College of Arts and Sciences

Department of Modern Languages

Graduate Program Director : Maria Asuncion Gomez
Department’s Phone Number : (305) 348-3378
Department’s FAX Number : (305) 348-1085

For More Information, go to

• Program's web site
• College of Arts and Sciences web site

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Brief Description of the Program:

        The Ph.D. Program in Spanish at Florida International University offers an innovative curriculum that embraces all phases of Hispanic literature, culture and civilization, with an emphasis in the Caribbean, as well as courses in Spanish linguistics, literary theory, and teaching and research methodology. As a community of active scholars, we endeavor to offer to all of our graduate students the opportunity for intellectual growth, development and interdisciplinary work within a multicultural environment, and to provide students with a rigorous theoretical foundation. The doctoral program in Spanish offers students the opportunity to specialize in one of two major fields: Peninsular Spanish Literature or Spanish American Literature.

        The courses offered reflect the variety of the faculty's interests as well as the students' needs, and engage different modalities of interpretation from stylistics and traditional philology to cultural studies, post-structuralism, new historicism and feminist theory. Our graduate faculty and most advanced students are research active, and the cordial intellectual climate within the department is reflected in their steady participation in conferences, symposia and research publication.

        We hold a biennial international conference on Hispanic Literatures and Film that attracts scholars from all around the world, and gives our graduate students the opportunity to gain a useful experience in their professional training. In addition, graduate students can receive financial support from different sources to present papers at national and international conferences.

Application Requirements:

• Hold a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish from an accredited college or university. Special cases, such as holders of a degree in a related field, will be evaluated individually by the Department.
• Take the Graduate Record Examination.
• Have attained a minimum 3.0 grade-point average (B average), during the last two years of her/his undergraduate program as determined by the FIU Admissions Office, or attain a score of at least 1,000 on the GRE.
• Applicants with Master’s degrees are required to have a graduate GPA of 3.5.
• Demonstrate the ability to speak Spanish with near-native fluency and to write in Spanish. Demonstrate the ability to read English with excellent proficiency. An examination may be necessary.
• Submit two letters of recommendation, preferably from persons in the academic community who are in a position to comment on the applicant’s suitability for graduate work, a resume, and a writing sample in Spanish, preferably a term paper or thesis, of analytical nature, on a literary subject.
• Receive approval of the departmental graduate committee.

Additional Requirements for International Students:

• Foreign students must take the TOEFL and attain a minimum score of 550.