Undergraduate Seminars
All undergraduate seminars are taught in English. No prerequisites are required.
Browse undergraduate seminars offered by the Department of Languages, Cultures & Applied Linguistics (LCAL). Use the filter to narrow courses by term or course attribute — e.g., fulfills gen ed requirement, and find offerings that support your academic and research goals. Select a course for full descriptions, requirements and enrollment details.
For more information on sections and schedules, view CMU's Schedule of Classes.
Filter courses by number, name
82-080 Critical Discourses of Health and Humanity
What does it mean to be a healer, and what does it mean to inhabit a body that society deems "broken"? This course traces the evolution of medicine not as a timeline of technological triumphs, but as a deeply humanistic, cross-cultural dialogue. Students will contrast…
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82-130 Story + Game Lab: Oracle Bones & China's Earliest Writing
This course fulfills The Arts GenEd requirement!
This innovative course bridges traditional and digital humanities through an interdisciplinary study of oracle bones–ancient artifacts used for ritual divination during China's Shang Dynasty (c. 1600-1045 BCE).…
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82-180 East Asian Art: Culture and Digital Creation
This course invites students to explore cross-cultural connections between art and society across East Asia, focusing on masterpieces of Chinese ink brush painting, Japanese woodblock prints and Korean ceramics drawn from museum collections and cultural heritage sites.
…
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82-182 Everyday Creativity: Craft, Making, Language and Community
This course explores ideas of creativity, language, culture and learning through making. Students will enjoy taster workshops in drawing, printmaking, sculpture and pottery, with occasional digital elements such as audio, animation and film. We will meet makers in…
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82-183 AI for Humanities
Fall 2025: The Multi-dimensions of World Languages, Arts & Cultures
In this dynamic course, you will see how cutting-edge AI intertwines with the vibrant threads of global languages, arts, and cultures. Through engaging lectures, hands-on activities, and innovative…
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82-184 Linguistic and Cultural Equity: Theories and Practice
Fulfills the 'Perspectives on Justice and Injustice' GenEd requirement!
Globally, people speak different languages. There are mainstream languages that are well accepted and used in business, in media, in religion, in politics and in other spaces of social interaction.…
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82-185 Global Food Cultures
This innovative, team-taught course introduces students to food studies as an interdisciplinary field that intersects with the Humanities to examine how food serves as a powerful tool for understanding broader cultural, social, economic and political structures. Through…
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82-186 Sex and Romance in Study Abroad
Fulfills 'Contextual Thinking' GenEd requirement! Description coming soon. VIEW the Schedule of Classes for more details
82-187 Audio Storytelling: Documentary, Found Sound and Hidden Frequencies
This course is about telling stories with sound. You will learn how to record interviews, gather ambient and archival audio and shape these materials into powerful, original work. The focus is on narrative. You will explore how to structure a piece, how to work with voice…
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82-189 Emerging Technologies for Global Cultures: AI, Agents, Workflows and Vibe Development
This course introduces students with no prior technical experience to digital literacies through AI, autonomous agents, automated workflows and vibe development. Students learn to build with AI as their coding partner, progressing from basic AI literacy to creating…
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82-198 Undergrad Research Training
These courses are designed to give eligible and interested students some hands-on research experience working on a faculty project or in a lab in ways that might stimulate and nurture the students' interest in doing more research. They are open to students who are Dietrich…
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82-250 Digital Realities: An Introduction to Immersive Storytelling
Fulfills the 'Humanities' GenEd requirement!
Immersive media now plays a visible role in museums, festivals, games, performance, journalism and cultural institutions. As these technologies expand, creators are exploring spatial, embodied and interactive storytelling that…
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82-281 Gender and Sexuality in the Spanish-speaking World
In recent years, issues of gender and sexuality in the Spanish-speaking world have garnered much international attention — for example the #niunamenos movement throughout Latin America, recent protests over restrictive abortion laws in the Dominican Republic, the…
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82-282 Interpreting Global Texts & Cultures
Fulfills 'Humanities' Gen Ed requirement!
Literature, film, music, art, theater, and other forms of humanistic artistic expressions, play an important role in society. Few moments in life are as moving as listening to the right song at the right time, and many of us can…
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82-283 Language Diversity & Cultural Identity
Fulfills 'Intercultural and Global Inquiry' Gen Ed requirement!
Culture, language, and identity are intimately tied together. Individuals, families, communities, and nations identify themselves in relation to the language or languages they speak. Local, national, and…
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82-388 Topics in Second Language Acquisition
This course provides an overview of the fundamental questions, theories, methodologies and findings of second language (L2) speech research.
SECTION A: Instructed SLA
This course introduces students to research methodology as it applies to language learning and…
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82-487 Translating from East Asian Languages
This course examines the particular challenges of translating from Chinese, Japanese and Korean into English. Whereas many translation courses treat translation primarily as a general professional practice, this course considers the shared features and challenges of these…
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82-495 Topics in ALSLA: Ideologies of Critical Language Awareness
Contact course instructor for more information. VIEW THE SCHEDULE OF CLASSES FOR MORE DETAILS
82-580 Senior Seminar
This seminar for majors in LCAL focuses on general issues in second language learning. It provides an integrative and culminating experience for students as they complete their studies. The course includes consideration of language learning and language maintenance, the…
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