Spanish and Latin American Studies
Neda Mostafavi
Published: 15 August 2004
What do you come out with? BA or MA in Scotland.
Why do it? Because you want to perfect your Spanish or your Portuguese, or your Catalan or your Galician. And you fancy learning one of the fastest-growing languages in the world. Plus, you've fallen in love with Spanish cool - the new movies, art, music and salsa coming out of the Iberian diaspora.
What's it about? You learn the language or languages you have chosen or combine a language with a humanities subject. Then you have a lot of choice between courses on history, literature, politics, cinema and art. At some places you can study Iberian languages with business. Birmingham is hot on the visual arts and film. Aberdeen emphasises modern Hispanic culture rather than the Spanish Golden Age of the 16th and 17th centuries. At Queen Mary the Spanish and Latin American Studies course may include some Portuguese and Catalan.
What are the students like? Varied. Many have quite good language skills already. Some have fallen in love with the Spanish lifestyle, they've been taken in by the idea of siestas and tapas. Those who are combining a language with business studies tend to be more focused.
How is it packaged? At Cambridge, examination is by big-bang finals. At Aberdeen all honours-level exams are marked entirely by assessment. At Birmingham and St AAndrews, it's 50 per cent coursework and 50 per cent examinations. For all culture courses at Birkebeck it's 40 per cent coursework and 60 per cent examinations; for the language courses it's 35 per cent examination, 15 per cent coursework, 20 per cent oral, 20 per cent listening comprehension and 10 per cent class participation.
How long is the degree? Generally it's four years in England and Wales and five years in Scotland. Four years at Queen Mary. The third year is spent abroad in a Spanish speaking country. At St Andrews its either four years with one year spent abroad on a Socrates scheme where you'd study in a Spanish Uni, or else its five years where one of the years is spent abroad teaching English in a Spanish speaking country. Four years minimum at Birkbeck as the course is part- time 2/3 times a week from 6 to 9 PM.
How cool is it? Very. Latin American culture is where it's at these days. Spanish has become a very popular language to study at school recently. It's more common than French and easier than German.
What A-levels do you need? Spanish or another language for Queen Mary, but without Spanish you'd be placed in the beginners stream. Any for Birkbeck. Birmingham requires one modern European language. In addition it likes to see some literature or visual culture. Anything goes at a lot of places. Spanish is usually required if you're taking Spanish or Hispanic studies, but, if you're doing Spanish as a second language, you can usually do the course from scratch.
What grades? BCC for Queen Mary with one of the Bs in Spanish or another language. Birkbeck requires A level standard knowledge of Spanish, but no formal qualifications are needed. They also offer an access course to catch up if you're not already at that level. BBC for single honours Hispanic studies at Birmingham. CCC at Aberdeen or BBBB at Highers. BBB at St Andrews or BBBB at Highers, the entry requirements can go up if you opt for a joint degree with a very popular subject.
Will you be interviewed?No.
Will it keep you off the dole?As the second most spoken language in the world it should do. Graduates of Spanish sometimes use their language by going to work in Spain or Latin America or by joining the diplomatic service. Others enter business, the City, law, media, marketing, go into translation or go on to further study.
What do students say? Rowan Gore, in his 2nd year of Hispanic Studies at Queen Mary. "I like studying Politics and History- but being related to Hispanic Studies. I never wanted to do a straight Politics degree, this interests me much more."
Oscar Salgado, who graduated from Birkbeck in 2004, where he studied Spanish and Latin American Studies. "At Birkbeck they are great at being flexible when dealing with time and the help from the teachers is also great. I liked the structure of the course and the way they approached the subject."
Where's best for teaching? Only Hull scored top with 24. King's College London, Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds got 22.
Where's best for research? Birkbeck, Cambridge, King's College London, Manchester, Nottingham and Queen Mary all received 5*. Next with 5 were Birmingham, Newcastle, Oxford, Sheffield, Edinburgh, St Andrews and Swansea. Bristol, Durham, Exeter, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Royal Holloway, UCL, Wolverhampton, Aberdeen Strathclyde and Queen's Belfast got 4s.
Where's the cutting edge? The Spanish Golden Age, native religions in Latin America and Caribbean literature at Birmingham; Hispanic avant-garde, fin de siècle and you can take Basque culture at Aberdeen. At Birkbeck: diaspora, queer studies, film studies and visual culture, space and urban studies, and childhood and youth culture are all big issues.
Where are the stars? Professor Paul Julian Smith (modern Spanish literature and culture, especially that of Peru) and Professor Melveena McKendrick (the Spanish Golden Age) at Cambridge; Professor Trevor Dadson (Golden Age and contemporary poetry) at Birmingham; Philip Swanson (modern Latin American fiction) at Aberdeen; Professor Jo Labanyi (modern peninsula studies) at Southampton; Professor William Rowe (Latin American Cultural Studies); Professor Peter Evans (Hispanic and US Film) at Queen Mary; Professor Jason Wilson, Latin Americanist at UCL; Professor Jeremy Robbins (Spanish Golden Age) at Edinburgh; Catherine Davies (women studies in Spain and Latin America) at Nottingham; and Professor Chris Perriam (queer theory, gender studies and Spanish cinema post 1960) at Manchester.
Related courses: Hispanic Studies with Catalan at Sheffield. Law with Spanish Law at Aberdeen.
Weird and wacky degrees: You can do Celtic and Hispanic Studies at Aberdeen. Wine Studies and Spanish at Coventry University.Or maybe Cymraeg with Spanish at Aberystwyth is your cup of tea?
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