Department of Language and Intercultural Studies

The Department was founded in 2019 and welcomed its first students in Volos, in the academic year 2019-20. The Department provides a dynamic interdisciplinary area of the knowledge that emerges as part of the redefinition of humanities and, in particular, the studies of language and culture in the modern globalized environment of the production and dissemination of knowledge and information. The Department aims to respond to the challenges arising in the modern field of intercultural and transnational communication, and intercultural relations. These are the main contemporary issues challenging the internal cohesion and structure of Western societies, the transnational working environments, the ever-growing need for multi-tiered communication with geographical areas linguistically adjacent and cultural contexts outside the Western world. In the contemporary globalized context, linguistic and intercultural education in Greece is a top priority based on the strategic geopolitical planning of the country and its future prospects. Education in languages ​​and cultures, especially in the Middle East and Far East, is more urgent today than ever. The Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies aims to address this need by providing a curriculum that promotes applied language studies; combining linguistic and cultural education and transnational studies, focusing in comparative history and literature issues, intercultural communication, critical theory, study diversity, theories of globalization and global systems, intercultural education and working in transnational contexts. The Department combines contemporary study subjects with excellent prospects for graduates in research and the labor market. The demand for specialists in languages ​​and cultures, especially in the Middle East and Far East, is expected to be high and ongoing in areas such as tourism, trade, transnational contacts, and in the field of interpretation, research, scientific cooperation etc. The Department of Languages ​​and Intercultural Studies will establish multiple collaborations, utilizing existing infrastructure and facilities of all the Departments of the School of Humanities, especially the laboratories dealing with intercultural and pedagogical implementation of language education.