Mission Statement

The Department of Literatures and Cultural Studies upholds its mission in collaboration with UTRGV’s undergraduate core curriculum principles. By emphasizing the study of literatures and other facets of culture, the department promotes the acquisition of critical thinking and communication skills as well as an ethos of teamwork and social and personal responsibility. Our department also strives to expand students' intercultural competencies–that is an awareness of and sensitivity to the diversity of the human condition as expressed in literatures, languages, and other cultural objects.

Our courses in American, British, Latin-American, Mexican-American, Spanish, French, Francophone and World Literatures introduce students to a rich tradition of thought and experience, teaching them how to synthesize and analyze texts, which means to decipher how meaning is produced. Faculty also encourage students to go beyond traditional approaches to textual analysis by exploring innovative and interdisciplinary developments in cultural studies and multiculturalism, such as film and media studies, exile and diaspora studies, multi-ethnic literatures, children’s literature, and critical theories such as Marxist theory, psychoanalytic theory, feminism, queer theory, gender and sexuality studies, post-colonialism, and eco-criticism.

The department offers undergraduate degrees in English, Spanish, and French, as well as graduate degrees in English and Spanish; provides coursework and mentoring to prepare teachers of English, Spanish, and French; and considers itself as the very gateway to internationalize and amplify a Liberal Arts education by developing creative problem solving skills that will allow students to understand the complexities of a globalized society.