Spanish and Politics

Spanish and Politics is a combination that opens a particularly rich set of questions, because the Spanish-speaking world is itself a vast political laboratory. From the transition to democracy in post-Franco Spain to the diverse political experiments of Latin America, from the colonial history that shaped a continent to the contemporary dynamics of migration and identity, the discipline gives you language, literature, and the analytical tools of political science all at once. You develop both fluency and intellectual depth, learning to understand political systems and read García Márquez in the same degree.

At the University of Edinburgh, this four-year full-time programme takes you to an advanced level in Spanish while also giving you rigorous training in political theory, comparative politics, and international relations. You will engage with the literature and culture of Spain and Latin America alongside political philosophy, the study of electoral systems, and the analysis of international organisations and conflict. Edinburgh's strong research culture and its cosmopolitan academic environment make it a particularly good place to study this combination, and the city itself provides a lively political and cultural context.

Graduates combining Spanish and Politics are sought after in international business, diplomacy, the civil service, journalism, law, and non-governmental organisations working across Latin America, Spain, and the wider Hispanophone world. The European Union, the United Nations, and international development organisations all recruit people with this profile. Spanish is the second most spoken native language in the world, and that reach gives graduates real geographic mobility.

Translation and interpreting are also career options. Postgraduate study in international relations, Latin American studies, politics, or translation is a well-established next step.