Ruiz-Pérez named interim chair

Tuesday, Sep 01, 2020

Dear MODL community,

I hope that this message finds you well in spite of our current, unprecedented circumstances. It is for me a great joy to start this academic year as interim chair of the Department of Modern Languages. I want to thank Dr. Sonia Kania for her successful and fruitful leadership over the past 4 years. This year, Dr. Kania becomes associate chair of our department, which will contribute a much needed sense of continuity to all our programs and activities. I also want to extend my gratitude to our wonderful faculty and staff for making our exciting programs, projects, and events possible.

My vision for our department as interim chair is threefold:

Firstly, I enthusiastically adhere to the Department of Modern Languages mission to transform lives through language and culture while strengthening intercultural understanding. Throughout the years, our educational offerings have expanded considerably. We have also increased our alliances with partners within and beyond the UTA campus. By doing this, we confirm not only our commitment to uphold high standards of education, but also to meet the needs of our students and our society in the face of a highly globalized and competitive job market, where the knowledge of culture and languages is a priority.

Secondly, I firmly believe in our capacity to overcome any difficulty with creativity and imagination. Our faculty and staff are capable of creating the necessary synergies to face with enthusiasm and imagination the greatest challenges of our current times. We will keep doing what we do the best: helping our students to develop their critical and creative thinking, skills that are highly valued in today’s globalized world.

Thirdly, I confirm our will to continue being a space open to diversity, a component that is in the DNA of our department thanks to the large number of languages, cultures, nations, and identities that make up our academic and student body. If I may use this expression, Modern Languages is and will continue to be the home of diversity on our campus.  

I wish for our community the resilience and imagination to face the times we are going through. Together we can achieve great things and overcome what seems impossible.

 

Sincerely,