Welcome to the Department of Modern Languages!
The Department of Modern Languages is the university's cultural crossroads, an important center of world language acquisition and education in world cultures and literature. We offer programs in eleven languages, with a staff of approximately 45 faculty and graduate teaching assistants. We hail from 20 different countries, from Peru to China, from Japan to Iraq, and foster international understanding and good will for the rest of the campus. We are a large Department, the sixth-largest
producer of student credit hours in the entire university.
Modern Languages offers Bachelor's programs in French, German, and Spanish, and Master's degrees in these languages with concentrations in Literature, Language Acquisition, and Language Acquisition with a Graduate Certificate leading to K-12 teaching certification in the state of Kansas. We offer six minors in Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. We also offer courses in Arabic, Czech, Italian, Latin, and Swahili.
Thousands of K-State students recognize the value of combining a degree in agriculture, engineering, architecture, physics, journalism and many other fields with a foreign language to enhance their career plans. We are proud to provide the university's most sought-after minors. We encourage students to consider secondary majors in International Studies or Latin American Studies or a minor in East Asian Studies, or work in African Studies, to complement their curriculum. For information about these programs, please contact Dr. Bradley Shaw, Associate Professor of Spanish, Modern Languages, and Director, International and Area Studies, College of Arts & Sciences, or the program director in other area studies that interest you (David Graff for East Asian Studies, or the leaders in African Studies).
K-State's best students are attracted by what Modern Languages has to offer. The study of foreign languages and cultures, an-d study abroad, have become a prerequisite for serious candidacy to the most prestigious national scholarships. Twelve of K-State's last fifteen Rhodes Scholarship finalists have studied, interned or done service work abroad. Four out of five of K-State's last Truman scholars have done the same. In 2006-2007 majors and minors won national recognition with three Fulbright, one Truman, two Udall, two Goldwater, one Rotary Ambassadorial, and one Phi Beta Kappa Study Abroad scholarships. For many years our students in Japanese have won numerous speech and composition competitions against much larger university programs. Chinese is following this grand tradition with five students winning speech contests in 2007.
Just as importantly, Modern Languages is a key center of humanities scholarship at K-State, with dozens of articles and numerous books published by its active faculty. Since 1976 the Department has been the home to the eminent international scholarly journal, Studies in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature.
The Department has taken a leadership role on such critical international initiatives as the rebuilding of the English Departments at Kabul and Balkh University in Afghanistan. Here at home we are expanding our programs to include a translation and interpreting certificate in several languages.
Top
Support Modern Languages
The Modern Languages Department is tremendously grateful to alumni and donors for their support. Gifts for scholarships, research materials and texts for the Fritz Moore Seminar Room are always welcome. They help to ensure that future generations develop their linguistic skills and appreciate other cultures.
If you would like to give to the Modern Languages Department, please click here. If you are not signed on, you will be asked to fill out a profile page first, and then it will automatically take you to the online giving page. Once there, you should see the Modern Languages Fund already in the form, just waiting for you to type in a dollar amount! Our online giving form is powered by Wildcat Connection, K-State online community for alumni and friends.
You may also get in touch with Michelle Robben, Development Officer for the College of Arts and Sciences, at micheller@found.ksu.edu or 800-432-1478 and speak with her about ways you can help our programs.
