General Overview
The Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in Language, Literacy, and Culture (LLC) is a program of study of language, culture, and human interaction offered by the Departments of Africana Studies, American Studies, Education, English, Modern Languages and Linguistics, Sociology and Anthropology, and Gender and Women Studies at UMBC. Through courses and seminars, internships, and research, students in the program investigate ways in which social structure, social and cultural assumptions, and language use affect interactions between members of different social and cultural groups and impact upon educational and training programs, communications systems, public policy formation, and organization and management. The goal of the program is to provide a program of research and application that will enable professionals in education, industry, business, government, and other public and private organizations to:

• Engage in substantive research in discourse analysis, human interaction, and the relationships between language, literacy, and communication and text.
  
• Research and address linguistic, cultural, and other diversity issues in communication and interaction; and
  
• Re-design organizations (schools, businesses, community organizations, and governmental entities) to maximize the contributions of linguistic, cultural, racial, gender, and age diversity and to increase the participation of under-represented individuals, while minimizing the challenges arising from intercultural misunderstandings and miscommunication.

Courses are offered in the evenings, on weekends, and during summer and winter sessions to facilitate participation by part-time students.