Graduate Courses
Fall 2008
(See also courses taught in previous semesters)
SPME W4200x The Andalusian Symbiosis: Arabs and the West [In English]
Patricia Grieve
Muhsin Al-Musawi
W 11:00-12:50
3 pts. The course closely examines the cultural symbiosis between Arab Muslims and Christian Europeans during the eight centuries of their coexistence in Andalusia. Through a critical reading of an appropriately chosen set of texts, translated into English from Arabic, Latin, Spanish and other Iberian dialects, students will study the historical, literary, linguistic, religious, artistic, architectural, and technological products that were created by the remarkable symbiosis that took place in Andalusia.
SPAN G6000
Didactics of Spanish Language and Culture
Guadalupe Ruiz-Fajardo
F 1:00- 3:30
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.
SPAN G6215
Masses and Multitudes in the Spanish American 19th Century
Graciela Montaldo
R 1:10 - 4:00
This course will discuss the main topics of Spanish American nineteenth-century literature: civilization vs. barbarism, politics in a time of war, the function of the intellectual classes, the organization of the State, the construction of national identities, and the process of modernization. Our reading of canonical texts will allow us to understand the various debates regarding the construction of new nations. The principal objective of the course is to provide students with the theoretical framework in which to place the literary and ideological discourses of the nineteenth century in Spanish America.
SPAN G6249
Spanish Novel of the 20th Century
Gonzalo Sobejano
M 1:10- 3:00
The development of the Spanish novel from the beginning of the 20th century to the present.
SPAN G6301
Fictional Foundations: Puerto Rico and the Spanish Empire (1808-1898)
Wadda Ríos-Font
W 3:10- 6:00
Puerto Rico did not, like most other Spanish-American colonies, attain independence in the aftermath of Napoleon's 1808 invasion of Spain. Together with Cuba, it remained part of the ailing empire through the Spanish-American War (1898). Throughout this period, patriotic feeling was channeled chiefly through the currents of asimilismo-which sought complete political and administrative equality with peninsular Spanish provinces-, and autonomismo, which recognized a special situation demanding self-rule within a loose national unity. This course examines the character and role of early Puerto Rican letters in the formulation of a discourse of identity, in light of continuing Spanish rule and continuing personal and collective relations with the metropolis.
SPAN G6345
Material and Archival Culture
T 1:10- 4:00
Jesús Rodríguez Velasco
This class will explore methodological and theoretical issues related to investigation in archives and libraries using books and documents, both manuscript and printed. Although most of the materials we will examine are pre-1700, we will also consider contemporary issues and texts, since the 'archive' has an ongoing inchoate nature. Students of all fields will familiarize themselves with the knowledge and techniques necessary to perform archival work in their chosen area.
Some of the issues that will be addressed are: What is material culture, i.e., how can the physical materiality of books and documents be incorporated into the literary, cultural, and hermeneutical study of texts; what kind of technical background is needed in order to work in the archive; what are the principal aspects related to the constitution of the archive and the library; what theoretical issues must be addressed when examining the ordering and classification of books and documents; how do we engage in their reading; how do the industries and institutions related to their production work; what kind of writer-scribe-printer-woodcutter-student interactions can we trace in them. We will also explore the relationship between books, images, and general cultural literacy, as in for instance, the reading of building façades.
Some of our class meetings will take place at the library of the Hispanic Society of America and at the Cloisters Museum, where we will examine original texts, pictorial materials, and architectural features. We will also explore important theoretical approaches to the subject matter, among them the works of Benjamin, Derrida, Gumbrecht, Bouza, Chartier, Cátedra, and others.
SPAN G9902
Workshop in Scholarly Writing
Carlos J. Alonso
T 6:00-8:00
This course aims to develop awareness about what constitutes effective scholarly prose in Spanish. It proposes to hone the student's handling of writing as a vehicle for the expression of intellectual thought, and to develop the rhetorical strategies that can be used to advance a critical argument effectively. Students will familiarize themselves with genres specifically required by professional academic writing: manuscripts, reviews, abstracts, proposals, letters of application, curricula vitae, oral presentations, statements on teaching, etc. Furthermore, during the semester students will work on a paper written previously to understand the process of transforming a short, limited expression of an argument into a publishable manuscript. There will be multiple redactions of the chosen piece, with the ultimate goal of eventually submitting the piece for publication in an academic journal. We will also examine the editorial process comprehensively, from submission to publication.
SPAN G9811
Supervised Individual Research
TBA
Students register in this course while preparing their M.Phil. examinations and prospectus, typically in the fall and spring of their third year in the program.