""
Language skills
required
Programme length
Two years.
Study mode
Face-to-face learning
Application status
International students:
Students with Icelandic or Nordic citizenship:
Overview

  • Are you interested in the history and literature of Spanish-speaking countries?
  • Do you have basic proficiency in Spanish?
  • Do you want to be better prepared for a career in tourism, interpreting, translation or other forms of communication to Spanish-speaking target groups?

The MA in Spanish is an individualised programme of study that can be completed in two years by a full-time student.

Significant emphasis is placed on active participation in class.

Programme structure

The programme is 120 ECTS and is organised as two years of full-time study.

The programme is made up of:

  • Mandatory courses, 45 ECTS
  • Elective courses, 45 ECTS
  • Final project, 30 ECTS

Organisation of teaching

  • Courses are taught in Spanish unless otherwise stated.
  • Students are encouraged to take some graduate courses at a university abroad.

Main objectives

The programme aims to provide students with:

  • in-depth knowledge in their chosen area of Spanish linguistics or the literature and history of Spanish-speaking countries.
  • training in independent academic work and presenting information in an academic context.
  • the ability to acquire further knowledge in their field and pursue doctoral studies in the subject.

Other

Completing an MA in Spanish confers the right to apply for a doctoral programme in Spanish.

The BA-degree in Spanish, with a grade average of at least 7.25 (First class) and a 10-credit final thesis gives access to the second cycle of higher education.

120 ECTS have to be completed for the qualification.

The following documents must accompany an application for this programme:
  • Statement of purpose
  • Reference 1, Name and email
  • Reference 2, Name and email
  • Certified copies of diplomas and transcripts
  • Proof of English proficiency 

Further information on supporting documents can be found here

Programme structure

Check below to see how the programme is structured.

This programme does not offer specialisations.

Year unspecified | Fall
MA-thesis in Spanish (SPÆ441L)
A mandatory (required) course for the programme
0 ECTS, credits
Course Description

MA-thesis in Spanish.

Language of instruction: Spanish
Part of the total project/thesis credits
Year unspecified | Fall
Individual Project (SPÆ709F)
A mandatory (required) course for the programme
10 ECTS, credits
Course Description

Individual project.

Language of instruction: Spanish
Year unspecified | Fall
Seminar C: Lexicographia (SPÆ714F)
A mandatory (required) course for the programme
10 ECTS, credits
Course Description

Seminar C. Lexicografía

Objetivo

En este seminario se pretende ofrecer una introducción a la lexicografía teórica (metalexicografía) como base para estudiar, valorar y usar los diccionarios del español tanto en formato impreso como electrónico. También se presenta el diccionario como herramienta pedagógica.

Language of instruction: Spanish
Year unspecified | Fall
Languages and Culture I (MOM301F)
A mandatory (required) course for the programme
10 ECTS, credits
Course Description

This course concerns the diverse connections between culture and language, as seen from the perspective of cultural history, social sciences and linguistics. Ancient and modern world languages will be introduced and their origins, influence and effects investigated. Written and spoken language will be discussed: what sorts of things are written, why and how? Rules and alternate perspectives on the nature of langauge will be considered, raising the question of how we understand man with respect to thought and language.

Language of instruction: English
Year unspecified | Fall
Introduction to Spanish Linguistics (SPÆ102M)
Free elective course within the programme
10 ECTS, credits
Course Description

The course offers a general introduction to Spanish Linguistics: Spanish phonetics and phonology, Spanish morphology and word formation, semantics, etc.

**

En este curso se presentan los conceptos básicos de la lingüística general y se estudian los componentes de la estructura de la lengua española: el estudio de los sonidos (fonética/fonología), la organización interna de las palabras (morfología), las relaciones de las palabras en la oración (la sintaxis), el conjunto de palabras de que dispone el español (lexicología) y el significado de las palabras (semántica). Asimismo, se abordan los conceptos de variación lingüística y adquisición de la lengua materna y lengua extranjera.

Language of instruction: Spanish
Face-to-face learning
Prerequisites
Not taught this semester
Year unspecified | Fall
Latin American Cinema (SPÆ303M, SPÆ101M)
Free elective course within the programme
5 ECTS, credits
Course Description

Special Theme: Contemporaneity: Social Contexts in Recent Visual Texts

This course will offer an introduction to a range of films from Latin America while examining cinema as a format embedded in the visual culture of the continent. From a sociological standpoint and in light of various strands of influential theoretical models, this course will consider the centrality of movies and television programs as cultural expressions of contemporaneity. This course embraces forms other than feature films or short films, images from media other than scenes from a film, and audience response platforms other than academic articles or reviews from critics. The emphasis is placed on visual texts released in the last decade. The focal points are cross-border / global production and reception, digitization of cinema and recent approaches to cultural identity (identity branding migratory displacement, films as artefacts of contestation, new understanding of gender and ethnicity, memory, neoliberalism and markets, mediatized narcoculture, social inclusion, core-periphery relations, new video cultures and affect). The class will be mainly taught in English

Language of instruction: Spanish
Distance learning
Prerequisites
Not taught this semester
Year unspecified | Fall
Spanish Film Studies (SPÆ303M, SPÆ101M)
Free elective course within the programme
5 ECTS, credits
Course Description

This course will explore the history of Spanish cinema in twentieth century Spain, with particular emphasis on the post-Franco period. (The Cine-Club Hispano will be operated during the semester).

Language of instruction: Spanish
Distance learning
Prerequisites
Year unspecified | Spring 1
MA-thesis in Spanish (SPÆ441L)
A mandatory (required) course for the programme
0 ECTS, credits
Course Description

MA-thesis in Spanish.

Language of instruction: Spanish
Part of the total project/thesis credits
Not taught this semester
Year unspecified | Spring 1
MA-seminar B: Literature indigenista/indígena (SPÆ801F)
A mandatory (required) course for the programme
10 ECTS, credits
Course Description

MA-seminar: literature

Language of instruction: Spanish
Year unspecified | Spring 1
Languages and Culture II: The European Intellectual Tradition (MOM402M)
A mandatory (required) course for the programme
5 ECTS, credits
Course Description

The European intellectual tradition is characterized by the strong links between academia and society. Many of the most important European thinkers of the 19th and 20th Centuries worked outside of the universities – and many of those who did pursue an ordinary academic career also were public commentators frequently intervening in political discussion of the day and in some cases gaining considerable influence. In this course we present a selection of European thinkers who have been important both as scholars and as public intellectuals. We read and discuss samples of their work and look at critical discussion of their ideas. We also reflect on the time and place of the "European" – to what extent their work is quinessentially Eurocentric and to what extent awareness of cultural contingency emerges.

Language of instruction: English
Face-to-face learning
Distance learning
Year unspecified | Spring 1
History of the Spanish Language (SPÆ202M)
Free elective course within the programme
10 ECTS, credits
Course Description

An overview of the history and developments of the Spanish language.

Language of instruction: Spanish
Face-to-face learning
Prerequisites
Year unspecified | Spring 1
Translation (Spanish) (SPÆ401M)
Free elective course within the programme
5 ECTS, credits
Course Description

This course will focus on the history of translation and methods available in the field of translation. Students will try their hand at the different methods of translation working with technical- periodical- as well as literary texts.

Language of instruction: Spanish
Face-to-face learning
Prerequisites
Not taught this semester
Year unspecified | Spring 1
Literature and Culture of the Mexico-US Border Region (SPÆ402M, SPÆ501M)
Free elective course within the programme
10 ECTS, credits
Course Description

A survey of literature and history of the Mexico-USA boarder regions. Works by Mexican and Mexico-American (Chicano) authors read.

Language of instruction: Spanish
Face-to-face learning
Prerequisites
Not taught this semester
Year unspecified | Spring 1
Colonial Literature (SPÆ402M, SPÆ501M)
Free elective course within the programme
10 ECTS, credits
Course Description

This course will explore literature from the colonial period, with particular emphasis on the role of the conquest gaze as a promoting factor in the image making for the new world. Geographic, literary, and ethnic issues will be examined.

Language of instruction: Spanish
Face-to-face learning
Prerequisites
Year unspecified | Spring 1
Latin American Literature: The 20th Century Novel (SPÆ405M)
Free elective course within the programme
10 ECTS, credits
Course Description

An introductory course in Latin American Literature. Literary works include poems, short stories and novels.

Language of instruction: Spanish
Face-to-face learning
Prerequisites
Not taught this semester
Year unspecified | Spring 1
The Latin American Literature: Short stories (SPÆ412M)
Free elective course within the programme
10 ECTS, credits
Course Description

An introductory course in Latin American Literature. Literary works include poems, short stories and novels.

Language of instruction: Spanish
Face-to-face learning
Prerequisites
Year unspecified | Spring 1
Individual Project (SPÆ806F)
Free elective course within the programme
10 ECTS, credits
Course Description

Individual project.

Language of instruction: Spanish
Year unspecified | Spring 1
Adaptations (ENS217F)
Free elective course within the programme
10 ECTS, credits
Course Description

This class will focus on film and television adaptations, with scripts derived from short stories, canonical works, popular and pulp fiction, as well as graphic novels and comics.

In this course we will focus on various literary works and corresponding adaptation theories relating to film adaptations and current television series. Key issues and concepts in this course  will be taught in relation to Modernism/Postmodernism and Origin/Intertextual play in Adaptation Theory and Cinema semiotics.

Course requirement:
Apart from the obligatory course text Adaptations and Appropriation by Julie Sanders, we will read significant articles on adaptation as well as selected short stories (provided by the tutor) that have undergone the transition process and been adapted to into films. Students are encouraged to participate in discussions in class.

Language of instruction: English
Year unspecified
  • Fall
  • SPÆ441L
    MA-thesis in Spanish
    Mandatory (required) course
    0
    A mandatory (required) course for the programme
    0 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    MA-thesis in Spanish.

    Prerequisites
    Part of the total project/thesis credits
  • SPÆ709F
    Individual Project
    Mandatory (required) course
    10
    A mandatory (required) course for the programme
    10 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    Individual project.

    Prerequisites
  • SPÆ714F
    Seminar C: Lexicographia
    Mandatory (required) course
    10
    A mandatory (required) course for the programme
    10 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    Seminar C. Lexicografía

    Objetivo

    En este seminario se pretende ofrecer una introducción a la lexicografía teórica (metalexicografía) como base para estudiar, valorar y usar los diccionarios del español tanto en formato impreso como electrónico. También se presenta el diccionario como herramienta pedagógica.

    Prerequisites
  • MOM301F
    Languages and Culture I
    Mandatory (required) course
    10
    A mandatory (required) course for the programme
    10 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    This course concerns the diverse connections between culture and language, as seen from the perspective of cultural history, social sciences and linguistics. Ancient and modern world languages will be introduced and their origins, influence and effects investigated. Written and spoken language will be discussed: what sorts of things are written, why and how? Rules and alternate perspectives on the nature of langauge will be considered, raising the question of how we understand man with respect to thought and language.

    Prerequisites
  • SPÆ102M
    Introduction to Spanish Linguistics
    Elective course
    10
    Free elective course within the programme
    10 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    The course offers a general introduction to Spanish Linguistics: Spanish phonetics and phonology, Spanish morphology and word formation, semantics, etc.

    **

    En este curso se presentan los conceptos básicos de la lingüística general y se estudian los componentes de la estructura de la lengua española: el estudio de los sonidos (fonética/fonología), la organización interna de las palabras (morfología), las relaciones de las palabras en la oración (la sintaxis), el conjunto de palabras de que dispone el español (lexicología) y el significado de las palabras (semántica). Asimismo, se abordan los conceptos de variación lingüística y adquisición de la lengua materna y lengua extranjera.

    Face-to-face learning
    Prerequisites
  • Not taught this semester
    SPÆ303M, SPÆ101M
    Latin American Cinema
    Elective course
    5
    Free elective course within the programme
    5 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    Special Theme: Contemporaneity: Social Contexts in Recent Visual Texts

    This course will offer an introduction to a range of films from Latin America while examining cinema as a format embedded in the visual culture of the continent. From a sociological standpoint and in light of various strands of influential theoretical models, this course will consider the centrality of movies and television programs as cultural expressions of contemporaneity. This course embraces forms other than feature films or short films, images from media other than scenes from a film, and audience response platforms other than academic articles or reviews from critics. The emphasis is placed on visual texts released in the last decade. The focal points are cross-border / global production and reception, digitization of cinema and recent approaches to cultural identity (identity branding migratory displacement, films as artefacts of contestation, new understanding of gender and ethnicity, memory, neoliberalism and markets, mediatized narcoculture, social inclusion, core-periphery relations, new video cultures and affect). The class will be mainly taught in English

    Distance learning
    Prerequisites
  • SPÆ303M, SPÆ101M
    Spanish Film Studies
    Elective course
    5
    Free elective course within the programme
    5 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    This course will explore the history of Spanish cinema in twentieth century Spain, with particular emphasis on the post-Franco period. (The Cine-Club Hispano will be operated during the semester).

    Distance learning
    Prerequisites
  • Spring 2
  • SPÆ441L
    MA-thesis in Spanish
    Mandatory (required) course
    0
    A mandatory (required) course for the programme
    0 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    MA-thesis in Spanish.

    Prerequisites
    Part of the total project/thesis credits
  • Not taught this semester
    SPÆ801F
    MA-seminar B: Literature indigenista/indígena
    Mandatory (required) course
    10
    A mandatory (required) course for the programme
    10 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    MA-seminar: literature

    Prerequisites
  • MOM402M
    Languages and Culture II: The European Intellectual Tradition
    Mandatory (required) course
    5
    A mandatory (required) course for the programme
    5 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    The European intellectual tradition is characterized by the strong links between academia and society. Many of the most important European thinkers of the 19th and 20th Centuries worked outside of the universities – and many of those who did pursue an ordinary academic career also were public commentators frequently intervening in political discussion of the day and in some cases gaining considerable influence. In this course we present a selection of European thinkers who have been important both as scholars and as public intellectuals. We read and discuss samples of their work and look at critical discussion of their ideas. We also reflect on the time and place of the "European" – to what extent their work is quinessentially Eurocentric and to what extent awareness of cultural contingency emerges.

    Face-to-face learning
    Distance learning
    Prerequisites
  • SPÆ202M
    History of the Spanish Language
    Elective course
    10
    Free elective course within the programme
    10 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    An overview of the history and developments of the Spanish language.

    Face-to-face learning
    Prerequisites
  • SPÆ401M
    Translation (Spanish)
    Elective course
    5
    Free elective course within the programme
    5 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    This course will focus on the history of translation and methods available in the field of translation. Students will try their hand at the different methods of translation working with technical- periodical- as well as literary texts.

    Face-to-face learning
    Prerequisites
  • Not taught this semester
    SPÆ402M, SPÆ501M
    Literature and Culture of the Mexico-US Border Region
    Elective course
    10
    Free elective course within the programme
    10 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    A survey of literature and history of the Mexico-USA boarder regions. Works by Mexican and Mexico-American (Chicano) authors read.

    Face-to-face learning
    Prerequisites
  • SPÆ402M, SPÆ501M
    Colonial Literature
    Elective course
    10
    Free elective course within the programme
    10 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    This course will explore literature from the colonial period, with particular emphasis on the role of the conquest gaze as a promoting factor in the image making for the new world. Geographic, literary, and ethnic issues will be examined.

    Face-to-face learning
    Prerequisites
  • SPÆ405M
    Latin American Literature: The 20th Century Novel
    Elective course
    10
    Free elective course within the programme
    10 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    An introductory course in Latin American Literature. Literary works include poems, short stories and novels.

    Face-to-face learning
    Prerequisites
  • Not taught this semester
    SPÆ412M
    The Latin American Literature: Short stories
    Elective course
    10
    Free elective course within the programme
    10 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    An introductory course in Latin American Literature. Literary works include poems, short stories and novels.

    Face-to-face learning
    Prerequisites
  • SPÆ806F
    Individual Project
    Elective course
    10
    Free elective course within the programme
    10 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    Individual project.

    Prerequisites
  • ENS217F
    Adaptations
    Elective course
    10
    Free elective course within the programme
    10 ECTS, credits
    Course Description

    This class will focus on film and television adaptations, with scripts derived from short stories, canonical works, popular and pulp fiction, as well as graphic novels and comics.

    In this course we will focus on various literary works and corresponding adaptation theories relating to film adaptations and current television series. Key issues and concepts in this course  will be taught in relation to Modernism/Postmodernism and Origin/Intertextual play in Adaptation Theory and Cinema semiotics.

    Course requirement:
    Apart from the obligatory course text Adaptations and Appropriation by Julie Sanders, we will read significant articles on adaptation as well as selected short stories (provided by the tutor) that have undergone the transition process and been adapted to into films. Students are encouraged to participate in discussions in class.

    Prerequisites
Additional information

The University of Iceland collaborates with over 400 universities worldwide. This provides a unique opportunity to pursue part of your studies at an international university thus gaining added experience and fresh insight into your field of study.

Students generally have the opportunity to join an exchange programme, internship, or summer courses. However, exchanges are always subject to faculty approval.

Students have the opportunity to have courses evaluated as part of their studies at the University of Iceland, so their stay does not have to affect the duration of their studies.

This qualification can open up opportunities in:

  • Tourism
  • Culture and communication
  • Trade and business
  • International affairs
  • Translation
  • Teaching

This list is not exhaustive.

  • Linguae is the organisation for language students at the University of Iceland 
  • Linguae organises social events for students at the Faculty of Languages and Cultures 
  • Members currently include students of Italian, French, German, Spanish, Danish, Chinese and Russian 
  • Linguae runs a Facebook group and a Facebook page

More about the UI student's social life.

Students' comments
""
Students appreciate the University of Iceland for its strong academic reputation, modern campus facilities, close-knit community, and affordable tuition.
Helpful content
Aurora Cooperation

Study wheel

What interests you?

Aurora Cooperation

How to apply

Follow the path

Contact us

If you still have questions, feel free to contact us.

School of Humanities
Weekdays: 10-12 am and 1-3 pm
General Service

Students can use the Service Desk as the point of access for all services. Students can drop in at the University Centre or use the WebChat on this page.

""

Share

Did this help?

Why wasn't this information helpful

Limit to 250 characters.