SPAN 150
Topics in Contemporary Studies
Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Requisites: courses 25 or 27, and 119. Exploration of main trends that characterize contemporary Latin American and Spanish literatures and cultures and main concepts used to address them. Possible topics include transculturation and heterogeneity, race and ethnicity, vanguard movements, lettered and popular cultures, literary modernization in Latin American boom, literature and revolution, autobiography, women's writing, border literature, and postmodernist fiction. May be repeated for credit with topic change. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2015 - I thoroughly enjoyed Prof. Arroyo Calderon's lectures and her course as a whole. She's fun and engaging, and she's very passionate about the topics she teaches. She is also very accessible and generous with her time during office hours. She also know's a LOT about Latin American history and culture. I would recommend her, but you have to like to read Spanish.
Fall 2015 - I thoroughly enjoyed Prof. Arroyo Calderon's lectures and her course as a whole. She's fun and engaging, and she's very passionate about the topics she teaches. She is also very accessible and generous with her time during office hours. She also know's a LOT about Latin American history and culture. I would recommend her, but you have to like to read Spanish.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2017 - I had the pleasure of taking Profesora Bergero's class in Spring 2017. We covered topics like modernism and feminism, with weekly readings from a $20 course reader. We had to write a weekly reflection on the pieces that we read for that week. I think she is forgiving about these, since I forgot to turn one in. We had a midterm and a final paper, which were comparison papers on some texts. Finally, we had a group presentation where we had to review one of the topics that we had covered in class. You signed up at the start of the quarter with whoever you wanted. In short, you don't need to worry about your grade here. Even if you were, though, she is the sweetest and most approachable person. As a non-native speaker, I had concerns about how to keep up with her lectures. She listened to my concerns and encouraged me to stop her during class. The most important thing to her was that everyone in her class understood the material. She would take as long as she needed for that. I cannot emphasize enough how amazing of a person she is. Nobody in my class had complaints about Profesora Bergero. Rather, we learned a lot from her class while also protecting our grades. I recommend her wholeheartedly.
Spring 2017 - I had the pleasure of taking Profesora Bergero's class in Spring 2017. We covered topics like modernism and feminism, with weekly readings from a $20 course reader. We had to write a weekly reflection on the pieces that we read for that week. I think she is forgiving about these, since I forgot to turn one in. We had a midterm and a final paper, which were comparison papers on some texts. Finally, we had a group presentation where we had to review one of the topics that we had covered in class. You signed up at the start of the quarter with whoever you wanted. In short, you don't need to worry about your grade here. Even if you were, though, she is the sweetest and most approachable person. As a non-native speaker, I had concerns about how to keep up with her lectures. She listened to my concerns and encouraged me to stop her during class. The most important thing to her was that everyone in her class understood the material. She would take as long as she needed for that. I cannot emphasize enough how amazing of a person she is. Nobody in my class had complaints about Profesora Bergero. Rather, we learned a lot from her class while also protecting our grades. I recommend her wholeheartedly.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - Summary of this class: You read works of Mexican literature (and also a Mexican screenplay). There are only 2 grades; midterm 1 and midterm 2, equally weighted (50-50). Both of the midterms contained 2 essays each. Each essay could be 5 pages max. The essay questions were very difficult, and even more difficult if you didn't take good notes in lecture. When I was writing the essays, I was frustrated and often didn't know what to write. But, I pulled through, found some good points to support my thesis and wrote them down. And I did very well (straight A's)! Can't say the same for the rest of the class though... I'm not sure what he looks for in his grading because it appears I never did anything wrong! Anyways. Overall I recommend. Here's a great professor and funny too. Side note: I took his class online during corona time.
Spring 2020 - Summary of this class: You read works of Mexican literature (and also a Mexican screenplay). There are only 2 grades; midterm 1 and midterm 2, equally weighted (50-50). Both of the midterms contained 2 essays each. Each essay could be 5 pages max. The essay questions were very difficult, and even more difficult if you didn't take good notes in lecture. When I was writing the essays, I was frustrated and often didn't know what to write. But, I pulled through, found some good points to support my thesis and wrote them down. And I did very well (straight A's)! Can't say the same for the rest of the class though... I'm not sure what he looks for in his grading because it appears I never did anything wrong! Anyways. Overall I recommend. Here's a great professor and funny too. Side note: I took his class online during corona time.
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