Why PLU Languages and Literatures?
In the last ten years the combination of a dramatic increase in global business, political realities such as the September 11, 2001, attacks, and the growing diversity of our own local communities has intensified the demand for Languages graduates and broadened the range of career opportunities available to them.
Concentrations
- Chinese Studies
- Classics
- French
- German
- Norwegian
- Scandinavian Area Studies
- Spanish
While some PLU graduates pursue specialist careers in such fields as teaching, translation and interpretation, a growing number are reporting that the combination of language skills and study away experience have given them a competitive edge in a wide range of fields including international, national, and local non-profit work, business, computing and telecommunications, law, politics, medicine, counseling, journalism, social work, law enforcement, the travel industry, and activism.
Kim Miller, a 2004 graduate in Spanish, is a case in point: “When people asked me what I was going to do with a Spanish major, at first, I really couldn’t answer the question but I can now. I am going to study abroad in Granada, Spain, and it will change my life forever. I’m going to list on my resume that I am bilingual, and that will put me ahead of the competition.” Kim is now a District Manager in the Small Business Services division for the worldwide company ADP (Automatic Data Processing). She reports using her Spanish constantly and anticipates being tapped for an overseas appointment, ideally in Spain.
Why PLU?
Language study at PLU is a serious academic enterprise. While gaining proficiency in a language, the advanced study of the cultures and literature relevant to the target language develop students’ critical, aesthetic, and creative sensibilities necessary for global citizenship, and appreciation of their own language and culture.
PLU language graduates compete successfully for jobs, graduate school placement, and prestigious awards. As of 2006, 64 PLU Languages students have won the coveted and prestigious Fulbright scholarship with an all expenses-paid post-graduate year abroad for research and/or teaching, including three in French and three in German in 2003.
In addition to literature courses in specific languages, the department offers a selected number of courses in English. These courses also meet the General University Requirement in Literature and include:
Chinese Literature in Translation, Latino Literature, The Child in Scandinavian Literature, French Literature and Film of the Americas, Society and Self in Modern European Literature and Film. Several literature courses meet requirements for majors or minors in Global Studies, Women’s Studies, the International Core and other cross-disciplinary programs.
Other Unique Language Opportunities
While on-campus coursework in the language of choice is the foundation for the PLU Languages major or minor, many other opportunities are available to students that enhance their undergraduate learning experience and nourish global citizenship:
- Short-term study away opportunities, in intensive language and cultural studies are offered by PLU Languages and Literatures faculty in China, Cuba, Germany, Martinique, Costa Rica and Spain.
- Semester study away programs, PLU features innovative interdisciplinary semester programs with an emphasis on language learning in Sichuan University (China), the Instituto Cultural Oaxaca (Mexico), Hedmark University College (Norway), and at the Centro de Lenguas Modernas in Granada (Spain). Study away opportunities are available relevant to other languages in many locations.
- Undergraduate and faculty/student research grants are available on a competitive basis annually from the Humanities Division Kelmer Roe Faculty/Student Grant initiative and from the Wang Center for International Programs (for undergraduate research overseas).
- International internship opportunities are available among the thriving international communities of the greater Seattle-Tacoma area, an emerging hub that connects European trade and the Pacific Rim.
- Extensive programming of co-curricular opportunities support and nurture students’ academic interest in foreign languages and cultures and pressing global issues.
- Immersion weekends offer a growing number of programs in the department sponsor an annual opportunity for faculty and students to interact in an target-language immersion context in an activity-filled weekend at a nearby camp located on Raft Island.
- A widely recognized School of Education offers certification and endorsement in many languages and English as a Second Language. With the nation-wide shortage of qualified language teachers, you can look forward to successful employment.
- Unprecedented opportunities to gain technical training for jobs in the computer industry that demand knowledge of languages.
Hong International Hall
At PLU, you can share your interest in, and commitment to, learning languages with others by choosing to live in Hong International Hall, a one-of-a-kind living-learning community that consists of five language and cultural immersion houses (Chinese, French, German, Norwegian and Spanish) as well as a wing for International Core students. Residents in this thriving living and learning community find a supportive home as well as a hopeful environment that challenges residents and the PLU campus to become fluent in languages and knowledgeable about global issues. HIH has become a dynamic hub of languages-related programming, bi-weekly round-table discussions on pressing world issues, and of the HIH Fine and Foreign Film Society.
Languages, Literatures, and the Humanities
We have three principles in our department that help guide the way we teach and the way we learn:
- To be human is to exercise and appreciate those creative forces that lead to aesthetic expressions in literature and the arts. Just as languages vary from one culture to another, so does the creative expression of its speakers. Students of literatures in languages become sensitized to the ways in which such creativity is embedded in the historical and social environment of a particular people.
- To be human is to think critically and integratively, to read closely and with sensitivity, to write and speak clearly and with integrity. Through the study of literatures—from their first year language courses on—students develop these inherently valuable skills that are transferable to other fields of study and future employment.
- To be fully human is to know oneself. Through lively class discussions of a culture that is not their own, students gain a deeper understanding of their own culture and of themselves.
Placement in Courses
Students who have studied Chinese, French, German, or Spanish take a placement test before beginning their first semester at PLU. These tests are held on campus during orientation week, and at other times through special arrangement. To receive additional information — or to learn more about your particular language of interest — please visit www.plu.edu/~lang, or call 253-535-7678.
Faculty
All faculty are accomplished teachers of languages at all levels as well as committed scholars in their disciplines.
Claudia Berguson, Chair, Scandinavian Studies
Ph.D., University of Washington
Scandinavian studies, Norwegian literature
Roberta S. Brown, Chair, International Core
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Early-modern and Francophone literature
Kirsten M. Christensen
Ph.D., University of Texas
East German literature and film; second language acquisition
Emily F. Davidson
M.A., Middlebury College
Spanish language and culture
Kamaal Haque
Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis
Germanic Languages and Literatures
Janet Besserer Holmgren
Ph.D., University of California, Irvine
Eighteenth- and Twentieth-Century German literature
Mark K. Jensen, Department Chair
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Modern French literature and culture
Jingzhen Li
M.A., Institute of Chinese Classics, Beijing
Chinese language and culture
María Lightner-Ferrer
M.A., University of Washington
Spanish literature
Paul Manfredi, Chair, Chinese Studies
Ph.D., Indiana University, Bloomington
Modern Chinese poetry
A. Paloma Martínez-Carbajo
Ph.D., University of Washington
Twentieth Century Spanish narrative
Eric D. Nelson
Ph.D., University of Washington
Latin, Mythology, Greco-Roman literature
Carmina Palerm
Ph.D., Stanford University
20th-century Spanish literature
James R. Predmore
Ph.D., University of Washington
Latin American literature and culture
Rochelle E. Snee, Chair, Classical Studies
Ph.D., University of Washington
Greek, Latin, Greco-Roman civilization
Troy A. Storfjell
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin
Scandinavian Studies
Scott Taylor
Ph.D., Florida State University
French Theatre
Tamara R. Williams, Chair, Department of Languages and Literatures
Ph.D., University of Michigan
Latin American and Latino literature and culture
Bridget Yaden, Coordinator, Language Resource Center; Faculty Associate
Ph.D., University of Washington
Linguistics, Spanish, Teaching through technology
Visit www.plu.edu/~lang to learn more about Languages and Literatures’ faculty, course offerings and PLU Language Placement Exams
