Skip to main
Group photo of 2023 Arabic house students.

World Languages, Literatures, & Cultures Department

Overview

At McDaniel, we teach not only proficiency in language, but also an understanding of a culture from its own perspective. Students learn to see and understand other ways of being and thinking that challenge and nuance how they currently experience the world. This process clarifies and transforms us in a world where boundaries between groups, countries, and cultures are increasingly complex.

Headshot of alum Yelli Coulibaly.

Alum earns prestigious Boren Fellowship to study in Senegal

Yelli Coulibaly ’20, who majored in Political Science with a specialization in International Studies and minored in French, was awarded a Boren Fellowship to travel to Senegal, where she will intern with the National Democratic Institute and study the Wolof language for a six-month term.

Meet the Faculty World Languages, Literatures, & Cultures Department

Photo of professor Gerard Keubeung seated in the library next to some books.

Gerard Keubeung, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of French

Teaching languages and literature is like having a trip inside other cultures, especially when Gerard Keubeung is teaching French to his students at McDaniel. His classes open a whole new world of possibilities to McDaniel students. After teaching French at a high school in Cameroon, Keubeung pursued a graduate degree in French Studies in the United States in 2011, completing a master’s degree at the University of Oregon and then his doctorate degree at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Prior to coming to the Hill, Keubeung served as a visiting assistant professor at Bowdoin College in Maine. At McDaniel, he teaches French language courses from the beginning to the advanced level as well as classes in French or in English on Francophone cultures and the French-speaking world.

Amy McNichols

Amy McNichols, Ph.D. Professor of Spanish and Director of Global Fellows Program

Amy McNichols is invested and innovative in her role in the World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Department. She dives into deeper issues like migration and communities and has taken a group of students to learn firsthand in Mexico City and Puebla. Whether students are just learning the language, a heritage learner working on their writing, or an advanced learner exploring cultural history through the writings, film, art, and music of Latin American and U.S. Latinx cultures, they may find themselves in her classes.

Meet Graduates of the World Languages, Literatures, & Cultures Department

We're proud to call these recent graduates alumni, and prouder still to share a selection of their stories here – told as only they can tell them, in their own words.

Abby Hernandez
Class of 2020 / Psychology, Spanish

Sydney Kelly
Class of 2021 / Biology

Priscilla Owusu
Class of 2021 / Chemistry, Biochemistry

Sydney Lewis
Class of 2024 / English, History, Spanish

Connect With Us

Dr. Martine Motard-Noar

Department Chair