In collaboration with: Auburn University, Baldwin Wallace University, Binghamton University, Drake University, Gettysburg College, Oberlin College, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Skidmore College, The University of Iowa, The University of Minnesota, University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill, University of Richmond, and Wittenberg University

The Spring 2015 conference on Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) focuses on building relationships to serve an expanded population. At this, our 9th conference, CLAC is reflecting on past achievements and planning future directions.  Currently there is increased national attention on and support for developing international and cross-cultural perspectives in the curriculum.  Programs like 100K Strong in the Americas and Generation Study Abroad create even more opportunities to spotlight the role of CLAC principles/practices in shaping the next “generation of leaders who can reach across borders” whether physical, linguistic, cultural, or curricular.  

Our conference is of interest to both seasoned CLAC practitioners and those in the process of implementing or developing CLAC programs at their institutions. We seek a dialogue for sharing ideas and best practices in our evolving and unique field of education for global citizens. We welcome participation from the broad array of stakeholders promoting international education as a transformational model for learning, teaching and global engagement.  Past participants at our conference have included academic teaching faculty and scholars, student affairs professionals, international educators, community representatives, government officials, and teachers.  CLAC 2015 will provide an opportunity for more extended discussions of ways in which we can expand and advance the CLAC movement.

What is CLAC:

The CLAC movement intends to make global competence a reality for students and to create alliances among educators to share practices and methods for incorporating an international dimension in curricula, and, more generally, to achieve internationalization goals. General principles of CLAC include:

● A focus on communication and content;

● An emphasis on developing meaningful content-focused language use outside traditional language classes;

● An approach to language use and cross-cultural skills as a means for the achievement of global intellectual synthesis, in which students learn to combine and interpret knowledge produced in other languages and in other cultures.

Within this large framework, CLAC can take many forms, depending on specific content and curricular goals within a discipline or institution.  For more information on CLAC, visit the CLAC Consortium website: http://clacconsortium.org/