Fall 2023: Spanish of the USA

Instructor: Jorge Espinosa, GTF

A descriptive and use and community-based research course that explores the different socio-linguistic and socio-cultural realities of the Spanish spoken in the USA. The first third of the semester we apply concepts and methods of socio-linguistics and heritage studies to envision the landscape of USA Spanish regional variation, bilingualism, and diglossia, as well as to understand change mechanism in code-switching, interdialects, and Spanglish. The second part of the course explores USA Spanish in transaction, using identity, gender and ethnic studies to delve into issues of equity, inclusion and accessibility when USA Spanish is in transaction with the gender gap, with racism, with indigenous communities, with political ideology, etc. Finally, the third part of the semester is an analysis of the normative yet creative power of social media USA Spanish: The Spanish of Twitter, Facebook and Tik-Tok. This is a field-study and research-intensive course organized around a semester long project and the use of disruptive digital technologies.

Prerequisite: SPAN 261 or 267.

Making Connections Gen Ed: NA

A descriptive and use and community-based research course that explores the different socio-linguistic and socio-cultural realities of the Spanish spoken in the USA. The first third of the semester we apply concepts and methods of sociolinguistics and heritage studies to envision the landscape of USA Spanish regional variation, bilingualism, and diglossia, as well as to understand change mechanism in code-switching, interdialects and Spanglish. The second part of the course explores USA Spanish in transaction, using identity, gender and ethnic studies to delve into issues of equity, inclusion and accessibility when USA Spanish is in transaction with the gender gap, with racism, with indigenous communities, with political ideology, etc. Finally, the third part of the semester is an analysis of the normative yet creative power of social media USA Spanish: The Spanish of Twitter, Facebook and Tic-Toc. This is a field-study and research-intensive course organized around a semester long project and the use of disruptive digital technologies.

Prerequisite: SPAN 300 or instructor’s permission

A descriptive and use and community-based research course that explores the different socio-linguistic and socio-cultural realities of the Spanish spoken in the USA. The first third of the semester we apply concepts and methods of socio-linguistics and heritage studies to envision the landscape of USA Spanish regional variation, bilingualism, and diglossia, as well as to understand change mechanism in code-switching, interdialects and Spanglish. The second part of the course explores USA Spanish in transaction, using identity, gender and ethnic studies to delve into issues of equity, inclusion and accessibility when USA Spanish is in transaction with the gender gap, with racism, with indigenous communities, with political ideology, etc. Finally, the third part of the semester is an analysis of the normative yet creative power of social media USA Spanish: The Spanish of Twitter, Facebook and Tic-Toc. This is a field-study and research-intensive course organized around a semester long project and the use of disruptive digital technologies.

Prerequisite: SPAN 300 or instructor’s permission