Undergraduate Spanish and Latin American Studies 2023-2024

This is a fast-paced and intensive language course for students with very little or no previous knowledge of Spanish who have been allocated onto this course by our diagnostic test. It is aimed at students intending to pursue an honours (single or joint) degree in Spanish and Latin American Studies but is also suitable for students on other degree programmes.

This is a fast-paced language course for students with some previous knowledge of Spanish who have been allocated onto this course by our diagnostic test. It is aimed at students intending to pursue an honours (single or joint) degree in Spanish and Latin American Studies but is also suitable for students on other degree programmes.

This course will introduce students to Latin American history, culture and society from the pre-Hispanic period to the present through a selection of archaeology, historical and contemporary writings, visual culture and music. All texts studied will be available in English translation.

This is a fast-paced language course for students with some previous knowledge of Spanish who have been allocated onto this course by our diagnostic test. It is aimed at students intending to pursue an honours (single or joint) degree in Spanish and Latin American Studies but is also suitable for students on other degree programmes.

The course introduces students to colonial encounters ranging from Muslim Iberia to the pre-conquest Americas and continuing into the period of the Spanish Empire.  From the nineteenth century, conquest and colonial encounters continued as newly-independent Spanish American states seized indigenous territories, while colonial mentalities re-surfaced in contexts as diverse as the Spanish Civil War and Southern Cone dirty wars. These examples show how colonial encounters helped shape contemporary Spain and Spanish America. 

Students being admitted to a Spanish and Latin American Studies degree programme, or intending taking a Spanish course, should first take the language diagnostic test. The test can be taken at any time and is completed online. On the basis of this diagnostic test you will be allocated to the appropriate Level 1 language course. The test helps to ensure you are on the course that is most appropriate for your level of knowledge and experience.

Please go to www.abdn.ac.uk/mycurriculum to access the Diagnostic Test.

Having completed the test you should select the appropriate course when making your curriculum choices.

This course follows Spanish Language 2 or can be taken by students who have the required level of Spanish as determined by the diagnostic test (see below).

This course aims to prepare intending Honours students of Spanish and Latin American Studies for their compulsory period abroad in a Spanish-speaking country.

The course will develop further Spanish language skills, both receptive and productive. Classes on grammatical and linguistic analysis will contribute to the development of both sets of skills. In addition students will complete a structured self learning programme of audio-visual study and grammatical reinforcement study.

This course uses texts, which can include plays, films, novels, music, letters and an etiquette guide, to understand issues, concerns and themes in Latin American history. The course is organised chronologically and each week classes focus on texts from a particular country as a means to discuss bigger questions, such as how to make a new nation after three hundred years of colonial rule and a decade of warfare, how to demonstrate your honourability in an anonymous city and what cultural models are the best source of inspiration. The course also focuses on 'context' shared throughout Latin America.

This course follows Spanish Language 2 or can be taken by students who have the required level of Spanish as determined by the diagnostic test (see below).

This course aims to prepare intending Honours students of Spanish and Latin American Studies for their compulsory period abroad in a Spanish-speaking country.

The course will develop further Spanish language skills, both receptive and productive. Classes on grammatical and linguistic analysis will contribute to the development of both sets of skills. In addition students will complete a structured self learning programme of audio-visual study and grammatical reinforcement study.

This course follows Spanish Language 4 and aims to prepare non beginners intending Honours students of Spanish and Latin American Studies for their compulsory period abroad in a Spanish-speaking country.

The course will develop further Spanish language skills, expanding on the vocabulary and introducing formal documents and letters. Classes on grammatical and linguistic analysis will contribute to the development of both sets of skills. In addition students will complete a structured self learning programme of vocabulary and grammatical reinforcement study.

The course will introduce students to several key texts from Spain. It will also introduce a key question in contemporary literary and film analysis: how texts may reinforce or challenge the social structures that underlie local and national communities.  To this end we will study plays, novels and films that have had a broad impact in the Spanish-speaking world and beyond, investigating how they work to cement the cultural values that bring communities together or, on the contrary, lead readers to question and rebel against prevailing social norms.

In the popular imagination, Spain invokes a number of alluring stereotypes: sun, sand, passion, and flamenco. In this course, students will be encouraged to look beyond these dominant stereotypes. Co-taught by lecturers in music, FVC and Spanish, students will explore how music, film and visual culture can reveal deep-seated tensions regarding national identity, politics and cultural representations of Spain throughout the 20^th and 21^st centuries.

This is a core prescribed course open only to Junior Honours Spanish and Latin American Studies students and a selected range of other programmes at the appropriate level. This course aims to enable you to identify and use, accurately, fluently, and with an appropriate level of sophistication, a range of vocabulary and linguistic registers at advanced level.

This is a core prescribed course open only to Mode B Junior Honours Spanish and Latin American Studies students. This course aims to enable you to identify and use, accurately, fluently, and with an appropriate level of sophistication, a range of vocabulary and linguistic registers at advanced level.

The aim of the Residence Abroad Project is to develop an in-depth understanding of a specific aspect (anthropological, political or cultural) connected with one of the Spanish and Latin American countries in which students are staying. Students are expected to study a topic in its socio-and to complete a report in Spanish of c. 2000-2500 words.

This course will enable students to gain an insight into the theoretical framework of translation and will also enable students to grasp some of the main issues and concepts in translation theory and practice which go beyond linguistic concepts.

Latin America is often described as a lawless land, where anything goes. Yet we will see in this course that law has been crucial to Latin America’s past and present. The problem is that the rich and powerful can put themselves above it, which means that law often ends up serving to keep the poor in their place. “Rule of law” means that the law should apply to everyone, including the powerful, and in recent years there have been calls for rule of law in Latin America. Can Latin Americans now hope for an end to impunity and injustice?

From Wales to Patagonia and Montevideo to Barcelona. From Czarist Russia to the Pampas and Sandinista Nicaragua to Glasgow. Artists and revolutionaries, exiles and migrants populate the books and films studied in this course. We will examine portrayals of transatlantic travel as a means of reinterpreting some of the most significant political events and cultural debates that have marked Latin America since the 19th century until today. We will focus on books and films that present us with different forms of travel from Latin America to Europe, but also Africa and Asia, and vice versa. Studying biographical and fictional accounts of transatlantic crossovers will allow us to understand Latin American history as implicated in a broader transnational network of people and ideas. We will explore topics such as the Jewish diaspora, the global circulation of cultural forms such as tango, the transatlantic dimension of anarchist and socialist activism, and the transnational flows of capital and workers that characterize our neoliberal contemporaneity. While examining these books and films, we will also explore academic reflections on the scope and methods of Transatlantic Studies, which will allow us to rethink our own position as students and academics interested in studying Latin American culture from the other side of the Atlantic.

This course extends and refines students' practical translation skills from English into Spanish. It will also enable students to think critically about linguistic and cultural issues associated with translation from English into Spanish at an advanced level. Students will translate texts on a variety of topics using a variety of discourses; evaluate published translations; discuss, analyse and apply different translation strategies; produce critically-annotated translations and an evaluation of a published translation.

This level 4 course is specifically aimed at students who want to improve their Spanish Language skills, but who are not taking Spanish as part of a single or joint Honours programme in Spanish Studies. It consists of a Spanish language class, a translation class and an oral class.   

In the popular imagination, Spain invokes a number of alluring stereotypes: sun, sand, passion, and flamenco. In this course, students will be encouraged to look beyond these dominant stereotypes. Co-taught by lecturers in music, FVC and Spanish, students will explore how music, film and visual culture can reveal deep-seated tensions regarding national identity, politics and cultural representations of Spain throughout the 20^th and 21^st centuries.

This year-long course unit combines dissertation research with research methods training. The dissertation is a piece of extended independent research (8,000-10,000 words long), structured as a critical evaluation, analysis or argument, about a topic germane to Spanish and Latin American Studies. The topic is chosen by the student, in conjunction with the dissertation coordinator and an individual Departmental supervisor, both of whom approve the topic. Students are encouraged to design their topic building on their previous studies, especially honours courses. The dissertation offers a chance for students to carry out in-depth independent study in Spanish and Latin American Studies, and to acquire and develop valuable research skills. The course begins, in the first half session, with workshops on diverse research methods and the creation of peer support groups. The second half session includes structured meetings with the dissertation supervisor and meetings with the peer support group, as well as independent research and writing.

This year-long course unit combines dissertation research with research methods training. The dissertation is a piece of extended independent research (8,000-10,000 words long), structured as a critical evaluation, analysis or argument, about a topic germane to Spanish and Latin American Studies. The topic is chosen by the student, in conjunction with the dissertation coordinator and an individual Departmental supervisor, both of whom approve the topic. Students are encouraged to design their topic building on their previous studies, especially honours courses. The dissertation offers a chance for students to carry out in-depth independent study in Spanish and Latin American Studies, and to acquire and develop valuable research skills. The course begins, in the first half session, with workshops on diverse research methods and the creation of peer support groups. The second half session includes structured meetings with the dissertation supervisor and meetings with the peer support group, as well as independent research and writing.

This is the final Spanish language course within the degree that will provide students with advanced comprehension and writing skills in general and specialised registers.

This course will enable students to gain an insight into the theoretical framework of translation and will also enable students to grasp some of the main issues and concepts in translation theory and practice which go beyond linguistic concepts.

Latin America is often described as a lawless land, where anything goes. Yet we will see in this course that law has been crucial to Latin America’s past and present. The problem is that the rich and powerful can put themselves above it, which means that law often ends up serving to keep the poor in their place. “Rule of law” means that the law should apply to everyone, including the powerful, and in recent years there have been calls for rule of law in Latin America. Can Latin Americans now hope for an end to impunity and injustice?

From Wales to Patagonia and Montevideo to Barcelona. From Czarist Russia to the Pampas and Sandinista Nicaragua to Glasgow. Artists and revolutionaries, exiles and migrants populate the books and films studied in this course. We will examine portrayals of transatlantic travel as a means of reinterpreting some of the most significant political events and cultural debates that have marked Latin America since the 19th century until today. We will focus on books and films that present us with different forms of travel from Latin America to Europe, but also Africa and Asia, and vice versa. Studying biographical and fictional accounts of transatlantic crossovers will allow us to understand Latin American history as implicated in a broader transnational network of people and ideas. We will explore topics such as the Jewish diaspora, the global circulation of cultural forms such as tango, the transatlantic dimension of anarchist and socialist activism, and the transnational flows of capital and workers that characterize our neoliberal contemporaneity. While examining these books and films, we will also explore academic reflections on the scope and methods of Transatlantic Studies, which will allow us to rethink our own position as students and academics interested in studying Latin American culture from the other side of the Atlantic.

This course extends and refines students' practical translation skills from English into Spanish. It will also enable students to think critically about linguistic and cultural issues associated with translation from English into Spanish at an advanced level. Students will translate texts on a variety of topics using a variety of discourses; evaluate published translations; discuss, analyse and apply different translation strategies; produce critically-annotated translations and an evaluation of a published translation.