2025-2026 Academic Catalog

Print Options

Spanish, MA

Program Requirements

  1. Students must complete 33 credit hours, with a minimum of 21 SPAN credit hours.
  2. Students must complete a minimum of 30 graduate level (5000 or above) credit hours.
  3. Students must earn a minimum grade of B- (2.7) in all courses taken at CU Denver and must achieve a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0. Students cannot complete course requirements as P+/P/F or S/U.
  4. A minimum of 24 credit hours must be earned at the University of Colorado Denver.

Program Restrictions, Allowances and Recommendations

  1. Candidates in Spanish must satisfy the graduate education policies and procedures and will be required to complete 33 hours of course work distributed with respect to the Thesis or Non-Thesis Options outlined below.
  2. No more than one undergraduate course (three semester hours) may be applied toward the MA degree, and that course must have been taken at the 4000 level or above and in an ancillary field outside the Department of Modern Languages.
  3. Failure to maintain a 3.00 Program GPA will result in the student being placed on academic probation. Courses completed with grades below the letter grade of B- (GPA 2.7) may not be applied toward fulfillment of the requirements for any graduate (doctoral or master’s) degree.
  4. Students may elect to take three courses (nine semester hours) outside the department.
Complete the following required course:3
Introduction to Graduate Studies in Spanish
Complete a minimum of six credit hours from approved literature and culture courses.6
Complete a minimum of six credit hours from approved linguistics courses.6
Complete a minimum of four graduate-level Spanish elective courses in literature, linguistics, culture, methodologies of teaching. 112
Complete additional coursework or a thesis.6
Total Hours33
1

Students may complete up to two courses (six credits) from outside the Modern Languages Department, as approved by their advisor. A maximum of three credit hours may be completed at the 4000-level.

Literature and Culture

Complete two of the following courses:6
The Learning and Teaching of Heritage Speakers
Contemporary Spanish Literature
SPAN 5130
SPAN 5150
SPAN 5170
SPAN 5180
Modern Culture of Spain through Film and Narrative
SPAN 5340
Don Quijote
Women and the Spanish Civil War
Special Topics: Spanish Peninsular Literature
Contemporary Spanish-American Novel
Masterpieces of Spanish-American Literature
Mexican Literature I: pre-Columbian and Colonial
Mexican Literature II: 19th to 21st Centuries
Orientalisms In The Hispanic Traditions
Ibero-American Thought
Special Topics in Literature

Linguistics

Complete two of the following courses:6
SPAN 5010
Spanish Sociolinguistics
Spanish Classroom Methods and Practice
Dialects of the Spanish-Speaking World
Spanish Second Language Acquisition
Spanish in Colorado
Spanish in the United States
Methods of Teaching Modern Languages
Total Hours6

Thesis Option

Complete a Master's Thesis, according to graduate education policies and procedures and under guidance of the graduate program director.6
Master's Thesis (preparation and writing)

Non-Thesis Option

Complete a minimum of two additional graduate-level Spanish electives in literature, linguistics, culture, methodologies of teaching. 6

To learn more about the Student Learning Outcomes for this program, please visit our website.