autónoma (Mérida, Mexico)
Students may petition for ad hoc approval of other programs abroad. For more information concerning study-abroad opportunities, visit the Office of Study Abroad, 201 Fisk Hall.
Advanced Placement
See wesleyan.edu/romance/spanish/aptransferofcredit for more information.
Transfer of Credit
See wesleyan.edu/romance/spanish/aptransferofcredit for more information.
Honors
See wesleyan.edu/romance/spanish/honors for more information.
Capstone Experience
Students are encouraged to present a substantial piece of work during their senior year that is comparative and transnational in nature, either within the framework of a single course (a term paper, for instance) or as their senior essay or thesis.