Embrace Hobart and William Smith's commitment to global citizenship in the Spanish, Latin American, and Bilingual Studies department. The program offers with a major or minor in Spanish and Hispanic Studies or Latin American Studies and provides cultural and linguistic training and immersive experiences in a variety of relevant areas such as professional development, literary analysis, bilingual education and intercultural awareness. Working closely with a faculty mentor, you’ll choose a path of courses catered to your interests and explore opportunities for study abroad and internships.
Majors: Spanish and Hispanic Studies, Educational Studies Minors: spanish for bilingual education, history
“While my communication and literacy skills have improved tremendously in Spanish and Hispanic Studies, I have also gained an immense perspective on art, history, literature, media and contemporary issues from different regions of the Spanish-speaking world. Literature-based courses have improved my knowledge and discussion abilities on a variety of topics while Professor of Spanish, Latin American, and Bilingual Studies Carolina Travalia’s Spanish linguistics course has influenced my ambition to pursue a graduate degree in linguistics.”
Experiential EducationBilingual Community Engagement
Work with local schools as part of Geneva 2030 or attend a Latin American Student Organization event at the Intercultural Affairs Center.
At Hobart and William Smith, learning goes beyond textbooks and classrooms. You’ll gain high-impact practical experience that deepens learning and opens doors.
Study Arabic influences in Spanish literature in Seville or how the ecological environment is shaped by human behavior in Argentina.
Wherever you go, our top-ranked global education program will allow you to apply classroom knowledge, develop cultural understanding and build global connections that expand your personal capacity and sense of purpose.
Spanish, Latin American, and Bilingual Studies Courses
Explore Spanish, Hispanic and Latin American language, culture, media, history and more with a major or minor in Spanish and Hispanic Studies or Latin American Studies. The minor in Spanish for Bilingual Education offers students the opportunity to improve their proficiency in Spanish while developing an understanding of Spanish-English bilingual education in the United States.
Courses include:
SPN 231 SPANISH FOR THE PROFESSIONS
Explore the vocabulary and cultural implications of using Spanish in a variety of professional careers.
SPN 385 SOUNDS OF SPANISH
Introduce yourself to the mechanics of native sound production in studying the basic concepts of Spanish phonology and phonetics.
BIDS 286 GENDER, NATION, LITERATURE IN LATIN AMERICA
Examine the relationship between gender and national cultures in Latin America, from independence to World War II.
SPNE 210 TOPICS IN BILINGUAL EDUCATION
Explore the philosophies, approaches, and practical applications of foreign language teaching in general and Spanish-English bilingual education.
SPN 316 VOCES DE MUJERES
Discover the strategies used by modern female writers and artists to express themselves, comment on the condition of women, and foster feminist social change in Spain and Latin America.
Academically eligble students of Spanish, Latin American and Bilingual Studies may be inducted into Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society/Sociedad Nacional Honoraria Hispánica.
In the Spanish, Latin American and Bilingual Studies department, faculty and students work collaboratively in the classroom and in extracurricular activities that have a cultural and academic impact. In recent years, the department has participated in the HWS undergraduate research program, where students spend part of their summer on campus working intensively with a faculty member. The academic outcomes of those student projects under the guidance of Spanish, Latin American, and Bilingual Studies faculty members are showcased in Spanish and Hispanic Studies Digital Gallery at HWS, which currently contains five projects that explore diverse subjects, such as animal studies, translation, feminism, political activism, and pedagogy.
animal dialogues
Animal Dialogues explores Hispanic cultural productions with animal protagonism. This page contains canonical fictional pieces that include moral lessons and reflections between animals and humans. These stories touch upon the cultural life of the authors and the animals they write about. Through them, we are able to appreciate the cultural insights that each author provides to create awareness about the presence of animals in human communities from the Spanish speaking world. In our exhibit, we also include illustrations, images, and additional materials to further facilitate comprehension.
Feminist Revivalsmakes English translations of historical feminist plays from Latin America available to researchers, educators, advocates, and the general public. We include relevant images, content descriptions, pdfs, and references to the original Spanish-language text.Each translation inFeminist Revivalsis created collectively. We make our decisions through discussion and consensus and we share authorship.
Showcasing discourses, speeches, and writings by progressive authors in Latin America. Each page features works advocating for social and political equality in Latin America from the 19th and 20th centuries. All translations in ¡Viva la lucha! are created by members of the HWS Translation Collective. We offer transcriptions of the Spanish original to accompany each translation.
Prose and poetry by women in 19th and 20th-century Latin America. Each page contains primary sources in English translation, as well as transcriptions of the original Spanish, along with historical context, related imagery, and notes from members of the Feminist Translation Collective at HWS.
In the summer of 2010, Children’s librarian Tanya Taylor was concerned about the lack of circulation of the Spanish-language books in the Geneva Public Library. She reached out to Professor of Spanish, Latin American, and Bilingual Studies May Summer Farnsworth to help increase the reach of these Spanish-language books. What followed was a series of creative language interaction classroom lessons (CLIC), each of which featured a library book from the library’s Spanish collection. Farnsworth was eventually joined by her colleague in department, Professor of Spanish, Latin American, and Bilingual Studies Carolina Travalia, and several bilingual HWS students. The goal was always to teach Spanish through fun and play. As Taylor says: “Kids learn through fun. So if you love it during the process, you’re learning and you don’t even realize it. If you like it, you love it, you’re going to do it.”
A Spanish and Hispanic studies course on “Don Quixote” launched Andres’s interest in Spanish literature. Thanks in part to the Spanish, Latin American, and Bilingual Studies faculty, he is now working on a master’s in Spanish through Middlebury College’s program in Madrid, Spain.
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