We seek to challenge the mind and to engage the imagination of our students, to teach them to ask questions and to seek for answers.

We encourage them to grapple with the complexity of a culturally and commercially interconnected world and the global networks and processes of cultural exchange. We believe that words and ideas will shape the world. We teach our students life-long skills, so that they learn to write clearly, creatively, and effectively--discovering themselves even as they lay a solid foundation for professional success.

Our department is renowned for its tradition of excellence in teaching. The vast majority of our undergraduate classes have 20-35 students, and much of the class time is dedicated to active engagement with texts and ideas. In the last ten years, faculty members in the department of have won ten Kemper Fellowships for Excellence in Teaching, two Chancellor's Club Teaching Professorships, a Career Achievement Teaching Award, and a wide variety of other university-level teaching and advising awards. The department as a whole received the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) award for Department Excellence in Teaching at the University of Kansas.