"Out of all the Spanish classes I have taken in my life, this is the one that really made me feel empowered.... Thank you for creating a space for us to share our thoughts and for enriching our understanding of our Spanish roots."
–Actual student comment

Language is a form of power, and the language you speak – as well as where and how well you speak it – greatly determines how much power you have in terms of political freedom, economic opportunity, and social mobility. SPAN 3090 explores the Spanish language as an instrument of political, economic, and social power over the past 2000 years and across four continents, with emphasis on the modern period (1500—).

Over its long history, Spanish has been at various times a language of privilege or a language subverted by one or more other languages. In the present day, its most formidable rival is English. This is especially true in the United States, but Spanish and English have sparred for supremacy in other places and times throughout modern history. How Spanish and English will coexist in the United States in the next hundred years is one of the fascinating questions we will ask. Will one survive and the other perish? Or will the languages settle into a stable symbiosis?

At the end of the course, the student will better understand the role of language as an expression of power in human culture generally, with a particular emphasis on the history of Spanish.

Course topics:

• Spanish around the world
• The modern languages of Spain
• Language contact and conflict on the Iberian Peninsula: Romans, Visigoths & Arabs
• The rise of castellano (Castilian), a.k.a. "Spanish"
• Legacies of power and subversion: Spanish in contact with other languages
• Spanish & Spanglish: Spanish as a minority language in the U.S.
• Language & politics in Puerto Rico 
• Spanish as a minority language in Tennessee
• Language & politics in Spain & the Americas
• The politics of bilingual education

Undergraduate course (3 hours) offered every fall. Taught in Spanish. Credit counts toward either the Spanish major/minor or the Linguistic Studies minor. Prerequisite: SPAN 3010 OR SPAN 3020 OR instructor permission.