Creating the Conditions for Languages to Thrive: Advocacy, Leadership, and Institutional Change
Deb Reisinger
Dean of Undergraduate Education; Trinity College, Duke University
In “Creating the Conditions”, Reisinger examines how content-based language programs can expand the role and reach of language study within a contemporary liberal arts education. Drawing on established approaches in Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC), community-based language learning (CBLL), and Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP), she considers how language courses and programs can connect linguistic development with disciplinary knowledge, critical inquiry, experiential learning, and transferable skills.
Examples from undergraduate curricula illustrate the distinct possibilities of these models. CLAC integrates languages and intercultural perspectives across disciplines; CBLL creates reciprocal relationships between classroom learning and community engagement, and LSP connects language learning to professional fields and practices. Together, these approaches make visible the intellectual and practical value of language study across academic, professional, and civic contexts.
This presentation also considers what allows such programs to take root and thrive. Curricular innovation depends on more than compelling individual courses. It requires faculty leadership, meaningful institutional partnerships, coherent pathways for students, and structures that support collaboration across departments, programs, and schools. It also requires clear narratives that help students, faculty colleagues, and university leaders understand how language learning advances broader institutional commitments.
By bringing curricular models into conversation with questions of advocacy, leadership, and institutional design, Reisinger invites participants to consider the conditions that support language study at their own institution. Ultimately, she asks how content-based programs can help build connections, create new points of entry, and position linguistic and intercultural learning as essential dimensions of a liberal arts education.
Bio:
Deb Reisinger is Dean of Undergraduate Education at Duke University. A professor of French Studies and affiliate faculty in Global Health and Markets & Management, Deb directs Duke's Language Outreach Initiatives, including Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum and the Shared Online Consortium for LCTLs.
Deb's work explores the connections between language learning and the disciplines. She is lead author of Affaires globales: S’engager dans le monde professionnel en francais, niveau avancé and co-author of Community-based Language Learning, a methodology of critical service-learning in world languages. In 2022, she was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French Republic.
Friday, December 4, 2026
B-4 Dwinelle & Zoom, 3-5 pm
This lecture is sponsored by the College of Letters and Science.
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