About us
Studies
The Department of Spanish and Portuguese is pleased to have a M.A. and Ph.D. program in the interdisciplinary study of the Portuguese-speaking world (Brazil, Portugal, Lusophone Africa and Lusophone Asia), with particular emphasis on the literatures and cultures of these regions.
The program emphasizes comparative connections not only among Portuguese-speaking regions, but also between Portuguese-speaking countries and other regions of the world, including Spanish America and Spain. Through a set of core, foundational courses as well as the flexibility to take courses outside of the department on the Portuguese-speaking world and in related areas of interest, the program offers both depth and breadth of training to students arriving with a B.A. or M.A. in Portuguese or in a related field, such as Latin American Studies, Spanish, Comparative Literature or Romance Languages and Literatures.
Please check the Portuguese Graduate Studies Brochure.
Research Areas
Following are some of the fields of research in which our faculty is actively engaged:
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Comparative Luso-Hispanic studies
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Medieval Iberian literatures and cultures
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History of the Portuguese empire (early modern and modern)
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Orientalism
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Colonial and postcolonial studies
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Subaltern studies
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Portuguese Black Atlantic
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Conversos/New Christians in the Iberian Atlantic
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Transatlantic studies
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Philosophy and literature
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History of the book
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Film studies
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Portuguese linguistics (Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics)
Faculty in the departments of History, Political Science, Anthropology, and African and African American Studies will also periodically offer courses in the program.
Other Activities
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Research opportunities in Brazil and Portugal, through our ties with the University of São Paulo in Brazil and the Fundação Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento and the Instituto Camões in Portugal
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Humanities Institute Working Groups in Iberian Studies and The Americas before 1900
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Center for Latin American Studies Brazil Working Group
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Wexner Center for the Arts Via Brazil, featuring Brazilian visual arts programming through a three-year long Mellon Foundation Grant
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Instituto Camões Fund for lectures and other cultural activities promoting Portuguese at OSU, as well as scholarships for summer language study and research in Portugal