Graduate Certificate in Spanish

Graduate Certificate in Spanish Program Overview

If you’re seeking a graduate credential in Spanish to enhance your career but aren’t ready to commit to a master’s degree program, you do have another option. UT Permian Basin’s 12-credit online Graduate Certificate in Spanish provides condensed academic training in Spanish language, culture, literature, and linguistics, offering you a deeper context and understanding of Spanish. This stackable credential complements your existing bachelor’s degree with new knowledge and skills and improved Spanish fluency that will help you excel in the classroom or wherever your work takes you.

Population Growth Leads to Career Growth

Between 2010 and 2020, the Hispanic population of the United States grew by about 23%, expanding from 50.5 million to 62.1 million. By 2050, that number is expected to exceed 100 million, amounting to 30% of the total U.S. population, and professional opportunities for Spanish-speaking professionals are expected to increase accordingly. Our graduate certificate program can prepare you to effectively meet this unprecedented demand and help your resume stand out in a growing field.

Stack this Certificate into the MA in Spanish Program

We’ve designed our online Graduate Certificate in Spanish to be attainable regardless of your professional circumstances. You can complete coursework any hour of the day from just about anywhere in the world around your professional and personal responsibilities. No campus visits are required. If you do eventually decide to pursue your Master of Arts in Spanish with us, you’ll enjoy the same online advantages and start your master’s degree 12 credits closer to completion! Learn more about how this certificate stacks into the master's degree program here.

Career Options

The University of Texas Permian Basin's online Graduate Certificate in Spanish program provides a solid foundation for you to excel in a variety of roles, including:

Literary Criticism (Core)

3 credits required.

Courses
Duration
Credits
SPAN 6300 - Literary Criticism and Research Methods
8 weeks
3
Introduction to modern literary criticism and graduate research methods. Application of literary theory to textual analysis. Review and practice of proper citation processes.
Prerequisites: N/A
Semesters Offered: Spring A 2025 Spring A 2026 Spring A 2027
Spanish Linguistics (Core)

3 credits required.

Courses
Duration
Credits
SPAN 6314 - Advanced Phonetics
8 weeks
3
The purpose of this course is to analyze the sound system and grammatical contrast between the English and Standard Spanish Language. This graduate course will include pronunciation drills, an introduction to elementary applied linguistics and an analytical approach to the general sound system. Extensive research related to oral linguistic corpus.
Prerequisites: N/A
Semesters Offered: Fall A 2024 Summer A 2026 Summer B 2026
SPAN 6321 - History of the Spanish Language
8 weeks
3
This course deals with the major features of the evolution of the Spanish language. The course objective will be to seek a general understanding of Spanish linguistic changes from its origins to its contemporary repertoire. Special interest will be focused on historical phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax.
Prerequisites: N/A
Semesters Offered: Spring A 2025 Fall A 2026
SPAN 6331 - New World, Peninsular Spanish Dialectology
8 weeks
3
This course deals with the semantic content of Spanish language lexicons. We will deal with the contrast between Spanish vocabulary from Spain (Peninsular) and the dialectical variation among speech communities throughout the New World. Special attention will be given to synchronic changes due to linguistic borrowing and close relationships with neighboring languages.
Prerequisites: N/A
Semesters Offered: Summer A 2025 Summer B 2025 Spring A 2027
SPAN 6362 - Hispanic Sociolinguistics
8 weeks
3
Introduction to sociolinguistics with emphasis on bilingualism and language contact in the Spanish-speaking world, including the United States. Diverse aspects of Spanish regional varieties will be explored, especially in Texas. Students will analyze phonological, morphological, grammatical, and lexical features of Spanish dialects in order to implement these main concepts in classroom instruction.
Prerequisites: N/A
Semesters Offered: Fall A 2025
Spanish American Literature (Core)

3 credits required.

Courses
Duration
Credits
SPAN 6322 - Contemporary Mexican Literature
8 weeks
3
This course is a comprehensive study of the principal literary trends, authors, and works of contemporary Mexico and will include works by Juan Rulfo, Carlos Fuentes, Elena Garro, Rosario Castellanos, Elena Poniatowska, and Laura Esquivel.
Prerequisites: N/A
Semesters Offered: Fall A 2025
SPAN 6342 - 20th Century Spanish American Prose
8 weeks
3
The development of prose fiction in Spanish America during the twentieth century, covering the major trends. The course will begin with Regionalism and cover the works of Magic Realism, the Post-Boom, and Post-Modernism.
Prerequisites: N/A
Semesters Offered: Spring B 2025 Fall B 2026
SPAN 6343 - 20th Century Spanish American Poetry
8 weeks
3
The development of poetry in Spanish America during the twentieth century, covering the major trends. The course will begin with Modernism and end with contemporary poetry.
Prerequisites: N/A
Semesters Offered: Summer A 2026 Summer B 2026
SPAN 6352 - Mexican American Literature
8 weeks
3
Mexican American literature focusing on native authors, to investigate the realities and experiences of the Mexican American community. This course will cover works on narrative, drama & poetry genres, from 1848 to present.
Prerequisites: N/A
Semesters Offered: Fall A 2024 Spring B 2027
Spanish Literature (Core)

3 credits required.

Courses
Duration
Credits
SPAN 6333 - Spanish Romanticism and Realism
8 weeks
3
Examines the principal literary movements of nineteenth-century Spain—romanticismo and realismo—as well as related lesser movements—costumbrismo and naturalismo—through study of individual works, genre, and history. Authors such as Emilia Pardo Bazán, Leopoldo Alas “Clarín”, Benito Pérez Galdós, José de Espronceda, and Gustavo Adolfo Becquer will be revised.
Prerequisites: N/A
Semesters Offered: Fall B 2025
SPAN 6353 - Novelists of Post-War Spain
8 weeks
3
Historical and political background, social and literary development in Spain after the Civil War (1936-39), emphasizing novelists who appear from the 1940’s onward: Cela, Laforet, Quiroga, Delibes, Matute, Juan Goytisolo, Sánchez Ferlosio, Martín-Santos, and many others.
Prerequisites: N/A
Semesters Offered: Fall B 2024 Fall B 2026
SPAN 6361 - Spanish Literature of the Golden Age
8 weeks
3
Selected masterpieces of the Spanish Golden Age. Reading will include varieties of poetry, dramatic genres, and narrative prose, particularly through the works of Garcilaso de la Vega, San Juan de la Cruz, Fray Luis de León, Santa Teresa de Jesús, Miguel de Cervantes, Lazarillo de Tormes, Lope de Vega, Francisco de Quevedo, Luis de Góngora, Tirso de Molina, and Calderón de la Barca.
Prerequisites: N/A
Semesters Offered: Spring B 2026

 

Admission Requirements

 

Regular Admission Requirements

  • A bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution in the United States or a recognized international institution, with 12 hours of intermediate and advanced undergraduate Spanish courses.

Conditional Admission Requirements

  • Students with less than 12 college-level credit hours in Spanish must demonstrate competence in Spanish with at least an intermediate-high level (based on ACTFL guidelines) as assessed during an oral interview and through a statement of purpose written in Spanish. Note: Students with a bachelor’s degree from a Spanish-speaking country will not be assessed.

 

Official Transcripts:

You will need to submit official transcripts from each college or university you attended to the Office of Admissions. Currently enrolled or former UTPB students do not need to request their UTPB transcript.

Official copies of transcripts must come directly from the school in a sealed envelope and can be mailed to:

UT Permian Basin
Graduate Studies Office
4901 E. University Blvd.
Odessa, TX 79762

Official transcripts in electronic format can be sent to gradstudies@utpb.edu

 

Supporting Documents

All supporting documents related the graduate program should be sent to the Graduate Studies Office:

UT Permian Basin
Graduate Studies
4901 E. University Blvd.
Odessa, TX 79762-0001

Electronic versions of supporting documents may be emailed to gradstudies@utpb.edu

 

Application Fee

The application fee is $40.

If you have any questions regarding the admission requirements, please email gradstudies@utpb.edu.

Associate Professor and Head of the Graduate Program
abrego_p@utpb.edu

Dr. Ábrego joined UT Permian Basin in August 2013. Dr. Ábrego earned her PhD in Hispanic literature from Vanderbilt University. Her academic areas of specialization include border literature and theory; migration and cultural exchange as expressed in literary, historical, filmic, and theoretical texts. She has collaborated in different academic publications in Mexico and the United States.

Associate Professor
moreno_j@utpb.edu

Dr. Moreno is an essayist, narrator, travel author, and contributor to cultural supplements, journals, and newspapers in Mexico City, Colombia, Spain, the United States, Denmark, and France. He is an associate professor and researcher at The University of Texas Permian Basin. He has written Querida Margot (short stories, 2018); Desires of Community: The Interstitial Character in the Novel and the Cinema of the Nineties in Mexico (essays, 2016); and a compilation of chronicles: Road to Ciudad Juárez: Chronicles and Border Stories (2014). Two more compilations will be published in 2021. In addition, he prepares Chronicles of Campus Visit.

LengthApplication DeadlineDocument DeadlinePayment DeadlineCourses BeginCourses End
Fall A8/12/248/19/248/23/248/26/2410/18/24
Fall B10/7/2410/14/2410/18/2410/21/2412/13/24
LengthApplication DeadlineDocument DeadlinePayment DeadlineCourses BeginCourses End
Spring A12/30/241/6/251/10/251/13/253/7/25
Spring B3/3/253/10/253/14/253/17/255/9/25
SemesterApplication DeadlineDocument DeadlinePayment DeadlineCourses BeginCourses End
Summer A4/28/255/5/255/9/255/12/256/27/25
Summer B6/16/256/23/256/30/256/30/258/15/25
LengthApplication DeadlineDocument DeadlinePayment DeadlineCourses BeginCourses End
Fall A8/11/258/18/258/22/258/25/2510/17/25
Fall B10/6/2510/13/2510/17/2510/20/2512/12/25

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