About

The Department of World Languages and Cultures formed in August 2025, bringing together several smaller units. We currently house the academic programs of Arabic, Comparative Literature, French, Global Studies, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Translation and Interpreting Studies, as well as the Language Resource Center. In January 2026, the MA in World Languages and Cultures will join the department, and in August 2026, we will welcome the academic programs of Chinese, German, Hebrew, Korean, and Russian.

This growing department allows us to further integrate our globally-focused building upon the strengths of each program’s curriculum, faculty, and staff in order to meet student needs and establish a larger community of peers in interdisciplinary language and cultural studies. We are excited about what the future holds. Come grow with us!

UWM Land Acknowledgement: We acknowledge in Milwaukee that we are on traditional Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk and Menominee homeland along the southwest shores of Michigami, North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the Milwaukee, Menominee and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida and Mohican nations remain present.   |   To learn more, visit the Electa Quinney Institute website.