Spanish and Latin American Studies
We offer interdisciplinary teaching in Spanish and Latin American Studies by experts in the field. Our courses allow you to develop your interest at every level, from Spanish language-learning short courses to study at BA degree level, Graduate Diploma, MA and PhD.
We have a dynamic and diverse student community. When you study Spanish and Latin American Studies at Birkbeck, you will learn from academics whose expertise include literature, critical theory, cultural history, urban studies, environmental humanities, visual and material cultures, spanning from the nineteenth century to the present.
Spanish courses
BA degree
At Birkbeck you can study Spanish and Latin American Studies on a range of our undergraduate courses, either as a single language pathway, or together with another language within our flexible BA Modern Languages. If you are especially interested in how languages work and keen to orient your study towards linguistics, you can study Italian as part of BA Language Teaching and Language or BA Linguistics and Language. Or you can study Spanish and Latin American Studies with another subject as part of a combined honours degree (e.g. English, Film and Media, History, Art History, Journalism, Politics, and Law).
The BA degree will allow you to develop your language skills in Spanish to a high level and deepen your knowledge and understanding of the cultures and societies of Spain and Latin American worlds, including Brazil.
View Spanish BA degree programmes.
BA DEGREE WITH YEAR ABROAD
Some undergraduate programmes give you the chance spend a year abroad at a partner institution, enabling you to develop your language skills and knowledge of the culture.
View programmes with international experience.
BA DEGREE WITH FOUNDATION YEAR
If you haven’t studied for a while or don’t immediately meet our entry requirements, we also offer BA Modern Languages and BA Language Teaching and Language with a Foundation Year. This four-year degree with an in-built foundation year prepares you for study at university level, giving you the skills needed to succeed in the following three years of your course.
View BA degree courses with foundation year.
POSTGRADUATE
If you've already studied for a degree, we offer postgraduate courses to enrich your understanding of Spanish.
We offer a Graduate Diploma if you have a degree in another subject or have taken a break from studies but would like to refresh and deepen your knowledge of Spanish with a view to further postgraduate study such as an MA, or simply to pursue a personal or intellectual ambition.
Within our MA Modern Languages and Comparative Cultures, you have the possibility of undertaking advanced study in the histories of Spanish and Latin American cultures in the light of contemporary theoretical developments in the fields of literature, cultural studies, visual and material cultures. The MA is structured flexibly, allowing you to choose a comparative pathway, or to engage in more depth with one or more specific language-speaking areas such as Spanish. If you do so, this will be reflected in your degree award: MA Spanish and Latin American Studies.
Students take this course for a variety of reasons. For example, for some it is a stepping stone for a research degree. College and secondary school teachers who have done this course have highlighted the following benefits:
- Expanded knowledge of Spanish and Latin American cultures, allowing them to teach a wider range of topics in more depth
- Improved Spanish language skills
- Enhanced critical and analytical skills
- Sharpened writing skills – helping them to teach essay writing at A-Level
- Chance of promotion
View Spanish postgraduate programmes.
SHORT COURSES AND CERTIFICATE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Our year-long short courses improve your language skills and cultural knowledge of Spain and offer one of our five language levels starting at Beginner level (Spanish 1-4). View Spanish short courses.
Birkbeck's Certificate of Higher Education in Linguistics and Languages offers you the chance of taking 120 credits the equivalent of a first year of our BA programme if you prefer not to commit to a full degree programme at this stage. The part-time Culture and Language introductory course enables you to study a language - French, German, Italian, Japanese or Spanish - to intermediate or advanced level, while also exploring the culture, history and society of the countries associated with it.
STUDENT TESTIMONIALS
"I chose Spanish and Latin American studies to get my Spanish at near-native level as possible, and also because I wanted to have the culture."
Natalia, BA Spanish and Latin American Studies
RESEARCH
Birkbeck has a strong research culture with a variety of disciplinary orientations and interdisciplinary practices, covering from the nineteenth century to the present; we address critically the latest cultural, social, environmental and political developments across Spanish and Latin American communities.
Birkbeck’s Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies provides a stimulating environment for collaborative and interdisciplinary work in visual culture. As a student, you will be able to participate in, and contribute to the activities and events that CILAVS organises such as film screenings, round tables, seminars.
CAMPUS
Birkbeck is located within the beautiful neighbourhood of Bloomsbury in central London, home to libraries, theatres, museums and galleries. At the heart of literary London, you might be studying in a building that was once home to Virginia Woolf and frequented by members of the Bloomsbury Group.