The goal of the faculty in the Department of Language and Cultural Studies is to reflect and embrace the diversity of the students we teach, of the languages and cultures we teach, and to create a learning environment in which we all learn about ourselves by learning about and with others.
As instructors, we commit to the following:
- Giving every student the linguistic tools needed to express their own experiences and providing the vocabulary allowing all students to talk about themselves and their reality and engage with all of their classmates;
- Introducing students to aspects of a variety of language communities and with no particular hierarchy, through the exposure to a wide range of authentic documents produced by a diverse group of people;
- Facilitating discussions regarding cultural differences, both within nations and communities, and between the United States and other nations;
- Acknowledging our own blind spots stemming from our own background and experiences and the limitations of our knowledge and ability to convey the complexity of cultural backgrounds that are not our own;
- Identifying gaps in our knowledge and working to address them (i.e. keep learning), knowing that learning is a lifelong process;
- Listening to and learning from students’ insight about the course content;
- Maintaining an atmosphere conducive to learning, and designing spaces (online or on campus) in which students can learn from us, from course materials, and from each other, in good faith, and in an intellectually honest, open, and respectful atmosphere.
