Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• CAS LR 952: Directed Study in Russian Language and Literature
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: Consent of instructor and the department.
• CAS LS 507: The Sounds of Spanish
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASLX250) AND one LS 300-level language course; or consent of instructor. - Introduction to Spanish phonetics and phonology. Covers articulatory, acoustic, and auditory phonetics, focusing on techniques for visualizing speech sounds. Examines the phonemic inventory and phonological organization of Spanish from several perspectives, including generative and articulatory phonology as well as sociolinguistics. Conducted in Spanish. Also offered as CAS LX 383 and GRS LX 683.
• CAS LS 508: The Structure of Spanish
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASLX250) AND one LS 300-level language course; or consent of instructor. - Introduction to Spanish morphology and syntax. Explores the structure of Spanish words, phrases, and sentences from multiple perspectives with a focus on natural language data. Examines Generative, Usage-based, and Lexical-Functional approaches to the analysis of grammatical structure. Conducted in Spanish. Also offered as CAS LX 384 and GRS LX 684.
• CAS LS 548: Topics in Text/Image/Spectacle in the Hispanic World
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASLS 350 and one CASLS 400-level course, or consent of instructor. - May be taken twice for credit if topics are different. Explores literature from the Spanish-speaking world and its relation to visual and performance art. Combines critical inquiry with creative practices to explore dynamics of influence, appropriation, and transformation across time and space. Topic for Fall 2026: The Middle Ages at the Movies. Explores the relationship between literature and visual media through legends of medieval Iberia and their modern film and TV adaptations. Creative engagement with adaptations as aesthetic objects and products of historical imagination. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation, Ethical Reasoning.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Ethical Reasoning
• CAS LS 557: Poetry of the Spanish Golden Age
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASLS350) and at least two 400-level LS course. - The development of lyric poetry during the Renaissance and the baroque period. Emphasis on close thematic, stylistic, and structural analysis of individual poems by major figures including Garcilaso, Fray Luis, San Juan de la Cruz, Góngora, and Quevedo.
• CAS LS 575: Topics in Peninsular Literature
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASLS 350 and two LS 400-level literature courses or consent of the instructor. - May be taken twice for credit if topics are different.
• CAS LS 576: Topics in Spanish American Literature
  Prerequisites: CASLS 350 and two 400-level LS literature courses; or consent of instructor. - May be taken twice for credit if topics are different. Topic for Spring 2026: Identity and Migration in Latinx Literature. This class focuses on shedding light on the intersections between queerness, brownness, and transnational identities at the core of contemporary Latinx and Latin American Literature. The class analyzes novels, short stories, and poems from an intersectional perspective.
• CAS LS 579: Topics in Hispanic Cinemas
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASLS 350 and at least two 400-level LS courses. – May be taken twice for credit if topics are different. Cinema as a perspective from which to analyze cultural and socio-political developments within the Spanish- speaking world. Topics drawn from the history of specific national cinemas, individual filmmakers or particular "schools," relations between literature and film, and political uses of film. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Critical Thinking
  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
• CAS LS 606: Spanish Translation Workshop
  Graduate Prerequisite: Advanced proficiency in Spanish. - Advanced study of the Spanish language through the translation of written texts. Analysis of the theory and practice of translation as a catalyst of cultural transfer. Taught in Spanish.
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  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Oral and/or Signed Communication
• CAS LS 621: Reading Spanish for Graduate Students
  Designed to prepare graduate students for the Spanish reading exam. Develops a knowledge of the fundamentals of Spanish grammar. Practice in translating passages. No previous knowledge of Spanish required.
• CAS LS 850: Seminar: Theories of Literature
  Satisfies department theory requirement. Topic for Fall 2024: Literary Theories & Critical Practices. Traces, explores, and equips students to work with literary theories and critical methodologies, from influential twentieth-century works to the most recent trends in gender and sexuality studies, ecocriticism, disability studies, and critical race studies.
• CAS LS 860: Seminar: Topics in Hispanic Literature
  May be repeated for credit if topic is different. Topic for Spring 2026: Malas mujeres. Investigates normative discourses of womanhood in medieval and early modern Iberia through portrayals of prostitutes, witches, and other “bad women” in Arabic, Hebrew, and Romance literature.
• CAS LS 951: Directed Study in Hispanic Language and Literatures
  Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor and department. - Hours arranged.
• CAS LS 952: Directed Study in Hispanic Language and Literatures
  Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor and department. - Hours arranged.
• CAS LT 951: Directed Study in Turkish
  Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor and the department. - Graduate-level directed study in a topic in Turkish.
• CAS LT 952: Directed Study in Turkish
  Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor and the department. - Graduate-level directed study in a topic in Turkish.
• CAS LX 601: Phonetics & Phonology: Introduction to Sound Systems
  Introduction to the nature and patterning of sounds in human language. Presents articulatory and acoustic phonetics, and basic phonological analysis, focusing on cross-language typology and comparison. Hands-on development of practical skills, including IPA transcription, field techniques, and digital speech analysis. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry II, Quantitative Reasoning I, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Quantitative Reasoning I
  • Scientific Inquiry II
• CAS LX 611: Morphology: Introduction to the Structures and Shapes of Words
  Graduate Corequisites: (GRSLX612) - (Students must also register for required co-req GRS LX 612.) Morphology, the study of the internal structure and the shapes of words across languages, straddles the boundary between syntax and phonology. This course covers the major empirical and theoretical issues in the study of morphology, emphasizing links to other components of grammar. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course entitled "Morphology" that was previously numbered CAS LX 521.
• CAS LX 617: Having and Being across Languages
  Graduate corequisite: CASLX 618. - Languages differ startlingly in how they express the apparently basic concepts of "possession" and "essence". Students explore this variety and its implications, addressing fundamental questions about linguistic relativism, language universals, and the relationship between structure and meaning. Students must also register for CASLX 618 corequisite.
• CAS LX 621: Syntax: Introduction to Sentential Structure
  Introduction to syntax as an object of inquiry. Students build an increasingly sophisticated model of syntactic knowledge to account for data from English and other languages, constructing and evaluating alternative hypotheses about how sentence structure works. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course entitled "Syntax I" that was previously numbered CAS LX 522.