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Department: Latin American, Iberian and Latino Cultures

Executive Officer: Professor Beatriz Lado

The Graduate Center

365 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10016

Email: lailac@gc.cuny.edu

https://www.gc.cuny.edu/latin-american-iberian-and-latino-cultures

FACULTY

Esther Allen, Alejandro Alonso-Nogueira, Isolina Ballesteros, Carolina Chaves O'Flynn, William Childers, Marithelma Costa, Cecelia Cutler, Silvia Dapia, Fernando Degiovanni, Jose Del Valle, Jane Marcus Delgado, Angeles Donoso Macaya, Beatriz Lado, Jose Madrigal, Miki Makihara, Ariana Mangual Figueroa, Elena Martinez, José Martínez Torrejón, Juan Mercado, Nuria Morgado, Vanessa Perez-Rosario, Magdalena Perkowska, Sarah Pollack, Carlos Riobo, Paul Smith, Francisco Soto, Araceli Tinajero, Oswaldo Zavala

THE PROGRAM

The Ph.D. Program in Latin American, Iberian and Latino Cultures offers courses in all areas of Iberian and Latin American literatures and Hispanic linguistics leading to the Ph.D. degree. In the literature track, major movements and literary genres—epic, drama, lyric poetry, novel, and essay—are studied in their historical, ideological, and cultural context from their origins through the Renaissance and Siglo de Oro, to the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. In tracing the development of Latin American literatures, emphasis is placed on their relationship with Spain and Portugal, on the influence of other European literatures, on the influence of indigenous cultures, and on the fusion of these and other elements in contemporary texts. The program is committed to such fields of study as women’s writing, gay and lesbian studies, and feminist theory, as well as Hispanic literature in the United States, and has also strengthened its offerings in philology, poetics, rhetoric, literary history, literary theory and methods of criticism, and bibliographical studies and theories of textual criticism.

In the Hispanic Linguistics track, students are introduced to major areas in the field, including Spanish phonology, syntax, language acquisition, historical linguistics, and sociolinguistics. The core courses provide students with a broad understanding of the discipline and with the basic preparation for conducting linguistic research. At a more advanced level, students can pursue research in areas of phonology, grammar, or lexis under a variety of formal and functional approaches, as well as focus on the study of Spanish in its cultural, historical, and social contexts, including topics in variation in Spanish, Spanish in contact, Spanish in history, language and identity, language policy, and language ideologies in the Spanish-speaking world.

The doctoral faculty in Latin American, Iberian and Latino Cultures consists of distinguished scholars whose areas of specialization, when taken together, cover all aspects and periods of Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American literary studies and Hispanic linguistics. Besides a number of annual symposia and a lecture series by visiting scholars and writers, the program periodically invites internationally recognized scholars from Europe and Latin America to conduct miniseminars.

In addition to financial assistance available through the Graduate Center in the form of scholarships, fellowships, and assistantships, many doctoral students are employed as part-time lecturers in Spanish and bilingual programs at the various colleges of CUNY and at private colleges.

Resources for Training and Research

In addition to the vast holdings in Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American literatures maintained in the libraries of the CUNY colleges and the Graduate Center, students have access to the collections of various public and private institutions dedicated to Iberian and Latin American studies. The Humanities and Social Sciences branch of the New York Public Library, located nearby, has one of the finest Hispanic collections in the world. Students also have access to the extraordinary collections of the Hispanic Society of America.

En-route M.A.

Upon completing 45 credits with an average grade of B, and after passing the First Examination and satisfactorily completing a major research paper, the student may apply for an M.A. degree. The degree is awarded formally by one of the participating colleges.