About

Our Mission Statement

Through quality research and teaching in world languages and literatures, we prepare a linguistically competent and culturally aware citizenry poised to live and work in an increasingly global and diverse society, in accordance with Kansas State University’s land grant mission.

Welcome to the Department of Modern Languages at Kansas State University!

MLANGS is a vibrant and dynamic place where we foster a multilingual and multicultural awareness and a sense of belonging and identity that prepare students to become global citizens. Our approach is a collaborative one that brings together students, faculty, and staff in the pursuit of a deeper understanding of the world in which we live by investigating the ways in which people express themselves in their languages and how societies conceive of themselves through their cultural objects.

Our graduates are well-versed in their language of study and in the cultural realities of the places where those languages are spoken. They develop an appreciation for how being bilingual or multilingual positively impacts one’s life. Our faculty are teacher-scholars who work in many languages, including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Latin, and Spanish. Learn more about our faculty over at our department website profiles page.

We offer engaging and interdisciplinary courses like “Translation & Interpretation in the Community,” “Old German Script”, “Literary Portraiture & Modern Spain,” “Theories of Second Language Acquisition,” and a variety of special topics in literary and cultural studies and linguistics. We are also home to the international, peer-reviewed scholarly journal, Studies in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature (est. 1976).

Recent graduates are currently working in a range of fields: K-12 education, Translation & Interpretation, Higher Ed, and International Business. K-State Modern Languages graduates make a difference in their community, whether it in Kansas, throughout the US, or abroad.

We invite you to join us in Modern Languages, where we will work with you to design projects and course plans that highlight your talents and skillsets in order to meet your individual professional goals. Please reach out with questions or if you simply want to learn more about what we do. We’re looking forward to working with you!

Dr. Rebecca Bender, Interim Department Head & Professor