Advocating for and Strengthening Language Programs

How do we advocate for language programs to stay alive?  Join us for this special two-hour event featuring Amanda Seewald of the Joint National Committee of Languages.

Following a presentation by Amanda Seewald on lessons learned from various lobbying efforts, we will have a roundtable of colleagues who have had success with advocacy and promotion in their respective languages.

To Register, visit the PCLS sponsor page.

Lunch will be served.

Schedule

12:00pm–12:45pm

Amanda Seewald, Executive Director of JNCL-NCLIS, will speak on the dynamic landscape of language education advocacy at national, state, and community levels. In this talk, Amanda will provide insights into how legislation championed by JNCL-NCLIS is structured to support multilingualism across education and beyond. She will share strategies for building personal advocacy pathways and discuss findings from the Language at Higher Education Survey Report, offering actionable ideas for attendees to drive language education initiatives within their programs. Amanda aims to empower participants with a deeper understanding of both the challenges and opportunities in language advocacy and promotion. Attendees will gain valuable insights into how language policies shape our shared future and how they can actively contribute to building a more inclusive, linguistically diverse nation.

12:45pm–2:00pm

The six faculty members listed below will continue the discussion initiated by Amanda Seewald by sharing their experiences and challenges.  Each panelist will present briefly about their efforts to keep their programs thriving on their own campuses, and then we will have a general discussion and Q&A.

Cynthia Chalupa (Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, James Madison University)

Tomoko Takami (Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania)

Roberto Pesce (Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, University of Oklahoma)

Christelle Palpacuer Lee (Department of Learning & Teaching, Rutgers University)

Rachel Mamiya Hernandez (Center for Language & Technology, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa)

Jessica Cox (Department of Spanish and Linguistics, Franklin & Marshall College)