Durham University is home to one of the best Hispanic Studies departments in the UK, ranked among the top five by the Complete University Guide 2025, reflecting the excellence of our research and teaching.
Hispanic Studies at Durham is a gateway to several interdisciplinary centres and institutes within the university including:
Find out how to apply, all course details and structure, entry requirements and more.
Seville Cathedral, Spain. Photo taken by our student Barnaby Howard Hussain on their year abroad.
In his blog post Martin talks about what the degree can involve at Durham University, and the experiences he made during his year abroad.
In her blog post Lily talks about her experiences studying Russian and Spanish and explains why she chose those languages.
The Year Abroad offers an exciting range of opportunities for study or employment in Spain and Latin America. We are pleased to be able to offer Erasmus exchanges in Spain with the universities of Alcalá de Henares, Alicante, Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), Granada, La Laguna (Tenerife), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Salamanca, Santiago de Compostela (Campus de Lugo), and Vigo, and study placements at universities in Chile and Colombia.
The opportunity to live in Madrid and attend a language school was more than I could have ever hoped for. It allowed me to improve my speaking skills and provided the perfect place to meet people from all corners of the globe.
The year abroad was truly a transformational year. Teaching, living and travelling abroad in Paraguay has brought with it so many positives in terms of self-growth, and some wonderful memories made with the new friends I met along the way. It has illuminated the importance of transnational connections to foster a global community, so we can better understand one another in an ever-interconnected world.
I worked in a primary school in Murcia, south-east Spain as part of the British Council Programme. I loved working with the children and building their English proficiency all whilst quietly learning Spanish from them too!
Research-active staff in Hispanic Studies are internationally recognised experts in literature, film, and cultural studies from the Middle Ages to the present day. Our teaching is research-led, providing students with the tools to explore a wide variety of cultural forms in their historical and intellectual contexts, with topics such as:
Work in these areas will serve as vital preparation for, and in some cases work alongside, the final-year dissertation which, as the most important aspect of the Durham student experience, aims to provide students with an opportunity to engage at the highest intellectual level with the ethos of research-led learning that you will encounter at levels I and II. This extended piece of work will allow you to adopt a variety of critical approaches and to explore questions of cultural importance to Latin America and Spain, looking at literary, filmic, and/or artistic production across a range of subjects and periods.
Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa, Bolivia. Photo taken by our student Eloise Gibbins on their year abroad.
At postgraduate level, a variety of Latin American and Spanish topics can be studied in the context of Research Degrees supervised by specialist research-active members of staff, or as part of the School’s taught programmes in Visual Culture, Translation Studies, Languages, Literatures and Cultures, and Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Find out more about our members of staff responsible for Hispanic studies, other language courses, employability, study abroad and scholarships.