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May 2023 update: We are excited to announce that Joseph Acquisto, Ph.D., has been named inaugural director of CAS’s School of World Languages and Cultures. He currently serves the College as department chair for Romance Languages and Cultures and acting chair for Classics and Asian Languages and Literatures. Learn more about Dr. Acquisto right here.

The �պ����� Board of Trustees approved at its quarterly meeting on Feb. 11 a proposal to create a new School of World Languages and Cultures (SWLC) within the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). This School brings together four departments—Asian Languages and Literatures, Classics, German and Russian, and Romance Languages and Cultures—under the same roof, opening avenues for increased communication and collaboration both within the School and across colleges. 

“The School of World Languages and Cultures creates the opportunity for our faculty in world languages to communicate with one voice about the central role language study plays in our liberal arts education,” says William Falls, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.  

Participating in language study prepares students to engage with an ever more diverse, changing, and globalized world. They not only learn to speak with those of different cultures, but to understand and celebrate cultural differences as well.  

There are six separate programs under the new SWLC umbrella: Asian Languages and Literatures; Classics; French and Italian; German, Russian, and Hebrew; Linguistics; and Spanish. The reorganization combines the missions of these programs without any changes to the current faculty, staff, or curriculum. 

What is changing is that these formerly separate departments are now connected within SWLC, providing increased visibility into not just the languages themselves but also the cultural context —through literature, film, politics, and social history — in which they exist. Additionally, faculty are now able to advocate for language study in a more coordinated way, widen research and teaching networks and conversations, strengthen existing learning areas, and recruit more students interested in studying languages. 

The School of World Languages and Cultures, which will be led by a director soon to be appointed, will be formally introduced to the �պ����� and surrounding communities in early September 2023. It is the second new School to be created within CAS in recent memory, as the College introduced the School of the Arts in 2022.