Program Outcomes
By completing our ABM degree option, students will acquire advanced knowledge in the field, produce scholarship that engages in critical thinking, and demonstrate ethical thinking and responsible academic conduct.
Students in the Hispanic Studies ABM will begin taking graduate courses during the first semester of their senior year. Depending on how the combined program is structured, students will complete up to 12 hours for both B.A. and M.A. credit during their senior year. Just like graduates of our M.A. program, graduates of our ABM will be able:
- to demonstrate familiarity with works of Latin American and Peninsular literature
- to demonstrate familiarity with the general characteristics of several traditions and trends within the literary contexts of Latin America and Spain
- to use the Spanish vocabulary necessary for discussing literature critically
- to understand broad historical events, cultural currents, and current academic trends as they are represented in Latin American and Peninsular literature
- to read, write, and speak Spanish fluently
- to demonstrate the ability to do independent, scholarly research by integrating, comparing, and evaluating ideas and materials from various sources, both literary and critical
- to develop and sustain a coherent argument in both oral and written Spanish
- to know how to foster a collegial, collaborative learning environment that encourages self-expression
- to comprehend the social and historical function and significance of literature, culture, and art in Spain and Latin America, and more broadly
- to understand and incorporate the national standards for the teaching of foreign languages into the teaching of Spanish at various levels
- to understand from a task-based perspective the theoretical and practical issues of communicative language teaching for all skill areas
- to demonstrate competence in a language other than English or Spanish, for the purpose of research
Graduates of this program will be well prepared to pursue a Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies or other related fields, such as Latin American Studies, to apply to a professional school, or to seek a teaching position at the primary, secondary, and post-secondary levels. The combined degree will allow promising and talented undergraduates to move quickly through the M.A. degree and to apply a portion of their undergraduate funding (up to 12 hours) toward the Masters degree.
Our tradition: Eloquentia perfecta
Jesuit education is steeped in a tradition that reaches back five centuries, to the flourishing of Renaissance humanism in sixteenth-century Europe. The humanists immersed themselves in the study of language, rhetoric, grammar and literature, with the aim of achieving eloquentia perfecta. Their ability to speak and write well would reflect their values as good citizens who stood to uphold the common good.
The graduate program in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures of Loyola University Chicago rests on this tradition. Candidates for the Masters degree in Spanish, as well as students of our new five year BA/MA in Spanish (2016), immerse themselves in the language, the literatures and the cultures of the Hispanic world with the same goal: eloquentia perfecta. Not only do they strive to master the Spanish language, they study the past and present of the Hispanic world with the aim of understanding it and its peoples more fully. While our graduate students write and research in the areas of linguistics, literature and culture, they also teach undergraduates, translate tax documents for Latin American immigrants in the United States and wrestle with the complex issue of societal injustice. For example, in February of 2016 our graduate students hosted and participated in a symposium on the theme of social justice in Hispanic literatures. The 2017 symposium will focus on immigration, border issues and hybrid identities.
As students complete their Masters degree in Spanish, they discover how linguistic and cultural competency begins to open many doors. Some further their graduate education by earning doctorates in Spanish, History, and International Education, while others use their degree to teach Spanish at all levels. Graduates of our program also start careers in business and social work, while others use their Spanish proficiency to gain employment as translators and interpreters. Whatever career path they take, all of our graduates agree that the study of language and culture leads to adventure. But as they go on to face the challenges of an imperfect world, they aim to engage it by relying on the tradition of eloquentia that has been passed on to them as students of a Jesuit university.
