The Department of Spanish and Portuguese encourages its students to complete a portion of their undergraduate study through the University’s Education Abroad Program. Spanish and Portuguese majors can deepen their understanding of Spanish and Latin American literatures and cultures, including Brazil, by study in a foreign university and at the same time add an international dimension to their undergraduate education. Because all courses taken through EAP are accepted as UC courses, with careful planning students may spend as much as a year of study in a foreign university with no loss of time in completing their degrees.
The opportunities for enhancing one’s understanding of literature written in Spanish through foreign study are almost boundless: exploring the land of Don Quixote de la Mancha, tapping the history of Mexico and its writers, from Sor Juana to Octavio Paz, or discovering Neruda’s Chile. The vast country of Brazil, with its rich human and cultural resources, is also open to EAP students of
Portuguese. EAP now is offering a Spanish language program in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Spanish and Portuguese majors who study abroad come to understand that cultural context is crucial for interpreting literary texts, that knowledge is constructed differently in other political and social milieux. They may gain fluency in the language while at the same time studying its literature.
Spanish majors find that a term, or better, a year in a foreign university not only enhances their critical thinking and writing skills, but that the experience of adapting to another academic and cultural world expands their self-under standing and gives them a keen sense of the political and social differences in today’s world. The personal and intellectual growth of study abroad provides further advantages when it comes to the challenges of graduate and professional study.
Back to Top
There are a variety of ways in which Spanish majors can incorporate study abroad into their studies. If you have taken less than two years of university-level Spanish you can participate in a language and culture program in Mexico, Chile or Spain. If you have already completed two or more years of university-level
Spanish (Span 1-6), you can do a fall or spring semester or full year abroad in
Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile or Spain. Portuguese majors can choose from programs in Bahia and Rio de Janeiro.
Freshmen
It’s best to begin planning as early as possible for study abroad. If you want to begin or continue the study of Spanish through the short-term language and culture programs,abroad as a sophomore.
Sophomores & Juniors
You can apply in your sophomore year to do a language and culture program in your junior year, but if you want to complete a significant portion of your major studies abroad, you should apply in fall of sophomore year to do a regular semester or your entire junior year abroad. Students doing full-year immersion programs in their junior year are advised to complete some portion of their upper-division major requirements prior to going abroad.
Seniors
If you want to go abroad in your senior year, you should complete all your major requirements or plan to take courses meeting your remaining requirements while abroad. It is possible to graduate while abroad, but close consultation with an advisor is essential.
Transfer students
Students are eligible to participate as early as their first term at UCSB. For more information, visit the EAP web site.
Back to Top
If you want to complete a substantial part of your Spanish major abroad, you have a variety of options. Hispanic literature – and sometimes linguistics – courses are offered at all immersion program universities in Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico and Spain. Spanish majors will find plenty of courses fulfilling upper- division major requirements.
If you want to study Catalan literature and culture, in addition to Spanish, go to Barcelona. If you want to study non-Spanish speaking Mexican indigenous groups, do the Field Research Program in Mexico. If you’re interested in colonial literature, consider a program in Latin America. If you like medieval poetry or golden-age drama, study it in Spain. For maximum Spanish language credit in a unique, the language program in Buenos Aires, Argentina is ideal.
Portuguese majors, or Spanish majors with a background or interest in Portu- guese, should consider a program in Brazil. The semester language and culture program in Salvador, Bahia is open to students who have studied less than two years of Portuguese. The semester or year programs in Rio are for students who have studied at least one year of Portuguese or two years of another university-level Romance language.
Back to Top
Generally, any upper-division literature or linguistics courses taken abroad may
be accepted for major credit. If a course is equivalent to a specific major requirement at UCSB (these are Span 100, 102L, 110ABCD and 111ABC), or to one of the approved substitutions for these courses listed on the purple sheet available in the Department, students can petition for this specific course to fulfill the requirement. For instance, a course entitled Contemporary Spanish Novelists could count for 110D.
Courses that do not fulfill specific requirements can be petitioned for upper-division Spanish elective credit. In addition, ONE of each of the following may be accepted as an UD elective, if the content is equivalent to that of a UCSB course: Advanced Spanish Language courses, Culture and Institutions (of specific Spanish-speaking countries/regions, not of Europe), and Film (same guidelines). For example, if you petition a course taken in the EAP Intensive Language Program to count for Span 102A, you should not expect to receive upper-division elective credit for any additional language/grammar/composition/comprehension/conversation courses taken during the regular semester abroad.
Most importantly, remember that the fact that a course is taught in Spanish does not mean it will count for the Spanish major. It must be a course in literature, linguistics, or one of the other subjects listed above. Students are advised not to attempt to satisfy the elective portion of the major requirements with mainly non-literary or non-linguistics courses.
Spanish majors must complete at least 20.0 upper-division Spanish units here at UCSB to meet the College of Letters and Science residency requirement.
Back to Top
Begin by identifying your goals for study abroad and then consult the EAP web pages (http://eap.ucop.edu/) to identify appropriate EAP programs. To find programs which offer particular disciplines or to search courses taken by EAP students over the last 5 years by subject, keyword and/or location, explore the resources found under Program and Course Search. Navigate to host universities’ web sites on the available links to learn more about the schools and their departments.
Come by the EAP office at 2431 South Hall. Peer advisors who have recently returned from studying abroad as well as staff advisors are eager to answer your questions. Go see your Undergraduate Advisor in the department office and make an appointment to speak with an advisor in the College of Letters & Science. Additionally, you’ll want to meet with an advisor in the College of Letters & Science to discuss general education, residence and other requirements.
Back to Top
If you go abroad in your junior year, you should strongly consider doing a senior
honors thesis based on the coursework and intellectual interests you developed abroad. This provides an ideal way of integrating time abroad with the completion of your major. Returnees must submit a Petition for Degree Require- ments EAP in order to receive Spanish major credit for work done abroad.
Back to Top
