Spanish and Latin American Studies, BA
Spanish and Latin American Studies Majors immerse themselves in the language, literature, and lives of Spain, Latin America, and the Latinx community.
Our multidisciplinary program is vibrant, flexible, challenging, and engaging. You will work toward linguistic proficiency in Spanish, honing your basic vocabulary and progressing toward sophisticated communication, verbal and written. In time, you’ll encounter Hispanic cultures through a plethora of film, history, politics, art, and music. In small, discussion-based classes, you’ll engage with writers and thinkers like Isabel Allende, Gabriel García Márquez, Miguel de Cervantes, and María Zambrano, to name a few.
At the culmination of your study, you will create an original project that draws on your learning experience. Throughout your journey, you’ll receive highly personalized instruction from our world-renowned faculty. We are here to equip you for whatever future you envision!
Learn More About Our Program
Get to know our well-respected faculty and their academic specialties. Or explore internship opportunities and an array of study abroad possibilities.
CURRICULUM
After successfully completing levels 1–3, students will be able to...
- Understand and produce speech in a variety of personal and social contexts; initiate and sustain conversations about multiple topics in the past, present and future tenses.
- Read and comprehend texts with varied subject matter, multiple points of view and verb tenses.
- Write prose that includes description and narration on a variety of topics with varied vocabulary.
- Provide interpretations and supporting ideas.
- Exhibit understanding and demonstrate knowledge of cultural, geographical, historical, and sociopolitical aspects of other societies.
- Demonstrate an ability to see the world from multiple perspectives and become aware of themselves as members of the global community.
Students who complete this major will be able to:
- Demonstrate a career-ready proficiency in all language modalities (speaking, writing, listening, and reading) for a variety of purposes and a range of content and contexts.
- Develop an understanding of the linguistic nature of Spanish, including its primary fields (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics and dialectology, language acquisition, second language pedagogy, and historical linguistics).
- Demonstrate knowledge of Spanish and Latin American literary texts and traditions across time, including major literary and intellectual movements, genres, writers, and works; and discuss and analyze literary texts from a variety of sources.
Demonstrate knowledge of Hispanic cultures across time and geography, and articulate an understanding of global perspectives, practices, and products of those cultures.
Career Options
Testimonials
“The faculty at Saint Mary's definitely changed my life. There was a lot of support that I don't think I would have found in a larger college setting. They grew to know me and what I was capable of and I felt like there was a definite kinship that developed where however much effort I gave in my classes, my teachers were also supporting my goals.”
Amanda Benson, '06
Western Regional Universities - U.S. News & World Report: Best Colleges 2023
Undergraduate student-faculty ratio