Building Thriving Language Programs: Strategies for Enrollment Growth in Higher Education

A workshop for UW-Madison language educators and language program administrators

12:30-4:30 pm, Friday, October 18, 2024, 1418 Van Hise Hall
Welcome remarks from Grant Nelsestuen, Associate Dean for Arts and Humanities, College of Letters & Science

About the workshop: Join us for an interactive workshop to discuss language program vitality and explore ways for language programs to boost enrollment. In this highly interactive and reflective time together, we will spend time setting the context, evaluating potential resources, and examining how language programs present themselves to the world. In addition to articulating the value of language study and identifying individual and shared successes and hurdles in recruitment and retention, we will explore strategies for enrollment growth and how we can advocate for professionalizing this important enrollment work.

Sponsors: Language Institute, with African Cultural Studies; Asian Languages and Cultures; Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies; French and Italian; German, Nordic, and Slavic+; Language Sciences; Letters & Science; and Spanish and Portuguese.

Emily Heidrich Uebel

Academic Specialist  and Associate Executive Director of the National Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) Resource Center

Michigan State University

Felix Kronenberg

Director of the Center for Language Teaching Advancement (CeLTA), Director of the National Less Commonly Taught Languages Resource Center (NLRC), and an Associate Professor of German in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures

Michigan State University

Scott Sterling

Associate Professor of Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) and Linguistics

Indiana State University

About the speakers

Emily Heidrich Uebel (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin‐Madison) is an Academic Specialist at the Center for Language Teaching Advancement and the Associate Executive Director of the National LCTL Resource Center at Michigan State University. Her research interests include foreign language proficiency, educational technology and online instruction, curriculum design, LCTL education, and education abroad topics. More information can be found on her website.

Felix Kronenberg (Dr. phil., University of Regensburg, Germany) is the Director of the Center for Language Teaching Advancement (CeLTA), Director of the National Less Commonly Taught Languages Resource Center (NLRC), and an Associate Professor of German in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures at Michigan State University. His research interests include materiality in (language) education, program administration, learning space design, place, innovation in language education, and technology. More information can be found here.

Scott Sterling (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is an Associate Professor of linguistics and TESL at Indiana State University. His research includes meta-research, research ethics, and second language acquisition. More information can be found on his website.

Funding: Language Institute, College of Letters & Science, International Division

Contact: Dianna Murphy

The UW-Madison Language Institute is committed to inclusive and accessible programming. To request an accommodation for this event, please contact Language Institute associate director Jana Martin three business days in advance.