Letter from our chair

Hello and welcome to the 2015 Spring edition of News Travels with the DFLC! It has been a productive and exciting first year for me here, at Washington State University. Our students have been recognized for great achievements in and outside of the classroom, as have our faculty, and we continue to see strong enrollment in our undergraduate and graduate programs. This year we added the majors for the professions in French, German, and Spanish in the Fall semester of 2014, and we will add Japanese in the Fall of 2015. Two assistant professors were granted tenure and promotion to associate professors: Dr. Xinmin Liu and Dr. Michael Hubert. Upcoming projects include working with WSU Global Campus toward online certification programs in Core Competencies (beginning languages), World Cinema, and Professional Languages (Business and Translation).

Amid a national downturn in foreign language education and funding, the Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures at WSU is committed to finding new avenues of growth by stressing the value-added principle that languages offer to any developing résumé. No matter what area of academics or industry, there are world leaders in these areas from all corners of the globe, speaking different languages, representing diverse cultures distinctive from our own. The DFLC is uniquely qualified to produce well-rounded graduates who will be able to compete in a global economy.

During the past 7-8 months, we have begun an internship for the department’s media relations, started a Spanish textbook search committee; solicited and funded faculty travel applications designed to sponsor more research and produce more publications; designed and passed tenure and promotion guidelines; and created new study abroad programs. We ran a highly attended Foreign Languages Day for local high schools, reworked our departmental meeting formats, and restarted the department’s newsletter. Other upcoming projects are aligning more DFLC courses already taught with UCORE sections, creating an executive committee, completing work on Global Campus certification programs in Core Competencies, designating the Merritt/Matteson Distinguished Professor Award, and expanding the visibility of languages on the WSU campus and across the state of Washington. At the same time we will continue to provide innovative and exciting educational opportunities for our students based in a program of solid research at the tier-1 level.

It has been a very work-intensive first year at Pullman for me, but that has made for a very rewarding time. I have met some of the most dynamic and interesting faculty and students in such a short time since coming to WSU. What has impressed me the most about staff, faculty, administration, and students at Washington State University is the amazingly positive, can-do attitude.

I hope you find this newsletter easy to navigate, informative, and enjoyable. Please keep an eye out for the Fall 2015 installment of News Travels.

Go Cougs!

Jolyon T. Hughes, Ph.D.
Professor of German
Chair, Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures
Washington State University
Thompson Hall 110B
Campus Delivery 2610
Pullman, WA 99164-2610
Phone: (509) 335-6173
Email: Jolyon.Hughes@wsu.edu