UQ breaks down language barriers

The University has opened a 'new door' to its Romance Languages Department - becoming the first university in Australia to offer a new stream of cultural subjects conducted entirely in English, according to Department acting head Dr Keith Atkinson.

Describing the restructuring as 'innovative and ingenious', Dr Atkinson said students could now enrol in a wide range of Romance Language subjects without undertaking 'the arduous but satisfying discipline of mastering a foreign language'.

The new subjects are offered in addition to the existing stream of core subjects in Spanish and French.

However, Dr Atkinson said he hoped many students would be drawn into learning a language, with five new subjects available next year and another five in 1999.

New subjects for 1998 include Romance: its Languages and its Politics ; Auteur Cinema in French and Spanish; A History of Erotic Narrative; Gender and Culture; and Short Narrative in Spanish and French .

In 1999 they will include: Orpheus in the Theatre ; Autobiography and Autobiographical Fiction ; The Classical Tradition of Comic Theatre ; Soap-Opera: from page to screen ; and Sceptics, Heretics, Blasphemers and Anarchists .

In line with preserving the core language programs, working in French and Spanish, Dr Atkinson said 'satellite subjects' would be attached to many of the new subjects, encompassing the required language skills.

He said the new subjects also opened up exciting possibilities for creating double majors for students with an interest not only in foreign languages, but also in literature and cultural studies.

However, he said the new double majors - entitled 'Studies in Language' and 'Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies' - each required a core element in a particular foreign language, namely French, Spanish, German or Russian.

For more information, contact Dr Atkinson (telephone 3365 2270) or Dr Alfredo Martinez-Exposito (telephone 3365 1417) or see the Department's home page .