NYU in Madrid M.A. Core Curriculum


Students in both concentrations can choose from a variety of courses ranging from language and literature to culture, history and art history. Along with two mandatory courses, students choose from 4-credit electives and 2-credit special topics courses. Depending on the particular courses offered in the academic year, courses may also be offered in anthropological or political dimensions of the Hispanic cultures. Working under an individual faculty adviser, all students must also complete an MA Project,  a substantial work of independent research in their chosen area of study. 


All courses are taught by recognized scholars and experts in their fields, members of the faculty of NYU in Madrid or visiting professors from New York.

Subject to the approval of the Director of Graduate studies, students also have the opportunity to experience Spanish university life, taking a course at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid one of Spain’s top universities. 

CORE CURRICULUM

“A Cultural History of Spain and Latin America”  is a year-long, 8 credit (4+4) core course, required for all students enrolled in the program. Through master classes and workshop discussions, this course offers an overview of the historical and cultural development of the Iberian world from the Middle Ages to the present.

The approach is explicitly multidisciplinary, with master classes from specialists in performance studies, literature, language, cultural studies and history. The objective of the course is to make sure that all students develop a high level of cultural literacy about the Spanish-speaking world, at the same time as they acquire, through the specialist workshops, a deeper knowledge of their chosen area of concentration.

Guest lecturers from Spain on the core course in recent years include José Alvárez Junco, James Amelang, Jesús Bustamante, Carmen de la Guardia, Paloma Díaz-Más, Carlos Martínez Shaw, and Julio Rodríguez Puertolas.

From New York the course has welcomed Gerard Aching, Ana Dopico, Giorgina Dopico Black, James D. Fernández, Jo Labanyi, Jill Lane, Mary Louise Pratt, Salvador H. Martínez, and Diana Taylor.   

The second component of the mandatory core curriculum is the “Research Methods Seminar”Taught in the fall semester, this 2-credit seminar introduces students to research questions, skills and resources in Hispanic studies. Students have the opportunity to discuss their own ideas with others, hear members of faculty discussing topical areas of enquiry in the different disciplinary fields of Hispanic studies, and to explore for themselves Madrid’s wealth of resources for research. In this way, the Research Methods Seminar prepares students for the third and final element of the core curriculum, the 2-credit “MA project” that they complete in the Spring semester

In this way, the core curriculum accounts for 12 of the 32 credits needed to complete the MA. 

 

ELECTIVES AND SPECIAL TOPICS

With the help of the Director of Graduate Studies, students choose another six courses they must complete over the two semesters in order to meet the MA requirements. Each semester students take two 4-credit electives and one 2-credit special topics course. Students may take one elective and either or both of their special topics from outside their area of concentration (“Literatures and Cultures” or “Language and Translation”).

Course offerings fall 2008:

Electives (4 credits)

Literatures and Cultures

·        Cervantes: Don Quijote (G95.9472.001). Prof. Francisco Layna     

·        Critical and Theoretical Approaches to Literature and Culture (G95.9991.001), Prof. Jacqueline Cruz

·        Contemporary Spanish American Novel: the Construction of Subjectivity and Identity (G95.9933.001), Prof. Marcos Roca

Language and Translation

·        Translation of Literary and Non-literary Texts (G95.9301.001), Prof. Rafael Castillo

·        Composition and Advanced Grammar (G95.9108.001), Prof. Carmen Bordón

·        Problems in Spanish Syntax for Bilingual Communication (G95.9205.001), Prof. Mercedes Fernández Isla

·        Spanish Lexicon (G95.9210.001), Prof. José Pazó Espinosa



Special Topics (2 credits)

Literatures and Cultures

·        gallo. Revista de Granada, 1928 (G95. 9555.001), Prof. Luis Muñoz


Language and Translation

·        Academic Writing (G95.9555.002), Prof. José Pazó

·        Spanish Journalism and Translation (G95.5555.003), Prof. Armando Figueroa 




In spring 2009, the electives and special topics will include courses in the following fields:

  • Jews, Muslims and Christians in Medieval Spain

  • Twentieth-century Spanish and Latin American literature

  • Teaching of Spanish as a Foreign Language

  • Theory and Practice of Translation

  • Sociolinguistics

  • Phonetics