Department of Asian Languages and Cultures

Welcome to ALC

Department Overview

seven students at an event smiling at the camera

What we offer:

Why ALC?

The Department of Asian Languages and Cultures offers an education in the languages, cultures, and literatures of Asia. Students will acquire linguistic and transcultural competence in one or more regions of Asia and learn to better appreciate Asia as a dynamic site of international cultural relations. A few of our students share their reasons for studying Asian languages and cultures and what they gained from the experience.

Learn More

Faculty Highlights

New Article

Corey Byrnes has new article in Publications of the Modern Language Association (PMLA) published online by Cambridge University Press.

Excellence in Service

Noriko Taira Yasohama is the recipient of the Daniel I. Linzer Award for Faculty Excellence in Service which celebrates faculty exemplars of academic citizenship and service.

Boyk Publishes New book

David Boyk's book, Provincial Metropolis: Intellectuals and the Hinterland in Colonial India (Cambridge University Press, 2025), tells the story of Patna, in the north Indian region of Bihar, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

see the book

News and Events

Highlight

Congratulations!

Soumya Shailendra has been awarded Northwestern’s most prestigious and competitive fellowship; she will be Presidential Fellow joining the Presidential Fellows Society for the next two years!