Span 3110: Advanced Conversation and Composition (Undergraduate Course (After Pandemic)

          This course is designed to help students improve their Spanish with emphasis on the development of writing skills. In addition to writing, students will enhace their listening, speaking, and reading competence. Students will review grammar rules through the study of editorials, statistics reports, academic essays, film criticism, description, and narration.

Span 3348: Spanish Civilization and Culture (Undergraduate Course)

This course offers a panoramic view of the history of Spain. In addition to learning about the country’s history, students analyze a wide range of cultural practices, such as film, literary texts, paintings, sculpture, photography, and music from the country’s origins until contemporary times in order to understand and reflect about their significance to the development of the Spanish state. The course is framed within the epistolary genre as this pedagogical approach creates a more intimate and personal relationship with the assigned material. In the same manner, great emphasis is put on the use of technology as a learning tool that grants access to up-to-date information and that allows learners to apply the contents of the course outside the classroom. Students should read texts before class and be prepared for active participation in the discussions of the readings. The course is taught in Spanish.

Span 6902: Stereotypes in the Spanish Comedia (Graduate Seminar)

This graduate seminar is an introduction to the staging of different ethnic groups in early modern Spanish theater. Focused on history, the course examines the construction of the “Other” and its role in the consolidation of Spanish imperialism. Students discuss how differently these communities are portrayed in theater and how these representations respond to the fear and anxieties of the period. Assigned readings include plays about Moors, Jews, Turks, Blacks, and Amerindians. Some of the questions that this course seeks to address are: How does drama depict aspects of political power implicitly and allegorically? What groups are considered an “Other”? What defines the norm? What do these plays reveal about cultural differences in Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? Although centered on the early modern period, this course supports Ohio University’s engagement with diversity and inclusion as the study of these representations allows reflecting on elements of culture, community, character, civility, citizenship, and commitment. Readings will be complemented by some foundational texts of Postcolonial theory. Students are expected to complete assigned readings before class and participate actively in discussions. This course is taught in Spanish