Welcome

The Department of Spanish and Latin American Cultures at Barnard College boasts a long tradition of excellence in undergraduate education for women. Throughout its history, it has afforded students a solid preparation in both Spanish language and the literatures and cultures of Spain, Spanish America, and the Spanish-speaking United States.

The keystone of our integrated curriculum is linguistic and intellectual continuity from the elementary language level to the most advanced literature and culture courses.

Our language courses are not only skill - and proficiency - oriented, but anchor the rigorous academic preparation that students will need for advanced study, either at Barnard or in college-level study abroad.

Our upper-level courses guide students in acquiring the necessary historical and theoretical tools to understand the cultural and aesthetic production of the Hispanic world. Through our strong collaboration with interdisciplinary programs at Barnard, including Comparative Literature, Africana Studies, Women’s Studies, and the Forum on Migration, as well as our teamwork with the Columbia Department of Spanish and Portuguese, we are ideally poised to train students for a wide range of post-graduation experiences, be they in MA/PhD programs or in the professional sphere.