About the Department

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese offers a comprehensive undergraduate and graduate program in Spanish language, literature, and culture, as well as Portuguese language and Brazilian literature and cultural studies. Our faculty is dynamic, professionally active, and committed to excellence in scholarship and teaching. Currently the program has nearly 200 undergraduate majors. In addition, 40 graduate students are working for the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. While the major emphasis of teaching and research is literature, the department also offers courses in Spanish language, linguistics, and culture, Portuguese language, and Brazilian literature. In 1995 the National Research Council designated the Department first in the nation, tied with Brown University, for overall effectiveness of doctoral training. In Spring 2007, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese received the 2007 Departmental Award for Exceptional Teaching and Learning from the Center for Teaching Excellence, the University of Kansas.

Library collections in Lawrence contain more than 3.6 million volumes, microforms, manuscripts, maps, and photographs. The collections are especially strong in the areas of Central America and Latin America with more than 400,000 volumes and current periodicals on Latin America. Scholars from all over the world use the Kenneth Spencer Research Library's valuable collection of rare and historic materials. The Center for Latin America Studies provides significant opportunities for study and research in Latin America.

Teaching assistantships are available to a limited number of qualified graduate students who are pursuing advanced degrees in Spanish. Stipends are generally competitive half-time appointments for the nine-month academic year.

Fellowships for graduate studies are available to a few truly outstanding students. Graduate Studies awards Self, Honors, and Dissertation fellowships. The Andrew Debicki International Travel Scholarship in the Humanities provides travel support for a KU Humanities graduate student for dissertation research outside the United States. Teaching fellowships during the summer session at the Lawrence campus and abroad are available on a competitive for qualified students. Inquiries about eligibility and stipends should be addressed to the department.

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese also offers the Harley S. Nelson Scholarships to undergraduate students in their senior year on the basis of merit. Selection takes place during the junior year. For information, write or call the department.

For information about undergraduate scholarships based on academic merit, diversity, major, and residence, write or call the University of Kansas, Office of Admissions and Scholarships, KU Visitor Center, 1502 Iowa Street, Lawrence, KS 66045-7576, (785) 864-3911, www.admissions.ku.edu.

For information about graduate studies in Spanish and Portuguese, visit our Graduate Studies pages for links and contact information, or call the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at 785-864-3851.

• The B.A. in Spanish, an intensive program for students seeking fluency in Spanish or Portuguese or both, requires 29 credit hours beyond the general prerequisites. Advanced undergraduate courses in grammar, composition, conversation, literature and culture are offered every semester on campus, and in summer study abroad programs in Mexico, Spain, and Brazil. The Department also offers a multi-disciplinary Brazilian Studies minor.
  
• The M.A. in literature requires 30 hours of graduate-level courses, including one seminar—either in peninsular literature or in Spanish-American literature plus reading knowledge of one other foreign language approved by the department and a general exam on Hispanic literature that must be partly written and partly oral.
  
• The Ph.D. program allows specialization in the fields of Spanish and Spanish-American literature. Precise areas of specialization are planned with the student’s advisory committee as early in the graduate program as possible.