We offer a strong, comprehensive curriculum that embraces the multiple disciplinary traditions and theoretical diversity of our fields. Our graduate program also highlights the linguistic and cultural diversity of Iberia and Latin America, offering a rich selection of languages relevant to HLBS such as Basque, Catalan, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Our Faculty
We cover all periods of Iberian and Latin American cultural histories and offer a rich variety of approaches to the study of literature, theater and performance, the visual arts, and intellectual production. While specializing in a wide variety periods and critical approaches, we are particularly strong in a number of areas and interdisciplinary fields of study:
- Early modern Spain and colonial Latin America (Frederick de Armas, Noel Blanco Mourelle, Larissa Brewer-García [on leave 2019-20], Miguel Martínez, Victoria Saramago)
- Modern and contemporary Latin America and Iberia (Dain Borges, Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, Danielle Roper, Mario Santana, Victoria Saramago, Mauricio Tenorio)
- Mexico and the Caribbean (Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, Danielle Roper, Victoria Saramago, Mauricio Tenorio)
- Nationalism and culture (Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, Miguel Martínez, Mario Santana)
- Visual studies, film, and the performative arts (Frederick de Armas, Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, Danielle Roper, Mario Santana)
- Material approaches and sociology of literature (Frederick de Armas, Noel Blanco Mourelle, Miguel Martínez, Mario Santana, Victoria Saramago)
- Race Studies (Larissa Brewer-García [on leave 2019-20], Dain Borges, Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, Danielle Roper)
- Gender and sexuality (Frederick de Armas, Noel Blanco Mourelle, Larissa Brewer-García [on leave 2019-20], Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, Danielle Roper)
- Intellectual and cultural history (Noel Blanco Mourelle, Dain Borges, Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, Miguel Martínez, David Nirenberg, Mauricio Tenorio)
- Medieval Iberia (Noel Blanco Mourelle, David Nirenberg)
Interdisciplinary Engagement
- The University of Chicago’s campus-wide, interdisciplinary graduate workshops are a hallmark of graduate study at this University.
- Students are expected and encouraged to expand their research and course work into other literatures, departments, and disciplines, and they often take courses in Cinema and Media Studies, Art History, Comparative Literature, Philosophy, Theater and Performance Studies, History, and Social Thought, as well as in the programs in Gender and Sexuality Studies (which offers a Graduate Certificate), Latin American Studies, and Race, Politics and Culture. In defining their own path of study while acquiring a rigorous grounding in their chosen fields, students develop the skills and versatility necessary to adapt and succeed in an evolving profession.
International Exchange
- Regular visiting professors from universities and research centers in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America thanks to international agreements with the Institut Ramon Llull, the Luso-American Foundation, and the Tinker Foundation and Instituto Etxepare. Recent visitors came from the Colegio de México, Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Universidade de Lisboa and University of the Basque Country.
- The Program in Catalan Studies (Lectureship and Visiting Professorship) was established in 2005 thanks to an agreement with the Institut Ramon Llull. In 2005-2006 the department started offering courses in Catalan language and hosted the first Visiting Professor in Catalan Studies (the Joan Coromines Chair). A list of visitors can be found here.
- Opportunities for field research facilitated by a number of exchange programs with Spanish and Latin American universities.
Research Resources
- The University of Chicago Library. One of the largest research libraries in North America, with 12.6 million volumes in print and electronic form, the Library holds a vast collection of Iberian and Latin American printed materials, maps, manuscripts, rare books, journal holdings, databases and microfilm sets, and provides extensive support for developing personal research skills.
- The Newberry Library. One of the nation’s preeminent independent research collections and organizes an array of research seminars and colloquia engaging graduate students.
Teaching
Our graduate students are not required to teach during their first year in order to focus on course work. Students first serve as language assistants who lead weekly discussion sections, then take on increased responsibility as lecturers in the college's language program and as course assistants for our literature courses.
Additional teaching opportunities are available after the first 5 years as a lecturer, language assistant, or course assistant. Eligible students must have completed the Department’s pedagogy seminar, finished any required coursework, and made satisfactory progress on their dissertation.