The Amherst Spanish Department offers courses in both the Spanish language and in Hispanic culture and literature. We study literature and culture from a modern critical perspective, without isolating it from its context. We teach most courses in Spanish.
Our majors study the Hispanic world throughout the centuries, through courses on Spain, Latin America, the Caribbean and Latinos in the United States.
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This certificate enhances our major and is overseen by the Five College Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies Council.
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We encourage majors to write a senior thesis on a topic related to Hispanic culture, literature, language or arts.
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Majors strengthen their studies with stays in Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Spain.
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Students speak Spanish at the weekly Spanish Table in Valentine Dining Hall and in the Spanish House, where language assistants and other students live and speak Spanish together.
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Peer tutors help their fellow students learn the language.
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Spanish majors at Amherst go on to careers in public policy, teaching, international relations, translation and nonprofit work, among many other fields.
Learn MoreExpand your Spanish vocabulary, explore rhetorical techniques for organizing information, develop strategies for writing, and characterize your target audience(s). Engage in critical reading, revising and editing.
Consider how writers, artists, filmmakers and activists have resisted the censorship, cultural repression and moral authority of dictatorships in Spain and Latin America. Examine the causes and effects of these subversive activities.
Study language in the Hispanic world, from Columbus’ first voyage to present-day “pocho lingo” in Los Angeles. Contemplate such topics as translation, bilingual education and the impact of mass and social media.