The accelerated online Master of Arts in Spanish at Worcester State University helps you further develop your understanding of—and appreciation for—the cultures and literatures of Spanish-speaking communities. With online classes, this flexible program is designed for working professionals, allowing you to advance your career at your own pace.
The only university in Central Massachusetts with a graduate program in Spanish, Worcester State offers a diverse array of classes, ranging from the study of language acquisition to the exploration of literatures and cultures of Spain, Latin America, and Latinx communities in the United States. You will demonstrate your mastery of program coursework through the completion of a comprehensive examination in Spanish. Total coursework for the master’s program consists of 10 courses / 30 credits.
While many graduates of this program have continued their studies beyond the master’s level, others have found great success as Spanish instructors in grades K-12. A master’s degree in Spanish from Worcester State may be used toward professional teacher licensure in the United States. Still others contribute their knowledge and skills in the growing field of professional translation and oral interpretation in such sectors as education, health care, law, and technology.
View the Catalog
Applicants for this program must provide the following:
**7-week accelerated courses do not allow late enrollment or late adds after the course has started**
Online asynchronous Spring I: January 27 – March 16 Dr. Naida Saavedra
This graduate seminar will focus on the major trends in contemporary Latinx Literature. Students will read, analyze, and discuss in depth narrative and poetry produced by Nuyorican, Dominican-American, Cuban-American, and Chicanx writers. Class discussions will trace similarities and differences in the life experiences of different Latinx groups in the United States. Topics to be addressed include the construction of identity and the concept of belonging; bilingualism and code-switching; the experiences of the exile and its incidence in the creative process, life on the border, the marketing of Latinx writers and their literature; the controversies behind the use of labels such as Latino and Hispanic, and the relationships of Latinx artists with their communities. Students will read texts in Spanish, English, and Spanglish. Class conducted in Spanish.
Online asynchronous Spring II: March 24 – May 11 Dr. Elizabeth Osborne
This course examines the construction of memory in 20th and 21st century Argentine, Chilean, and Uruguayan literature and film, including but not limited to essay, testimonio, short story, novel, and both fictional and documentary films. In particular, this class will focus on the cultural representations of the Southern Cone dictatorships and their lingering effects in the post-dictatorial era. Students will apply major concepts from Holocaust studies, memory studies and trauma studies to Latin American contexts of trauma, such as dictatorship, and other forms of oppression stemming from perceived differences in age, class, gender, politics, race, and sexuality. The class will explore the way these texts function as modes of witnessing traumatic pasts, mediating between subjective and collective experiences at local, national and trans-national levels. Students will interrogate both personal and cultural memories, and the ways these are narrated, represented, and theorized in literature and film. Finally, the class will consider alternative theoretical frameworks for examining memory within the Southern Cone. Class conducted in Spanish.
