The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures encompasses the study of French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Yiddish. More than 100 courses are offered every year, including introductory language classes, upper-level topics courses and community-based practicums, and advanced graduate seminars in literature and theory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The department is committed to creating a safe,\u00a0inclusive, equitable, culturally responsive, and supportive environment where all students, faculty, and staff feel welcomed, respected,
and seen.\u00a0Every member of our community can find ways to shape this ongoing process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The department is dedicated to fostering diverse approaches and ideas within the fields of language, literature, and media. This includes attending to structurally marginalized and historically minoritized knowledges in our critical and imaginative inquiries. Our curricula and co-curricular activities are meant to reflect this commitment. In recruiting, admissions, hiring, course staffing, and promotions, we are guided by the principles of inclusive excellence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are actively committed to work to overcome biases and to strive to prevent on our campus micro-aggressions and identity-based trauma. Therefore, the department welcomes suggestions and concerns from any member\u2014students, staff, and faculty\u2014that might help us improve our pedagogical and collegial relationships. These comments can be directed to the Diversity Champion<\/a> and\/or the Department Chair<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our internationally recognized faculty publish research on topics ranging from the interplay of literature and science in the European Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment, to the nexus of literature and politics in the colonial and post-colonial Americas, Caribbean, and Africa; from literature\u2019s engagement with aesthetics, philosophy, religion, and the environment to theories of gender and the history of the body; from the technologies of the book to the poetics of the stage and screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOur Research<\/h2>\n\n\n\n