Welcome to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies at the University of Florida.
The Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies endeavors to achieve excellence in research, teaching and public service related to the languages, literature, and cultures of the areas and countries where Spanish and Portuguese are spoken. Associated languages and cultures such as Catalan or any other the faculty may determine, also fall under the departmental purview. Research, teaching, and service are mutually enriching activities through which we achieve our shared goals. The Department strives to maintain effective undergraduate and graduate programs of instruction whose quality is sustained by the constant intellectual and professional development of the Department’s faculty, as well as by a strong commitment to service. Consistent with UF’s mission statement, research should contribute “to the international public conversation about the advancement of knowledge.”
The courses offered by the Department in language, linguistics, literature, film, civilization, and cultural studies enrich such related fields as Anthropology, Art History, Business, Health Sciences, History, International Relations, Journalism, Law, Linguistics, Music, Political Science, Sociology, and other languages and literature. With the expansion of dynamic minority populations in the U.S. and the prospect of closer and more complex relationships between the U.S. and Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries around the world, such courses will increasingly have intellectual and practical value as part of the University of Florida’s curricular opportunities.
We strive to maintain the quality and breadth of all our programs, including beginning and intermediate language instruction, undergraduate major and minor, and graduate studies. Our activities include (a) research and studies in language pedagogy and linguistics, also literary history, criticism, and theory, plus film, cultural studies, and civilization, (b) courses, programs, and training leading to B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, (c) sponsorship of study and research abroad, (d) fostering interdisciplinary initiatives that foreground the importance of knowing a foreign language and culture, (e) utilizing our expertise to attend to the linguistic and cultural interests of UF’s Latino populations, (f) internationalizing the university through invitations to well-known scholars and through faculty and student exchanges, and (g) sponsorship of scholarly and cultural events that promote interest in these areas of concern.
The Department offers a B.A. in Spanish and in Portuguese, an M.A. in Spanish, and a Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures with a concentration in Spanish. We also offer courses in Catalan at the beginning level on a regular basis. At the graduate level, students choose between specializations in Hispanic Linguistics or in the Peninsular or Spanish-American literature (with some graduate courses in Brazilian literature available as well). The Department’s programs are complemented by the faculty, course offerings and library holdings of both the Department of Linguistics and the Center for Latin American Studies.
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