The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Case Western Reserve University is committed to helping students become informed and liberally educated citizens of a diverse world. By teaching students to participate fully in cultures other than their own, through the acquisition of language skills and cultural awareness, we prepare them for lifelong learning in an increasingly multilingual and multicultural world. We encourage study abroad as a means of reinforcing and strengthening language skills and of acquiring new cultural perspectives and appreciation. We offer the M.A. in select languages and we also prepare students for graduate study in a range of disciplines, especially but not limited to the humanities. The faculty members of the Department are researchers who produce knowledge in a range of areas including language, literature, culture, and film. The research, teaching, and service goals of the Department are closely linked. We work with other departments and interdisciplinary programs at Case as well as the cultural institutions of University Circle to provide students with a broad understanding of the many doors that language and culture study open for them.

The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures was successfully reviewed according to Ohio Department of Higher Education standards in 2020.