The Air Force Culture and Language Center (AFCLC) was founded at Air University in April 2006, embracing the Air Force Chief of Staff's intention to improve Airmen's cross-cultural competence. In April 2007, the Air Force further demonstrated its commitment to culture learning by selecting cross-cultural competence as the centerpiece of Air University's re-accreditation efforts.
In December 2007, the Center was made responsible for culture and language training, as well as education, across the entire Air Force. In October 2009, the Air Force Senior Language Authority directed AFCLC to initiate the Language Enabled Airman Program (LEAP), a career-spanning program to develop a cadre of Airmen across all specialties with working-level foreign language proficiency. AFCLC's efforts are guided by Air Force Policy Directive 36-40 and Air Force Instruction 36-4005, as well as numerous Joint guidance documents. DoD Vision The Department will have the required combination of language skills, regional expertise and cultural capabilities to meet current and projected needs.
AFCLC Mission The Air Force Culture and Language Center creates and executes language, region and cultural learning programs for Total Force Airmen, and provides the Service with the subject matter expertise required to institutionalize these efforts.
AFCLC Vision The Air Force Culture and Language Center will lead the U.S. Air Force in building a cross-culturally competent Total Force to meet the demands of the Service's dynamic global mission.
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Walter H. Ward - Director Mr. Walter H. (Howard) Ward, Jr. is the Director of the Air Force Culture and Language Center (AFCLC) at Air University, Maxwell AFB, AL. The AFCLC is a team of 50 military, federal civilian, and contract personnel that support the application of airpower by enabling seamless operation with many air forces using culture, regional expertise, and language education and training. The AFCLC develops officer and enlisted Airmen proficient in language, culture and negotiation competencies covering 95 languages through the Language Enabled Airman Program (LEAP). The AFCLC also reaches over 210,000 Airmen per year through online training, Community College of the Air Force-accredited courses, officer professional military education, General Officer pre-deployment training, media operations, and expeditionary culture field guides. Mr. Ward is a retired colonel and Master Navigator with over 4,400 hrs in KC-135A/R/RT, C-130E/H1/H2/H3/J. His most recent operational assignment was Commander, 317th Airlift Group, Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. He commanded six squadrons, consisting of 1,200 aviators, maintenance professionals and support personnel, and 28 C-130J aircraft engaged in worldwide combat aerial delivery operations. Gregory Day - Director of Staff/Deputy Director Mr. Gregory Day is the Director of Staff and Deputy Director of the AFCLC. He has also served as the Chief of the Culture Branch at the AFCLC. Mr. Day retired from the Air Force after 27 years of service as a First Sergeant, PME Commandant, Military Training Leader and Linguist. He holds a M.S. in Education from California State University, East Bay and a M.S. in Leadership and Management from Liberty University. Mr. Day's current activities include administrative and operational oversight of internal processes, curriculum development for all levels of PME and PCE, and assisting the Director with mission development.
Dr. Kristin Bashir
Div Chief/ Dept Chair , Associate Professor of Regional and Cultural Studies (Middle East North Africa)
Dr. Kristin Bashir is Associate Professor of Regional and Cultural Studies, Middle East North Africa (MENA) at the AFCLC. She holds a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from the Institute for Middle East Studies at King's College London with teaching experience at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level in the fields of political science, international studies, theology and religious studies, and ethnicity and nationalism studies. Dr. Bashir's current research interests and teaching repertoire include religious and national identities of MENA region communities with attention to inter-faith relations, cultures, nationalisms, gender, belonging, and memory and peacekeeping.
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Dr. Scott Edmondson
Assistant Professor of Regional and Cultural Studies (Africa)
Dr. Scott M. Edmondson is Assistant Professor of Regional and Cultural Studies (Africa) at the AFCLC. He holds a Ph.D. in Culture and Performance from the University of California, Los Angeles, with over eight years of teaching experience in both university (UCLA, Univ. of Michigan) and military settings (USAJFKSWCS, Air University). A former Peace Corps Volunteer in Cote d’Ivoire and Fulbright-Hays Fellow in Ghana, Dr. Edmondson has conducted ethnographic field research in West Africa on popular media production and religious movements, and has worked as a sociocultural intelligence analyst for the 4MISG/US Army Special Operations Command and USAFRICOM. His teaching and research interests include: African religious, media, and security studies; globalization and postcolonial theory; historiography and ethnography; semiotics and narrative analysis; military cross-cultural competence; youth cultures, social media, and radicalization; and cultural property protection/heritage, identity, and conflict.
Dr. Patricia Fogarty
Assistant Professor of Cross-Cultural Relations
Dr. Patricia Fogarty is Assistant Professor of Cross-Cultural Relations at the AFCLC. Dr. Fogarty has worked at AFCLC since 2009, and finished her PhD in Anthropology in 2012. Her dissertation research revolved around the work of an internationally funded development agency in the Republic of Moldova (a former Soviet state). Through the topic of development, she explored Moldovans’ experiences of citizenship, national identity, and corruption. Research conducted since joining AFCLC has included documenting the intercultural experiences of Airmen of all ranks and AFSCs. Teaching and research interests include: general cross-cultural awareness and competence; ethnic and national identity; the effects of corruption on military operations; incorporating cultural property protection into professional military education, exercises, and wargames; civil-military organizational relationships in humanitarian and stability operations; and the use of museums and heritage sites for political ends.
Dr. Angelle Khachadoorian
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Dr. Angelle Khachadoorian is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Air Force Culture and Language Center (AFCLC). She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico. Dr. Khachadoorian has taught a range of college and graduate level courses for more than eighteen years. She has been at Air University (AU) for seven years. Previously, she taught for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as well as teaching in several Air Force post-secondary educational settings. Dr. Khachadoorian's research interests include indigenous and tribal cultures, group and individual identity, community memory, culture change and cultural continuity and traditional leadership processes, especially in the ways that tribal groups intersect with nation-states.
Dr. Jessica Jordan
Assistant Professor of Regional and Cultural Studies (Asia)
Dr. Jessica Jordan is Assistant Professor of Regional and Cultural Studies (Asia) at the AFCLC. She received her Ph.D. in History (Modern Japan) from the University of California, San Diego and has taught courses on the history of Japan, Micronesia, Southeast Asia, WWII in Asia and the Pacific, and the world since 1500. Her dissertation research involved interviewing several dozen Northern Mariana Islanders about their memories of life under Japanese colonial rule (1914-1945), and she is currently revising chapters for publication as peer-reviewed articles. Her teaching and research interests include: historiography, modern colonialism, nationalism and ethnicity/race, and the politics of memory.
Dr. Elizabeth Peifer
Assistant Professor of Regional and Cultural Studies (Europe)
Dr. Elizabeth L.B. Peifer is Assistant Professor of Regional and Cultural Studies (Europe) at the AFCLC. She holds a Ph.D. in European History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has twenty years of university teaching experience in World History and European Studies. Prior to joining the AFCLC, Dr. Peifer served as Director of Faculty Programs for the Associated Colleges of the South. Dr. Peifer specializes in contemporary German society and culture, and her teaching and research interests include: radicalism and extremism; cultural heritage protection in conflict; public memory and national narratives; civil rights; and genocide studies.
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Dr. Susan Steen
Assistant Professor of Cross-Cultural Communication
Dr. Susan Steen is Assistant Professor of Cross-Cultural Communication at the AFCLC. She earned her Ph.D. in Communication from The University of Southern Mississippi in 2007 and held a variety of positions in the field of international education prior to joining AFCLC in 2015. She has traveled widely throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia presenting on topics related to international education and intercultural competence. Dr. Steen’s scholarship involves intercultural, interpersonal, and organizational communication. She uses a communication perspective to examine ways individuals and groups can connect across cultural divides, build resilient communities, and enact inclusion and cultural agility.
The U.S. Air Force has an enterprise approach to culture and language that involves Headquarters Air Force, Major Commands, direct reporting units and field operating agencies. The Air Force Culture and Language center supports these organizations under the leadership of the Air Force Language, Region and Culture program office. Other stakeholders are found throughout the Air Force, Department of Defense and internationally.
Air Education and Training Command (AETC)
Air Force Medical Service (AFMS)
Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)
Air University (AU)
Defense Institute of Security Cooperation Studies (DISCS)
Inter-American Air Forces Academy (IAAFA)
Secretary of the Air Force / International Affairs (SAF/IA)
Twenty-Fifth Air Force (25AF)
U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA)
U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center (EC)
Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI)
Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC)
Defense Language Institute English Language Center (DLIELC)
Defense Language and National Security Education Office (DLNSEO)
Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Project Global Officer (GO)
Special Operations Forces Teletraining System (SOFTS)
U.S. Army TRADOC Culture Center (TCC)
U.S. Marine Corps Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning (CAOCL)
U.S. Marine Corps Training and Education Command (TECOM)
U.S. Military Academy (USMA)
U.S. Naval Academy (USNA) Languages and Cultures Department
U.S. Navy Center for Language, Regional Expertise and Culture (CLREC)
Canada
Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC)
Royal Military College of Canada (RMC)
Netherlands
Netherlands Defence Academy (NLDA)
Royal Netherlands Army (Koninklijke Landmacht)
Singapore
Singapore Ministry of Defence (MINDEF)
United Kingdom
Defence Academy of the United Kingdom
Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL)
International
International Military Testing Association (IMTA)
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
551 E. Maxwell Blvd, Bldg 500, Maxwell AFB, AL 36112
Air Force Culture and Language Center 551 East Maxwell Blvd, Bldg 500 Maxwell AFB, AL 36112
General Inquiries Commercial Phone: 334-953-7729 Fax: 334-953-1614