Academic Programs

The College of Arts and Sciences highly encourages students to choose more than one area of study (double-majors, dual degree, cross-college majors). There are usually enough elective credit hours in your degree program to accommodate at least one of the following. In fact, many classes count toward multiple programs, allowing you to "double dip" and thereby reduce the number of courses required to complete the program.

RALL has partnered with other Departments to develop the following Double Major Pathways:

• Environmental Studies (BA) and French
• Environmental Studies (BS) and French
• Environmental Studies (BA) and Spanish
• Enviornmental Studies (BS) and Spanish
• Organizational Leadership and Spanish
• Psychology and Spanish
• Double Major Pathways in Arabic forthcoming

The Arab world, made up of 22 countries and the Palestinians, extends from the Arabian/Persian Gulf in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west and has a population of about 300 million, 20 million of whom are Christian Arabs. Arabic is their dominant mode of expression. It is also an important language in other countries. Arabic is the language of Islam, and more than a billion people use it as a vital spiritual component of their daily lives. The United Nations adopted Arabic as one of its six official languages in 1974. Explore Arabic program options in the following links.

Arabic Language and Culture Major, Minor, and Certificate.

Fluency in a second language is a valuable skill. French is an official language of 28 countries on five continents, including France, Canada, Belgium, Senegal and Vietnam. Learning French will allow you to converse with and better understand people throughout the world. Along with English, French is the world's most important diplomatic language. It is an official language of such organizations as the United Nations, UNESCO, NATO and the international Red Cross. Explore French program options in the following links.

French Major, Minor, and Certificates.

Double Majors are also available for French. Please inquire with the RALL Director of Undergraduate Studies,  Juan Godoy Peñas, Ph.D, for more information.

French Certificate options include Business French and French/English Translation Studies.

The Italian Certificate is an interdisciplinary program that explores the language, cultures, economics, history, geography, and politics of Italy. Students may also study abroad in Italy.

Italian Language and Culture Cerificate.

Students of Spanish study the language, culture, and literature of Spain, most of Latin America, and the Spanish-speaking United States. Spanish majors develop linguistic skills and enrich themselves through the study of a variety of cultures. Students with a BA in Spanish often seek teaching careers, either in secondary education or in colleges and universities following completion of graduate studies in the field. Spanish is also a strong liberal arts major that allows students to develop critical thinking, reading and writing skills in addition to knowledge of a foreign language and culture. Our increasingly multilingual society makes this combination of skills highly valued in a wide range of positions in the public and private sectors.

Spanish Major, Minor, and Certificates.

Double Majors are also available for Spanish. Please inquire with the RALL Director of Undergraduate Studies,  Juan Godoy Peñas, Ph.D, for more information.

Spanish Cerificate options include Arts in Spanish, Spanish/English Translation Studies, Business Spanish, Spanish for Service Learning in Social Work and Health Care Services.

RALL offers basic language classes in Portuguese (1001 and 1002), but does not currently offer any major, minor, or certificate programs for this language.

Siham Bouamer, Ph.D., Contemporary French, Maghrebi, and Queer Studies
Mauricio Espinoza, Ph.D., Spanish and Latin American Literature and Cultural Studies Muhammad Faruque, Ph.D., Islamic Studies
Michael Gott, Ph.D., Transnational Cinema Studies and Contemporary French Culture
Carlos M. Gutiérrez, Ph.D., Early Modern Spanish Literature Janine Hartman French Culture Fenfang Hwu, Ph.D., Second Language Acquisition
Thérèse Migraine-George, Ph.D., Francophone Literature and Gender and Sexuality Studies Kara Moranski, Ph.D., Applied Linguistics
María Paz Moreno, Ph.D., Contemporary Spanish Poetry and Cultural Studies
Patricia Valladares-Ruiz, Ph.D., Latin American and Caribbean Literature and Film 

Please see the Department Directory for a complete list of Department members and their bios.

At the MA level, we offer tracks in Literature (Spanish), Creative Writing (Spanish), Pedagogy (French and Spanish), and French and Francophone Studies and FrancoArabic Studies. We also offer a dual MA in French and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. For current UC undergraduate students, we offer a 4+1 MA program, which allows the completion of an MA in just one year beyond the BA.

Students majoring in French and Spanish now have the possibility of completing a BA and an MA in French or Spanish in five years instead of the traditional six. In the fifth-year students will pay tuition at the undergraduate rate, thus saving a considerable amount of money. Students must register for one graduate class in the Fall of their senior year, and a second one in the Spring, for a total of 8 credits. (Students should take between 6-10 grad credits during their senior year). 

For more information, please refer to the RALL Graduate Student Handbook, or contact the RALL Director of Graduate Studies, Siham Bouamer, Ph.D.

RALL offers two areas of study at the Ph.D. level: Spanish Literature and Cultural Studies and Latin American Literature and Cultural Studies. Ph.D. students are encouraged to develop their own particular doctoral program according to their fields of interests and their dissertation topic. For the Candidacy Exams, students will choose three areas from the doctoral Reading list, plus the bibliography of their Dissertation prospectus. Students are encouraged to take a minimum of 4 graduate courses (16 credits) in the Major Field and Dissertation Area, but Ph.D. students are expected to read and research independently as much as possible in their Major Field and Dissertation Area.  

For more information, please refer to the RALL Graduate Student Handbook, or contact the RALL Director of Graduate Studies, Siham Bouamer, Ph.D.