The department of East Asian languages and literatures has changed its name to the department of East Asian languages and civilizations, according to Laurel Rasplica Rodd, department chair.
The department's mission is the teaching of language and culture, as well as a scholarly focus on texts, broadly defined.
"While the designation of 'literature' was accurate, if listeners understood literature to mean texts of any sort, it was very easy to misinterpret it and believe that the department only treated "belles lettres" (such as poetry and fiction)," Rasplica Rodd said.
"The new name is a more accurate reflection of the actual content of both undergraduate and graduate programs. It also more accurately reflects the scholarly expertise of our faculty and our interdisciplinary connections with many other units on campus."
EALC faculty teach or cross-list courses in other departments across the arts and sciences college, including comparative literature, religious studies and the interdisciplinary Asian studies program. They also collaborate with faculty in other departments in sponsoring visiting lectures, workshops and other events with a broad appeal.
The name change also reflects the recent addition of two master's tracks in Chinese language and civilization and Japanese language and civilization. The first students will be graduating from these programs this spring.
EALC offers undergraduate majors in Chinese and Japanese, as well as the M.A. degree in four separate tracks: Chinese language and literature, Japanese language and literature, Chinese language and civilization and Japanese language and civilization.
Because of its unique status as a department focusing on non-Western cultures, EALC shoulders a special responsibility in broadening student perspectives and internationalizing the campus.
Faculty and students in EALC are active in the Center for the Humanities and the Arts, serving on its advisory committees and participating in the annual seminar, as well as in administration and activities of the interdisciplinary Asian Studies Center.
Tracks such as the new Teaching English to Speakers of East Asian Languages (TESEAL) master's degree program, a collaborative effort between EALC and the linguistics department, represent another form of integration, as does the collaboration of Japanese faculty in the training of students in secondary education in Japanese.