The Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies is dedicated to the study of the languages, literatures and cultures of Spain, Latin America and the Lusophone worlds, as well as Latina/o populations in the United States. To continue with our tradition of excellence, in recent years our department has hired a group of young scholars who publish cutting-edge research in their fields.
Our faculty's areas of expertise include performance and politics in Portuguese popular traditions; Lusophone African literature and culture; Brazilian literature and documentary film; modern and contemporary Iberian literature, theater, history and culture, mainly the Spanish and Catalan traditions; Latino/a culture and literature; Latino bilingualism; bilingual language acquisition; Spanish and Basque linguistics; contemporary Latin American literature and film; Iberian/Ibero-American civilizations; literatures and cultures of the Hispanic Caribbean, and oral histories of the Ironbound area of Newark.
Our courses are broadly conceived. While we offer literature courses that study literary periods and genres, we also offer courses that place literature in relation to its political, cultural and historical processes, and its relation with other arts, including visual arts broadly understood. A capstone of this educational view are recent courses taught by our faculty such as: Latino Bilingualism; Oral History of the Ironbound; Performing the Nation in Portugal and Brazil; Journalism in Hispanic Literature; The Spanish Civil War in the Cultural Memory: Literature, Theater and Art; Catalan and Galician Literature in Translation; Gangs in Brazilian Literature and Film; The Mexican Revolution; US Hispanic Latino Literature; Slavery, Race and the Black Experience in Latin American Literature, among others.