Each June the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages arranges two seminars where chairs of ADFL member departments or their designees share information and consult about issues facing their departments and the field.
Lectures and discussions range in focus from the teaching and learning of language and literature in the broad context of the humanities and the changing university to concrete challenges of leadership and management. We invite you to read endorsements from participants at previous seminars.
Each seminar is preceded by two workshops. The first is a Workshop for New Chairs, where experienced administrators lead practical discussions of the tasks of chairing for those who are about to start or have just completed their first year as department chair. The second is a Workshop for Program Reviewers, to introduce potential departmental reviewers to the guidelines, best practices, and sources of data available to make it possible for program reviewers to inform deans, department chairs, and faculty members of recommended standards, comparative enrollments, and professional trends.
We invite you to read the endorsements below from participants at previous seminars.
"Thank you for such an enriching and valuable professional development opportunity. Bravo."
Kathleen Regan, Univ. of Portland (2009)
"Every plenary session speaker was outstanding. You really give us a lot to think about, and inspire me to take ideas back to my colleagues"
Alan Bruflat, Wayne State Coll. (2009)
"The New Chairs Workshop provided priceless information... [and] a sharing of experiences, challenges, and successes in a safe environment. You gave me a network and resources that would help any chair get through that first year on the job."
Susana Rivera-Mills, Oregon State Univ. (2009)
"What a terrific conference – so many good ideas and great colleagues in one place."
Victor Peppard, University of South Florida
"Just about the most useful and enjoyable academic conference I have attended."
William Waters, Boston University (2008)
"The seminar was a great opportunity to meet colleagues from other institutions, share best practices, and discuss challenges in a climate of support that promoted rewarding exchange."
Susan G. Polansky, Carnegie Mellon University (2008)
"I gained important tools to navigate any era, but especially these times of uncertainty."
Nancy Faires, Truckee Meadows Community College, Nevada (2008)
"It was extraordinary to share ideas and to network, to discuss problems and challenges with colleagues going through the same situations. Refreshing and reinvigorating."
Ángel Tuninetti, West Virginia University (2008)
"A perfect opportunity for learning more about new policies, new assessment tools, and a variety of approaches to curriculum development. Thank you!!!"
Natalia Olshanskaya, Kenyon College (2008)
"The ADFL Seminar was key to my learning process as chair. It provided me with concrete advice at many different levels: identifying resources available through the organization, learning from experienced and caring chairs from other institutions, as well as broadening my views on hiring, mentoring, reviews, and many other administrative duties."
Patricia Saldarriaga, Middlebury College (2008)
"The seminar was a unique intellectual experience, a profound time to reflect, put in perspective, reinterpret, and analyze structural, academic, interpersonal, curricular, and personal administrative issues, a space to create new knowledge, to reexamine old knowledge, and to acquire new frameworks to respond to departmental issues, learning from a community of colleagues willing to share, to pose questions, to articulate new ideas, and to reframe innovative and creative strategies."
Magdalena Maiz-Peña, Davidson College (2008)
"I just completed my first year as chair. The seminar provided the luxury of time to reflect and to see our mission in a context beyond the necessities that distract the chair.... I enjoyed the balance of the theoretical and the practical. Most valuable was meeting others and hearing about the challenges they face and feeling that I am part of a larger community and not alone."
Terri Nelson, California State University, San Bernardino (2007)
"As in the past, this has been a tremendous experience. I am not sure how you manage the magic of open and candid give and take in and out of sessions, but I always enjoy and profit from it."
Janice Zinser, Oberlin College (2007)
"The stresses inherent in my work as chair often overwhelm and even dissempower me. This seminar has served to revitalize and reconnect me to the core reasons that led me to accept to serve as chair."
Virginia M. Scott, Vanderbilt University (2007)
"I most valued the interaction with others with similar problems but more experience in a venue where challenges could be openly discussed, in ways not possible in our own department or institution."
Juanita Villena-Alvarez, University of South Carolina, Beaufort (2007)
"I found this seminar to be particularly good on generating discussion that helped people solve problems. I enjoyed finding out how other people deal with similar problems and the solutions they developed."
Malcolm Compitello, University of Arizona (2006)
"[The seminar] gave me direction, ideas and affirmation… I can’t begin to tell you how many ways this meeting has helped me."
Michael Long, Baylor University (2006)
"I take back some useful tips and much good advice about how to take care of myself in this job... I’m so glad I came!"
Barbara Altmann, University of Oregon (2006)
"The most valuable thing was hearing about what other chairs experience and what they do about various issues. It is a confidence booster to hear that others, even at larger institutions, sometimes have the same problems and try many of the same strategies that I do to deal with them."
Mary Ellen Kohn-Buday, Mount Mary College (2006)
"I feel prepared to provide better (more and more effective) service to my department, university and community. Again, my thanks."
Eric Kartchner, Colorado State University, Pueblo (2006)
"The sessions on study abroad, assessment, and service learning brought me up to speed quickly and well on these important issues. It was great to get so much sage advice and meet so many wonderful colleagues."
Ann Marie Rasmussen, Duke University (2006)
"The ADFL seminars are extremely useful for experienced as well as novice chairs. I derived a great deal from attending my first summer seminar in 2005 after years of chairing a department."
Carlos Alonso, Columbia University (2005)
"You really do gain a whole new set of colleagues through participating!"
Gwendolyn Barnes-Karol , Saint Olaf College (2005)
"I loved the concrete advice on the one hand and the chance to connect across vast geographic and disciplinary distance on the other…."
Carolin Hahnemann, Kenyon College (2005)
"Thank you, thank you, thank you for providing this essential service…. I am re-energized and ready to tackle things that will inevitably come my way."
Elizabeth Locey, Emporia State University (2005)
"It will take time to reflect on the many issues that were introduced – but they allowed me to contextualize the experiences that I have had in my first year as head. …The sharing of information and how-to’s and networking that occurred in such a short period of time will have long-lasting results for me."
Victor Arizpe, Texas A & M University (2005)
