From the Dean | January 2022
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Dear Arts and Science community, One of the benefits of an education in the College of Arts and Science is that our students are exposed to a wide range of subjects, ideas, fields, methods, and ways of thinking across the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. We firmly believe that this kind of academic grounding, at once broad and deep, prepares our graduates for lives as well-informed and responsible citizens. Fundamental to this goal is fostering cultural competencies. What does that mean? We believe that our students should develop an understanding of, and appreciation for, different cultures, perspectives, and languages. This is part of what allows them to be thoughtful members of the contemporary world, able to evaluate the diverse contexts from which social problems—and solutions—emerge. Studying languages is an essential part of building cultural competencies. For this reason, the College of Arts and Science is making new investments to re-envision the future of the languages at Vanderbilt. We aim to bolster innovation, engagement, and greater collaboration among our language programs, which number more than a dozen and range from Spanish to Russian to Hebrew to Korean to Arabic. As we do so, we will build on the expertise of our talented faculty, as well as strong student interest in language and culture training. One of our current priorities is expanding the reach and impact of our Center for Second Language Studies, which does an excellent job of enriching language education on campus by building cultural awareness and supporting quality language instruction. A search is underway for a new director for the center to lead this expansion. We are also launching a new postdoctoral program to further enrich intellectual life in the humanities, in general, and the languages, in particular. Further, we are rethinking how we integrate languages and international cultures into our residential college system. The McTyeire International House, on our campus for 40 years, has been an extremely successful example of immersive language learning. As the longtime director, Anja Bandas, steps down this spring, we aim to recreate the spirit of McTyeire in our existing residential colleges. While the International House will no longer be a language-focused residential hall, it will serve as a model for how we imbed intensive language-learning experiences into our existing residential colleges. For those with a connection to McTyeire, I invite you to share with me your thoughts as we reshape the language experience on campus. This effort to re-imagine language education is a crucial part of a broader initiative to reform the undergraduate curriculum. Over the next few years, we aim to redesign our curriculum so that our students are equipped to answer the pressing humanistic, social, and scientific questions of our twenty-first-century world. As you can imagine, this is a daunting task but an important one. We have engaged 30 of our faculty members to lead the charge and they have already begun their work. I look forward to keeping you informed about the future of the languages at Vanderbilt, as well as our larger curriculum reform effort, as these initiatives progress. I hope 2022 is off to a good start for you and your families. My best,
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