FRLN

The acronym FRLN (Foreign Language) is used for courses in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages that are taught in English and dedicated to interdisciplinary humanistic inquiry. These courses address the languages, literatures, arts, and/or cultures of the majors and/or minors currently offered in the department: Arabic, Chinese, Classics, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, or Spanish. 

Their geographical scope varies from individual countries (Egypt, Germany, Taiwan) to continental regions (Latin America, Northern Africa).  Topics cover different genres (Poetry in China, Russian short stories, Greek Tragedy), media (Global Cinema, Comics, Soap Operas), schools (Art Murals in Mexico, Romanticism in Northern Europe), or periods (Italian Renaissance, Spanish Golden Age).  FRLN courses also explore relationships between, for example, different cultures and languages (Surrealism in France and Spain, Popular Culture in Korea and Japan) or relations of language to cultural, social, ethnic, racial, and/or national identities, categories, and policies. Depending on the faculty member’s discipline and expertise, FRLN courses give students a more specialized approach to the subject, utilizing methods and insights from such diverse fields as (socio)linguistics, translation, law, history, philosophy, pedagogy, sociology, and politics, among others.