Language, literature and culture scholars to gather

What role will instructional technology and distance education play in teaching Yoruba language and culture at UW–Madison?

How can teachers of German literature, culture and language customize learning “packages” for members of the many German heritage societies in Wisconsin?

How might all faculty more fully and deeply integrate language, literature and culture curricula?

Those and other issues will be on the table Oct. 15-16 at a symposium to launch the UW–Madison Global Languages, Literature and Culture Forum.

Organizers of the new forum conceive it as a framework for discussing topics of mutual interest to faculty, staff and teaching assistants in language, literature and culture.

Forum director Gilead Morahg, professor of Hebrew and Semitic Studies, predicts it will become increasingly important for many disciplines to incorporate knowledge of other cultures as globalization becomes the norm. The forum will examine these expected changes as one of its primary issues in coming months.

“The rapidly changing world of global connections and international communication has created many more domains in which cross-cultural familiarity is vital,” he says. “Globalization of business, technology, politics, education and many other areas has resulted in a demand for the knowledge of more languages and a better understanding of other cultures.”

Indeed, UW–Madison already is a leading center for the teaching of languages and their related cultures, Morahg says. For example, two new national centers, one for instruction in African languages and culture and another for rarely taught East Asian languages and culture, soon will be operating at UW–Madison.

Morahg says the Global Languages, Literature and Cultures Forum will be able to enhance the university’s strength in these areas.

“We want to help insure the quality, diversify the means and extend the reach of language, literature and culture learning provided on the Madison campus. The forum will foster cooperation and collaboration among various academic units,” he says.

Faculty and staff in all departments and programs are invited to take part in the forum’s inaugural symposium, “A Necessary Nexus: Language, Literature and Culture.”

The symposium will take place Oct. 15 and 16 at the Pyle Center on Langdon Street. Sessions will begin at 9 a.m. For more information about the symposium or future forum activities, contact Morahg, (608) 262-3204; gmorahg@facstaff.wisc.edu.