Master of Arts

I. Admission

The Spanish and Portuguese Department's Graduate Committee evaluates all applications. In addition to the Graduate School's criteria for regular degree students, we require all entering students to have native or near-native proficiency in understanding, speaking, reading, and writing Spanish. Also, they must have a general knowledge of Peninsular and Latin American literatures.

All international students applying to our MA program whose native language is not English will need to score at least 550 (213 on the computerized exam) on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) to be admitted.

Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test scores are not mandatory for admission. However, applicants wishing to be considered for the competitive Devaney, CHA, or Chancellor's fellowships are strongly encouraged to take the GRE general test and submit their official scores. This test is also not mandatory for consideration for teaching assistantships.

II. Advising (revised February 2021)

New graduate students are advised to consult with the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies before they select their first-semester courses.

By the beginning of their second semester in the program, students must choose a Faculty Advisor (normally this faculty member becomes the Chair of the MA Supervisory Committee), with whom they will plan their program of study after that.

Before the end of a student's third semester in the program, they must form an MA Supervisory Committee (MASC). The MASC, which advises the student in all matters pertaining to the MA program, will consist of three members of the department's graduate faculty and must be approved by the department Chair.

Within two weeks of being constituted, each MASC or its Chair will meet with the student to discuss his or her program of study. The Associate Chair for Graduate Studies will be an ad hoc member of this committee.

The MA Supervisory Committee (Linguistics), which advises the student in all matters pertaining to the MA Program (Hispanic Linguistics), will consist of three members of the department’s graduate faculty in Hispanic Linguistics. Under special circumstances, the student may request that one of their committee members be external. This request must be approved by the Chair of the department.

III. Coursework: Peninsular and Latin American Literatures Option

MA Students are required to take 30 hours of graduate coursework. All MA students in the Peninsular and Latin American Literatures Option are required to take: 1) the literary theory seminar offered by the department; 2) a graduate course in Hispanic Linguistics offered by the department, and 3) the Teaching Methodology course (SPAN 4980) offered by the department.

Also, students in the Peninsular and Latin American Literatures Option are required to take a minimum of three graduate credit hours in each of the following subject areas:

  1. Medieval Iberian Literature
  2. Early Modern Spanish Literature
  3. Colonial Spanish American Literature
  4. Nineteenth Century Spanish American Literature
  5. Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Peninsular Literature
  6. Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Peninsular Literature
  7. Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Spanish American Literature

IV. Coursework: Hispanic Linguistics Option

All MA Students in the Hispanic Linguistics Option are required to take 30 hours of graduate coursework. They are required to have their course selections in linguistics approved by their advisor and the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies, but they are encouraged to develop an interdepartmental and interdisciplinary course of study. Each Spring semester Hispanic Linguistics students are required to complete the MA Progress Towards Degree Completion form by May 15th. Graduate seminars offered in departments such as Linguistics, Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology and Education can serve as important complements to linguistics courses taken in our department.

In addition to graduate linguistics courses, all MA students in the Hispanic Linguistics Option are required to take: 1) the one-unit Teaching Methodology course (SPAN 4980) offered by our department; 2) one graduate-level literature seminar offered by our department; and 3) LING 2000 Introduction to Linguistics if they have not taken a similar course as part of their previous course of study. Students who must take LING 2000 are required to do so during their first semester in the program.

V. Coursework: Spanish And Portuguese Option.

 Students are required to either take PORT 2350 in their first semester of study (or place in upper Portuguese language level) if they do not speak Portuguese or take SPAN 1150 or SPAN 2150, in case they are not proficient in Spanish. Graduate students in this subplan are required to have Portuguese as the main area for their MA comprehensive exams. MA Students are required to take 31 hours of graduate coursework, of which 25 hours must be taken within the department.

Required courses for the MA in Spanish & Portuguese Studies: 

1. SPAN 5130 Seminar: Critical Approaches to Iberian & Latin American Literatures and Cultures (3 credit hours)

2. SPAN 4980 Methods Language Learn/Pedagogy (1 cred. hour, offered in the Fall)

3. 1 Hispanic Linguistics course (3 credits)

4. 6 graduate-level Spanish & Portuguese literature courses in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese: 2 courses in the areas of Medieval/Early Modern/Colonial Literature; 2 in Modern and Contemporary Peninsular Literature; 2 in Modern and Contemporary Latin American Literature (18 cred. hours)

5. Additional 2 graduate courses offered inside or outside the Department (6 credit hours)

VI. Coursework: Spanish Teaching Option

The 31 hours of coursework in this track are almost evenly divided between the three areas of literature, linguistics and language pedagogy. Six of the credits in the pedagogy and education area may be taken outside of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, for example in Education, Linguistics, Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, and Ethnic Studies.

Students in the MA Spanish Teaching track option are required to take the following:

  1. SPAN 4650/5650 Methods of Teaching Spanish (3 cred. hours, offered in the Spring)
  2. SPAN 4980 Methods Language Learn/Pedagogy (1 cred. hour, offered in the Fall)
  3. 3 graduate-level Spanish literature courses in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese (9 cred. hours)
  4. 3 graduate-level Hispanic linguistics courses in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese (9 cred. hours)
  5. 1 Graduate-level linguistics or literature elective in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese (3 cred. hours)
  6. 2 Education-related courses inside or outside of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese (6 cred. hours)

VII. General MA Course Policies

All MA Students must take at least 25 credit hours of coursework at the University of Colorado at Boulder campus. MA students may transfer to the department a maximum of six hours of acceptable graduate-level credit and may take no more than six credit hours of independent study courses.

Courses taken as part of the MA program must be offered by our department or by others upon having been approved by the student's MASC (or the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies if the MASC has not yet been formed). Also, MA students may not take more than nine hours of graduate coursework in any given semester.

No graduate course in the department may be taken pass/fail by a graduate student in our program. This rule also applies to those courses taken in the Department of Linguistics by our MA students.

Students who are failing a course will not be allowed to drop the course, except under special circumstances. To do so, approval must be secured from the course instructor, the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies, and the Department Chair.

VIII. Grades and Grade Point Average

For all advanced degrees, students should attain a minimum grade of B in all of their graduate courses. If a student receives a B- (or a lesser grade) in a course for the MA, said course with its respective grade will not count toward the total number of credits required to graduate. When this occurs, the student must meet with the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies to discuss his or her progress in the program. Also, the student will have to re-take this particular class or another course in the same area.

Upon receiving more than one B- (or a lesser grade), a student will be dropped from the graduate program. In order to ensure that special considerations are taken into account, the department Graduate Committee will review each case affected by this policy and issue a recommendation to the department Chair on the subject.

IX. Language Requirement

Students must demonstrate, as early as possible before taking the MA Comprehensive Examination, communication knowledge of one other modern language (subject to the approval of the student's MASC). English and Spanish are not part of this language requirement. Communication knowledge is defined as the achievement of the current minimum acceptable score on the Graduate School Foreign Language Test or completion of a fourth-semester college-level course with a grade of B or higher. A fourth-semester college level of Latin (with a grade of B or higher) will also fulfill this requirement.

X. Teaching Experience

Students are required to have at least one year of supervised teaching experience in our department before graduating.

XI. MA Comprehensive Examination (revised February 2024)

The MA Comprehensive Examination is designed to test a student's mastery of a broad field of knowledge (not limited to the formal coursework completed by each student) and encourages comprehensive and synthesized thinking. The exam is both written and oral. A majority of the committee will determine whether the candidate has satisfactorily answered each question of the exam and can therefore move forward to the oral portion. In case of a tie, the specialist in the area will have the tie-breaker vote. If one or more of the answers in the written section are considered unsatisfactory, the candidate will arrange with the members of the committee a new date for retaking the portions of the exam related to the pertinent area/s. All portions of the written exam must be satisfactory to move forward to the oral. Successful candidates must receive affirmative votes from a majority of the members of their MA Comprehensive Examination committee in the oral portion of the exam. At least some part of the written and oral exam must be conducted in the language of the student's main area of study (Spanish or Portuguese).

Students in the Peninsular and Latin American Literatures Option must choose three of the following areas of concentration (students may select no more than two Peninsular and Latin American Literature areas of concentration):

  1. Medieval Iberian Literature
  2. Early Modern Spanish Literature
  3. Colonial Spanish American Literature
  4. Nineteenth Century Spanish American Literature
  5. Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Peninsular Literature
  6. Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Peninsular Literature
  7. Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Spanish American Literature

Students in the Hispanic Linguistics Option must choose three areas of linguistic research (i.e., one major and two minor areas) in collaboration with their advisor. The reading list for the MA exams in Hispanic Linguistics will be developed by the members of the student's MASC and will be based on the exam areas chosen by the student.

Students in the Spanish Teaching option will have three areas of concentration. The primary area will be Applied Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, or Language pedagogy. One secondary/minor area will focus on Hispanic Linguistics while the other will focus on Literature. Students will choose an exam committee with three graduate faculty members from the Department. The reading lists for each area will be developed in consultation with the members of the student's MA supervisory committee and will be based on the exam areas chosen by the student.

Students in the Spanish and Portuguese Track have Portuguese Literature as their primary area of concentration, and must choose one area of concentration in Peninsular Literature (Medieval, Early Modern, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century, Twentieth and Twenty-First Century) and one in Latin American Literature (Colonial, Nineteenth Century, Twenty and Twentieth and Twenty-Fist Century).