The Department of French and Italian emphasizes the acquisition of cultural and linguistic fluency via immersion through course work at Colby and study abroad, as it engages students in diversity from the vantage point of being the Other. Integrative studies acquaint students with the Francophone world, while interdisciplinary studies plumb the depths of French and Italian arts, letters and sciences across the centuries. In helping students acquire competence in French or Italian and a heightened reflection about cultural differences, the faculty aim to offer them a fuller grasp of the world in an era of globalization and the opportunity to secure employment that will allow them to develop further their foreign language skills.