Undergraduate Spanish and Latin American Studies 2026-2027

The course will introduce students to several key texts from Spain. It will also introduce a key question in contemporary literary and film analysis: how texts may reinforce or challenge the social structures that underlie local and national communities.  To this end we will study plays, novels and films that have had a broad impact in the Spanish-speaking world and beyond, investigating how they work to cement the cultural values that bring communities together or, on the contrary, lead readers to question and rebel against prevailing social norms.

From 1900 to the present, Chile and Mexico experienced vast transformations, including votes for women, legalisation of divorce, earthquakes, revolution, dictatorship and women presidents. This course examines these changes, and others, by putting women's lives at the centre of the story, while also recognising the diversity of women’s experiences. Putting women’s experiences at the heart of discussion offers a new approach to well-known histories and raises new questions about the past.

The course will be analysing Gender Representations in 20^th Century Spanish Cinema and how these have been used to articulate critical portrayals of Spanish society. Students will study the ways in which these films relate to social and political developments such as the Civil War, Post-war, the Transition and Democracy.

International agencies such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime see organised crime as a growing challenge. International NGOs have emerged to address the challenge – an example is the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime. Yet national and international agencies disagree even on how to define organised crime, still more on how to respond to it. The course will consider how to understand organised crime, and will gauge efforts by state and society to respond to it.

From 1900 to the present, Chile and Mexico experienced vast transformations, including votes for women, legalisation of divorce, earthquakes, revolution, dictatorship and women presidents. This course examines these changes, and others, by putting women's lives at the centre of the story, while also recognising the diversity of women’s experiences. Putting women’s experiences at the heart of discussion offers a new approach to well-known histories and raises new questions about the past.

The course will be analysing Gender Representations in 20^th Century Spanish Cinema and how these have been used to articulate critical portrayals of Spanish society. Students will study the ways in which these films relate to social and political developments such as the Civil War, Post-war, the Transition and Democracy.

International agencies such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime see organised crime as a growing challenge. International NGOs have emerged to address the challenge – an example is the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime. Yet national and international agencies disagree even on how to define organised crime, still more on how to respond to it. The course will consider how to understand organised crime, and will gauge efforts by state and society to respond to it.