Welcome to the University of Virginia's Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. The University is strongly committed to excellence in language and literature study. In the 1995 National Rankings, the Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese was ranked at number one among public universities and number five in the country.

The Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese confers Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees in Spanish, Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Italian, and Bachelor's degrees in Portuguese. Our innovative courses and curricula prepare undergraduates and graduates for critical thinking and great employment flexibility. The department's philosophy emphasizes extensive faculty-student contact outside the classroom. Over the last ten years, every doctoral graduate of the program has obtained academic employment in his or her specialty.

Our faculty's expertise encompasses a broad range spanning peninsular literature from the medieval to the modern periods; Latin American literature from Colonial times to the present; Portuguese and Brazilian literature; Spanish cinema; Hispanic women's writing; Spanish and Latin-American culture; Hispanic linguistics; Italian literature from the medieval to the modern periods, including Italian cinema, cultural studies, and the use of technology in the humanities. In addition, each year the Department hosts a distinguished visiting professor or writer in residence. Recent visitors have included Isabel Allende, Mempo Giardinelli, Rosa Montero and Lou Charnon-Deutsch in Spanish and Peter Armour, Aldo Scaglione, Penny Marcus, Rebecca West, and Zygmunt Baranski in Italian.

As student enrollment in our Department grows, we are committed to address their academic needs with increased faculty lines and inventive courses. We will continue to award competitive graduate fellowships to attract the best students to our graduate programs and we are determined to maintain the University's tradition of excellence in both instruction and research.

Our courses are rigorous, but our students can count on our faculty to help them achieve their educational and professional goals. We welcome all prospective and new students to our classes, and to the University's community of students and scholars.

Sincerely,

María-Inés Lagos
Professor of Spanish
Chair, Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese