P.S. Lagniappe: honestly, for recruiting, I would also turn the 300 level introductions into more focused courses on current topics. What hip people now do at the 300 level are things like this:
– Latino Presence in the US (NOT “Spanish for heritage speakers” focusing on spelling and grammar for people who speak but haven’t learned to write perfectly, but a serious content-based course for everyone that is also writing intensive)
– Contemporary Spanish Film (NOT a survey saying Spain begins with the Visigoths and so on, but a general interest course on very current social, artistic, and political issues)
– Art and Politics in the Andean World (NOT a lit survey, but a course on cultural politics with literature in it, that uses the actual research expertise of the prof).
Also: In Spain, our program is admired since it maintains Spanish as a program in the humanities, not as a technical skill to serve tourism or business. We should keep this focus and update it, not abandon the humanities.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 