Â鶹ӰԺ

The members of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the Â鶹ӰԺ recognize that the university sits upon land within the territories of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho peoples. Further, we acknowledge that 48 contemporary tribal nations are historically tied to the lands that make up the state of Colorado.

We firmly believe that diversity, equity, and antiracism make our community stronger, our department more dynamic, and our work better. Therefore, the Department is committed to providing a healthy, safe, respectful & supportive environment for all of our students, staff, and faculty regardless of their race, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy, age, disability, creed, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status,  political affiliation, or political philosophy.

Our graduate program prides itself in supporting our graduate students’ success and well-being while expanding their understanding of the diversity of human experience. As a program devoted to the study of the cultural production of Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan-speaking communities across time and space, we take pride in advancing the campus mission of inclusive excellence.

By teaching Spanish, and by training graduate students in Latin American and Iberian languages and literatures and Hispanic linguistics, we are not only increasing the visibility and prestige of the language and culture of the largest underrepresented group at the state and regional level, but we are furthering a more nuanced understanding of the unique backgrounds and perspectives of people misrepresented and underrepresented in mainstream US, Latin American, and Spanish cultures.  For instance, many of our culture and literature classes cover the socio-historical and current presence of indigenous peoples in the Americas.

We have striven in recent years to strengthen the diversity of our program at every level. We hired a specialist in Second Language Acquisition with a focus on Heritage languages and a Mexico-focused specialist in Digital Humanities. Graduate Students have also been an integral part of this effort, as we secured three Graduate School Diversity Recruitment Fellowships for our incoming graduate students.

We also recognize that working towards further diversity, equity, and antiracism is an ongoing process. Accordingly, we pledge ourselves to expand our racial, ethnic, cultural, and gender diversity in our students, faculty, and staff bodies and to provide equal opportunity to all. Seeking to develop a culture where all members of our community feel supported and are able to thrive is a fundamental goal for our graduate program and department. Steps aimed at fulfilling our commitments and goals include:

• Recruiting and retaining diverse faculty, students, and staff,
• Establishing and/or participating in dedicated efforts to improve representation such as workshops, trainings, and discussion forums,
• Minimizing the barriers that disproportionately affect underrepresented groups,
• Supporting DACA students, DREAMERS and other members of the undocumented community at CU Â鶹ӰԺ,
• Adopting the CU Antiracist Creed

We look forward to strengthening our diversity efforts together with our graduate students in the coming years.