Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies is an interdisciplinary M.A. program giving the graduate student the opportunity to acquire in-depth knowledge of individual languages, literatures and cultures, thereby promoting greater cross-cultural awareness and analysis. In teaching modern and classical foreign languages to students, we emphasize communicative skills, cultural knowledge and the exploration of literature, as well as the study of other media. While providing the cross-cultural awareness and critical skills necessary for all students to understand their own place within global culture, we train advanced students in literary and cultural criticism as well as in language pedagogy, preparing them for careers as educators and more generally as professionals adept in cross-cultural communication. Not only through research in the fields of literary and cultural criticism, translation, and literary history, but also by encouraging and coordinating interdisciplinary teaching and research across departments, we enrich and promote the multilingual and multicultural environment of the University of New Mexico and the state of New Mexico.