Our students, graduate and undergraduate, have the opportunity to take courses on Spanish language, literature, and culture; Latin American culture, literature and film, U.S. Hispanic literature and linguistics, Hispanic linguistics in general, as well as courses designed for Spanish for the professions (language for business and trade, translation, etc.).

Our program is one of the few in the country that offers these courses at all levels, and our faculty is in the national vanguard of developing methodologies for teaching heritage learners. We are constantly strengthening this area and in fact, it is one of the niches of our undergraduate program.

The Department of Hispanic Studies collaborates with other departments and programs within the university (Center for Mexican-American Studies, Center for the Americas, Latin American Studies Minor, Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, among others), as well as with other institutions such as the Institute of Hispanic Culture of Houston, Rice University (The Department of Hispanic Studies, Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, Humanities Center), the Mexican, Spanish and Venezuelan consulates, and also benefits from a network of organizations and cultural institutions available to share challenges, best practices, and ideas in and about the Houston metropolitan area and the broader Southwest region. All of these elements contribute to our mission to foster understanding and communication through the study of the Spanish language, Hispanic literature and culture in the age of globalization.