Department of Spanish and Portuguese: Indiana University

Director's Overview of the Graduate Program

(Please refer to University Graduate School Bulletin for more information.)

The Graduate program of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese offers the Master of Arts degree with concentration in Hispanic Literature, Hispanic Linguistics and in Luso-Brazilian Literature (Portuguese). The Department also offers the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Literatures in Spanish, Linguistics and Luso-Brazilian Studies. We also offer courses in Catalan language and literature. The time line for completing a degree is roughly two years to earn an M.A. degree (after having graduated with a B.A. in Spanish) and four to five years for completion of the Ph.D. For those accepted to study in our program, we guarantee a minimum of working support (Associate Instructorships or AIships) for up to seven years providing the student maintains satisfactory progress during the period of study. In addition,upon admission, our best applicants' dossiers are entered automatically for available fellowships.

If I were to profile our graduate program, I would primarily stress its comprehensive nature. The most recent ranking I have seen puts our Spanish program in the top fifteen in the nation and our Portuguese program in the top ten. M.A. candidates for a degree in the literature or linguistics take a specific number of courses and pass a comprehensive examination on materials listed in the reading list for those degrees; these lists are posted on our website. Students who have earned an M.A. degree here at Indiana University or elsewhere and are accepted for study in our Ph.D. program, fulfill additional course requirements and prepare for qualifying examinations. There are no set materials for these exams; each student prepares, in consultation with an advisor, a reading list that gives the student the focus and background for writing a dissertation.

Wonderful source materials are available at the Indiana University Libraries. These libraries contain roughly seven million volumes and 23 million other materials system-wide with outstanding holdings in the areas of literature and linguistics. Of special importance is the Lilly Library which houses a notable collection of rare books and manuscripts dealing with colonial Latin American and early Modern Spain.

Our faculty's expertise spans many areas both in terms of fields of study and in theoretical approaches. Our students, coming from a plurality of ethnic and national backgrounds, leave us with a solid degree that prepares them for the job market. We have been pleased to see that all our Ph.D.'s entering the academic market have found tenure-track positions at the university or college level. To facilitate this, the Department offers professional workshops and colloquia in teaching, publishing and interviewing.

An important part of a student's preparation is teaching. We have a first-rate language program with guidance and supervision for our graduate students. We run a program of computer-assisted language instruction. The department also offers advanced graduate students the opportunity to teach during the summer sessions as schedules permit. The department offers, though more informally, professional opportunities such as service on committees. Workshops on professional preparedness (dossier preparation, interviewing techniques, etc.) are also offered. A yearly series of works-in-progress presentations allows our graduate students to ready themselves for conference participation. The GSAC (Graduate Student Advisory Committee) helps facilitate communication with the faculty on curricular matters is a valuable asset to incoming graduate students. In addition, GSAC hosts the annual Graduate Student Conference, which is held at IU each Spring.

We have an active intellectual life in the department. Three regular lecture series, for example, help bring scholars from around the world to meet with us; a biennial department colloquium offers our students the chance to prepare for the world of conferences. Outside of the department, there are plentiful cultural opportunities. The Bloomington campus has a vibrant intellectual life and we encourage students to engage in curricular and extracurricular activities in other departments. IU is home to a prestigious Department of Linguistics and our linguistics students can work in both departments to achieve their academic goals. Furthermore, the University enjoys a strong Comparative Literature program as well as renowned institutes on West European Studies (WEST) and the Center for Caribbean and Latin-American Studies (CLACS). Film Studies and theater are not only first-rate departments of our College, they offer a regular fare of film showings and productions at affordable prices. Musical life in Bloomington - opera, ballet, concert halls, folk music, etc. - is world-class.

We believe that our degree programs offer not only a solid professional preparation but also the opportunity for an auspicious time of learning and exploration, the unique chance for intellectual and aesthetic growth. Please feel free to e-mail or write to us for further information.

- Director of Graduate Studies