History of the Department

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The Department of Asian Languages and Literature was created in 1969. However, the teaching of Asian languages, literatures, and cultures has a much longer history at the university. As far back as the last decade of the 19th century, the University of Washington offered a program of studies in "ancient languages," in which a course of instruction in Sanskrit was offered along with those in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. In 1909, the University's regents voted to establish the Department of Oriental History, Literature, and Institutions, placing at its head the well-known Asianist, the Reverend Herbert H. Gowen (1864-1960).

Beginning in 1949, instructional programs in Asian languages were housed in the Department of Far Eastern and Slavic Languages and Literature. This department was reorganized in 1969 into two separate and autonomous entities, the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature and the Department of Asian Languages and Literature.

Over the last century, the early Sanskrit offerings were gradually supplemented by additional Asian language programs:

• Chinese (1926)
• Japanese (1928)
• Korean (1944)
• Mongolian (early 1950's)
• Tibetan (1952)
• Hindi and Tamil (1967)
• Thai (1967)
• Vietnamese (1981)
• Indonesian (1991)

A program in Turkic languages was established in Asian Languages and Literature in the early 1960's, but was transferred to the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization in 1986.