About the Critical Languages Institute

The NC State University Critical Languages Institute administers Summer intensive and culturally immersive courses in languages which are strategically important to national and global security and economic stability: Arabic, Chinese, Persian, Russian, and Urdu. The Institute is housed in the NCSU Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense under the National Education Security Program. Courses are taught by NCSU Faculty Members and are open to all students nationally, including non-ROTC.

Dr. Ruth V. Gross, Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages, is the grant's Principal Investigator; Dr. Dwight Stephens is Program Director, Shanna Ratashak is Program Manager and LTC Ken Ratashak is Outreach Coordinator.