students intently listening to the lesson of the day in a sunny classroom

Our Mission

The School of World Languages and Cultures (SWLC) prepares you to engage with a diverse, globalizing, and ever-changing world. You will learn to speak and understand foreign languages, study how languages are learned, and (if desired) explore how to teach language to non-native speakers. You will also become knowledgeable about and sensitive to cultural differences through exposure to the perspectives of people who speak other languages, enabling you to reflect critically on your own cultural practices. Research by faculty in the School focuses on language, literature, cultural studies,  and linguistics to show how language is intertwined with all facets of life.   

In the SWLC, you will learn to: 

  • Engage with cultural products, practices, and perspectives of other places, exploring topics such as literature, film, dialects, traditions, and social behaviors
  • Acquire language skills and cultural knowledge needed to function in diverse environments
  • Communicate and negotiate meaning across language and culture to explore problems and issues from different perspectives 
  • Analyze a diverse range of linguistic phenomena through scientific, investigative means 
  • Consider how cultures and cultural processes are shaped, negotiated, and distributed in diverse ways 
  • Examine the use of language in context, including its relationship to systems of power
  • Explore the mechanisms by which language learning and acquisition take place
  • Forge meaningful, interdisciplinary connections with other fields of inquiry across the university

Our History

Classics students perform Aristopane's Frogs

The School of World Languages and Cultures was formed in spring of 2023, after several years of conversation and planning among faculty in the departments of Asian Languages and Literatures, Classics, German and Russian, and Romance Languages and Cultures. Born out of a desire to unite these departments into a more coherent body, the School was created to better advocate for language study, coordinate conversations about research and teaching, and build up student and community interest in language learning, scholarship, and expression.

Our Goals

Students enjoy a friendly rivalry during a meeting of the Chinese Games Club
  • To increase the visibility of language study at UVM among students and within the community at large, amplifying ongoing accomplishments in research, teaching, and scholarship
  • To advocate for language study, both within and outside UVM, helping build interest among students while connecting them to rewarding careers
  • To widen research and teaching networks and conversations among faculty working in diverse world regions and scholarship fields
  • To strengthen connections to regional language teachers and scholars in the K-12 school system as well as in regional colleges and universities