LADINO16: Beginning Judeo-Spanish, is scheduled to be offered again in the 2024-2025 academic year.
The Ladino program at Harvard differs from most courses in Judeo-Spanish across the US with its signature blend of archival, sociolinguistic, and literary materials. Students develop a strong foundation in Judeo-Spanish grammar, literature, and dialectology, as well as personalized instruction designed to support their continued independent research.
The program’s introductory course, LADINO16: Beginning Judeo-Spanish debuted in Spring 2023. Led by Ph.D. candidate Adam Mahler with support from the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures and the Center for Jewish Studies, the course will be offered in future semesters. Additionally, an accredited Harvard Ladino summer course for 2024 is currently in planning.
Covering the distance from 15th-century Jewish clerecía rabínica, or religious poetry, composed in Old Castilian to 20th-century satirical magazines circulated among Ladino-speakers in New York, the course seeks to expose students to Judeo-Spanish in its literary critical specificity and fullness.
The course also prioritizes community engagement with Harvard-area scholars and artists connected to Judeo-Spanish language and literature and Sephardic themes. Guest lecturers have included Luis Girón Negrón, on the adumbrations of Judeo-Spanish in Old Castilian texts, the documentary filmmaker Brooke Saias, and the Harvard Judaica Collection librarians, Vardit Samuels and Elizabeth Vernon.
Marshalling a rich array of archival resources and pedagogical materials, LADINO16: Beginning Judeo-Spanish equips graduates and undergraduates for advanced work in Ladino and associated varieties like Hakitía, whether in the archives or out in the field.
Ladino Course offerings:
LADINO16: Beginning Judeo-Spanish, is scheduled to be offered again in the 2024-2025 academic year.
I have taken away so much. I feel I have a basis for moving forward with my Ladino reading and can explore more difficult texts.
Ladino 16 student
I learned so much about Sephardic culture and heritage and also learned about Judaism and the Jewish diaspora. This course has made me more attuned to Sephardic cultural and literary contributions and makes me want to deepen my study of these texts and this history.
Ladino 16 student