MIT Global Languages

The Spanish Group at MIT offers students the opportunity to study language, literature and culture.

Our curriculum reflects the diversity of interests and expertise of our faculty and lecturers, as well as the particular needs of MIT undergraduate students. Our classes use innovative pedagogical methods, including the most advanced interactive technologies, to allow students to acquire the competence necessary for communication in Spanish-speaking communities around the world and give students the tools to live and work in an increasingly global economy. Since Spanish is the principal second language spoken in the United States, the curriculum at all levels pays special attention to the linguistic and cultural diversity presented by Hispanic communities across the country. While the basic courses stress language acquisition and cultural breadth, at the advanced level we offer a variety of courses on Spanish, Latin American, and Latino literature, culture, history and film.

In collaboration with the Global Education Office, the Spanish program offers an intensive second semester course during January in Madrid: IAP-Madrid (http://gecd.mit.edu/go_abroad/study/explore/madrid_iap/)

Students who have attained a fourth semester level of Spanish proficiency are encouraged to pursue internships in industry or in research institutions in Spain, Mexico, Chile and Argentina through the MIT International Studies and Technology Initiative (MISTI) (http://misti.mit.edu/student-programs/language/spanish/) or to participate in the  MIT-Madrid Spring Semester Abroad (http://gecd.mit.edu/go_abroad/study/explore/Madrid/)

The Spanish Group at MIT was awarded the 2006 Inter American Prize for Educational Quality by the Institute of Advanced Studies for the Americas (INEAM) of the Organization of American States (OAS). This prize is awarded in recognition of projects which, through the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), contribute to solving socio-educational problems related to the development of human potential.
 

Fall 2019 Course Offerings
Tier I
21G.700    Intensive Spanish for Advanced Beginners
21G.701    Spanish I
21G.702    Spanish II
21G.703    Spanish III
21G.704    Spanish IV
Tier II
21G.712    Spanish Conversation and Composition
21G.715    Topics in Medicine and Public Health in the Hispanic World
Tier III
21G.084    Introduction to Latin American Studies
21G.731    Creation of a Continent: Representations of Hispanic America: 1492-1898, in Literature and Film
21G.736    The Short Form: Literature and New Media Cultures in the Hispanic World

Looking ahead

IAP 2020
21G.701    Spanish I
21G.793    Spanish III in Madrid
21G.795    Advanced Communication in Spain

Spring 2020 
Tier I
21G.701    Spanish I
21G.702    Spanish II
21G.705    Intensive Beginning Spanish for Medicine and Health
21G.703    Spanish III
21G.704    Spanish IV
Tier II
21G.710    Advanced Communication in Spanish: Topics in Language and Culture: Crash Culture: Spanish Literature and Culture of the Recession
Examines the 2008 financial crisis and its socio-economic and political repercussions through the lens of contemporary Spanish cultural works. Close reading and analysis of novels, a play, films, film shorts, comics, social micronarratives, newspaper articles, blogs, and other cultural forms. Discussions center on the aesthetics of representation and issues of Spanish national identity during and after the crisis. Topics may include youth unemployment, immigration, emigration, separatism, Historical Memory, Spain’s new political parties, the 15-M movement, contemporary cuisine, and football. Taught in Spanish. 
21G.711    Advanced Spanish Conversation and Composition: Perspectives on Technology and Culture
21G.713    Spanish through Film: Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Spain
21G.714    Spanish for Heritage Learners
Tier III
21G.070    Latin America and the Global Sixties: Counterculture and Revolution
21G.717    Introduction to Hispanic Culture
21G.735    Advanced Topics in Hispanic Literature and Film: Cuban Travels: Culture, Politics, and Society from 1959-Present
An introduction to modern Cuban culture, politics, and society through the lens of travel narratives produced about and within Cuba from the 1959 Revolution to the present. Like the trip to Soviet Russia before, the trip to Cuba became a rite of passage among Latin American and European artists and intellectuals from 1959 onward, becoming a genre in its own right. In turn, since the Cuban Revolution, a steady flow of emigrants has produced a parallel cultural archive of travel, exile, and diaspora. Course materials focus on the production of space and the representation of travel in old and new media—poster art, private and open letters, Soviet-influenced architecture, photography, film, music, journalism, and digital-born culture—and include travel writing by Cuban, European, and North and Latin American writers, artists, and intellectuals

The indication of prerequisites for specific Spanish offerings does not apply to students who have already completed equivalent work. For further placement advice, consult one of the field advisors in Spanish.

A note regarding the enrollment policy of the Global Languages section: Enrollment limited to 18 for pedagogical reasons for Tier I and Tier III subjects. Preference will be given to pre-registered students, including pre-registered undergraduates who were cut from the same class the previous semester due to the enrollment cap. Please note that you have to attend the first day of class to maintain your preference level. In case of over-enrollment, preference will be given in the following order: declared majors, declared minors, declared concentrators, first-years, sophomores, juniors, seniors and graduate students.