Degree Awarded: Bachelor of Arts
Traditionally, people from the United States are not obligated to learn another language besides English. However, economic globalization has made communication among cultures and nations more important than ever.
Spanish is spoken by almost 400 million people worldwide; moreover, about half the population of the Western Hemisphere speaks Spanish, making it the primary language for as many people as English in this part of the world. Even within the U.S. Spanish is the second most widely-spoken language. A major in Spanish Studies allows students to engage with a rich variety of history, literature, art and architecture – the cultures of Cervantes, Goya, Picasso, Allende, Garcia Marquez and Borges, to name only a few – that have had and will continue to have profound impact on the nation and the world in the 21st century.