Romance Languages and Literatures

Romance languages and literatures University of Notre Dame 343 O'Shaughnessy Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556 (574) 631-6886 For more information, please visit the Department Website

The Spanish Steps. Image courtesy of the Department of Romance
Languages and Literatures at the University of Notre Dame.
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About the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures bears witness through its scholarship and teaching to the importance of knowing languages and knowing the world through languages. It therefore promotes and supports language learning through its three programs--French and Fracophone Studies, Iberian and Latin-American Studies, and Italian Studies--as an important aspect of "educated citizenship," taking advanced competence as a key educational goal, which is to say, the ability to conduct mature human relationships in the "other's" language, whether these relationships are social, professional, or strategic (Mary Louise Pratt, “Building a New Public Idea about Language,” ADFL Bulletin, 34.3 (2003): 5-9). The Department fosters relations between Notre Dame and the Romance world(s) of Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia through its ties to research institutes and universities throughout the world, and through its support of Notre Dame's International Studies Programs in France, Italy, Spain, and Latin America. Through its interactions with hosting scholars and students from these parts of the world, the Department faculty makes a vital contribution to Notre Dame's international standing as a Catholic institution of higher learning.