Hispanic and Lusophone Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics Ph.D.

The Hispanic and Lusophone Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics PhD program provides students with a focused and rigorous formation in the literatures, languages, and cultures of Spain, Latin America, and the Portuguese speaking world. Students choose one of three areas of emphasis: Hispanic Literatures & Cultures, Lusophone Literatures & Cultures, or Hispanic Linguistics. In addition to establishing a specialization in one or more areas of Hispanic or Lusophone studies, the program allows and encourages students to pursue comparative or interdisciplinary work. Students complement their work in the department with coursework in other disciplines such as: Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies; Medieval Studies; Linguistics; Curriculum and Instruction; History; Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature; African-American and African Studies; Human Rights Program; Geography; Sociology; and Moving Image Studies.

The department's faculty is committed to preparing students and giving them the tools to become scholars and teachers of the highest quality. The department has a strong tradition of fostering socio-historical perspectives on literatures, languages, and cultures. The graduate Literature & Cultures faculty is committed to comparative and interdisciplinary research and engages a variety of contemporary theoretical approaches, with strengths in postcolonial theory, social justice and human rights, memory studies, critical race theory, diasporic studies, and gender and sexuality studies. Members of the Hispanic Linguistics faculty are specialists in the fields of sociolinguistics, second language acquisition, syntax, pragmatics, and phonology.

The department offers students in the program faculty mentoring, a seminar, and workshops on professional development, including publishing, teaching, and interviewing. In addition, graduate student workshops in both literatures and cultures and in linguistics foster student-faculty relations and allow graduate students to ready themselves for conference participation. Travel funds are available through the department to allow students to present their papers at conferences in the United States or abroad.