The Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies is a new and innovative program that was established in 2020 and that brings together the former departments of French and Francophone Studies, Germanic Languages, Italian, and Scandinavian. We are housed in UCLA’s landmark building, Royce Hall. UCLA is a major center for the study of these diverse cultural, historical, linguistic, political, and social traditions. Languages offered include Dutch, French, German, Italian, Swedish, and Yiddish, and our interdisciplinary humanistic focus includes literature, film, colonial history, postcolonial studies, philosophy, critical theory, media studies, Jewish Studies, gender and sexuality studies, but also the experimental humanities (digital, environmental, medical, and urban) to consider how these have altered our relationship to cultural analysis and production.

The term “transcultural” in our name emphasizes our shared European roots, and our expanded focus on the perspectives of filmmakers, writers, and theorists from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central, and South America, and elsewhere, allows for a more pointed, rigorous, and comprehensive understanding of history and more accurate contextualization of the “European” experience in the world. This interdisciplinary and linguistic training aims to encourage us to think additionally about human rights, diversity, religious tolerance, while training students to think critically, to develop writing and research skills, and to understand the power of language to pursue advanced research in a challenging intellectual and globalized world.

We will continue to prepare students for graduate school and careers in education, international law and business, NGOs, the arts, media and journalism, museology, international health organizations, advertising, management consultancy, diplomacy, and publishing.