• The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) is dedicated to excellence in teaching, scholarship, the arts, and service to its local, national, and international communities.
  • The College provides a rich education in the liberal arts and sciences for all of American University’s undergraduate students, offers challenging programs of study for its undergraduate and graduate majors; and fosters outstanding research, practice, and creative activity.
  • The College is committed to the core purposes of liberal education: promoting free and rational discourse, fostering an understanding of the diversity of human experience, providing the critical intellectual skills necessary to navigate a rapidly changing world, and integrating knowledge across disciplinary boundaries.
  • Coursework at World Languages and Cultures (WLC) at American University taught in the target language provides solid language skills and depth of cultural understanding in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swahili. Instruction for individuals interested in teaching English to non-English speakers is provided through the TESOL Program (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages).
  • Many areas of business, industry, and government service consider a language background a career must. Recent graduates of the department have been employed in a variety of organizations and fields including the Department of State, Library of Congress, National Security Agency, Voice of America, and National Academy of Sciences, as well as international import and export firms, public and private schools and colleges, and research and development firms.