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Washington State University

A message from the Chair

To Our Cougar Alumni, Family, and Friends:

JT Hughes

The Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures, one of the oldest continuous departments on campus, is celebrating another year of exceeding expectations.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our outstanding faculty and staff for winning four College of Arts and Sciences Excellence awards: Laurie Heustis for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising, Ana María Rodriguez-Vivaldi for Outstanding Achievement in International Activities, Elena Smith for Excellence in Teaching by an Instructor, and Erika Gallegos for Master’s Student Achievement Award in the Humanities.

This coming fall, please look for Arabic and Korean courses as regularized sections. This means they no longer have the FL100 moniker but have attained the status of regular courses, thanks to the hard work of the DFLC curriculum committee.

Also worth noting is the near-record attendance at this year’s Foreign Language Day, which drew almost 275 high school students from across the state. The Scholarship Committee awarded scholarships to students in every language and is working to regularize the application process by integrating it to the “universal” application.

A new committee, the Executive Steering Committee, finished development of peer-mentoring guidelines and peer-evaluation policies. Although some of these issues may not seem “glamorous,” the department would not move forward if these committees weren’t working diligently all year round.

In the coming year, we’ll also see new online programs through WSU Global Campus, including the Online Spanish Language Competencies certificate. Similar face-to-face programs are in development for lesser-taught languages. The second major in Chinese, focusing on business and Global Supply Chain Management, is among other ideas being examined. The French section has worked diligently to create a second minor program related to the Apparel, Merchandising, Design, and Textiles (AMDT) department; it is expected to be launched next fall. Three summer programs, two to Berlin and one to Paris, will be running this summer.

Special congratulations to Francisco Manzo-Robledo on the publication of his book El tumulto del pulque de 1692: Sor Juana, el Virrey y la Iglesia. Publishing is the cornerstone of what we do at an “R1: Research University (Highest research activity).” With two professors, Dr. Vilma Navarro-Daniels and Dr. Xinmin Liu, on sabbatical this semester, we look for more publications in the very near future.

Thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement. It means a great deal to the faculty, staff, and students in the department. Have a wonderful spring and summer, and I’ll look forward to addressing you again next semester.

 

Sincerely,

JT Hughes


Dr. Jolyon T. Hughes, PhD
Professor of German
Chair, Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures
Washington State University
Thompson Hall 110B / Campus Delivery 2610
Pullman, WA 99164-2610
509-335-6173