Languages school will mark 1st anniversary

LAWRENCE — A convocation on Thursday, Sept. 1, will mark the first anniversary of the University of Kansas School of Languages, Literatures & Cultures (SLLC).

The event will take place at 3 p.m. in the Kansas Union Ballroom. Guest speakers include university leaders, as well as representatives of regional, national and international partnering organizations. Jowel Laguerre, chancellor of the Peralta Community College district, will underline KU’s renewed commitment to Haitian studies. Clinton Robinson, vice president at Black & Veatch and great-great-grandson to David Robinson, one of KU’s founding faculty, will give this year’s keynote address.

“We are honored to have illustrious alumni, as well Chancellor Gray-Little and our new College dean, Carl Lejuez, speak at the SLLC's first anniversary,” said Professor Marc Greenberg, SLLC director. “The event recognizes the high degree to which education and industry must work together to prepare citizens ready for the challenges of a hyperglobalized, multi-polar world.”

The KU School of Languages, Literatures & Cultures was established in fall 2014 and emphasizes the central importance of language and culture for a 21st-century education in a globalized world.

The school represents five core departments — East Asian Languages & Cultures, French & Italian, Germanic Languages & Literatures, Slavic Languages & Literatures and Spanish & Portuguese — as well as 13 affiliated departments and centers: African & African-American Studies, Anthropology, Art History, Center for East Asian Studies, Center for Global & International Studies, Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Center for Russian, East-European & Eurasian Studies, Classics, English, Humanities & Western Civilization, Kansas African Studies Center, Linguistics and Religious Studies.

At KU some 40 languages are taught on a regular basis, as well as courses on culture, literature, history and politics connected with many of those languages. This number makes KU unparalleled in the Great Plains and well beyond. KU is a national leader in the study of foreign languages, offering more languages than any other university in Kansas or in the Big 12 Conference.