On 22 April 2021, the faculty of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures met and voted to approve a brand new mission statement. This new statement serves as an inward and outward reminder of our purpose, goals, and overall mission. We are very excited to share!
Welcome to the Department of Modern Languages & Literatures at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We offer majors, minors, and courses in eight different languages, as well as an M.A. in French, German, and Spanish, and a Ph.D. in French and Spanish. We are a community of scholars, researchers, educators, writers, poets, theorists, humanists, linguists, social scientists, cultural critics, historians, translators, interpreters, businesspeople, leaders of study abroad programs, philosophers, critical thinkers, and cultural ambassadors. We believe that the unifying thread across our curriculum and research is the study of difference. It is through the study of difference that we learn to connect with other cultures and build commonalities/communalities. We work to foster the creative and transformative synergies that can emerge from diversity of many kinds. Through this radical inclusivity, we seek to overcome the comforts and dangers of monoculturalism and monolingualism in the classroom and in the community. We do this for our students, for our community, and for ourselves. As such, our mission prioritizes two key values of the College of Arts and Sciences and the wider UNL mission: first, to embrace excellence through diversity of all kinds, and second, to serve as a cultural resource for the wider Nebraska community.
