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Postgraduate Study

About the Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics (MMLL)

Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics is the home of language and linguistics teaching and research at the University of Cambridge. With more than 770 undergraduate students, approximately 100 MPhil students and 190 PhD students we are one of the largest humanities Faculties in the University and one of the largest languages Faculties nationally. Numbers of staff and students are approximate as numbers fluctuate.

The Faculty comprises of six sections, which cover a range of languages and subject areas, and is also home to the Centre for Film and Screen Studies.The Faculty regularly tops a number of university and research rankings, and is home to a number of groundbreaking projects and initiatives.

The Section of Spanish and Portuguese

The Section of Spanish and Portuguese is one of the six Sections within MMLL.  The Section is one of the largest in the country, recently ranked as one of the most outstanding departments for Spanish and Portuguese in the UK for teaching and research.  The research interests of members of the Section are strong and varied.  Among recent publications there is work on gender studies, twentieth-century Spanish poetry and cinema, Golden Age theatre, Cervantes, the modern Latin-American novel, Latin-American cinema and visual culture, the nineteenth-century novel, Medieval literature, Catalan poetry, and Romance languages.  Research interests in the Portuguese topics include Portuguese and Brazilian literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, gender studies, and, more recently, post-colonial theory.

2 courses offered in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese

The Spanish and Portuguese Section offers undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan. It is unique in its commitment to exploring the trans-historical and cross-cultural interrelations between all these language areas and their corresponding cultural formations. The research interests of its academic staff thus span a wide range of areas including Medieval and Golden Age Spanish cultures and their consolidation in dialogue with the diverse cultures and faith systems of Africa and the "New World"; the literature, art and cinema of Portugal, Brazil and Lusophone Africa; the literature of modern Spain and its relationship with the Enlightenment, colonialism, and modernity; the cinema of the Ibero-American world from early silent film through to its avant-garde, indigenous, popular and transnational dimensions today; and the culture of Catalonia from its rebirth in the Renaixença, through its resistance to Franquismo in literature and film, to its vibrant contemporary artistic, architectural and cinematographic expressions.

The Section also has one of the largest contingents of Latin American specialists in the United Kingdom, whose interests span the poetry and chronicles of the colonial period; the formation of national cultures in post-Independence Spanish America and Brazil; the experimental literatures of the Spanish American "Boom"; and the literature, cinema, and visual art produced in the interlocking contexts of post-dictatorship, mass urbanisation, narcotráfico and neo-liberal globalisation. The intellectual vitality of the Section is further evidenced by a dynamic research culture of public lectures, section seminars, postgraduate workshops and conferences, all of which add to a close-knit system of postgraduate supervision and mentoring that encourages both individual and collective endeavour within the section. 

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The Spanish and Portuguese Section offers undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan. It is unique in its commitment to exploring the trans-historical and cross-cultural interrelations between all these language areas and their corresponding cultural formations. The research interests of its academic staff thus span a wide range of areas including Medieval and Golden Age Spanish cultures and their consolidation in dialogue with the diverse cultures and faith systems of Africa and the "New World"; the literature, art and cinema of Portugal, Brazil and Lusophone Africa; the literature of modern Spain and its relationship with the Enlightenment, colonialism, and modernity; the cinema of the Ibero-American world from early silent film through to its avant-garde, indigenous, popular and transnational dimensions today; and the culture of Catalonia from its rebirth in the Renaixença, through its resistance to Franquismo in literature and film, to its vibrant contemporary artistic, architectural and cinematographic expressions.

The Section also has one of the largest contingents of Latin American specialists in the United Kingdom, whose interests span the poetry and chronicles of the colonial period; the formation of national cultures in post-Independence Spanish America and Brazil; the experimental literatures of the Spanish American "Boom"; and the literature, cinema, and visual art produced in the interlocking contexts of post-dictatorship, mass urbanisation, narcotráfico and neo-liberal globalisation. The intellectual vitality of the Section is further evidenced by a dynamic research culture of public lectures, section seminars, postgraduate workshops and conferences, all of which add to a close-knit system of graduate supervision and mentoring that encourages both individual and collective endeavour within the section. 

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Department Members


Prof Rodrigo Cacho
Director of Section

Prof Louise Haywood
Postgraduate Teaching and Examining Officer (PTEO)

  • 8 Academic Staff
  • 18 Graduate Students
  • 329 Undergraduates

http://www.mmll.cam.ac.uk/spanish/

Research Areas