If you'd like to make Spanish or Portuguese a significant part of your undergraduate education, you might consider one of our B.A. degrees. Our department is known as one of the top Spanish and Portuguese language programs in the country, with faculty who produce leading research and integrate this into their teaching.

With over 500 million Spanish speakers and over 210 million Portuguese speakers worldwide, our undergraduate programs offer a unique opening to two truly global languages, vehicles of thought and expression within vibrant cultures spread across the globe—including the United States, the second largest Spanish-speaking country in the world.

In addition to majors and minors in Spanish and Portuguese, we offer two semesters of language study in Catalan.

When you become familiar with and even fluent in a language, you acquire a new worldview—new ways of thinking, communicating, and experiencing your relationship to others. Language acquisition skills open the door to new opportunities.

Spanish and Portuguese embody long, rich, and influential histories of cultural creativity and innovation that continue today in literature, fine arts, music, architecture, film, science and technology, philosophy, religion, business, fashion and design, sports, and social practices.

When you major in Spanish or Portuguese, you not only become fluent in the language, but you also learn about culture, literature, and linguistics though a wide array of areas and subjects: history, politics, philosophy, visual arts, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, coloniality and decolonization, anthropology and cultural theory, and the scientific method, including data collection and data analysis. You are able to develop your interests in these topics from a new perspective.

Our undergraduate majors develop abilities in critical, analytical, and creative thinking, information management and research skills, argumentation and persuasion, organization and time management, and fluency in oral and written communication in Spanish or Portuguese.

These are necessary skills if you wish to pursue graduate work in the humanities and social sciences, and they are of tremendous value within the professional career paths of today’s globalized economy. A degree in Spanish or Portuguese can prepare you for an exciting career in many fields—from law, medicine, and business to research and development, culture and entertainment, sports, commerce, politics, and diplomacy.

The B.A. degrees in both Spanish and Portuguese are flexible and offers much freedom in the selection of courses, including the wide variety offered in our department. We encourage you to study abroad as an integral part of your undergraduate experience. In most cases, courses taken abroad in an IU-approved program can count towards your major or towards requirements in other departments and programs. This makes our degrees easy to combine with other majors, minors, and certificates in the humanities, social, and natural sciences, including dual-degrees within the College of Arts and Sciences or other schools such as the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.