Course content and class availability are subject to change. Regular hours of class time are 9am-7:15pm
You should consult the NYU Registrar's web site for the scheduled class times and days.
Click on a course name to see a course description and a sample syllabus from a past semester. (Current syllabi may differ.)
Spanish Language
Professors Autieri & Molina
This is a one-semester intensive course that covers the equivalent of one year of elementary Spanish (V95.0001 and
V95.0002). After completing this course, students who wish to continue studying Spanish must take a qualifying
examination. Students who pass the examination may go into V95.0003, which is preparation for V95.0004. Students with high
scores on the qualifying exam may enroll in V95.0018 (an accelerated version of V95.0003, which similarly prepares them
for V95.0004) or in V95.0020. Completion of either V95.0020 or V95.0004 fulfills the MAP requirement
Prof. Benedek
Intensive Spanish for Advanced Beginners is a six-credit intensive language course designed to help students with
limited knowledge of Spanish strengthen their language skills and develop their cultural competency. The course covers
the material of Spanish 2 and Spanish 3 in one semester. Successful completion of this course prepares students for a
fourth semester college Spanish language course.
Prof. Dinerstein
Prerequisite: V95.0010, V95.0002 or equivalents, or passing grade on qualifying examination.
Promotes proficiency in reading and writing as well as oral performance. V95.0020 is an intensive intermediate course that covers the equivalent of one year of intermediate Spanish (V95.0003 and V95.0004, or V95.0018 and V95.0004) in one semester.
Prof. Cerqueira
Prerequisite: V95.0003 or equivalent, or passing grade on qualifying examination.
Continuation of V95.0003 or V95.0003A. Readings and
discussions of contemporary Hispanic texts and review of the
main grammatical concepts of Spanish. Completion of this course
fulfills the MAP foreign language requirement.
Prof. Autieri
Prerequisite: Intermediate Spanish II (NYU,V95.0004) or equivalent
Advanced course designed to expand and consolidate lexical and grammatical understanding of the language and to introduce fundamental principles of expository writing as they apply to Spanish, through exercises, readings, and intensive practice of various expository prose techniques and styles. For nonnative speakers only. Prerequisite for NYU students: V95.0020, V95.0004, or permission of the director of undergraduate studies.
Prof. Luppino
Corequisite: Intensive Intermediate Spanish or Intermediate Spanish II.
The course is designed for students who want to perfect their Spanish as they expand their knowledge regarding literature, cinema, and social and political problems that exist today within modern Argentine society. The reading of different dramatic texts and viewing of various films throughout the semester will serve to expand lexicon, strengthen grammar and improve the student's style. The objective of this course is that the students familiarize themselves with everyday language of current newspapers and magazines, at the same time as they enter into the world of Spanish literature.
The most important goal of the course is to offer a methodologically simple approximation that helps the student to develop a greater verbal and communicative dexterity. To this end, every week the students will analyze and debate the cultural and literary content texts that are to be studied and every two weeks the students will present a written composition of the topics covered in class. In the classroom linguistic correction will be emphasized along with auditory practice through the use of a wide range of materials and resources: theoretical explanations, comprehension and vocabulary exercises, film viewing, as well as exercises that highlight certain morphological aspects or grammatical usage of Spanish.
Prof. Lopez Seoane
Open to students who have completed
Advanced Grammar and Composition (or equivalent), or to students enrolled
concurrently in V95.9100
This course is an upper-level elective conversation course that introduces students to the porteño dialect, through its peculiar history, literature, and music (tango!), as well as in everyday manifestations, i.e., slang, young people vs. adult argot, different registers, etc. The goal of the course is to improve students’ verbal and communicative dexterity and confidence. Linguistic correction and auditory practice will be used as a general method.
Prof. Lopez-Seoane
Open to students who have completed
Advanced Grammar and Composition (or equivalent), or to students enrolled
concurrently in V95.9100
This course is currently under development. Course description coming soon.
Courses Taught in Spanish
Prof. Raffo
Both an English and Spanish section of this course will be offered.
For Spanish section: Prerequisite of V95.0100, or equivalent, or to be taken concurrently with V95.9100 with permission of the director.
This course is a journey through the different styles of Latin American Folk and Popular Music (LAFM), particularly those coming from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Their roots, influences and characteristics. Their social and historical context. Their uniqueness and similarities. Emphasis in the rhythmic aspect of folk music as a foundation for dance and as a resource of cultural identity. The irruption of Latin American rhythms in the music market through the “World Music” phenomenon. Even though there is no musical prerequisite, the course is recommended for students with any kind and/or level of musical experience
Prof. Bouzas
Prerequisite of V95.0100, or equivalent, or to be taken concurrently with V95.9100, with permission of the director.
Introduction to literary analysis through close reading of texts from the early to modern periods of peninsular Spanish and Spanish American literatures. Engages students in the practice of textual explication, provides basic critical skills, and encourages reflection on literature as a system. This course is the gateway course for students interested in pursuing advanced literature courses in Spanish. With very few exceptions, students must have completed Critical Approaches before taking advanced literature courses taught in Spanish.
Prof. Luppino
Corequisite: Intensive Intermediate Spanish or Intermediate Spanish II.
The course is designed for students who want to perfect their Spanish as they expand their knowledge regarding literature, cinema, and social and political problems that exist today within modern Argentine society. The reading of different dramatic texts and viewing of various films throughout the semester will serve to expand lexicon, strengthen grammar and improve the student's style. The objective of this course is that the students familiarize themselves with everyday language of current newspapers and magazines, at the same time as they enter into the world of Spanish literature.
The most important goal of the course is to offer a methodologically simple approximation that helps the student to develop a greater verbal and communicative dexterity. To this end, every week the students will analyze and debate the cultural and literary content texts that are to be studied and every two weeks the students will present a written composition of the topics covered in class. In the classroom linguistic correction will be emphasized along with auditory practice through the use of a wide range of materials and resources: theoretical explanations, comprehension and vocabulary exercises, film viewing, as well as exercises that highlight certain morphological aspects or grammatical usage of Spanish.
Prof. Lopez Seoane
Open to students who have completed
Advanced Grammar and Composition (or equivalent), or to students enrolled
concurrently in V95.9100
This course is an upper-level elective conversation course that introduces students to the porteño dialect, through its peculiar history, literature, and music (tango!), as well as in everyday manifestations, i.e., slang, young people vs. adult argot, different registers, etc. The goal of the course is to improve students’ verbal and communicative dexterity and confidence. Linguistic correction and auditory practice will be used as a general method.
Prof. Lopez-Seoane
Open to students who have completed
Advanced Grammar and Composition (or equivalent), or to students enrolled
concurrently in V95.9100
This course is currently under development. Course description coming soon.
Prof. Amante
Prerequisite: Advanced Grammar & Composition and Critical Approaches, (NYU,V95.0100, V95.0200) or equivalent.
The course is designed to introduce students to the work of Jorge Luis Borges, one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. Through reading, analysis, and discussion of short fiction or poems and critical bibliography, the students will examine the dichotomy civilization-barbarism in Borges works (in connection to the Argentine cultural tradition since nineteenth century); some key topics in his texts such as tigers, labyrinths and libraries; the relationship between writing and translation (specifically in the English translations of his fictions); the political aspects of the literature produced by Borges and other contemporary Argentine writers on Eva Perón. The course will also develop the connections between Borges and other contemporary Argentine writers.
This course has been cancelled for Spring 2010
Prerequisite: Advanced Grammar & Composition and Critical Approaches, (NYU,V95.0100, V95.0200) or equivalent.
A survey course that introduces the theory and evolution of short fictional forms, with emphasis on the works of Borges, Cortázar, Rulfo, Donoso, García Marquez, Fuentes, Vargas Llosa, Valenzuela, etc.
Prof. Alabarces
Open to students who have completed
Advanced Grammar and Composition (or equivalent), or to students enrolled
concurrently in V95.9100
This course rests on two assumptions: the first, that a culture can be analyzed choosing some privileged texts (from literature, cinema, popular music) and reading in them the interplay of representations and power relationships: what a culture says and represents in a specific moment and in a specific way. The second, that the gaucho in the XIX century; a poor inmigrant at the beginning of the last one; a peronist worker; Maradona; a football gang; rock musicians and cumbia dancers; all of them can be used to “explain” a Nation –Argentina, in this case– in deeper ways than official texts, statistics or history handbooks. Therefore, this proposal has two parts: 1) histories and 2) presents. The ten first meetings propose a history of the construction of popular culture within the general frame of Argentine culture, following a diachronical path that allows us to understand the (violent) invention of our object between the XIX and XX centuries. The last meetings are dedicated to an analysis of the present: from dictatorship to present day, discussing the object as well as the theories that frame it.
Prof. Serulnikov
Open to students who have completed
Advanced Grammar and Composition (or equivalent), or to students enrolled
concurrently in V95.9100
The history of Argentina is one of contrast and paradox. It began as an inhospitable region on the fringes of the Spanish Empire, turned into one of the wealthiest and most cosmopolitan countries in the world by the late 19th century, became the scenario of the largest populist movement in Latin America under the sway of Juan D. Perón and Evita Perón, to descend into protracted economic decline and military dictatorships for most of the 20th century. This introductory course is aimed at offering a comprehensive overview of this historical trajectory. Topics will include the crisis of the Spanish colonial rule; the rise of rural caudillos; the nation-state building process and the country’s consolidation as one of the major breadbaskets of the world in the late 19th century; the birth of Buenos Aires as a great cosmopolitan city; the emergence of Peronism; the politics of military rule and human right protests in the 1970s; and the transition to democracy. Student will have the opportunity to delve into Argentina’s past and culture from different perspectives: politics, gender and race relations, mass migration, the origins of tango, urban history, and social movements.
Prof. M. Penhos
Open to students who have completed
Advanced Grammar and Composition (or equivalent), or to students enrolled
concurrently in V95.9100
Art History students: This course counts for Art History Elective Credit.
This course will examine key aspects of Latin American art: from the Colonial period to the first decades of 20th Century. By means of an analysis of artistic images from México, Perú, Brasil and Argentina, we will discuss the role of visual representation in the conquest and colonization of territory in Latin America, and later in the construction and consolidation of national states and regional identities. Combining guided visits to museums in Buenos Aires with class instruction, students will have the opportunity to learn about artistic languages, techniques, iconography, systems of production, and some issues of Latin American history.
Prof. Mesman
Open to students who have completed
Advanced Grammar and Composition (or equivalent), or to students enrolled
concurrently in V95.9100
El curso recorre algunos momentos significativos del cine de América Latina desde sus orígenes hasta los nuevos cines contemporáneos. En cada clase se analizará un período histórico relevante en relación con algún aspecto de la actividad cinematográfica: la “época de oro”, la consolidación y desarrollo de los géneros; la propaganda estatal referida a los logros sociales o los programas de desarrollo y modernización económica; las influencias externas (el neorrealismo italiano); los diversos tipos de realismo latinoamericano; las escuelas documentales; el lugar del autor; el movimiento del cinema novo brasileño; el cine, los intelectuales y la política en torno al 68; las denuncias y las memorias respecto de las dictaduras militares del Cono Sur; los nuevos cines brasileño, mexicano y argentino desde los años noventa.
Prof. Dieleke
Both English and Spanish sections of this course will be offered. For Spanish section: Open to students who have completed
Advanced Grammar and Composition (or equivalent), or to students enrolled
concurrently in V95.9100
This course explores Tango as an aesthetic, social and cultural formation that is articulated in interesting and complex ways with the traditions of culture and politics in Argentina and Latin America more generally. During the rapid modernization of the 1920s and 1930s, Tango (like Brazilian Samba), which had been seen as a primitive and exotic dance, began to emerge as a kind of “modern primitive” art form that quickly came to occupy a central space in national(ist) discourse. The course explores the way that perceptions of “primitive” and “modern” converge in this unique and exciting art. In addition, the course will consider tango as a global metaphor with deeply embedded connections to urban poverty, social marginalization, and masculine authority.
Prof. Fiorucci
Students wishing to take this course for Major or Minor Credit in Latin American Studies or Spanish must register under the V95.9762 number. Students from both sections will attend English lectures together, but those registered under V95.9762 will receive enhanced reading and writing assignments in Spanish.
This course is designed to introduce students to some of the most important problems and debates about Latin American history, society and culture. Latin America is a complex region full of contrasts. Its population is both racially and culturally heterogeneous. Its many countries share some common cultural roots and political origins, but also have distinct histories. The structure of this course is primarily chronological but also thematic. We will start with the Conquest and its legacies and we will end with the problems that we experience today in big cities in Latin America. The course favors a multi-disciplinary approach, and therefore we will use a different array of materials including films, letters, photographs and essays. We will emphasize first hand accounts of the topics we discuss.
Prof. Fernández-Bravo
Open to students who have completed Critical Approaches (or equivalent), or to students enrolled concurrently in V95.9200
Course description coming soon.
V95.9950 - 4 points
Prof. Kamenzain
Open to students who have completed Critical Approaches (or equivalent), or to students enrolled concurrently in V95.9200
Course description coming soon.
Courses Taught in English
Prof. Fiorucci
Students wishing to take this course for Major or Minor Credit in Latin American Studies or Spanish must register under the V95.9762 number. Students from both sections will attend English lectures together, but those registered under V95.9762 will receive enhanced reading and writing assignments in Spanish.
This course is designed to introduce students to some of the most important problems and debates about Latin American history, society and culture. Latin America is a complex region full of contrasts. Its population is both racially and culturally heterogeneous. Its many countries share some common cultural roots and political origins, but also have distinct histories. The structure of this course is primarily chronological but also thematic. We will start with the Conquest and its legacies and we will end with the problems that we experience today in big cities in Latin America. The course favors a multi-disciplinary approach, and therefore we will use a different array of materials including films, letters, photographs and essays. We will emphasize first hand accounts of the topics we discuss.
V39.9815 or K30.9401 - 4 points
Prof. Stahl
A practical course in the writing of creative literary texts: prose (short stories as well as literary non-fiction) and
poetry. Selected published works will be analyzed in class both to provide inspiration for student writing as well as to
represent literary structures and strategies. Writing assignments ranging from spontaneous to long-term projects will
promote creative exploration and self-expression. Critical skills are emphasized and enhanced as students respond to each
others’ work. Awareness of correct conventional use of the English language will be upheld. Students build up a body of
work over the semester. For full credit and in demonstration of a writing “process,” the final portfolios should include
both first drafts and subsequent revisions. At least one longer text (or set of poems) will be selected for submission as
would be appropriate to publishers or literary contests.
Prof. R. Barros
Though at present democracy prevails in South America, for much of the twentieth century South Americans lived under
regimes with limited electoral competition or dictatorship. Depending upon the time slice one examines either democracy
or dictatorship assumes prominence as the organizing principle of South American politics and intellectual discourse.
Strikingly, since the return to democracy over two decades ago, this cycle of democracy and dictatorship appears to have
been broken and democracies stand free from their authoritarian pasts. What has changed? Why is democracy stable today,
while it was fragile yesterday? Did the authoritarian past contribute to the democratic present, and vice versa? Or are
periods of dictatorship and democracy best understood as aberrations of each other that follow in time without leaving
significant legacies for the succeeding regime or society itself? This class seeks to provide students with the
theoretical and empirical tools to think about these questions by analyzing the many dimensions of the problem of
dictatorship and democracy in South America.
Professor Artusa
In this course students will develop, pitch, research, report,
write, edit and present original articles of various kinds on
several subjects throughout the semester. Using the city and
people of Buenos Aires as their focus, students will work in
teams for some projects and individually for others to hone
their skills as observers, interviewers, reporters and writers
Prof. G. Sanchez
NOTE: This course does not count for NYU Economics major credit.
The course offers an introduction to Argentina’s economic performance through time and its current economic issues. There are four parts, each with a separate aim. Part I (5 weeks) introduces from scratch some notions in the field of “open economy macroeconomics”, useful to understand Argentina but also other relatively small economies open to trade and capital flows. The effects of internal or external shocks are quite different in these countries compared to larger economies such as the US or Europe, and require a special understanding. Part II (5 weeks) presents an outline of Argentina’s modern economic history, with three subperiods: export led growth (1850-1930), inward looking industrialization (1930-1975) and re-globalization (1976-2007). Part III (2 weeks) searches for explanations of Argentina’s economic performance, including the effects of external shocks, institutions, trade policy, macroeconomic crises and Argentina’s political economy. Argentina’s he comparative performance of other countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the US. Finally, Part IV (2 weeks) deals with some current economic issues, including income distribution, inflation, fiscal policy and economic volatility
Prof. Dieleke
This course explores Tango as an aesthetic, social and cultural formation that is articulated in interesting and complex ways with the traditions of culture and politics in Argentina and Latin America more generally. During the rapid modernization of the 1920s and 1930s, Tango (like Brazilian Samba), which had been seen as a primitive and exotic dance, began to emerge as a kind of “modern primitive” art form that quickly came to occupy a central space in national(ist) discourse. The course explores the way that perceptions of “primitive” and “modern” converge in this unique and exciting art. In addition, the course will consider tango as a global metaphor with deeply embedded connections to urban poverty, social marginalization, and masculine authority.
Prof. Oubiña
A survey of anticolonialist cinema with special emphasis on
Latin America. Despite conditions of economic and political
oppression, Latin America has managed in recent years to forge a
dynamically original cinema. After studying some European films
that highlight the colonial background of current struggles in
the world, we take a brief look at African cinema and then look
closely at Latin American cinema, with films from Argentina,
Chile, Brazil and Cuba. The emphasis throughout is on a common
theme – the struggle against foreign domination and on the
search for an authentic, innovative national cinematic style.
Professor Raffo
Both an English and Spanish section of this course will be offered.
This course is a journey through the different styles of Latin American Folk and Popular Music (LAFM), particularly those coming from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Their roots, influences and characteristics. Their social and historical context. Their uniqueness and similarities. Emphasis in the rhythmic aspect of folk music as a foundation for dance and as a resource of cultural identity. The irruption of Latin American rhythms in the music market through the “World Music” phenomenon. Even though there is no musical prerequisite, the course is recommended for students with any kind and/or level of musical experience
Prof. De Santos
Globalization refers to diverse social, economic, political, and cultural changes that are remaking the contemporary world. Nations are increasingly interconnected by flows of goods, capital, information, discourses, and people. Multinational corporations, transnational organizations and social movements have grown in size, reach and complexity. This course provides an overview of these and other processes and their consequences, drawing on theoretical ideas from sociology and related fields and focusing on case studies throughout
Latin America.
Some of the topics covered include: the spread of neoliberalism throughout the world and Latin America and how it reshaped economic policies (trade, finance, the role of the state in
the economy); poverty and inequality in the globalizing world; the cultural dimensions of globalization examining the meaningful texture of global commodities, brands and consumption practices; the development of global civil society, global media, and transnational
social movements; patterns and causes of migration and transnational communities; and the effects of globalization on the environment.
Prof. Garramuno
Course description coming soon.
If you are an advanced Spanish Language student or have other academic questions, please contact global.academics@nyu.edu.