Yale University Department of Spanish & Portuguese

This summer, our department has made its way to Lisbon, too: Prof. David Jackson gave a talk titled “Camões, Poeta do Mar entre Europa e Ásia” (at the Academia de Marinha), Prof. Lisa Voigt is doing research and holding an academic writing workshop, and Ph.D. student Halle Keane is studying Portuguese 🇵🇹

Members of our faculty were recently featured for their project, “Yale en primera persona,” in an article published by the Poorvu Center and written by Jasmine Taylor

Our department proudly made its mark at this year’s Latin American Studies Association Congress, held in Paris from May 26–30 under the theme, “Republic and Revolution.” Our faculty and Ph.D. candidates/students presented at panels and events, as well as participated in a department gathering and a tour around Paris 🇫🇷

The three-day event “Ressonâncias coloniais/Colonial Resonances” was a great success! Held at the University of São Paulo from May 14-16, the gathering featured dynamic panels and a concert, titled “que he o que vejo + chorus brasilicus” (attended by over 70 guests). Overall, this event captured both the creative essence and the academic rigor of early modern Atlantic studies.

Many thanks again to all the organizers and sponsors who made these days possible: Iris Kantor of the University of São Paulo; the Ford-LASA Special Projects Grant awarded to Lisa Voigt, Miguel Valerio, Anna More and Kittiya Lee; the support of the Yale Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies, the Batchelor Fund of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale, and the Cátedra Jaime Cortesão, Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Graduate Program in Social History at the University of São Paulo.

We are proud to present “Colonial Resonances: Approaching the Musical (Mis)encounters of the Early Modern Atlantic through Performance and Research.”

This event brings together musicians and scholars of the early modern Atlantic world in order to explore collectively the role of music in both fostering and unsettling the processes of evangelization and imperial expansion. Over three days at the University of São Paulo, culminating in a public recital at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea, musicians and scholars from Brazil, Portugal, Argentina and the US will gather to recreate, record, contextualize, and discuss a song in Tupi performed in Lisbon in 1619.

This unique interdisciplinary event is co-organized by Iris Kantor of the University of São Paulo. A Ford-LASA Special Projects Grant awarded to Lisa Voigt, Miguel Valerio, Anna More and Kittiya Lee made this event possible, along with additional support the Yale Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies, the Batchelor Fund of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale, and the Cátedra Jaime Cortesão, Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Graduate Program in Social History at the University of São Paulo.

✨Join us for the Department of Spanish & Portuguese Annual Spring Awards and end-of-year Luncheon✨

Awards will be presented for the Bildner Prizes in Latin American Languages and Literatures, the Yordán Prize, and for the Portuguese Program Exhibition, “The Object of Memory, Resignified.”

12- 1 pm: Presentation of prizes
1- 2 pm: Lunch
April 27 • HQ 134

Look out for a new course offering: “Writing Literature: From Reading to Argument in Latin American Texts” (SPAN 2080), taught by Katherina Frangi.

How do we write about literature? How do we move from reading to argument, from intuition to hypothesis, from response to analysis? Structured in three units, the writing-centered course introduces a range of critical lenses—formalist, archival, historical, feminist, ecocritical, comparative, and creative—through which the students are familiarized with different approaches to literary analysis. The main objective of the course is to develop students’ ability to formulate critical questions, construct hypotheses, and write coherent, persuasive academic arguments. To that end, the course combines theoretical reading, textual analysis of Latin American texts, and sustained writing practice. Readings include works by Jorge Luis Borges, Nicolás Guillén, Elena Garro, Clarice Lispector, João Guimarães Rosa, and Alejandra Pizarnik. The course is taught entirely in Spanish and is designed to strengthen students’ ability to engage critically with literary texts and produce clear, well-structured academic prose in Spanish.

Schedule: T/Th 1:05-2:20 pm
CRN: 14442

Variantes, the departmental graduate student-led literary journal, is now receiving submissions for the upcoming issue. Submit your material by June 15 through the link in our bio!

Please join the Sigma Delta Pi Honor Society as it celebrates Sant Jordi’s Book Swap! 📚

April 23 • 4 pm • HQ 107

New course alert! Introducing “Multilingual Encounters: Polyglot Literatures of Spain and Latin America” (SPAN 3610), co-taught by Lisa Voigt and Brais Lamela Gómez.

This course offers an in-depth exploration of multilingual literatures from Spain and Latin America, focusing on the era of Iberian colonial expansion (c. 1492-1700). Although we often think of Spanish and Portuguese as the main languages of these regions, they have long coexisted with many others, sometimes in harmony, often in relationships shaped by power and inequality. This course focuses on writings that address, in some way or another, Spanish’s vexed relationship with its neighboring languages, including Nahuatl, Quechua, Guarani, Galician, and Catalan. All readings are provided in the Spanish original or in Spanish translation; no prior knowledge of other languages is required. Topics include the multilingual landscape of medieval Iberia; the creation of grammars and dictionaries during the colonization of the Americas; the role of Indigenous, Black, and mestizo subjects as interpreters and translators in Colonial Latin America; Cervantes’ engagement with Arabic; and the emergence of multilingual authors such as Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. We conclude with contemporary poetry that reflects on ongoing linguistic diversity and cultural displacement in the Spanish-speaking world.Throughout the course, students discover that literature written in Spanish has always existed within a rich multilingual ecology. Together we consider broader questions about multilingualism, translation, identity, and cultural hybridity—questions that continue to shape literature and culture today.

Schedule: T/Th 2:35-3:50 pm
CRN: 14228