Red and yellow painted stairs and buildings in Old Town, Calp, Spain

Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Welcome! ¡Bienvenidos! Bem-vindos!

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese offers a full range of undergraduate and graduate courses. While the major emphasis of the Department is literature, we also offer courses in Spanish language, linguistics, and culture, as well as Portuguese language, Brazilian literature and cultural studies. We recognize the integral relationship between teaching and research, and all members of the faculty are both active scholars and dedicated teachers.

Department Spotlight

Globe showing map of North & South America

Course Descriptions

Check out descriptions of our literature & special topic courses that will be available in Spring 2025!
Students drawing chalk on Wescoe Beach

2024 Department Newsletter

The 2024 edition of our department's annual newsletter is now available! Check out what we've been up to over the past academic year, and preview some of our upcoming events.
Attendees at Portuguese Language Practice Table

Language Practice Tables

Our Spanish & Portuguese language practice tables are back for the Fall 2024 semester! These sessions are open to the public and provide an informal setting for anyone to practice conversing in their target language.

Featured News

Statue depicting Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in Brussels.

Spain still struggles over interpretation of its Golden Age

To understand the separatist movements and other political forces that threaten to break Spain apart, it is instructive to see how all sides spin the nation’s Golden Age literary heritage today. That is the premise of the new book “The Currency of Cultural Patrimony: The Spanish Golden Age” by KU author Robert Bayliss.
Portrait of Miguel Albújar-Escuredo in the Department of Spanish/Portuguese office suite.

Contemplating eco-catastrophe through Spanish science fiction lens

The “deep, existential malaise” stemming from fear of impending ecological catastrophe has permeated science fiction around the globe, a KU professor writes in a new journal article.
Detail from 1800s map of Havana’s outskirts showing the distribution of drinkable water to public fountains and private residences provided by the Ferdinand VII aqueduct.

Study shows long-standing links among disease, race, class, infrastructure

Links – both real and imagined – between race and disease are far older than the COVID-19 pandemic. A University of Kansas researcher says her new study of a 19th-century Cuban aqueduct project during a cholera outbreak demonstrates this.
Tulips in front of Watson Library

International Collections Librarian forging a path as a scholar, connector, mentor

Milton Machuca-Galvez understands the merit of self-sufficiency, a quality that has proven worthwhile throughout a career that has included transporting essential supplies into remote mountain ranges, as well as decades of research, teaching, and academic leadership in sometimes new and unfamiliar places. ...

By the Numbers

100
undergraduates majoring in Spanish
300
undergraduates seeking a Spanish minor
40+
books and edited volumes published by current faculty

By the Numbers

14
faculty members dedicated to scholarship and teaching
5
study abroad programs in Argentina, Brazil, and Spain
3
in-house publications, Latin American Theater Review, LATR Books, and La corónica

Department Highlights

  • Fiske Guide to Colleges calls Spanish & Portuguese one of KU's strongest programs
  • Consistently ranked among the most distinguished graduate programs in Spanish by the National Research Council
  • 2007 Departmental Award for Exceptional Teaching and Learning from KU's Center for Teaching Excellence
  • 2012 Access to Language Education Focus Award from the Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO) for Acceso
  • Comprehensive undergraduate program in Spanish language, literature and culture, as well as Portuguese language and Brazilian literature and cultural studies
  • Comprehensive graduate program in Spanish language, literature and culture

KU Students studying abroad in Brazil

Portuguese and Brazilian Studies

The University of Kansas has had a long tradition of interdisciplinary research and teaching in the field of Brazilian studies. Classes in Brazilian history, geography, literature, cinema, and music populated KU curriculum even before Brazilian studies became such an avid area of academic interest and inquiry as it is now in the United States. KU students have consistently learned the Portuguese language and about Brazilian culture for decades. We currently offer graduate and undergraduate level courses on Brazil and with significant Brazil content through different KU departments and the university’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

Visit the Brazilian Studies homepage

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