The Department of Language and Literature values the power of words to describe and reimagine
lived experience in all of its diversity. As teachers, we strive to show students how language
empowers all of us to understand, respect, and work together with individuals with a
wide variety of backgrounds and value systems. We are committed to full engagement
with language study, literary texts, and literary theory, so all group members can work
through the discomfort that new ideas bring. This process fosters both intellectual
insights and meaningful actions in the world. Our classrooms are spaces of mutual
respect where students gain intercultural knowledge and develop a stronger commitment
to civic engagement, critical thinking, gender equity, social justice, and the value
of diversity in all its forms—ability, age, class, gender, history, language, nationality,
race, religion, and sexuality.
