Spanish Fall 2026

SPAN 1010 Elementary Spanish l with Daniel Colon, Ana Píriz

MoWeFr 8:00am-8:50am; 9:00am - 9:50am, 10:00 - 10:50am

This course, designed for students with no prior experience in Spanish, develops listening, speaking, reading and writing skills through engagement with oral and written texts in Spanish and interactive projects. Enables students to perform linguistic tasks that allow them to communicate in highly predictable everyday situations (e.g. expressing basic personal information and needs).

SPAN 1060 Accelerated Elementary Spanish with Matthew Street, Ana Ruiz Alonso Bartol

MoWeFr 9:00am - 9:50am; 10:00am - 10:50am; 11:00am - 11:50am; 12:00pm - 12:50pm

This course develops listening, speaking, reading and writing skills through engagement with oral and written texts in Spanish and interactive projects. It covers the material from SPAN 1010-1020 in an accelerated one-semester format, enabling students to perform linguistic tasks that allow them to communicate in common everyday situations (e.g., greeting, narrating, describing, ordering, comparing and contrasting).

SPAN 2010 Intermediate Spanish with Esperanza Górriz Jarque, Sara Young, Kate Neff, Lauren Mehfoud

MoWeFr 9:00am - 9:50am; 10:00am - 10:50am; 12:00pm - 12:50pm; 1:00am - 1:50am; 2:00pm - 2:50pm; 3:00pm - 3:50pm

TuTh 8:00am - 9:15am; 9:30am - 10:45am; 12:30pm - 1:45pm; 2:00pm - 3:15pm; 3:30pm - 4:45pm; 6:30pm - 7:45pm 

This course further develops listening, speaking, reading and writing skills through engagement with authentic, culturally rich oral and written texts in Spanish. Enables students to perform linguistic tasks that allow them to communicate in everyday situations (e.g., narrating present and past activities and expressing desires and requests), and to express personal meaning by creating with the language.

SPAN 2020 Advanced Intermediate Spanish with Jennifer Barlow, Germain Badang, David Florez-Murillo, Kate Neff, Tammy Hertel, Jennifer Hogg, Filadelfia Soto, Francis Whitfill, Andrés Henao

MoWeFr 9:00am - 9:50am; 10:00am - 10:50am; 11:00am - 11:50am; 12:00pm - 12:50pm; 1:00pm - 1:50pm; 2:00pm - 2:50pm; 3:00pm - 3:50pm

TuTh 8:00am - 9:15am; 9:30-10:45am; 11:00am - 12:15pm; 12:30pm - 1:45pm; 2:00pm - 3:15pm; 3:30pm - 4:45pm; 5:00pm - 6:15pm; 6:30pm - 7:45pm

This course further develops listening, speaking, reading and writing skills through engagement with authentic, culturally rich oral and written texts in Spanish. Enables students to perform linguistic tasks that allow them to communicate in everyday situations with some complications (e.g., describing present, past and future activities, expressing opinions, and persuading), and to express personal meaning by creating with the language. Completion of this course fulfills the College of Arts and Sciences World Language Requirement.

SPAN 3000 The Sounds of Spanish with Omar Velazquez

TuTh 3:30pm - 4:45pm

SPAN 3010 Finding Your Voice in Spanish with Tammy Hertel, Esther Poveda Moreno, Ciara Raczyk

MoWeFr 8:00am - 8:50am; 9:00am - 9:50am; 11:00am - 11:50am

TuTh 8:00am - 9:15am; 9:30 - 10:45am; 12:30pm - 1:45pm

Imagine the incredible sense of achievement and empowerment you’ll feel when you confidently express yourself in another language! In SPAN 3010, you will explore your evolving proficiency in Spanish by engaging with and creating three cultural texts: a brief memoir, a news story, and a film review. Through examining selected examples of these text types in Spanish, you will grasp the rationale behind specific writing techniques, stylistic choices, and linguistic structures within each genre and their impact on the construction of meaning. You will ultimately acquire a personalized toolkit of linguistic and stylistic devices for crafting your texts. This course treats reading, listening, speaking, and writing not merely as isolated linguistic skills but as interconnected methods for building effective communication. As a participant in this course, you will establish personal learning objectives, enhance your conversational skills in Spanish, assemble a portfolio of your written work, and engage actively with our writing community through discussions, peer evaluations, recitals, and various interactive activities.

SPAN 3040 Business Spanish with Ana Píriz

MoWeFri 10:00am - 10:50am; 11:00am - 11:50am

This is an intermediate level course in which students read, research, discuss, debate and write in Spanish about recent themes that are relevant to commercial and economic contexts in the Spanish-speaking world. It is a language class that focusses on Spanish in professional settings; no previous academic or practical experience in commerce is required.

SPAN 3050 Spanish for Medical Professionals with Alicia López Operé 

TuTh 11:00am - 12:15pm

Spanish for Medical Professions, is a recommended course for students that want to have a career in the health professions, and also for those who need to interact with Spanish-speaking people in hospitals, clinics and similar spaces. The course has been designed to develop linguistic competency as well as cultural competency in the health context. The emphasis is put on the real use of the language and the understanding of cultural differences among Spanish-speaking countries and the United States, and Latino patients in the United States. The course has a background theme on contemplative practices. 

SPAN 3060 Writing-Social Justice & Change with Esther Poveda

TuTh 9:30am - 10:45am

Have you ever wondered what kinds of change could you enact with more proficient Spanish writing skills? SPAN 3060 is an advanced, community-based language learning course that offers you the chance to enhance your advanced writing skills in Spanish. In this course, we will discuss selected works by prominent Latin American authors and podcaster who have used writing and as a tool for social justice and change. We will also engage in in-person and remote conversations with guest speakers. Finally, you will participate in a community project with the Equity Center’s Youth Power program Starr Hill Pathways. This program creates a system of support for local youth from historically marginalized communities, while building a pathway for admission to the University of Virginia or the college and career that best meets their needs.

SPAN 3200 Intro Hispanic Linguistics with Lorena Albert Ferrando

MoWe 2:00pm - 3:15pm 

The course objective is to provide an introduction into the core areas of linguistic analysis using Spanish as the test case. During the semester, we will cover several areas including: the sounds of Spanish (phonetics and phonology), word formation (morphology), sentence structure (syntax), meaning of words, phrases, sentences, and larger chunks of discourse, also in social context (semantics and pragmatics), history of the Spanish language, regional and social variation (dialectology and sociolinguistics), and language acquisition.

SPAN 3300 Texts and Interpretations with Nicole Bonino, Nieves Garcia Prados, Fernando Riva, Alicia Lopez-Opere, Robert Sanchis

MoWeFr 10:00am - 10:50am; 11:00am - 11:50am; 3:00pm - 3:50pm

TuTh 11:00am - 12:15pm; 12:30pm - 1:45pm

This intermediate level course introduces the student of Spanish to the fundamentals of reading and understanding various genres, and to practice discussing, analyzing, and writing about them in an academic register in Spanish. It draws on texts and materials from both Spain and Latin America, and builds students’ specialized vocabulary. All work for the class, including reading, discussion, and writing, is done in Spanish. SPAN 3300 is a prerequisite for the survey courses. 

SPAN 3301 Visual Narratives Across Literature, Art, & Cinema with Nicole Bonino 

In this course, you’ll explore how stories are told through images and texts across the Spanish-speaking world. Together, we’ll analyze film, photography, visual poetry, graphic narratives, contemporary art, and literature to understand how artists and writers engage with themes like identity, memory, race, gender, power, and environmental justice. You’ll build advanced skills in Spanish while learning how to read images as carefully as texts. Through discussion-based classes, collaborative projects, and creative multimodal assignments, you’ll practice expressing complex ideas, making cultural connections, and developing your own critical voice in Spanish. Rather than just studying art and literature, you’ll actively work with them, interpreting visual culture, responding creatively, and connecting aesthetic expression to real-world social and political contexts. Along the way, you’ll strengthen your analytical thinking, oral communication, and academic writing, preparing you for upper-level coursework and globally engaged professional paths. By the end of the semester, you’ll be able to confidently discuss visual and literary narratives in Spanish, understand how cultural production shapes social meaning, and recognize art and literature as powerful tools for representation, resistance, and change.

SPAN 3400 Spain: From Kingdom to Empire (1200-1700) with Fernando Riva

TuTh 9:30am - 10:45am

SPAN 3410 Perspectives on Modern Spain (1800 to the Present) with Kelly Moore

TuTh 11:00am - 12:15pm

SPAN 3420 Politics and Power in the Early Americas (1492-1850) with Fernando Operé 

 MoWe 5:00pm - 6:15pm

This course is devoted to the earliest literature written about the Americas, from the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the independence of Latin America. The first texts were mainly chronicles and diaries written by travelers, soldiers, and religious figures. These works are of great historical and literary interest and today often seem close to works of fantasy. Among them are the fascinating accounts of Christopher Columbus’s first voyage, Hernán Cortés’s encounter with the Aztec world in Mexico (Tenochtitlan), Francisco Pizarro’s expeditions in Peru (Cusco), and the adventures—or failures—of many explorers throughout the new continent, such as Cabeza de Vaca and Hernando de Soto. The course also includes early Baroque literature in the Americas, with figures such as Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, as well as the travel writings of scientists who came to the continent to describe its flora, fauna, and geography, including Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin.

SPAN 3430 Contemporary Latin American Voices (1800 to the present) with Patricio Soto Arriagada

MoWeFr 1:00pm - 1:50pm

This course offers a survey of Latin American literature, inviting students to engage with the sociocultural context in which it has evolved from 1800 to the present. As we delve into a variety of short stories, poems, novels, essays, diaries, letters, and autobiographies, we will uncover how the region’s diverse cultures, peoples, and significant historical events have shaped its literary landscape. You will have the chance to express your thoughts and feelings through critical and creative reflection exercises, developing essential skills, such as close reading, debate, and informed and thoughtful writing in Spanish. Upon completing the seminar, you will have a rich interpretive appreciation of Latin America’s diverse literary tradition from the nineteenth century to the present.

SPAN 3080 Becoming a Poet with Fernando Valverde 

TuTh​ 5:00pm - 6:15pm 

SPAN 4040 Translation Spanish to English​ with Erica Cobb & Nieves García Prados​  

MoWeFr 1:00pm - 1:50pm

TuTh 11:00am - 12:15pm; 12:30 - 1:45pm 

"Lost & Found in Translation" offers an introduction to the "art" of translation, both in practice and theory. Throughout the semester students participate in a series of workshops, collaborating on translations of texts of different genres, from multiple time periods and countries through in-depth readings and discussions, translation activities from Spanish to English and vice versa. This is a dynamic, interactive, inter-disciplinary course. Prerequisites: SPAN 3300, and highly recommended one/two survey(s) of literature and culture (SPAN 3400-3430). For Spanish majors we advise both surveys to be taken before SPAN 4040 (or simultaneously) since surveys cannot be taken during the 4th year.

SPAN 4500 Special Topics Seminar: Malas mujeres: The Unruly Women of Spanish Realism with Kelly Moore

TuTh 12:30pm - 1:45pm 

Wayward ladies—sex workers, adulteresses, gender nonconformists, orphans, working girls, shopaholics—abound in nineteenth century Spanish literature. The realist and naturalist novel emerged alongside the rise of the middle class and abetted the portrayal of its values as universal. These novels intend—we might say pretend—to represent reality in all its fascinating banality, an aesthetic valuation of the ordinary experience of ordinary people. They also express everyday anxieties about the visibility of women in public and about their increasing access the public sphere, to cultural influence, to education, to property rights, and to suffrage. What can we learn about Spanish realism and naturalism’s fascination with malas mujeres in regard to anxieties about modernization, marginalization, and representation? What kinds of culture did real nineteenth-century feminine subjects consume and make? And what bearing might these novels have on the obstacles we face today? With these questions in mind, together we will read four novels whose unruly protagonists are laid bare under the scrutiny of realist vision.

SPAN 4530 Special Topics Seminar: Language and Power in the Making of a Discipline with Lorena Albert Ferrando 

MoWe 3:30pm - 4:45pm 

This course examines the role of institutions, associations and organizations in the configuration of Spanish Studies as a field defined by language as its distinctive trait. Focusing on bodies such as the Royal Academy of Spain, AATSP, Instituto Cervantes, and Sigma Delta Pi, the course examines how linguistic knowledge is produced, authorized, and regulated, and how power, ideology and prestige shape the institutional life of Spanish.

SPAN 4530 Special Topics Seminar: Latin American Spanish with Omar Velazquez 

TuTh 5:00pm - 6:15pm

Latin American Spanish focuses on the study of the geographical distribution of the main varieties of the Spanish language as spoken in the Americas. The distribution of Spanish dialects is studied both synchronically (i.e., in the present) and diachronically (i.e., historically). After establishing Spanish as one of the varieties descended from Vulgar (spoken) Latin from the north of the Iberian Peninsula, its spread throughout the Americas is traced country by country. The social context of the United States, where Spanish coexists with English, is also discussed. The course focuses particularly on the formative period of New World Spanish, the colonial period, especially with regard to the contributions that African and indigenous languages ​​have had on the language

SPAN 4615 Spanish Cinema with Samuel Amago

TuTh 3:30p - 4:45pm

A cultural history of Spanish cinema from 1950 to 1980. We will cover the basics of film analysis and explore how popular cinema in Spain reflected and refracted the social and political tensions of the country’s dictatorship and transition to democracy. Every week, students will view a feature-length film and complete readings in Spanish. Class discussions and assignments will be in Spanish. 

SPAN 4711 1492 and the Aftermath with Fernando Opere 

MoWe 2:00pm - 3:15pm

This course intends to acquaint the student with the history and culture of two important countries in Latin America: Argentina and Mexico. We will begin with pre-Columbian cultures, the historical and social evolution from colonial era, the independent period, and national period up to the present. The second part of the course will be devoted to study cultural and social themes: identity, race and ethnicity; city and countryside; migration; artistic and musical production; economic fluctuations; religion and its various manifestations; and violence and resistance among others. 

The methodology consists of a systematic comparison of these two countries in the most important aspects of their history, culture, and development.