Where language meets understanding: advancing cross-cultural communication through the art and science of language

The Department of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures, and Cultures brings together a remarkable breadth of disciplines under one academic umbrella, creating opportunities for students to explore the full spectrum of human communication and cultural expression. We unite American Sign Language, Arabic, Chinese, English as a Second Language, French, German, International Studies, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Linguistics, Russian, Swahili, and Translation as one dynamic intellectual community.

Our department represents decades of academic excellence, with faculty who are internationally recognized scholars in areas ranging from medieval literature to contemporary digital humanities, from language acquisition research to cutting-edge translation theory. Students benefit from this rich diversity of expertise, gaining access to cross-disciplinary perspectives that enhance their understanding of how language shapes culture, identity, and global communication. Our humanistic orientation to the world drives scholarship that examines both historical and contemporary literature and culture, exploring how the past impacts and informs present cultural questions.

Graduates of our programs have gone on to distinguished careers in international finance, diplomacy, publishing, cinema, education, and technology. They serve as cultural bridges in multinational corporations, lead humanitarian organizations, work as professional interpreters and translators, and contribute to academic research that advances our understanding of global cultures. Our alumni embody the department's mission of fostering global understanding through deep cultural and linguistic competency.

Faculty expertise spans an extraordinary range of specializations including critical language education in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian; Francophone and Italian literatures and cultures; German cultural history and cinema; Arabic and Swahili language and culture; theoretical and applied linguistics; deaf studies; and translation theory and practice. This breadth creates unparalleled opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative research that addresses the complex cultural challenges of our interconnected world.

Located at America's preeminent public university for writing, our department is home to the nation's oldest and largest MFA program in literary translation and the only undergraduate major in translation in the United States.