Global Spanish is a new paradigm of interdisciplinary research and creative collaboration that reaches beyond the geographical confines of traditional area studies to include all those places where Spanish is or has been spoken, across the Americas, Spain, the Philippines, North Africa, Equatorial Guinea, and beyond. It treats this ample linguistic space as a series of contact zones, attending not only to its Spanish speaking inhabitants, but to the many non-Spanish speakers found there. Global Spanish recognizes creative work and community engagement as valid and necessary forms of knowledge-making and rejects extractive colonialist models by co-creating knowledge with local partners situated across the Global South. 

Global Spanish is already forging partnerships across the world. Agreements between the University, Spain’s Instituto Cervantes and Mexico’s Fundación para las Letras Mexicanas will soon be enhanced by new links with an array of international cultural organizations and universities, such as Morocco’s Iberian and Ibero-American Studies Association. No other institute or center at UVA enjoys these kinds of international arrangements, which allow Global Spanish to access vast networks of potential global collaborators while leveraging the international visibility that these historic global entities provide. These connections offer opportunities for engagement and teaching at UVA through creative endeavors, community engagement, and new pedagogical programs benefitting UVA students, while also providing crucial new opportunities for fundraising, alumni engagement, and development.