Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies
Undergraduate
Undergraduate Studies
View pages in this documentWhat images come to mind when you hear 'Hispanic', ' Latin America', 'Latino', and 'Iberia'? In one sense you think about tourist hotspots, the carnival, bullfights, flamenco, wars and revolutions and a 'passion for life'...
If you have already studied Spanish or Portuguese you will probably have more than the tourist's comprehension of Spain, Portugal, Latin America and Spanish and Portuguese-Speaking Africa.
However, if you want to really deepen your understanding of the language, history, culture and society of the Ibero-American world, then taking a degree or courses in the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at the University of Leeds will not only set you up in terms of written and spoken language proficiency, but will also ensure you have a thorough grasp of a range of socio-historic and cultural topics.
From the writings of Cervantes to Saramago, from the films of Buñuel to Almodovar, from the revolutions of independence in Latin America to the colonial wars in Spanish and Portuguese Africa, from the social world of flamenco to samba, from Francoism to the integration in the European Union, from Chicano identity in the United States to the regional question in contemporary Spain, the Department offers students the opportunity to really get to know the key cultural, historical and social events that have shaped the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking world and our understanding of it.
Covering three languages and three continents, but also with reference to five distinct disciplines: language, literature, history (including an element of art history), social sciences and film studies, studying at Leeds is a stimulating intellectual challenge in its own right, but we will also prepare you for a career in extremely diverse fields, as our hundreds of successful graduates have proven.
- Spanish: With over 400 million speakers, Spanish is one of the most important languages of business and cultural exchange in the modern world. There are around 40 million native Spanish speakers in the USA alone and this number is increasing. Spanish is an official language of the United Nations and of the European Union.
- Portuguese: With over 200 million speakers, Portuguese is also a major world language, spoken over four continents (from Portugal to Brazil, from Mozambique to East Timor). It is an official language of the European Union.
- Catalan: Catalonia and its capital city, Barcelona, is one of the most prosperous and culturally dynamic areas of Spain. Catalan was a major language in the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages. At present, Catalan has over seven million speakers in Catalonia and other areas of Eastern Spain, such as Valencia and the Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza).