Welcome to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Since its creation in 1968, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese has offered an excellent array of both undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of Spanish and Portuguese languages, Hispanic and Brazilian literatures, and Linguistics. Our academic programs are diverse, rigorous and comprehensive in their approach and are supported by an outstanding, committed, and internationally recognized faculty who represent the following principal areas of teaching and research: Iberian Middle Ages and Renaissance; Colonial and Modern Latin America; Modern Spain, and Applied Linguistics.

The main goal of our department is to guarantee that every student receives the highest quality education. We accomplish this goal by continually refining and building on the strengths of our academic programs and striving to maintain small class sizes to allow each student individual attention. The department offers an uncompromising, and carefully designed curriculum at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Our general program is an integral part of the education provided by UT’s College of Liberal Arts and seeks to assist students to develop an informed appreciation for Luso-Hispanic languages, literatures and cultures as well as to acquire basic skills in critical thinking, effective writing, and oral communication in Spanish and Portuguese.

Each year, our department helps prepare approximately 700 majors in Spanish and/or Portuguese for careers in both the private and public sectors such as: international business, education, healthcare, public service, and government. Many of our majors before graduation spend at least one semester in Spain or South America, an experience that has proven to be decisive for their language and cultural skills.

Through collaboration with the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS), its Mexican Center and Brazil Center, and with the Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS), the Department of Spanish and Portuguese sponsors Latin American writers and artists in residence and brings distinguished scholars to campus.

If you have any comments or questions, please contact me at madelinesm@mail.utexas.edu

Saludos cordiales,
Saudações cordiais,

Madeline Sutherland-Meier
Associate Professor and Chair