Languages Across the Curriculum (LAC)

The University of Pittsburgh’s Languages Across the Curriculum (LAC) Program offers students the opportunity to use world languages in courses offered in a variety of academic disciplines, including those outside of languages and literature. The program aims to provide a curricular framework to develop and apply language and intercultural competences within all disciplines.  It is based upon the belief that languages and intercultural perspectives promote a better and more nuanced understanding of content in any course. It aims to promote a better understanding of world regions while demonstrating the relevance of practical language skills across the disciplines.

Pitt is a part of the CLAC Consortium, a nonprofit academic professional organization managed by volunteers from consortial member institutions.  CLAC is dedicated to promoting the cultures and languages across the curriculum movement through conferences and the sharing of resources.

The University Center for International Studies (UCIS), with funding from Pitt’s Title VI National Resource Centers, has embarked on a four year initiative to increase the number of LAC courses offered on campus. Currently, six Title VI National Resource Centers support the development of new LAC courses: the Asian Studies Center (ASC), the Center for African Studies (CAS), the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS), the Global Studies Center (GSC), the European Studies Center (ESC), and the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies (REEES). 

Presently, students apply their second language skills in French, Italian, German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian to the study of academic content in fields such as Anthropology, History, Art History, Film Studies, Literatures, and Environmental Science. In the future, the program will expand to more languages and other disciplines. 

Languages Across the Curriculum Courses

2024 (planned)

Catalog Number Course Description Language UCIS Center
HIST 0423 Modern Chinese History in Mandarin Chinese ASC
HAA 0302 Renaissance Art Italian ESC
CEE 1523 Environmental Engineering Lab Portuguese CLAS, GSC, ESC
UKRAIN 0860 Chornobyl in Ukrainian Cultural Memory Ukrainian REEES, GSC
  CLAS is working with the History Department on two 1.5 credit courses Portuguese CLAS, GSC

 

2023

Catalog Number Course Description Language UCIS Center
HIST 0423 Modern Chinese History in Mandarin Chinese ASC
CHIN 1033 Advanced Chinese Across Genres Chinese ASC
FR 0012 French Kiss French ESC
HAA 0302 Renaissance Art (Course Development) Italian ESC
UKRAIN 0860 Chornobyl in Ukrainian Cultural Memory Ukrainian REEES, GSC
RUSS 0798 Reading Russian Literature in the Original 1: Space, Robots, and Aliens in Russian SciFi Russian REEES
HIST 1910 Reading Historical Russian Russian REEES
CEE 1523 Environmental Engineering Lab (Course Development) Portuguese CLAS, GSC, ESC

 

2022

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Catalog Number Course Description Language
HIST 0423 Modern Chinese History in Mandarin Chinese ASC
KOREAN 1901 Intro to Modern Korean Literature Korean ASC
ANTH 0714 Asia Now Language Teacher Chinese ASC
GEOL 0008 Environmental Science French ESC, GSC
FR 1098 History of French Film French ESC
HIST 1910 Reading Historical Russian Russian REEES
RUSS 0091 Reading Russian Fairy Tales Russian REEES

 

Contact

For more information about Language Across the Curriculum, please contact Haixia Wang, LAC Coordinator, at haw27@pitt.edu.