Bryn Mawr College

As Spanish continues to be the fastest growing language in our hemisphere and the numbers of Spanish speakers within the United States increase in virtually every area of the country, proficiency in the Spanish language has become more than just a college language requirement. At Bryn Mawr College, students are challenged to go beyond traditional language instruction in order to gain a greater understanding of the richness and diversity of Hispanic culture and its continuing impact on the U.S. and the world. Our courses draw upon an abundant and complex cultural legacy that includes Spanish, Latin American and Latino authors, thinkers, filmmakers, literary genres, political figures and movements: Cervantes, Teresa de Jesús, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Elena Poniatowska, Miguel de Unamuno, Jorge Luis Borges, José Martí, Federico García Lorca, Eva Perón, Frida Kahlo, Isabel Allende, Pablo Neruda, Gabriel García Márquez, María de Zayas, Buñuel, Alejo Carpentier, Almodóvar, Lolita Lebrón, Gloria Anzaldúa, the picaresque, Al-Andalus, the Jewish Diaspora, modern state-formation, the Spanish Civil War, liberation theology, and African Hispanophone literature.

Many of our courses are cross-listed with departments and programs such as Comparative Literature, Italian, History of Art, and Feminist and Gender Studies. The Department stresses the development of genuine competence in oral and written use of the language at all levels; and most of our courses are taught exclusively in Spanish. In addition to our counter department at Haverford College, the Spanish Department also cooperates with several other Bryn Mawr departments (i.e., economics, anthropology, history, sociology, and history of art) in offering an interdisciplinary program of study in Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Peoples and Cultures. This program extends the examination of society and culture into areas other than literature and is open not only to students of Spanish but to those in all the cooperating departments.

Many undergraduate majors and minors in Spanish have pursued careers as journalists, social workers, state and federal government employees, lawyers, doctors, bankers, and of course, university and secondary-school teachers. Their undergraduate training in Spanish has been essential to their chosen fields.