Department of Spanish and Portuguese*
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Department of Spanish and Portuguese*

Room 618, Sproul Hall
UC Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616

(530) 752-0835 Undergrad phone
(530) 752-5799 Grad phone
(530) 752-8630 fax

 
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Words of Welcome

Welcome to Spanish and Portuguese at UC Davis!

On behalf of my colleagues in the Department, I want to welcome you to the UC Davis Spanish Department homepage. The purpose of this web site is to make the services and resources of our department readily accessible to current and prospective students and their parents, to our alumni, to the Californian and world community at large. Please contact us if you have any questions.

As the third most spoken language in the world (and the second most used language in the United States), Spanish is certainly not a "foreign" language but a "second" language to California and to the United States in general. Since its creation in 1965, the Department of Spanish has been a focal point in the intellectual life of the University of California. Nowadays within the Davis campus, the Department assumes some important roles. California will continue to become more diverse and a principal source of this diversity comes from native speakers of Spanish. This offers us two opportunities. Many of these heritage speakers of Spanish are eager to learn Spanish at an advanced level and we provide that education. Secondly, non-native speakers increasingly recognize the benefits of learning Spanish in our multicultural society and we are faced with ever larger demands for our courses. Just as "Spanish" itself has meant different things in the last century, we take it to mean the language, literature, culture, and peoples of Spanish-speaking Latin America as well as of Spain. Peninsular and Latin American literary and cultural studies, as well as theoretical and/or applied Spanish linguistics are equally important in our department.

Furthermore we are happy to announce the addition of our program in Luso-Brazilian Studies. We now offer Portuguese language and culture courses for the first two years of instruction as well as a minor in Luso-Brazilian Studies. This program reflects our preoccupation with the two languages spoken in both Latin America and in the Iberian peninsula as well as with their communities.

We are dedicated to the highest standards in research, instruction, and service. As you explore our site, you will encounter an internationally distinguished faculty known for its innovative research and outstanding teaching. Our faculty is made up of experts in diverse fields of Spanish and Portuguese language and literary and cultural studies. They are all passionate researchers and dedicated, dynamic teachers. Our Department was ranked in first and second place by The Chronicle of Higher Education in 2008 and 2007 respectively for faculty productivity and first in the nation by Academic Analytics Top Performing Individual Programs. We serve over 200 majors and our graduate program is vibrant and growing with over 50 graduate students. We anticipate continued growth as we attempt towards greater excellence on all fronts.

Saludos,

Cecilia Colombi
Department Chair