The Department of Spanish Language and Literature was established in the late 1960s. Currently, the teaching staff is made up of nine highly qualified teachers and two native language lecturers (one Spanish and one Catalan). Approximately 120 students are enrolled on courses in the Department.

The Department offers three levels of education, all conducted in Spanish from the outset. The purpose of the BA in Romance Philology and Cultures (specialized in Spanish Studies) is to train specialists who have theoretical and practical knowledge of Romance languages and cultures as well as of general social science topics, so that they can apply this knowledge in a versatile, inter- and multidisciplinary, practical and theoretical manner in their professional lives. In the BA course, in addition to philological (linguistics and literature) courses, our students can also take cultural history and language classes. For students in the Department who do not choose a minor, we offer two specialisations: Spanish philology and Ibero-Roman philology, which falls under the Department of Portuguese Language and Literature. For students taking other majors in the faculty, we recommend the Spanish disciplinary minor, which requires at least intermediate Spanish (level B2). Apart from teaching Spanish linguistics and Spanish-language literature, our Department has a long tradition of teaching Catalan, but students can also study the other two minority languages of the Iberian Peninsula, Basque and Galician.

For those who wish to further deepen their literary or linguistic studies after completing the BA, we recommend doing a master’s in Spanish Language, Literature and Culture. Here, our students can choose from three differentiated professional modules: Spanish literature and translation, Spanish-American literature and translation, and Spanish linguistics and translation. The master’s programme is followed by a PhD programme. The Doctoral School of Literature offers a programme in the Department of Spanish Language and Literature (called “Spanish Language Literatures”, and before 2023, “Textual Analysis of Contemporary Latin American Narrative Literature and its Antecedents”). Those interested in linguistics can continue their studies in the Doctoral School of Linguistics through its programme offered by the Institute of Romance Studies.

The Department of Spanish Language and Literature also contributes to teacher training. The Spanish Language and Culture Teacher Training course offers classes in language, literary history, linguistics, art and culture, in addition to teaching methodology.

The Department currently occupies the first floor of Building C of the Trefort Garden campus as part of the Institute of Romance Studies. The Department’s library is also located in the same building, and with its 20,000 volumes, it is a unique Hispanic studies library in Hungary. The library’s collections include reference works on Spanish and Latin American culture and civilization, literary theory and history, as well as linguistic studies and monographs on Spanish language and literature, auxiliary materials and methodological works necessary for teaching Spanish as a foreign language, a range of dictionaries, lexicons and encyclopaedias, Spanish-language literature in the original language and in Hungarian translation, art books, theses and doctoral dissertations prepared at the Department, along with numerous journals in Hispanic studies. Additionally, the library houses a unique collection of works in Catalan.

The Department puts considerable emphasis on developing talent. The Scientific Student Association of Hispanic Studies was founded in 2005. Every two years, our students present their research papers at the National Scientific Students’ Associations Conference, from which they usually return with numerous awards. Hungarian summaries of their work have been printed in the Lazarillo. Fiatal Hispanisták Tanulmányai (Lazarillo. Studies of Young Hispanists) series since 2007, and according to tradition, these volumes are edited by the teaching staff and students of our Department. In 2017, our Department established the linguistics research workshop TALES (Taller de Lingüística Española), the purpose of which, in addition to preparing students for the National Scientific Students’ Associations Conference, is to support applied linguistics research conducted by students.

The Department’s teaching staff and PhD students have been highly active in academic research from the beginning: their multifaceted interest is reflected in independent monographs, collections of studies, articles published in national and foreign journals, bilingual dictionaries, textbooks and educational material aids used nationally, as well as literary translations. In addition to publications on literature and language pedagogy, the Department also publishes a highly regarded academic journal specializing in short prose, called Lejana. Revista Crítica de Narrativa Breve. The Latin American Research Centre was founded in 2016, and in addition to its research work, it also organises interesting lectures and talks open to the general public.

Teaching staff and PhD students not only contribute to the academic community through publications, but also actively participate in and organise national and international congresses and conferences. International academic conferences organised every two years by the Department in cooperation with other institutions have now become a tradition. In addition to domestic researchers, renowned foreign experts also attend these conferences. In recent years, we have also organised academic events specifically for master’s and PhD students. For those interested in teaching methods for the Spanish language, we organise the Didactic Workshop Conferences, also attended by renowned foreign experts.

The Department has many international connections, and through the European Union’s mobility programmes (Tempus, Erasmus), our students are able to spend a semester at universities in Spain or another European country. At least 8-10 students receive scholarships every year. Welcoming foreign students is very important to us; students come to the Department not only through the Erasmus and CEEPUS programmes, but also through the Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship programme, this way, they are able to spend an entire educational cycle with us. Additionally, we put a lot of effort into familiarising our teachers and staff members with the work of foreign institutions, and thus they have the opportunity to travel abroad for one or two weeks each year as guest lecturers or researchers.