phd application comparative literature

Comparative Literature Graduate Program

The Ph.D. program in Comparative Literature is committed to providing students the resources and training needed to successfully complete a challenging and rewarding intellectual project. By "resources" we mean not only formal classes, libraries, and financial support in various forms, but also an open community of scholars and learners, both within Comparative Literature and the broader Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages (DLCL), and also across a rich array of other departments, schools, and interdisciplinary programs, and tapping into our vibrant Stanford Humanities Center and its global online platform, ARCADE. The size of our graduate student community is small, which facilitates interpersonal dialogue and conversation. 

By "training" we mean formal classes on pedagogy, a regular and year-long colloquium where students present and discuss each others' work, close work with mentors and advisors, and workshops on topics suggested by both faculty and students. Finally, by "success" we mean not only satisfying departmental and university requirements, but more importantly achieving a sense of personal fulfillment at completing an original and creative exploration of a question of importance to the student.

Comparative Literature at Stanford believes in the importance of linguistic skills in at least three languages, deep historical thinking, and an understanding of the main currents of literary criticism and theory, past and present, and with an eye on emergent knowledge that may embrace fields outside of traditional literary studies. Our faculty includes specialists in Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Japanese, Chinese, French, Italian, English, Hebrew, Russian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and covering broad historical periods. We have a particularly well-established program in Philosophy and Literature, and welcome interdisciplinary projects that involve areas such as film studies, gender studies, studies in race and ethnicity, environmental studies, human rights, and other topics.

At base, the Ph.D. program is designed for students whose linguistic background, breadth of interest in literature, and curiosity about the problems of literary scholarship and theory (including the relation of literature to other disciplines) make this program more appropriate to their needs than the Ph.D. in one of the individual literatures. Students take courses in at least three literatures (one may be that of the native language), to be studied in the original. The program is designed to encourage familiarity with the major approaches to literary study prevailing today.

Before starting graduate work at Stanford, students should have completed an undergraduate program with a strong background in one literature and some work in a second literature studied in the original language. Since the program demands an advanced knowledge of two non-native languages and a reading knowledge of a third non-native language, students should at the time of application have an advanced enough knowledge of one of the three to take graduate-level courses in that language when they enter the program. They should be making enough progress in the study of a second language to enable them to take graduate courses in that language not later than the beginning of the second year, and earlier if possible. Language courses at the 100- or 200- level may be taken with approval from the Director of the department. Applicants are expected to take an intensive course in the third language before entrance.

The Ph.D. minor is designed for students working toward the Ph.D. in the various national literature departments. Students working toward the Ph.D. in English are directed to the program in English and Comparative Literature described among the Department of English offerings.

For more detailed information on our program, please see the corresponding pages in the Stanford Bulletin :

• Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature
• Doctor of Philosophy Minor in Comparative Literature

Graduate Program Application Details

My experience in the Comparative Literature Ph.D. program was filled with intellectual exploration, learning new skills, and amazing mentorship in both research and teaching. Also, having had scholars from other departments to talk through my ideas and my professional plans, especially in ILAC and History, was instrumental for my success in pursuing the career I wanted.

Russell Berman Director of Comparative Literature Pigott Hall, Bldg 260, Rm 201 (650) 723-1069 berman [at] stanford.edu (berman[at]stanford[dot]edu)

John Giammalva In Memoriam, Student Services Manager Pigott Hall, Bldg 260, Rm 127 (650) 279-3630 dlclstudentservices [at] stanford.edu (dlclstudentservices[at]stanford[dot]edu)

Welcome from the Directors of Graduate Studies

Welcome to the graduate program in Comparative Literature at Harvard University.

Our academic community is comprised of thirty-two faculty members and nearly fifty graduate students from across the globe that come here to study, teach, and publish on literatures in several dozen languages from a wide range of historical periods. We take great pride in this community, its academic accomplishments and collective efforts. And its intellectual profile is equally diverse. Critical theory, literary interpretation, and comparative philology provide the basis for work on translation, the history of ideas, media history and archeology, gender studies, drama, oral poetics, multilingualism, postcolonialism, the environmental and medical humanities, globalization, and world literature. Our students and faculty also work in a variety of fields contiguous with literature, including architecture and the visual arts, film and music, history, media practice, anthropology, philosophy, and medicine.

In our graduate seminars students analyze in comparative perspective the literatures and other cultural products of Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Coursework is designed to meet individual interests. Our graduate students are encouraged as well to complement our doctoral seminars with courses in other literature and area studies departments (with which most of our faculty hold joint appointments), including African and African American Studies, the Classics, East Asian Languages  and  Civilizations,  

English,  Germanic Languages and Literatures, History, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Romance Languages and Literatures, Slavic Languages and Literatures, and South Asian Studies. Many of our students also engage in interdisciplinary work, taking courses and often earning qualification in secondary fields such as Visual and Environmental Studies, Medieval Studies, Music, the Study of Religion and the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality.  The stunning range of our students’ dissertation projects is well supported by Harvard’s unparalleled library resources. Our library system, the largest university collection in the world, comprises 70 libraries, with combined holdings of over 16 million items.

In the past few years, the faculty has restructured the Comparative Literature program so as to attend better to students’ needs as they prepare for a professional career in the twenty-first century. New course and language requirements allow students to engage more fully in sophisticated comparative work from their very first year at Harvard. We have also established specific guidelines for advising and faculty feedback from the first year through the completion of the Ph.D. Our new Survive and Thrive: Graduate School and Beyond seminar prepares students for the challenges and opportunities of graduate school. And our Renato Poggioli Graduate Colloquium series enables students of all levels to present their works-in-progress to peers and faculty, everything from seminar papers to mock job talks.

Given the nature of graduate projects, most of our students spend time abroad for language training and research. This work is largely funded by fellowships from the graduate school as well as from Harvard’s many area centers.

When in Cambridge, students enjoy the department’s home, the historic Dana-Palmer House at 16 Quincy Street. We look forward at Dana Palmer to welcoming you in the Fall with sheer delight and open arms!

For more on our graduate program, please consult the Guide for Graduate Students.

– Luis Girón-Negrón and Verena Conley

Founded as a graduate program in 1904 and joining with the undergraduate Literature Concentration in 2007, Harvard’s Department of Comparative Literature operates at the crossroads of multilingualism, literary study, and media history.

© 2023 President and Fellows of Harvard College

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Questions about these requirements? See the contact info at the bottom of the page. 

The adviser–student relationship

Primary advisers and advising committees constitute a crucial resource for students as they move forward in the program, but students are not confined to their advisers or advising committee members for advice or mentoring. Some students will have the same faculty member serve as field adviser and then the principal dissertation adviser (PDA) from their first year through the completion of the dissertation, but most will not. It is perfectly natural for a student to have several principal advisers over the course of their graduate career and changes are easily made.

The directors of graduate studies (DGS) and your field adviser(s) provide the backbone of your guidance through the program, and it is important for you to turn to them on a regular basis. Yet you aren’t at all confined to these sources of advice and mentoring. You are strongly encouraged to speak about your progress and academic plans with other faculty members in the department and across the University and beyond. You should seek out professors whose scholarship complements your own, even when you aren’t able to take their courses. All professors not on leave are required by the University to hold weekly office hours, and most professors are available to meet outside office hours as well. You shouldn’t be shy about contacting faculty members. If you email a professor and don’t receive a response within three business days, you should feel free to write to that individual again. By the same token, you should respond promptly to messages from your advisers. Should a student or faculty member find after five business days that they have received no reply to an email or to a request for a meeting, they should contact the DGS.

To foster a sense of community among the graduate students, field advisers are encouraged to meet with all their advisees as a group at the beginning of each term. The Department Administrator will send field advisers an up-to-date list of their advisees at the beginning of each academic year to facilitate this.

Primary advisers, committee members, and other faculty members will be important advocates, collaborators, and colleagues throughout your graduate career, and often beyond. They also direct students to resources for help and counseling if and when students need them (e.g., medical issues, personal emergency, changes in life circumstances, psychological well-being, etc.).

It is important to develop a good working relationship and set mutual expectations early on. Once students are admitted into the program, it is the shared responsibility of students and advisers to have an open discussion in order to establish expectations, boundaries, and channels of communication. Don’t hesitate to discuss and clarify advising protocols with your current or prospective advisers early on, with the goal of establishing mutually satisfactory and productive working relationships.

To facilitate this discussion, we suggest the following examples as some of the topics of conversation that faculty members are expected to clarify and that you are encouraged and entitled to ask directly:

• choice of courses and fields of study
• students’ entitlement to free expression of their views
• the sense of community among graduate students
• the adviser’s philosophy of graduate student teaching and advising
• the ways whereby advisers and students can build a relationship of trust and maintain honest and open communication
• frequency of meetings outside of courses
• expectations regarding feedback on graduate student written work
• the adviser’s own graduate experience and reflections on how this may influence the adviser’s teaching and advising style
• the process whereby students arrive at their research/dissertation topics
• students’ freedom in choosing fields of research and dissertation topics
• teaching opportunities and pedagogical training for graduate students
• expectations regarding the duties and rights of teaching fellows
• the adviser’s current advisees and their research directions
• the adviser’s sabbatical schedule over the next few years and expectations around working with students while on sabbatical
• the adviser’s research interests, especially in relation to possible course offerings
• the adviser’s administrative duties and other commitments that may affect his or her availability
• the process of applying for outside grants and fellowships
• the best ways to prepare for the job market
• professional training
• preparation for giving papers and publications.

Although graduate student colleagues are excellent sources of information, you should also consult the DGS directly, at any time, with any questions about program requirements and policies. If you experience difficulty with their advisers, you should contact the DGS; if students experience difficulty with the DGS, they should contact the Chair, or, if you prefer, a trusted tenured department faculty member.

The department is committed to protecting individuals from retaliation for speaking out, engaging in good faith reporting, or objecting to any activity by a community member that they believe to be unlawful, unethical, or in violation of University policies. Faculty should take the initiative in discussing their commitment to this policy and creating an environment of free and open discourse.

General expectations

Some general guidelines for students and advisers:

• Prompt response to communication is important. Both faculty members and students should respond to emails within three working days.
• Students can expect to receive comments on their seminar papers within two weeks after submitting them according to agreed-upon deadlines. Students and advisers should discuss and agree upon a set of shared expectations for reading and commenting on dissertation chapters. As a general guideline, students should expect comments on new chapters, or substantially revised chapters, within one month.
• Requests for recommendation letters should not be last minute. Students should plan to make requests and send the relevant materials (e.g., writing sample, application letter, grant proposal) at least one month before the deadline.
• It is the responsibility of faculty to ensure that students have the freedom as well as the guidance to develop their ideas in a supportive environment.
• Students have the choice of changing their advisers or members of their advising committees. They can also seek resources from other departments or outside the University when they are considering a third or fourth reader for their dissertations.
• Faculty members are not to retaliate against students for voicing complaints or for changing their advisers or members of their advising committees.

The G1 and G2 years

All first- and second-year students have two official advisers: (1) the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), who for the 2023–2024 academic year is Professor Verena Conley ( [email protected] ), and Professor Luis Manuel Girón-Negrón ( [email protected] ); and (2) a field adviser, who is most often a faculty member in the Department of Comparative Literature. All incoming students choose a field adviser for their first and usually second years (the “G1” and “G2” years in campus parlance). Students have the option, at the start of the G2 year, of continuing with the same field adviser as during the G1 year, or of choosing someone else. The department understands that academic interests change, so if at any time during the G1 or G2 years you would like to change your field adviser, you should contact the DGS. At the same time, you are welcome to consult other faculty members within and beyond the department for advice throughout your graduate career, including in their first two years. The DGS and field adviser work together to ensure that G1 and G2 students are enrolled in the courses most appropriate for their career plans (i.e., that they are receiving rigorous training in their respective fields, including relevant national languages and literatures); that they are on track to fulfill course and language requirements; that they are planning productively for their second-year paper; that they are formulating appropriate orals fields and lists; and that they are preparing themselves for teaching. The duties of the DGS and field adviser overlap, but they can be distinguished as follows.

The DGS signs off on my.harvard for G1s and G2s (approving course selections for the fall and spring terms) while making certain that students are attending to department requirements. The DGS meets individually with all G1s and G2s at least once each term to offer advice and ascertain that students are making satisfactory progress to the degree. During these years and beyond, you should also contact the DGS about any academic difficulties and especially if you are unable to finish coursework or meet deadlines. You are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the DGS’s office hours. If you have classes during the DGS’s office hours, you should email the DGS to arrange a mutually convenient time to meet.

In addition, the DGS, with the assistance of the Department Administrator, regularly updates all students’ digital records and reviews everyone’s progress every spring, as part of the Annual Review of Student Progress; every June, the DGS sends each student a letter via email regarding their progress.

Whereas the DGS has overall responsibility for course requirements and the fine points of the program’s structure (matters that individual faculty members don’t always know in detail), the field adviser is a faculty member chosen, in consultation with you, because his/her field of expertise is similar to your own. Often, your field adviser will be a member of the Department of Comparative Literature, yet your adviser can be someone based entirely in another department with experience working with Comparative Literature students. (Please note: Any professor listed on the department website under “Faculty” is fully available as an adviser, whether or not they hold a joint appointment with another department. In contrast, lecturers, College fellows, and others on short-term appointments do not serve as field advisers for graduate students.)

The field adviser’s primary function is to help students determine the most appropriate courses, summer opportunities, second-year paper topic, orals fields and lists, and teaching opportunities, in light of their developing scholarly interests and with an eye to rigorous preparation in marketable fields. You should contact your field adviser and initiate discussion of these items of professional development on a regular basis. Field advisers should meet with their advisees at least twice a year, preferably at the beginning of each term. If you have difficulty getting in touch with your field adviser, or find that your field adviser is unable to assist you with the matters listed above because of changing scholarly interests or other reasons, you ought to inform the DGS.

The G3 year (Orals)

In the third year, students have one official adviser—the field adviser—who sometimes is the same faculty member who served in this role during the student’s G1 and/or G2 years, but often is not the same person because of the student’s changing interests. The field adviser for G3s is responsible for releasing the electronic advising hold during the G3 year, for advising students on orals lists and fields as well as on teaching, and in particular for guiding students to a potential dissertation project. The field adviser will often supervise the student's major orals field, but need not necessarily do so. You should inform the DGS if they would like to change your field adviser.

G4 and beyond (after Orals)

Following the completion of orals (typically at the end of the third year), the G3 field adviser, or another faculty member, will become the student’s PDA in years G4 and above. For more on the role of the PDA, see the sections in the Guide on formulating the dissertation prospectus and writing the dissertation. Students whose PDA is not a member of the Department of Comparative Literature should also choose a department academic adviser, usually another member of their dissertation committee, who will sign off in my.harvard and advise on departmental matters.

Advising summary

Advisers play a crucial part in the development of their advisees as young scholars and future colleagues. They should meet regularly and be in frequent close contact; both students and advisers should answer emails within three business days. Whenever possible, faculty members should reply to student emails within two business days, even if just to say that a more comprehensive reply is forthcoming. If students do not receive a response within three business days, they should write that faculty member again, making clear that they would appreciate a response. If five business days after a second attempt has passed and the student still has not heard from the faculty member, they can contact the DGS. This page provides a basic summary of expectations for advisers and students at different stages of the graduate program.

Field adviser (G1 and G2)

• meets individually with advisees at least once a term
• helps advisees determine the most appropriate courses, summer opportunities, second- year paper topic, orals fields and lists, and teaching opportunities
• meets at the beginning of each year or term with all their advisees as a group.

Second-year paper readers (G2)

• meet with the student to guide them on the approach to the paper, with a focus on developing it into a publication in an appropriate journal
• participate in the second-year paper conference with the student in April
• read the paper and provide feedback on the second-year paper by September; meet with the student to discuss the paper in October or November
• more details: see Graduate Student Guide , pp. 17–18.

Field adviser (G3)

• meets with the advisee at least once a term and release the my.harvard hold
• advises on orals lists and fields (often including serving as reader of the primary orals list); on teaching; and on working toward a potential dissertation project.

Orals committee members (G3)

• guide the student through constructing, revising, and reading their orals lists; offer official approval of the relevant list(s) to the department
• meet periodically (at least every six weeks) with the student to discuss progress
• more details: see Guide pp. 18–20.

Principal dissertation adviser (G4+)

• meets with the advisee at least once a term, ideally rather more often
• advises on the dissertation prospectus and the dissertation, as well as professional development, the job market, grant and fellowship opportunities, and applications
• communicates faculty feedback on the dissertation prospectus to the student
• offers timely (within one month) written and/or oral feedback on chapter drafts (usually in the context of a chapter meeting).

Dissertation committee members (G4+)

• meet with the advisee at least once a term
• advise on the dissertation prospectus and the dissertation, as well as professional development, the job market, grant and fellowship opportunities, and applications
• offer timely (within one month) written and/or oral feedback on chapter drafts (usually in the context of a chapter meeting).

Course Requirements

The number of courses required for the PhD in Comparative Literature is 16, of which at least 8 must be graduate (200-level) seminars. You can arrange to produce extra work, typically in the form of a graduate-style research paper, to receive 200-level credit for courses that are listed at the 100-level in my.harvard . Such arrangements must be made early in the term when the course is being taken, ideally within the first two weeks of classes because your plans must be approved by both the course instructor and the DGS. The necessary approval form is available from the Department Administrator in Dana-Palmer House or may be downloaded from the department intranet (a link to the intranet can be found at the bottom of our main webpage: complit.fas.harvard.edu ).

Your remaining eight courses will include 100-level courses, 200-level seminars, a maximum of three 300-level courses (Reading and Research courses; these courses are graded SAT/UNS and do not generally require a seminar paper), and a maximum of four language courses (language training at any level).

Please note that the Registrar does not allow graduation credit for language courses taken SAT/UNS; the only SAT/UNS courses that count toward the 16 required for graduation are 300-level Reading and Research courses (which must be taken as SAT/UNS). Most 300-level Reading and Research courses do not require papers, providing an excellent opportunity for students to do research in a particular topic without the pressure of writing an additional paper.

During your first two years in the department, you must balance coursework in the following manner: at least four courses in the Department of Comparative Literature (one of these courses must be CL 299ar, the Comparative Literature Proseminar; the remaining three can include up to two 100-level Comparative Literature courses and, occasionally, at the discretion of the DGS, courses with a comparative focus offered in other departments); and eight courses in three literatures—most students will take four courses in their first literature, two in their second literature, and two in their third literature, but other combinations are possible, everything from 3-3-2 to 6-1-1, based on a student’s background and needs. You are also required to take Professing Literature 1, 2, and 3 your G1–3 years; these are one-credit courses that address career development topics relevant to the G1, G2, and G3 years, respectively. Professing Literature is a course, and attendance at the relevant sessions is mandatory. This course meets regularly on Tuesdays at 6:00 p.m. and students are advised to make arrangements to clear their schedule for this time block.

Students are advised that most academic employment opportunities are in national literature or area studies departments; there are very few full-time comparative literature positions in the United States. Thus, you are strongly encouraged, from the beginning of your graduate studies, to develop expertise in a particular national literature or other marketable field (e.g., theater, film) in addition to your comparative focus. You also should make certain, guided by the department’s many faculty members with joint appointments in comparative literature and national literature/area studies departments, that you are completing the coursework and orals reading, as well as formulating a dissertation topic that will make you competitive on the national literature job market. For more on academic employment, see the section "Going on the Job Market" below.

You are expected to write two or three substantial seminar papers each term during your first two years. Two is the minimum (and quite sufficient) expectation, for a total of at least eight seminar papers by the time you finish your G2 year. Three is the maximum number of seminar papers you should undertake in any given term so you have time to write quality work and avoid taking INC (incompletes—for more on INC see below).

Most students will write their seminar papers for their 200-level courses (with the exception of CL 299ar), but some students will find it more appropriate to write seminar papers for certain of their 100-level courses, particularly when these courses are in fields in which they would like to publish articles. In the latter case, with the permission of the instructor, students often will have the option of taking 100-level courses for 200-level credit. Students can also write seminar papers for 300-level courses; these Reading and Research courses do not generally have a writing requirement, but, with the permission of the instructor, students can write papers for them.

The department discourages students from taking a course load that requires them to write more than three seminar papers in a term. If in any given term students must take four courses that all require seminar papers, they are strongly encouraged to speak with the professors of these courses about doing alternative assignments. When asked, faculty members often will permit a student to take a 200-level seminar as a 300-level Reading and Research course (i.e., students do all the reading and participate in class discussion, but do not write a final research paper). Sometimes, faculty members allow students to write two short papers rather than a long final paper, or, by mutual agreement with another faculty member, they accept a single expanded paper for two courses. In general, faculty members also readily help students think about their final papers early in the term. In all cases, you are encouraged to plan ahead.

Students taking four courses in a single term that all require major seminar papers should also speak with the DGS as soon as possible.

A course that is cross-listed in the Department of Comparative Literature will be counted either toward the Comparative Literature requirement or toward the requirement in the national literature in which it is offered (if the readings were done in the original language), but not toward both. In such cases, you should let the Department Administrator know how you want the credit to count.

One 300-level Reading and Research course can be used as one of the four required comparative literature courses. This Reading and Research course must be taught by a comparative literature faculty member, and it must have a comparative focus. If you do not write a research paper for this 300-level course, then you must write a paper on a comparative topic for one of your other courses, to be determined in consultation with the DGS. The reading list for a 300-level course used to count as one of your 200-level CL courses must be submitted to the DGS for approval during the first or second week of class.

Under exceptional circumstances, students will be permitted to use one lower-level undergraduate course (general education courses or courses numbered 1–99) for 100-level credit. For 100-level credit to be granted for the course, graduate students must write longer papers than the undergraduates in the course. To receive 100-level credit for general education courses or courses numbered 1–99, students must obtain approval from the DGS during the first or second week of class.

In cases where the University offers regular 100- or 200-level courses in a student’s first, second, and third literatures, the student generally may not use 300-level courses to satisfy first, second, and third literature requirements. But in cases where the University does not offer regular courses in one of your three literatures (e.g., Czech, Bengali), you will generally be permitted to use 300-level courses. You must, however, obtain the prior approval of the DGS.

To satisfy the literature requirements in the first, second, and third literatures, readings must be done in the original language. Class discussion may, however, be in English. If the department determines that work was not read in the original language, departmental credit will be withheld. Occasionally, students will declare as one of their literatures a literature in which the University does not offer sufficient courses that teach texts in the original language. In this case, if the student is a native speaker of the language, the DGS can make an exception and grant first, second, or third literature credit for a 100- or 200-level course in which readings are done in English translation. All exceptions must be approved by the DGS in the first or second week of the term. If students are not native speakers of the language, and there are no 100- or 200-level courses where reading is done in the original language, students must enroll in a 300-level course where readings are done in the original language.

The first literature must have a historical component whatever your area of specialization; that is, it must include at least one course in a period different from the period examined in the other courses in this literature.

Overall, your coursework must include a significant dimension of comparative historical or cross-cultural study. This dimension can be met by taking a minimum of three courses with a chronological or regional focus different from your primary area of focus. (In the case of chronological breadth, these three courses can include the historically diverse third course in the primary literature.) It is important that the focus of these three courses be distinctly different from the focus of your other work. Thus, someone concentrating on European modernism would not be able to fulfill this requirement with three courses in the European 19th century; either greater historical depth or a significant cultural range (e.g., modernism in East Asia) is expected.

Other coursework may include relevant courses in literature, language, or other disciplines relevant to your interests, such as philosophy, history, anthropology, religion, linguistics, art history, or media studies. Courses in these topics with a comparative focus occasionally can count toward the four required comparative literature courses. Which courses can count is at the discretion of the DGS, but the department aims to be as flexible as possible.

You are very strongly encouraged to take at least one course on the literature/culture of a world region different from that of your focus. While students specializing in non-European literatures generally do at least some of their coursework in European literatures or in literatures outside their immediate region of focus, those specializing in European literatures have tended not to take classes on non-European literatures. However, it is important to remember that Europe is as much a world region as are Africa, East Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia, and in our global world it is essential to have at least basic exposure to the literature/culture of a non-European region.

Students are expected to fulfill all course requirements by the end of the G2 year, with the exception of those who need additional language training to take courses in their first, second, or third literatures. These students can take a limited number of required courses into their third year. Other exceptions are at the discretion of the DGS.

PhD candidates are required, in each year, to receive more As than Bs; no grade lower than B- can be counted toward the degree. More than one grade below B- clearly indicates unsatisfactory progress in the program. Students should take comfort in the fact that grades below a B are highly unusual at Harvard. If you find yourself receiving low grades in a particular course, you should speak with the DGS right away.

Incompletes

You should avoid taking any incompletes (INC). Incompletes are administrative nightmares that mar the transcript and damage your chances for receiving Harvard and outside fellowships. Even worse, incompletes taken in one term often have a snowball effect that causes students to fall further behind in their coursework and other requirements in the following term.

With the exception of medical, family, or other emergencies, under no circumstances are students in comparative literature permitted to take more than one incomplete per term, and, with the exception of medical, family, or other emergencies, under no circumstances are they permitted to take an incomplete in the proseminar (CL 299ar).

Students who take two or more incompletes in any given term or an incomplete in the proseminar will automatically be put on "grace" academic status for the term, until the grades are recorded for these courses. Students on grace status remain eligible for institutional aid and teaching fellowships (but not federal Title IV loans and/or work study).

Beginning with the class admitted in fall 2019, all INC courses incurred during a term must be made up no later than six weeks after the start of the next term. Any INCs not cleared by that point will become permanent. If the presence of a permanent INC causes the student to fall below the number of courses needed for satisfactory progress, the student will be placed on grace academic status for the following term, until an added course has made up for the Incomplete.

For those students admitted before fall 2019, incompletes must be completed before the end of the term that follows the one in which the Incomplete was taken, unless the professor sets an earlier deadline. In the absence of extenuating circumstances, students who do not resolve their INC within this timeframe will be placed on "unsatisfactory" academic status, which will render them ineligible for financial support from the department and the University. Such students will lose their summer stipends, academic-year stipends, teaching fellowships, and other grants. They also risk being required to take a leave of absence or to withdraw from the program.

All students, regardless of entry year, risk being placed in unsatisfactory academic status if they have not completed the coursework for these INC grades before the start of the term following the one in which the Incomplete was taken.

Students confronted by medical or family emergencies or other extraordinary circumstances that prevent them from completing their coursework in the term in which the course is taken are expected, before the end of the term, to inform the DGS and/or Department Administrator that they need additional time; the DGS works with such students on a schedule for resolving INC that can be modified as circumstances warrant.

With the exception of medical, family, or other emergencies, all incompletes must be resolved by the beginning of the G3 year. Students will not be permitted to register for the G3 year, nor will they be permitted to teach, if they have INC in courses being used to fulfill requirements. Likewise, students are not permitted to take orals if they are carrying incompletes in courses being used to fulfill requirements. Students with incompletes will be required to submit to the DGS a plan for completing their coursework. As in all cases, students having academic difficulties should see the DGS at their earliest opportunity.

Please note: Most students take incompletes because they believe the extra time will allow them to write better seminar papers. Paradoxically, this is usually not the case; sometimes an extra week or two may be necessary to produce higher quality work, but any more time than that quickly becomes counterproductive. Perfectionism is not encouraged and in fact hinders academic progress. You also should keep in mind that balancing several papers (deadlines) and exams per term is excellent training for the academic life, where you will find yourself juggling far more responsibilities at once.

Language Requirements

In September of your first year, after consulting with the DGS and your field adviser, you will be required to prepare a list of four (or more) proposed languages; three of these, one of which may be English, will normally be primary languages for your first, second, and third literatures in which you will be doing coursework, while the fourth will often be an “instrumental” language, as described below. You should submit your list of proposed languages to the DGS no later than October 1 of your first year. Your list of proposed languages may be revised and resubmitted at a later date so long as it meets department guidelines, but it is important at the outset to develop a solid initial plan for the languages and literatures on which you will be focusing.

By the time you take your orals (by the end of the G3 year), you must be proficient in at least four languages related to your course of study and long-term interests; one of these four languages may be studied for only instrumental reasons. At least one language must stand in a useful cross-cultural or diachronic relationship to others (see below).

Language requirements must be finished by the end of the third year; students must complete all language requirements before taking orals.

Candidates who wish to receive an AM after the second year must complete language requirements in three languages before that degree can be awarded (for more on the AM degree, see below).

In exceptional circumstances—i.e., when students need additional time to gain competence in an unusually difficult language such as Arabic or Chinese, or when students change their focus significantly in their G2 year—the DGS may allow students until September of the G4 year to fulfill language requirements.

Instrumental Language

Your fourth language may be instrumental, that is, a tool for reading criticism, for engaging with philological and/or historical issues, or for making the first steps toward eventually studying the literature and attaining fluency. You may fulfill department requirements for the fourth language by taking an upper-level language course in your instrumental language. (In such cases you must consult the DGS for approval, as the necessary level of coursework varies by language. E.g., for many languages, two years of formal language training are required, while for languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, four years of formal language training are required). You also may demonstrate instrumental knowledge by passing a reading exam administered by the Department Administrator. You may take this exam as many times as needed, but you must pass it by the end of the G3 year. For more on this exam, see below. The instrumental language is an option that may appeal to students who seek in three languages a command that includes not just reading but also speaking, listening, and writing, and in one language a reading knowledge only; other students may choose to develop full command of all four languages.

Premodern or Cross-Cultural Language

One of your four languages must be either premodern (diachronic) or cross cultural. The term “premodern” implies that the language stands in a historically foundational or, in certain cases, diachronic relationship to one of the student’s other languages. Foundational languages would include classical Latin and Greek, biblical Hebrew, classical Arabic, classical Chinese, classical Armenian, Sanskrit, and Old Irish. Normally, the “premodern language” is not simply the “old” form of a modern language, which is studied in old, middle or medieval, and modern forms. In the event of uncertainty, candidates and/or their field advisers should consult the DGS. There are inevitably languages that are difficult to classify in this system. A case in point is classical Japanese. The department has considered this case twice and has decided both times that although classical Japanese ( bungo ) differs substantially from modern Japanese, the distinction is closer to the “medieval vs. modern” distinction that is found in other traditions (including the distinction between old and modern English). As a result, the department has determined that the standard foundational language for Japanese is classical Chinese. The department’s premodern requirement for students of Japanese can also be satisfied by demonstrating reading ability in kanbun . Even so, students of Japanese are strongly encouraged to take at least a year of bungo , formal training in which is needed to read pre-twentieth century and many early-twentieth century materials.

The term “cross-cultural” implies that this language is from a linguistic-cultural group different from that of your other three languages. Usually a candidate working primarily on European languages and literatures, and choosing not to study Latin or another classical Western language, would need to study a language such as Chinese or Arabic to meet this requirement. Normally, English will not count as a cross-cultural language. Turkish and Modern Hebrew, however, do count as cross-cultural languages for students whose other three languages are European.

In the academic year 2013-2014, the department revisited the question of what languages count as "cross-cultural" for students working on modern European literatures. In particular, the question was raised as to whether Russian (and other Slavic languages) would count for students working on Romance and Germanic languages, or whether a student working on English, French, German, and Russian (to give one example) would also have to study Latin or another language from outside modern Europe. Colleagues active in framing the department’s initial policy confirmed that longstanding department precedent had been that Russian had not counted as a cross-cultural language for students working on other European languages. During the academic year 2013-2014, faculty members determined, however, that beginning that year, students of Romance and Germanic languages can petition to have a Slavic language count as a cross-cultural language. The department agreed that the petition will be granted only if the spirit of the cross-cultural language requirement is maintained, namely that students venture considerably far outside their comfort zones, that they take on a language that not only is difficult for them but also gives them access to a considerably different corpus of literature/culture than those with which they are already familiar, and that their studies are significantly wide ranging. The department remains committed to producing PhD graduates who have a fundamentally broad understanding of languages and literatures.

Language Exams

Competence in languages can be demonstrated by taking 100- or 200-level courses in the literatures of the languages (not language-learning courses, but literature courses in the departments in which those languages are offered: arranging to do some of the required readings in the original language in a course taught in translation is not usually sufficient) or by taking a departmental translation examination. Under most circumstances, PhD candidates will demonstrate competence in three of their four literatures by meeting the course requirements for the first, second, and third literatures. For instance, a student who wishes to concentrate on literatures in English, French, and Spanish could take four literature courses in one of these and two in each of the others. Such a student would then also need to take an exam in Latin or another language from outside modern Europe to meet the requirement for a language that stands in a cross-cultural or diachronic relationship to the candidate’s other languages.

Students who wish to meet the requirement for a fourth language through an exam—be it to fulfill the premodern/cross-cultural requirement or to showcase instrumental knowledge of another modern language—are encouraged to take the exam as soon as they feel ready; students may take the exam as many times as necessary.

If the fourth language is modern (i.e. the student aims to either meet the cross-cultural requirement or else showcase instrumental knowledge of the same), the translation exam will consist of a two- to three-page passage from either a creative or a critical work that students are asked not to translate, but instead to summarize, discuss, or analyze. If the fourth language is premodern (i.e. a “classical” language to fulfill the diachronic requirement), the translation exam will consist of a much shorter selection from a primary source, which must be translated in full in order to showcase that the student can work through a literary passage with precise understanding of textual detail. In either case, students are permitted electronic dictionaries, but only to look up words or idioms, not to look up long phrases, sentences, or paragraphs. The exam will be on the honor system. Paper dictionaries will also be permitted. The goal of the exam is to demonstrate the ability to read the language in question effectively. Students are given one hour for the exam.

Students who wish to take a language exam should speak with the Department Administrator. In some cases, it may be possible for you to see copies of old exams to get an idea of their length, difficulty, and variety. The Department Administrator is responsible for scheduling the exam and, in consultation with the DGS, for approaching faculty members in the department who are most suited to provide and grade the exam. Students whose program of study requires more than the language training and coursework outlined in the Guide are encouraged to speak with their field adviser and the DGS as soon as possible to make appropriate arrangements.

Second-Year Paper

On the first Friday of the fall term of your G3 year, you will submit a second-year paper on a comparative topic of 25–30 pages (double space, Times New Roman font, 12-point type, 7,500–9,000 words). This paper can be a study of two literatures written in two languages, but it also can look at a single linguistic corpus through a transmedia perspective (e.g., examining French-language film, together with French-language literature, and other media in French).

The second-year paper can be an expanded version of a seminar paper you wrote during the previous spring term, or it can be an expanded version of a seminar paper you wrote in an earlier term. The second-year paper can also be developed on the basis of an individual 300-level reading course guided by a faculty member and taken in the second and, occasionally, the first year in the PhD program. Writing a second-year paper will demonstrate your ability to do a serious comparative project. Doing so also allows you to receive active faculty guidance on making the transition from doing coursework and writing seminar papers to writing publishable articles. The faculty member advising the second-year paper (typically the instructor of the relevant seminar or 300-level course) and a secondary reader (assigned by the department usually after recommendation by the student) will provide a pass or fail grade and written comments.

The guidelines for the second-year paper are as follows:

• The DGS holds a brief required workshop for G2s (part of Professing Literature 2) on making the transition from writing seminar papers to writing journal articles.
• Second-year paper proposals (two pages, double space) are due March 1 of the G2 year. The proposal must make clear the languages, literatures, and media involved. Students wishing to change their topics after this date require the approval of the DGS. These proposals must also be shared with the two faculty members who will serve as readers of the second-year paper, in advance of the second-year paper conference.
• In April of the G2 year, students have a second-year paper conference with the two faculty members who will, the following fall, serve as readers of the second-year paper. By March 15, please confirm a possible date range (two weeks in April) with your faculty readers for this conference and then contact Department Coordinator Isaure Mignotte ( [email protected] ), who will send a Doodle to your committee to schedule the final date and time. The second-year paper conference will resemble a dissertation prospectus conference, but special attention will be given to moving from writing seminar papers to writing journal articles.
• Second-year papers will be due the first Friday of the fall term of the G3 year, giving students the summer after their G2 year to work on the paper. There will be no extensions, except in cases of family, medical, or other emergencies. Students who plan to be abroad for the summer without access to necessary research materials will be expected to plan accordingly. Students are welcome to turn in their second-year paper earlier in their graduate studies if they are prepared to do so.
• Comments from department faculty members will be due by the end of September of the G3 year. Students are then encouraged, but not required, to meet with their second-year paper readers in October or November to discuss their papers.
• For guidance, students should read the book Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks  by Wendy Belcher, a professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton.

The second year is also an excellent time to begin speaking with faculty about publishing opportunities as well as presenting work at conferences. Faculty members are here to help, but it is your responsibility to initiate these conversations.

Master of Arts (AM)

Application for admission must be to the PhD program; students already in the program may receive an AM degree en route to the doctorate.

To obtain this degree, the candidate must complete eight term courses. One of these courses must be the Proseminar, another must be a 200-level Comparative Literature seminar, and the remaining six courses must include three in the first literature and two in the second literature. No more than one of the eight term courses may be a 300-level reading course. Students are required to have at least as many 200-level as 100-level courses, and only in rare exceptions will courses below the 100-level count toward the degree. The candidate must demonstrate proficiency in three languages, one of which may be English. One of the languages must be premodern or cross-cultural, as described in the requirements for the PhD.

In cases where students have activated transfer credit, it is understood that if they have fulfilled the department’s course and language requirements for the PhD, they will also be considered to have fulfilled the department’s course and language requirements for the AM degree.

The Third Year and Beyond

The third and fourth year requirements in the PhD program in Comparative Literature are the PhD orals examination and the prospectus conference, respectively.

Students are required to begin formulating orals fields and lining up examiners during the spring term of their second year. They should have all three lists drawn and approved by the end of May.

The PhD Orals Examination

The basic academic work for the third year consists of preparation for the PhD orals, together with initial formulation of the dissertation prospectus. Most students will also start teaching in the third year (for more on teaching, see below). Preparation for the PhD orals helps you build interaction with faculty members in your field (often there is some overlap with your subsequent dissertation committee), and the examination itself approximates a job interview or aspects of a campus visit. All three parts of the examination are taken together; when examiners are out of the country for extended periods, they may participate via Skype or speakerphone. It is much better to take your orals when you are most prepared, rather than to wait for faculty members to return from abroad.

All course/language requirements must have been completed before taking orals. This includes resolving incompletes for courses being used to fulfill requirements.

Orals should be taken by the spring of the third year.  Under exceptional circumstances (such as leaves of absence of key examiners), the DGS may approve an orals date in September of the fourth year. Regardless of when orals are taken, students must have their dissertation prospectus approved by the department no later than December of the G4 year. For more on the Prospectus, see below.

Orals are scheduled by Department Coordinator Isaure Mignotte ( [email protected] ). Several months before taking orals, you should first agree on a date range (one to two weeks) with the members of your committee and then contact Isaure to help you set a precise date and time.

The oral examination takes two hours. It consists of a one-hour major field and two half-hour minor field examinations, each generally with one examiner, although you may arrange to have two examiners for your major field when a single examiner does not suffice to cover the material. An examiner can also be formally involved in more than one of your three fields, but you should have a total of three or four examiners. Although you develop each list and prepare it with the primary examiner(s) for that field, examiners often join in on the conversation throughout the oral examination. In general, at least one of the professors on your orals committee will be a member of the Department of Comparative Literature, but exceptions can be made when necessary.

During the 2014–2015 academic year, the department revised orals field requirements as follows:

• The major field must include a reading list of at least 40 books (or the equivalent) selected in consultation with your major field examiner(s). The major field should provide the broad context for your eventual dissertation topic, while also preparing you for the job market and to teach a survey lecture course. Some students will choose a major field with a comparative focus, while others will choose a major field devoted to a single literature.
• The two minor fields each involve a reading list of about 20 books or their equivalent. One minor field can be geared directly to your likely dissertation topic (in which case the minor field should not duplicate the issues raised in the major field); the other minor field may have a predominantly theoretical or interdisciplinary cast. If the major field concerns literature of a single period, one of the minor fields should be based in another period.
• Together, the 80 books across the three orals lists must include at least 10 books in a first language, 10 books in a second language, and 10 books in a third language.

You must begin formulating orals fields and lining up examiners during the spring term of your second year. By May 15 of your G2 year, you must provide the department with the topics of your three fields as well as the names of the faculty members with whom you will be working on these fields. Ideally, you should also have all three orals lists drawn up and approved by your three examiners and the DGS by the end of May of your G2 year. Please also email your lists to the Department Administrator. At minimum, you must have one reading list approved by then so that you can begin systematic reading during the summer. All three reading lists must be approved by your three examiners and the DGS by September 15 of your G3 year.

During your third year, you are expected to meet periodically with your three examiners on whatever schedule fits your preparation, but you should make sure to have at least one meeting every two or three weeks with one or another examiner. Some faculty members prefer to meet regularly with students (e.g., every other week), while others will want to meet with you only two or three times before the orals exam. If you find that you need to meet more frequently than a particular faculty member has proposed, you should be certain to request more meetings. Be bold. Different students have different backgrounds and thus different needs, and faculty members might not always be aware of your circumstances. Should you experience any difficulties meeting with your examiners, please be in touch with the DGS as soon as possible. 

The oral examination is graded pass or fail. Exams are scheduled for two hours and ordinarily begin with a short discussion between examiners (while the student is not present) to determine the order of the questions. Each examiner typically takes 25–30 minutes. At the end, the student is sent from the room while the examiners discuss the exam and is then welcomed back to the room and given their grade.

In the very rare case of a failure in one or more fields, a student can repeat the examination on the field(s) in question at a date set by the examining committee, but no later than six months following the date of the initial exam. If the second attempt results in a failure in one or more fields, the student will be granted a terminal AM degree and withdrawn from the program.

For guidance on fields and examiners, talk with your field adviser, with the DGS, and with other faculty members. You need to be active in seeking out faculty members as your examiners and in setting up regular meetings with them as you prepare your lists during the spring of your G2 year and as you undertake your orals preparation over the course of the G3 year. Most departments have orals; the Comparative Literature format might differ from that of other departments, but most faculty members across the University are very familiar with orals.

Some faculty members will ask you to write your own orals list, which they then revise with you; other faculty members have set lists for particular fields. Orals can and should be deeply rewarding, as you move from taking classes to writing your prospectus and then your dissertation. Take advantage of this time to build a solid foundation for the dissertation and other future research, as well as teaching.

Prospectus Conference

Following the successful completion of the PhD orals, students develop a dissertation prospectus of 10–12 pages, plus bibliography (double space, Times New Roman, 12-point type). Longer prospectuses that do not meet these specifications will not be considered by the department. The prospectus must be approved by the department by December of the G4 year. This means that the prospectus itself needs to be completed no later than November 1 of your fourth year, so that you have time for a prospectus conference with your dissertation committee and the opportunity to make the revisions your dissertation committee requests before your prospectus is submitted to the department.

Department faculty members discuss and vote on prospectuses at faculty meetings throughout the year, not just in December; you should submit your prospectus to the department for approval when your committee determines it is ready but no later than December of the G4 year.

Your dissertation committee consists of a principal dissertation adviser (PDA) and two other committee members (readers). In most cases, at least one of the three members of your dissertation committee will be a member of the comparative literature faculty (more likely, two, or even all three will be members). The PDA can be the same person as your G1, G2, and/or G3 field adviser, but will often not be the same. If your PDA is a member of the department, then they also become your departmental academic adviser; if your PDA is not a member of the department, then you should choose a different departmental academic adviser, most likely another member of your dissertation committee. The members of your dissertation committee can be the same as the members of your orals committee, but they need not be. Be careful to choose faculty members with whom you have a good working relationship and who will offer you timely feedback. You can feel free to add a fourth faculty member to your committee at any time in the dissertation prospectus/writing process, however, you must inform your PDA before making any changes. If you want to remove a member from the committee, you must first consult with your PDA. Please also check with the DGS and the DA before making any changes.

A dissertation prospectus is a paradoxical object. It is not an abstract (i.e., a summary of a completed dissertation), nor is it a full-scale introductory chapter; instead, it is an attempt to describe what is planned before it has actually been done. Thus, it most closely resembles a grant proposal (in this case, a proposal for dissertation funding), and like any grant proposal it should set out the value of the topic and your approach in a concise and persuasive manner.

Your prospectus should provide a preliminary description of the proposed dissertation, delineating not only the topic you will discuss but also your primary arguments. You need to explain why this topic merits discussion and the importance of your proposed contributions. In addition, you should indicate your project’s relation to existing scholarship, describing your methodology, and outlining your planned structure of chapters.

Finding, defining, and communicating an argument that is at once significant and of realistic scope are tasks that require discussion and collaboration between you and your committee members, who should see and respond to drafts of your prospectus.

It is crucial for you to consult with faculty members early in the dissertation prospectus process. Even the most pathbreaking dissertation will not land you a job if it does not meet the needs of a hiring committee or convince a hiring committee that you have the skills they seek. Although many potential employers are quite flexible and welcome innovative comparative work, it is important to keep in mind that departments often are looking for faculty to meet specific department needs. The situation is especially tricky for students of comparative literature, since most will be hired by national language and literature departments. You need to be able to demonstrate to a hiring committee that your comparative literature training is an asset, rather than a detriment; that you have the key skills and knowledge needed in a specific national literature, enlivened and given new dimensions by the breadth of your comparative perspective. This is readily done as long as you plan ahead.

Prospectuses in comparative literature vary, but all should answer as best as possible at this early stage of research certain fundamental questions:

• What is the central problem that the dissertation will address, and what will be your major argument? The problem can be theoretical, critical, or historical, but it should, in most cases, be presented as a question or a related set of questions to which the dissertation will attempt to offer answers. It is important that this problem and your hypothetical answers (hypotheses) be stated from the outset, so that your research will not risk becoming random and your exposition will not lapse into mere description. When writing your prospectus, speak in terms of what you will “argue,” “contend,” or “claim,” rather than simply “explore,” “examine,” and “discuss.” It is fine to speak of “asking” or “inquiring,” but questions should, in general, be associated with an argument or hypothesis.
• Although you are writing a dissertation for a comparative literature PhD, your project may not be obviously comparative. The comparative nature of the project may lie in the way it interrupts or revises existing narratives of explanation using new materials. If you will be relying on an intellectual framework developed by a particular theorist or theoretical school, you should say something about how the theory will inform or be at issue in your work. What will count for you as evidence? Will your thesis aim at the revision of a paradigm or the utilization of one? What will you be “reading” and what will you be presupposing? How does your framework fit your problem, and why have you chosen it? Are you testing it or using it? What kind of end point are you after? Do you want to make us understand something about the text(s), the world, the art form, or the analytic enterprise—or about the inextricability of all of these? Here is where you should define clearly any concepts or terms that will carry important analytical energy for you, and perhaps briefly explain their genealogy or provenance, especially when you are using contested, general, or often-misunderstood terms.
• To persuade your reader that you are not just restating what has already been said before, you should include a brief review (about a page) outlining the present “state of the field” with respect to your topic and argument. How have previous scholars treated your topic; how have their arguments differed from yours? How does your approach differ from earlier approaches? Has there been new evidence (for example, a new primary source) that has come to light since previous treatments? For the sake of collegiality with previous generations of scholars, it is advisable not to play games of upstaging for the sake of self-promotion (“My predecessor blundered in not noticing what I have noticed”). Instead, remember that your work would not be possible without the work of earlier scholars.
• Your prospectus should include a chapter-by-chapter outline, with a paragraph or so describing each chapter. Naturally, the final arrangement of chapters may look different from the one developed in your prospectus: when new perspectives open up in the course of your work on the dissertation, you are free to revise the organization proposed in the prospectus. Nonetheless, outlining a sequence of potential chapters will help you to clarify your argument and check the balance of its parts in relation to one another. Chapters typically run anywhere between 30 and 60 double-spaced pages. If the major sections of your dissertation seem likely to exceed this span, plan to subdivide them. You might consider organizing your topic in terms of four or five main chapters, unless your topic is better served by a larger number of shorter chapters. The proposed chapters should be presented in your prospectus in a manner that allows your readers to form a clear overview of the project as a whole. You will probably find that developing this outline helps your thinking to move forward substantially, so that the actual writing of the dissertation will be more clearly focused.
• Dissertations vary widely in length, but a good target is around 250–300 pages, consisting of four or five roughly 50-page chapters plus your introduction, conclusion, and bibliography. A dissertation can have more chapters when appropriate and can run longer than 300 pages if necessary, particularly if substantial archival work is entailed, but longer dissertations often lose more in terms of focus and control of the topic than they gain in terms of amplitude of detail. You should ideally have 200 pages of your dissertation written when you go on the job market. Students planning to write dissertations of under 200 pages are advised that hiring committees are likely to be skeptical about uncompleted short dissertations; students writing short dissertations should plan to go on the market with a finished or nearly finished dissertation.
• Once you have drafted your prospectus under the guidance of your committee, you might want to have it read by someone who knows very little about your topic, to see whether you have clearly set out your problem and defined a workable method. Seeking out a general reader right at the start is a good reminder that though you may be writing on a specialized topic, your thesis should be written in clear, intelligible prose. Make sure you define the theoretical terms and categories you are introducing and try to avoid technical jargon unless it is necessary to the intricacies of your argument.
• Remember that you are undertaking to write a connected narrative. Therefore, you ought to think about that narrative as a whole rather than merely as a series of separate chapters. What overall message would you like people to take away from your dissertation? Try to formulate your subject and your intended destination in a simple sentence or two; make sure that you locate this sentence or two in a prominent place in your introduction.
• In thinking about your project, you would do well to situate it in the broader field to which it is addressed. By this point in your graduate studies you have developed a good command of current thinking about your dissertation’s overall field. Indeed, you are something of an authority. How is your argument going to change people's ideas, add to the present picture, or revise commonly held views? Thinking in these terms should help you formulate your project so that it is understandable for someone who is not immersed in this field, as well as showing people in the field why they should be interested in reading your work.
• The audience for an academic dissertation ranges from members of your own generation, to interested undergraduates, to advanced scholars. It also includes thinkers of the future, since most dissertations are readily accessible online, at least after an initial embargo. Be sure to explain your scope or focus. Describe how your work does or doesn’t fit into, develop from, or in some other manner deal with relevant (or only apparently relevant) work done by others. This will increase the chance of making your thesis the book you are likely to want it to become, as well as aiding you in deriving articles from chapters of the dissertation.
• Prospectuses (and then dissertations) tend either to lose themselves in detail or to be too general. To avoid these extremes, try to do what you would in any paper you write: Make sure that your main argument remains clearly above ground and that each paragraph has a clear connection with both the preceding and following ones. Enough care and stylistic grace should be exercised so that the prospectus clearly and concisely articulates the project, its arguments, methods, and special considerations in a manner that anyone in comparative literature (or literary studies in general) can grasp.

Prospectuses are expected to include a bibliography, which can vary in length. You do not need to have already read every source listed on your bibliography. However, you should have a sense of the most important works for your topic and have taken the time to become familiar with them. Remember that not every source requires scrupulous reading and note taking. At times it helps to annotate the bibliography with brief comments, at least for certain works.

Acceptance of the Prospectus

Once you have completed your draft prospectus you are required to have a prospectus conference with your three dissertation committee members (scheduled at your request by Isaure Mignotte,  [email protected] ). You must send your prospectus to your committee at least 10 days before the prospectus conference. This conference is a one-hour discussion both of the work leading up to your dissertation project and the prospectus itself, with the aim of ensuring that you are well prepared to move forward with the project and have developed both a viable conceptual structure and an appropriate outline of the chapters that will comprise the dissertation. The prospectus conference usually begins with students speaking for about five to seven minutes on their proposed project.

After the prospectus conference, the prospectus, revised if necessary, is circulated to the full faculty of the department for discussion and vote at a department meeting; please submit your prospectus to the department at least one week before the department meeting at which you would like it discussed. Department meetings are scheduled well in advance; dates can be obtained from the Department Administrator. You must have your prospectus approved by the department by December of your fourth year. Where appropriate, your PDA (or departmental academic adviser) will communicate to you any suggestions from the full faculty for changing the prospectus and the bibliography. If the department asks for small changes to the prospectus (“passed with minor changes”), there is normally no need for the members of the dissertation committee to reconfirm their approval. In some cases, the department will ask for more extensive revisions, in which case the student will be required to resubmit the prospectus to the department for approval at a future department meeting.

Ordinarily, the three faculty participants in the prospectus conference will be the three readers of the dissertation.

Chapter Meetings

Approximately once per semester and at minimum once each year, in order to remain in SAT status in the graduate program, you are required to have a chapter meeting with your dissertation committee. Most students use this occasion to discuss a completed draft of a new chapter, although you may occasionally have two chapters to discuss at a time or have a second meeting to discuss a chapter that needed substantial revision after the first chapter meeting.You also can use your chapter meeting to discuss your research/writing to date; this is recommended for those years that you do not produce two chapters. After you have circulated to your committee a draft of your work for discussion, contact Isaure Mignotte ( [email protected] ) and she will arrange a mutually workable time for you and your committee to meet, typically two to three weeks after you have circulated your draft.

Chapter meetings usually take one hour. They begin with the student speaking for a few minutes on the chapter and where it fits in the dissertation as a whole; the remainder of the hour is spent discussing the chapter with the dissertation committee. The chapter meeting itself gives you the opportunity to receive sustained responses from your committee members, who will be able to hear one another’s advice and your responses and refine their advice in turn. Your committee members may also give you written comments in addition to the discussion at the chapter meeting. A committee member who is out of town may participate via Skype or a conference call; in unusual cases when this is impossible to arrange, written comments may be sent in advance of the meeting.

Faculty members are encouraged to provide written comments on chapters, but are not required to do so. Students should take careful notes during their chapter meetings, and they should feel free to contact their committee members after these meetings with any follow-up questions.

Poggioli Faculty/Graduate Student Colloquium

The Poggioli Faculty/Student Colloquium, directed by Professor Verena Conley, is an ideal forum in which to share one or more of your dissertation chapters.  Attending this forum also allows you to observe other students developing and discussing their work. Beyond campus, you should present your work at one or two conferences a year (more than that adds little and can slow your dissertation writing); the ACLA annual meeting is particularly recommended. The department has funding to assist in conference travel (see below), as do the Graduate School and several area Centers on campus (see the relevant websites for details). The department also very strongly recommends that while in graduate school you send out two articles for publication, one derived from your dissertation chapters and another drawing from work separate from the dissertation, which can show the breadth of your knowledge.

The PhD in Comparative Literature with a Special Program in the Study of Oral Tradition and Literature

The requirements for this special program are essentially the same as those listed above for the comparative literature PhD, except that at least one of the student’s three literatures must constitute or at least include a substantial corpus that is independent of written transmission and that derives from collections of performance recorded under strictly supervised conditions of fieldwork. A major resource for such purposes is the Milman Parry Collection at Harvard. Students in this program are overseen by the department’s Committee on the Study of Oral Tradition and Literature.

The Department of Comparative Literature offers comparative literature as a secondary field in Harvard Griffin GSAS to enrich the education of PhD students in other departments who seek to do research and teach across the institutional boundaries of national languages and literatures. When they become faculty members, individuals specializing in a national literature may be called on to teach comparative courses or courses in general or world literature. The secondary field in comparative literature prepares them to do so by introducing them to basic issues in the field.

Literatures in a single language constitute a coherent tradition, but comparative literature seeks to develop an awareness of how literary works move across borders, both in the original language and in translation. The department calls attention to theoretical issues shared not only across the boundaries of languages but also across very different traditions.

Prerequisites

An ability to work in literatures in at least three languages. Normally this will be demonstrated by coursework in which at least some of the primary readings are in the original language.

In certain circumstances, the DGS may waive the requirement that competence in a language be demonstrated by coursework, and instead permit the student to substitute a translation exam. If English is used as one of the languages, the other two languages should show some breadth; that is, they cannot be closely allied, either linguistically or by academic convention (e.g., Spanish and Portuguese, Urdu and Hindi, classical and modern Chinese, or Greek and Latin). The judgment regarding what can legitimately count for the set of three languages is at the discretion of the DGS.

Requirements

• Four courses in comparative literature, one of which must be the Comparative Literature Proseminar and two of which must be other Comparative Literature seminars at the 200 level. The remaining course requirements will be met by either 200-level seminars in comparative literature or 100-level comparative literature courses, approved for graduate credit.
• Successful completion of a second-year paper of 25–30 pages (7,500–9,000 words) on a comparative topic, as required for students in comparative literature. Students doing a secondary field in comparative literature do not need to submit the second-year paper by the beginning of the G3 year, but they are encouraged to submit this paper as soon thereafter as possible.

Contact Info

Comparative Literature Website

Professor Verena Conley   Director of Graduate Studies  Send Email

Professor Luis Manuel Girón-Negrón

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Comparative Literature

Graduate program.

The graduate program in Comparative Literature at Brown offers a vigorous and comprehensive exploration of literature and culture.

The Doctoral Program

Since the founding of Brown's graduate program in Comparative Literature in 1964, the Department has evolved to include not only Western cultures both ancient and modern, but Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic, as well. The department, in cooperation with the various literature departments and programs, offers a wide array of courses in literature, literary theory, and cultural studies. Faculty include 25 members of professorial rank with appointments wholly or partly in the department. As members of a medium-sized department in a relatively small university, graduate students enjoy unusual opportunities for close contact in and outside of the classroom. Students receive close guidance, including job-search preparation. The program offers several colloquia, lectures, and forums each year.

For admission to the doctoral program, students usually will present evidence of sound training in literature written in three languages, one of which may be English. They will be expected to develop a strong enough competence in one of these literatures to be qualified to teach in a national literature department since comparatists are often hired in such departments or have joint appointments.

The major literature is studied in a cross-cultural context linking it with the other two diachronically or synchronically. Students may pursue literary currents or follow the evolution of ideas or themes across linguistic boundaries, or may study features of genre, style, convention, etc. The program may also emphasize theory including poetics, stylistics, semiology, feminist, socio-cultural, post-structuralist, and post-colonial approaches.

Comparative Literature Doctorate Program

Comparative Literature at Brown is a vigorous and comprehensive program in literature and culture.

Admission Procedure

The  Graduate School Admission Office  employs an  online application  by CollegeNET, the application hosting service affiliated with the school. The deadline for submitting applications for admission with financial aid is December 15. Inquiries may also be addressed to the Director of Graduate Study, Department of Comparative Literature, Box 1935, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912 or by  emailing our Department .

The completion of the program requires development of language skills sufficient for advanced work in three literatures. The languages selected are chosen with a view to their appropriateness to the student's areas of special interest. The Department's major competence is in literary expression in western languages. However, our growing programs in classical and modern Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic provide opportunity for students trained in these languages.

In addition, the study of both ancient and modern Hebrew is available through Judaic Studies. In at least one of the foreign languages presented, near native proficiency in speaking and writing in the case of a modern language will be expected. See the Language Competence section of the Graduate Procedures for specific requirements .

Course Work

Students entering with the B.A. will normally take 15 advanced literature courses and graduate seminars, spread over three years in the proportions respectively of 8, 6, 1, two or three of which may be individual work supervised by a staff member. In special circumstances students may obtain up to a year of course credit for graduate work done at other institutions. Students who enter already having completed some advanced work may be asked to proceed more quickly. Individual programs are worked out in consultation with the Director of Graduate Study to include:

• a substantial core of graduate seminars whose primary department listing is in Comparative Literature, at least one per semester during the first two years of study
• a substantial core of courses primarily in one national literature along with significant related work in at least two others. Courses taken in the second and third literatures must include a minimum of two regularly scheduled graduate seminars (or 100 level where appropriate with approval of the Director of Graduate Study)
• a spread of courses comprising work in all three major genres (poetry, drama, narrative) and covering a significant range of distinct cultural epochs (medieval, romantic, modern, and so forth)
• some work in the area of literary theory, literary criticism, or literary translation.
• if pertinent, courses relating literature to other fields of inquiry or expression; for example, linguistics, philosophy, psychology, history, music, or the visual arts.

Comparative Project

While the historical "coverage" by itself is not the aim of comparative literature, the Department does require a major literature examination just before the fifth semester which has coverage as a partial goal, in order to demonstrate the student's professional capacities in her/his national literature. It also requires a written comparative project, to be submitted in writing and presented orally during the sixth semester. This project allows the student to treat work from more than one literary tradition, and may become part of the dissertation. A topic will be chosen in consultation with a faculty committee and worked out with the Director of Graduate Study. It is expected that the comparative project will be completed and approved, and the student advanced to doctoral candidacy, by the end of the third year. See Graduate Program Procedures.

The Dissertation

By the end of the third year of study the student is expected to select the area of focus for the dissertation. The student will ordinarily work under the close supervision of a member of the Comparative Literature faculty; the thesis must also be approved by two other readers, one of whom may be from outside the Department.

Teaching Positions

Training and experience in teaching are major features of our doctoral program in Comparative Literature. The Department makes every attempt to provide its graduate students with teaching experience at Brown in undergraduate courses suited to the graduate student's interest. Teaching assistants work under the direct supervision of members of the professorial staff. At least two years of work as a teaching assistant are required for the Ph.D. The Department will keep students informed of positions as they become available in pertinent departments and at other institutions, and will assist them in presenting their candidacy for such positions.

Advanced graduate students who have made substantial progress on their dissertations, who can document their success in the classroom, and who have the support of a faculty member willing to serve as a classroom mentor are invited to submit a proposal to teach an undergraduate course (below 1000-level) in the department. The proposal consists of a 100-word course description, a syllabus, a C.V. that includes a listing of teaching experience, and notes of support from the dissertation advisor and faculty mentor. It is due to the Director of Graduate Studies no later than October 31 of the academic year before the class is taught. The proposals will be evaluated by the department’s Graduate Committee on their merits; no more than two will be approved in any year; final approval will depend on the curricular needs of the department as determined by the Chair.

The M.A. Degree

The Department does not admit terminal M.A. candidates, nor does it require a Master's degree as a prerequisite for the doctorate. Students who are not recommended to proceed in the doctoral program at the end of the first year may take an M.A. by completing one year of full-time course work in residence (normally four courses each semester), satisfying two of the three language requirements for the Ph.D., and completing a Master's thesis consisting of an essay of 50-60 pages on a comparative subject. Alternatively, a student will receive the M.A. upon completion of the comparative project and advancement to doctoral candidacy.

Financing and Support

Students are supported by a fellowship in their first year.  Teaching responsibilities, and support in the form of a teaching assistantship, begin in the second year and continue through the fourth.  We offer a dissertation fellowship in the fifth year and a number of avenues to sixth-year funding, including interdisciplinary opportunities at Brown’s Centers and Institutes and stipend support from the department and the Graduate School.  In special cases, the Graduate School may cover tuition and health costs, but not stipend support, beyond the sixth year.  Please refer to the Graduate School website for further information about financing graduate study at Brown.

Graduate School -- Financing and Support

The decision to pursue graduate study represents a significant commitment of time, energy, and resources — yours and ours.

Related Departments and Programs

The language and literature offerings at Brown include the following: Classics (including Greek, Latin and Sanskrit), English, French Studies, German Studies, Hebrew, Hispanic Studies, Italian Studies, Portuguese and Brazilian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Linguistics, Slavic Languages.

Current Students

Handbooks & program procedures, reading lists.

Comparative Literature PhD

Our graduate program is recognized as one of the top Comparative Literature programs in the country. The Comparative Literature department is a vibrant place for the research and study of literatures and cultures in an interdisciplinary framework, from transnational and cross-cultural perspectives. Our faculty and graduate students develop new historical and theoretical frameworks and rethink those we have inherited to open new perspectives on social and cultural forms and relationships.

Comparative Literature provides students with tools for analyzing texts, writing, editing, translating, and thinking across disciplinary and national boundaries. Our graduates engage a variety of literary traditions and historical periods, from Latin American concrete poetry to Yiddish experimental fiction to the discourses of political and race theory. The department offers rigorous training in the following areas, which are particular strengths of our internationally recognized faculty: French, German, Italian, Hebrew Studies, Classics, Critical Theory, East Asian Literatures and Arts, Performance Studies, Film and Media, Poetry and Poetics, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Postcolonial Theory, English and American Literatures, Early Modern and Renaissance Studies, and Slavic Literatures and Cultures.

All members of the department are deeply invested in the academic development of our students and value their work and research as an integral part of the Comparative Literature community at UC Berkeley. The department aims above all to develop students' creative and intellectual interests and talents. Graduate students receive the opportunity to pursue rigorous research in a variety of fields according to their interests, participate in discussions about political, aesthetic, and social issues, and develop a nuanced cross-cultural understanding of historical and social processes. Many graduate students present and publish scholarly writings in the most prestigious venues as well as producing translations and literary writings. All of our students work closely with cutting-edge scholars in their fields in small seminars, with extensive individualized work . Students participate in the designated emphasis programs on campus, including Critical Theory, Film and Media, Gender and Womens Studies, Renaissance and Early Modern Studies and Jewish Studies, or the Program in Medieval Studies. Students have opportunities to design and teach courses on their topics of interest. Our students form a well-integrated community, but have access to all of the resources of the entire Berkeley campus departments and faculty; in fact, our program requires that students take seminars in other departments for interdisciplinary training. We have one of the most successful placement records for our graduates of any program in the country, and of any Berkeley graduate program. Our doctoral graduates are prominent comparative literature and national literature faculty across the country and the world.

Contact Info

[email protected]

4125 Dwinelle Hall

Berkeley, CA 94720

At a Glance

Department(s)

Comparative Literature

Admit Term(s)

Application Deadline

December 4, 2023

Degree Type(s)

Doctoral / PhD

Degree Awarded

GRE Requirements

• How to Apply

To Apply for the Graduate Ph.D. Program:

1. A  personal statement  of approximately 1,000 words. Please describe how your background and academic experiences have influenced your decision to pursue a graduate degree and led you to apply to Penn. Your essay should detail your specific research interests and intellectual goals within your chosen field. Please provide information about your educational trajectory, intellectual curiosity and academic ambitions. If you have overcome adversity and/or experienced limited access to resources or opportunities in your field of study, please feel free to share how that has affected the course of your education. We are interested in your lived experiences and how your particular perspective might contribute to the inclusive and dynamic learning community that Penn values and strives to create.

Your personal statement should also address your particular interest in our program, including professors with whom you would hope to work. There is no foreign language requirement for admission.  But we are much more interested in candidates who have a deep interest in at least one non-Anglophone literary or representational tradition, and who have already achieved high levels of competence in the relevant language or languages for their desired area of study. Please comment on your linguistic training in your personal statement.  If you are not linguistically ready to begin working in your chosen area, our program may not be the right fit for you.

2. A  critical writing sample  of approximately 20 double-spaced pages. The writing sample should be relevant for your current scholarly interests.  Although we will accept two papers adding up to 20 pages, we strongly prefer a single, 20-page paper. Font size and style do not matter. Please make sure your name is on each page. Writing samples may be uploaded online via College Net.

3.  T hree letters of recommendation.  These should be written by professors who know your work and can attest to your academic ability. Please do not submit more than four recommendation letters; personal recommendation letters are strongly discouraged. Three letters of recommendation may be uploaded via College Net. Alternately, hardcopies can be mailed to: The University of Pennsylvania, Graduate Division of Arts & Sciences Admissions, 3401 Walnut Street, Suite 322A, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6228. Note: your recommenders will be able to upload or mail their letters for a brief grace period after the December 15 deadline for the main application.

4.  THE GRE TEST WILL NOT BE REQUIRED FOR APPLICATIONS

The TOEFL/ Duolingo/ equivalent is required of international students who have not grown up immersed in an Anglophone speaking and writing environment.  If you are unsure if the test is required for your specific case, please contact the Chair to check.

5.  E lectronic versions of your academic transcripts  must be submitted with your application. You can scan an unofficial copy of your transcript to the application.  If accepted, you will then need to provide a final, official paper copy of your transcript before you matriculate.

APPLICATION DEADLINE IS DECEMBER 15, Eastern Standard Time.

More About Graduate Admissions and the Application

Applications are accepted only for full-time work in the  Ph.D. program beginning in the Fall semester. We do not offer part-time programs, nor do we offer Spring admission. Ph.D. applicants with an M.A. will have an opportunity to transfer a limited number of their M.A. credits once they have been accepted to the program. These credit transfers will need to be approved by the Graduate Chair and the Dean.

Any technical issues with the online ApplyYourself application should be addressed to Technical Support on the ApplyYourself application system and not to the Graduate English Department.

The application fee is $90. We do not have paper applications—all applications are submitted online.

We generally conduct Skype interviews for a short list of applicants.  You will be notified by email if you have been short-listed.  Please ensure that your email on your application is correct!

Admissions questions that are not answered by this web page should be directed to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Admissions Department at (215) 573-5816.

The Graduate School of Arts and Science Web link is:  http://www.sas.upenn.edu/GAS/   Note: Individuals who are abroad must make payment by US check, international postal money order made payable to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania or credit card. Please enclose this form to complete the application.

Fee waiver: A fee waiver may be considered for U.S. citizens or permanent residents only. In order to apply for a fee waiver, the applicant should enclose a brief letter stating the reason for the request. This letter should be sent with your Application for Admission.  Please be advised that the applicant must demonstrate a clear and compelling case of financial hardship.

For International Applicants & Admittees

International Students admitted into the program should apply for their Social Security number as soon as possible so that they don't experience a delay in receiving their stipend.

For more information please contact: JoAnne Dubil , Program Coordinator 720 Williams Hall  Philadelphia, PA 19104  phone: 215-898-6836 fax: 215-573-9451

Graduate Programs

Comparative literature.

Comparative Literature at Brown is a vigorous and comprehensive program in literature and culture.

Since the founding of the graduate program in 1964, comparative literature has evolved to include not only Western cultures, both ancient and modern, but also Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic. The department, in cooperation with the various literature departments and programs, offers a wide array of courses in literature, literary theory, and cultural studies.

The faculty includes over twenty-five members of professorial rank with appointments wholly or partly in the department. As members of a medium-sized department in a relatively small university, graduate students enjoy unusual opportunities for close contact in and outside of the classroom. Students receive close guidance, including job–search preparation. The program accommodates a wide range of individual emphases in literature and culture, periods, genres, history, criticism, and theory. We hold several colloquia, lectures, and forums each year.

Application Information

Application requirements, gre subject:.

Not required

GRE General:

Writing sample:.

Required (10 double-spaced pages maximum; we cannot read longer samples)

Dates/Deadlines

Application deadline, completion requirements.

Fifteen courses; three languages, one of which may be the candidate's native language; four semesters of teaching; professional competence in a major literature and in two others; major literature examination; a comparative project in the third year; dissertation and defense.

Alumni Careers

Contact and Location

Department of comparative literature, location address, mailing address.

• Program Faculty
• Program Handbook
• Graduate School Handbook

Graduate Program

Our graduate program is recognized as one of the leading Comparative Literature programs in the country. The Department is a vibrant place for the research and study of literatures and cultures in an interdisciplinary framework, from transnational and cross‐cultural perspectives. Our faculty and graduate students develop new historical and theoretical frameworks, and rethink those we have inherited, opening new perspectives on social and cultural forms and relations.

Comparative Literature provides students with tools for engaging, analyzing, and interpreting texts; and for writing, editing, translating, and thinking across disciplinary and national boundaries. Our graduates take up various literary traditions, historical periods and genres, modalities, forms, and contexts, from, for example, Latin American concrete poetry, to discourses of political and race theory, to Yiddish experimental fiction. The Department offers rigorous training in numerous areas that highlight the expertise of our internationally recognized faculty, including Classics, East Asian Literatures and Arts, English, French, German, Italian, Hebrew Studies, Hispanophone Literatures, and Slavic Literatures and Cultures, as well as Critical Theory, Early Modern and Renaissance Studies, Film and Media, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Performance Studies, Comparative Poetry and Poetics, and Postcolonial Theory.

Graduate students in our program are able to pursue rigorous research in a variety of literary and cultural fields, undertake team‐based projects, participate in discussions about political, aesthetic, and social issues, and develop a nuanced cross‐cultural understanding of historical and social processes. Many graduate students present and publish scholarly writings in the most prestigious venues, as well as producing translations, literary writings, or works of theater. (Recent graduates have twice won the PEN Center's Translation Prize since 2016.) All our students work closely with leading scholars in their fields in small seminars that coordinate individual and collective work. Students also participate in the Designated Emphasis Programs on campus, including Critical Theory, New Media Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, Jewish Studies, Medieval Studies, and Renaissance and Early Modern Studies. Students have opportunities to design and team teach courses on topics of interest to them. Comparative Literature students form a well‐integrated community, and also have access to the resources of the entire Berkeley campus, including departments, programs, and faculty; in fact, our program requires that students take seminars in other departments for interdisciplinary training. Our department has one of the most successful placement records of any program in the U.S. or internationally. Our doctoral graduates have become prominent Comparative Literature and national literature faculty across the country and internationally.

• Resources for Prospective Graduate Students
• Program Requirements
• How to Apply
• Alumni Directory
• Commencement

COMPARATIVE LITERARY STUDIES PROGRAM

The PhD program in Comparative Literary Studies (CLS) at Northwestern provides students with rigorous training in several literary traditions, critical theory, and the methodology of comparative literature. Our program offers an interdisciplinary approach to comparative literature and opportunities for students to study internationally; attend conferences and colloquia; teach; and work collaboratively with faculty and students.

All students admitted to our PhD program are also admitted into a home department . The purpose of placing students in a home department is twofold: the departments provide professional training and accreditation in widely recognized fields of scholarship; and they prepare comparative literature students for academic positions in these fields. If admitted, CLS students complete certain requirements of the home department.

Departments currently functioning as home departments for graduate students in the CLS program are:

• Asian Languages and Cultures
• English  (including interest in African American literature)
• French and Italian
• Slavic Languages and Literatures
• Spanish and Portuguese
• Middle East and North African Studies
• Radio Television and Film (RTVF)
• Rhetoric and Public Culture

To learn more about our PhD program, please visit the following pages:

• Requirements
• Interdisciplinary Cluster Initiative
• Course Offerings
• Meet our  Current students
• Meet our Faculty

Ph.D. Comparative Literature

The Program in Comparative Literature at the University of Maryland, distinguished by its emphasis on reading in original languages, promotes the rigorous study of multi-disciplinary texts, discourses and media.

Related Resources

• Comparative Literature Ph.D. Handbook
• Job Placement

Students admitted into Maryland’s very selective comparative literature program benefit from interactions with an internationally recognized core faculty with strengths in literatures of the Americas, the Atlantic, Africa and the African Diaspora, Europe, and Israel and the Jewish Diaspora, as well as expertise in literary theory, postcolonial studies, digital humanities, film and LGBT studies.

Students entering our rigorous five-year Ph.D. program must already hold a B.A. or M.A. degree either in English or in another language and literature. All admitted students receive support in the form of fellowships, teaching assistantships or a combination of both.

Since the University of Maryland is located just 10 miles from Washington, D.C., we have easy access to the city’s rich cultural and scholarly resources, including the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the Folger Shakespeare Library and the National Archives. By enrolling in our program, comparative literature students join an exciting, diverse, engaged, and thriving intellectual community.

Satisfactory Progress

Students will meet with the graduate director at least once a semester during the first year to assess progress and the advisability of the student’s intended degree track. Students are also required to meet with the director once a year until the completion of their degree.

Incompletes: Although we recognize emergencies can occur that may warrant a student’s requesting an incomplete, we discourage students from taking incompletes. The student requesting an incomplete and the instructor granting it must notify the Graduate Office that they are electing the incomplete option by the end of the semester in which the incomplete is taken (please see form here ). Coursework related to the incomplete must be finished by the end of the next semester and students may not take their qualifying exams with outstanding incompletes.

Students who entered the program as of Fall 2019 are expected to complete their coursework by no later than their fifth semester in the program. Students who entered the program before Fall 2019 are expected to complete their coursework by no later than their third semester in the program

Students who entered the program as of Fall 2019 are expected to advance to candidacy by successfully passing their qualifying examination by their sixth semester in the program. Students who entered the program before Fall 2019 are expected to advance to candidacy by successfully passing their qualifying examination by their fourth semester.

Students must file an approved dissertation prospectus no later than four months following the qualifying examination.

Students must achieve a GPA of at least 3.5 to proceed to the qualifying examination. Likewise, incompletes must be completed before a student may proceed to the qualifying examination. Exceptions may be granted by the DGS only in extreme and extenuating circumstances.

Students must keep regular contact with the DGS and their dissertation committee upon achieving candidacy and submitting an approved prospectus.

Students must defend their dissertation by the end of their fifth year in the program.

For extensions to this schedule, students may petition the DGS through their dissertation committees.

Course Requirements

The CMLT program requires 10 courses, completed in four semesters of coursework. These courses will establish coverage in English and one other language’s literature. These requirements include ENGL602 (“Critical Theory and Literary Criticism”), ENGL 611 (“Approaches to College Composition”), 1 graduate level course with significant engagement with historical perspectives; 2 CMLT designated seminars, 1 of which concerns the history and theory of media (e.g. film, history of the book, digital studies), and 5 remaining courses, selected with the director and advisor. If appropriate graduate classes are not offered in your non-English language of choice, you may substitute independent studies or 400 level courses, with the comparative literature director’s permission.

Language Proficiency

Students are expected to enter the program with advanced proficiency in English and at least one other language. Advanced language proficiency is defined as the ability to do graduate level work in the chosen language. All CMLT students entering Fall 2019 onwards will be expected to take a language exam which will consist of translating into English a brief passage of critical scholarly prose. Alternatively, students can demonstrate proficiency by holding an M.A. in the language or by the completion of courses in the target language at or above the 400 level.

Qualifying Exam

By the end of the second semester you should begin the process of identifying a director for the qualifying exam. The director should be able to guide you in a comparative approach to the literatures you intend to work with for your dissertation. Your director must be on the CMLT faculty. If you would like a director who is not currently on the CMLT faculty, please contact the graduate director. We can discuss options for a co-director situation.

The guidelines for the qualifying examination in comparative literature require students to prepare two lists totaling 120‐150 works and an examination committee of at least four faculty members, including the director(s). The general list (covering works in all languages the student will be working in) is oriented toward primary sources of a field of literature and/or critical theory. The focused/special topic list (also covering works in all languages the student will be working in) is for secondary/critical sources on a subject linked to the proposed dissertation topic. In consultation of the examination committee, a scope for both lists will be established prior to establishing the list.

Once the list is drawn up, the student must have their committee sign the CMLT qualifying exam form and submit it, along with your reading list, to the Graduate Office when you come in to schedule your exam, at least one month prior to taking the exam.

The student is given two questions one week before the examination. These questions, written by the co-directors or the director and committee members in consultation with one another, will allow you to answer comparatively between the multiple literary traditions and theory covered on your reading lists. These questions will be forwarded to you one week before the exam by the graduate coordinator. The student will prepare a 20-minute presentation on one of them. A question and answer period on the presentation completes the first hour to 90 minutes of the exam. The examiners should be satisfied that you have answered questions satisfactorily in their area[s] of expertise. The second hour of the exam is devoted to a more general consideration of the material on the lists, with opportunities for comparisons between the linguistic traditions and theories. 

Advancement to Candidacy

Once you pass your qualifying exams, you must submit the Application for Advancement to Candidacy Form to the Graduate Office in 2116 Tawes. Candidacy forms to be submitted can be found in Deadlines and Paperwork. Teaching assistants receive a step promotion and a small raise in stipend once they have advanced to candidacy. Upon advancing to candidacy, the student has four years to complete the dissertation; the Graduate School grants extensions only in extreme circumstances. Students generally complete the dissertation in 2-3 years.

Dissertation

The prospectus is to be submitted within four months of passing the qualifying exam. The prospectus establishes that the student has defined a research question that is worth pursuing and has the knowledge base to pursue it. The prospectus should be developed in consultation with your committee.

The prospectus should demonstrate that the student:

- has defined and delimited an interesting research question

- can explain the importance of the research question and the contribution that it will make to the field

- is familiar with the existing scholarship related to the research question and can describe the relationship of the dissertation project to that scholarship (review of the literature)

- has developed a theoretical framework for the argument and a methodology for your project

The prospectus should be between 8-12 pages in length. It should be written in clear prose and include a bibliography. The prospectus, including a one-page abstract and the completed prospectus form (signed by the first three committee members), should be turned in to the comparative literature graduate director.

Students at this stage of the program have successfully passed the qualifying exam and have advanced to candidacy. Ph.D. candidates are expected to file an approved dissertation prospectus within four months of passing the qualifying exam. At least three of the four members of the student’s dissertation committee are expected to meet annually with the student to review progress. A successful defense of dissertation is the final requirement for the degree. All graduate students must register for courses and pay associated tuition and fees each semester, not including summer and winter sessions, until the degree is awarded. We encourage all students to seek in-state student status within two years of entering the program.

Dissertation Committee

The Ph.D. student should be thinking about assembling a Dissertation Committee while still taking courses and identifying areas of specialization for the Qualifying Examination. A Dissertation Committee consists of four faculty members, who advise the student on his/her dissertation. In many cases, the dissertation committee is the same as the Qualifying Examination committee. The Ph.D. student should consult with the director of Graduate Studies and his or her advising team concerning the selection of the Dissertation Committee. Your director must be a member of the comparative literature faculty; however, we can discuss co-director possibilities if you would like someone not on the faculty to direct.

Dissertation Workshop

We urge students to take the Dissertation Workshop (1 credit of ENGL898) in the semester following successful passage of the Qualifying Examination. Taught by members of the department’s faculty and convened weekly as a seminar, usually during the fall semester, the workshop concentrates on helping students advance their work on the dissertation, whether they are developing a prospectus or writing individual chapters.

Dissertation Defense Committee

When the dissertation is nearly complete and the major advisor has approved moving on to this penultimate step, the Ph.D. candidate 1) submits to the Graduate School a request to appoint the Dissertation Defense Committee and 2) schedules the dissertation defense. Consisting of five faculty, this committee normally includes the four members of the candidate's Dissertation Committee; an additional member of the university’s graduate faculty serves as the graduate dean's representative. In accordance with Graduate School regulations, that representative must be from outside the department. All members of the Defense Committee appointed by the Graduate School must attend the defense. Students must submit the final draft of their dissertation to their committee at least two weeks before the defense date. Students should discuss with their directors the format of the defense. Typically, the defense is a two-hour discussion of the dissertation. The defense usually begins with a statement from the student on the experience of writing the dissertation (key discoveries, important changes in critical perspectives, main critical contributions, etc.). Four of the five members of the Dissertation Defense Committee must approve the dissertation in order for the student to pass. Students are frequently asked to make revisions to the dissertation before submitting it to the Graduate School. Upon satisfactory completion of the oral defense and the electronic submission of the dissertation to, and its approval by, the Graduate School, the candidate is awarded the Ph.D.

Submission of Dissertation

The approved dissertation must be submitted electronically to the Graduate School by the deadlines posted for graduation in a given semester (see the Graduate School Deadlines). Information about all aspects of electronic submission of the dissertation is available on the Graduate School's Information for Current Students under Thesis and Dissertation Resources.

Completing the Ph.D. involves careful attention to deadlines imposed and paperwork required by the Graduate School.

Students are expected to complete their coursework by no later than their fifth semester in the program. Please regularly consult with the DGS and your advising teams to ensure that your course selection fulfills the course requirements. 

Each student is expected to advance to candidacy by successfully passing his or her qualifying examination by his or her sixth semester in the program. Please contact the graduate coordinator to schedule your qualifying exam. Submit your form for candidacy advancement to the Graduate Office (2116 Tawes) upon successful completion of your qualifying exam.

Students must file an approved dissertation prospectus with the Graduate Office no later than four months following the qualifying examination. Please submit the approved prospectus form along with a one page abstract in addition to your completed prospectus. Upon advancing to candidacy, students are expected to file a dissertation progress form with the Graduate Office each semester.

Specific deadlines for students intending to graduate will be announced on the CMLT graduate student reflector and are also available from the Graduate School's Deadlines for Graduates. Most of the necessary paperwork for these deadlines can be found on the Graduate School's General Forms for Graduate Students.

Graduate Admissions

The Comparative Literature program at the University of Maryland is a five-year doctoral program characterized by scholarly engagement across various fields. The program has a wide reach within the English Department, not only through CMLT and ENGL graduate courses, but also lectures, colloquia, and academic events that speak to the interdisciplinary focus of its students and professors.

The Comparative Literature program enjoys the benefits of being part of a large and active English Department, while providing its students with the personal attention and first-rate academic and professional mentorship characteristic of a small, highly selective program. The Center for Literary and Comparative Studies represents the great synergy possible in the co-operation of an English Department and a program in Comparative Literature. It gives graduate students the opportunity to encounter the work of scholars from across campus and other universities through lectures, symposia, readings, and other events as well as opportunities to present their own work.

Professionalization is one of the primary concerns of the Program in Comparative Literature, and students find support in this area through mentorship from professors, workshops and round tables organized by the Graduate English Organization and the Center for Teaching Excellence, and teaching at various levels of undergraduate study.

Ph.D. Application Instructions

Applicants should make sure that they are applying to the Comparative Literature PhD Program, and not English.  Please also note that we only admit students for the start of each fall semester, and not for the start of any spring semester.

The deadline for application is December 1, 2023. 

Please note that the system will close promptly at midnight on this date so you will be unable to edit your application past 11:59 pm. The system is set to Maryland time (EST). If you are uncertain about what time that the system will close in your timezone, please look it up. We are unable to make exceptions for late applications based on timezone.

University of Maryland's Graduate Application Process

The University of Maryland’s Graduate School accepts applications through its  application system . Before completing the application, applicants are asked to check the Admissions Requirements site for specific instructions.

As required by the Graduate School, all application materials are to be submitted electronically:

• Graduate Application
• Non-refundable application fee ($75)
• Statement of Goals, Research Interests, and Experiences. The statement, which should be around 1000 words, should address relevant aspects of your educational experience, the focus of your academic interests, and reasons for applying to our program.
• Unofficial transcripts of your entire college/university record (undergraduate and graduate), including records of any advanced work done at another institution. Electronic copies of these unofficial transcripts must be uploaded along with your on-line application. Official transcripts will be required after an applicant is admitted to the program.
• Three letters of recommendation. In your on-line application, please complete fully the information requested for your recommenders and ask them to submit their letters electronically.
• A single sample of critical writing of approximately 12-20 pages (not including works cited/bibliography). While we encourage you to submit your best writing sample, we prefer a writing sample in your declared field of interest. If you are submitting an excerpted selection, please include a brief description or introduction to the selection.
• Statement of language proficiency. Please provide a list of languages you speak/read and note your level of proficiency in each. Indicate which language(s) other than English you would wish to study further if admitted to the program. Please also use this as an opportunity to document your advanced proficiency in your desired languages of study if not made evident by other parts of the application.

The electronic submission of application materials helps expedite the review of an application. Completed applications are reviewed by an admissions committee in each graduate degree program. The recommendations of the committees are submitted to the Dean of the Graduate School, who will make the final admission decision. Students seeking to complete graduate work at the University of Maryland for degree purposes must be formally admitted to the Graduate School by the Dean.  To ensure the integrity of the application process, the University of Maryland authenticates submitted materials through TurnItIn for Admissions .

Information for International Graduate Students

The University of Maryland is dedicated to maintaining a vibrant international graduate student community. The office of International Students and Scholars Services (ISSS) is a valuable resource of information and assistance for prospective and current international students.  International applicants are encouraged to explore the services they offer, and contact them with related questions.

The University of Maryland Graduate School offers admission to international students based on academic information; it is not a guarantee of attendance.  Admitted international students will then receive instructions about obtaining the appropriate visa to study at the University of Maryland which will require submission of additional documents.  Please see the Graduate Admissions Process for International applicants for more information.

Applicants are encouraged to contact the Hobsons online application’s helpdesk for any technical issues.  For questions related to the admissions process, prospective students may contact the Graduate School .

Comparative Literature Prospective Student FAQ

Because many of our applicants share general questions about the application process, we have compiled a list of frequently asked questions to make applying a bit easier.

Prospective Student FAQ

Comparative Literature Program Director

Sharada balachandran orihuela.

Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, English Director of the English and Comparative Literature Program, English Affiliate Faculty, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center

2116D Tawes Hall College Park MD, 20742

Josh Alvizu

Assistant Professor, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Director of Undergraduate Studies, Assistant Professor of German Studies and the Environmental Humanities, German Studies

3225 Jiménez Hall College Park MD, 20742

Luka Arsenjuk

Associate Professor, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Associate Professor, Cinema and Media Studies

4124 Jiménez Hall College Park MD, 20742

Hester Baer

Professor, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Germanic Studies, German Studies Affiliate Professor, The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Affiliate Professor, Cinema and Media Studies

3207 Jiménez Hall College Park MD, 20742

John Drabinski

Professor of English and Comparative Literature, English Affiliate Faculty, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center

Caroline Eades

Professor, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Professor, French Professor, Cinema and Media Studies Affiliate Professor, American Studies

4120 Jiménez Hall College Park MD, 20742

Oliver Gaycken

Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, English School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

3218 Tawes Hall College Park MD, 20742

Chad Infante

Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature, English Assistant Professor, The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

3118 Tawes Hall College Park MD, 20742

Matthew Miller

Assistant Professor of Persian Literature & Digital Humanities, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Director and Principal Investigator of PersDig@UMD, Roshan Institute for Persian Studies Assistant Professor, Persian Literature & Digital Humanities, Persian

1220B Jiménez Hall College Park MD, 20742

Randy Ontiveros

Director of Honors Humanities, College of Arts and Humanities Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, English Affiliate Associate Professor, The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Affiliate Associate Professor in U.S. Latina/o Studies, American Studies Affiliate Faculty, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center

3232 Tawes Hall College Park MD, 20742

Elizabeth Papazian

Associate Professor, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Associate Professor, Russian Associate Professor, Cinema and Media Studies

4123 Jiménez Hall College Park MD, 20742

Gerard Passannante

Professor of English and Comparative Literature, English Classics

2116c Tawes Hall College Park MD, 20742

Sangeeta Ray

Director, Center for Literary and Comparative Studies, English Professor of English and Comparative Literature, English Affiliate Professor, The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Mauro Resmini

Associate Professor, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Associate Professor, Italian Associate Professor, Cinema and Media Studies

4104 Jiménez Hall College Park MD, 20742

Brian Richardson

Professor of English and Comparative Literature, English Affiliate Professor, American Studies

3233 Tawes Hall College Park MD, 20742

Kellie Robertson

Professor of English and Comparative Literature, English

3224 Tawes Hall College Park MD, 20742

David Carroll Simon

Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, English Affiliate Faculty, The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

3241 Tawes Hall College Park MD, 20742

Vessela Valiavitcharska

Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, English Affiliate Faculty, Classics

1205 Tawes Hall College Park MD, 20742

Professor of English and Comparative Literature, English Affiliate Professor, The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

3240 Tawes Hall College Park MD, 20742

Associate Professor, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies Affiliate, English Associate Professor, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Cinema and Media Studies

4109 Jiménez Hall College Park MD, 20742

Affiliate Faculty

Valerie anishchenkova.

Associate Professor, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Arabic Flagship

3130 H.J. Patterson Hall College Park MD, 20742

Francisco Barrenechea

Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Classics Affiliate Faculty, English

1210G Marie Mount Hall College Park MD, 20742

William A. Cohen

2110 Marie Mount Hall College Park MD, 20742

Lillian Doherty

Professor Emerita, Classics

1210 Marie Mount Hall College Park MD, 20742

Andrea Frisch

Professor, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Professor, French

3106 Jiménez Hall College Park MD, 20742

Regina Igel

Professor Emerita, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Professor Emerita, Spanish and Portuguese

Fatemeh Keshavarz

Professor and Program Chair, Senior Advisor to PersDig@UMD, Persian Professor, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Affiliate Professor, The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

1220C Jiménez Hall College Park MD, 20742

Jerrold Levinson

Affiliate, English

1108C Skinner Building College Park MD, 20742

Professor, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Professor, Spanish and Portuguese Affiliate Faculty, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center

2215C Jiménez Hall College Park MD, 20742

Michele Mason

Associate Professor, Japanese Minor Advisor, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Associate Professor and Program Director, Japanese

2106B Jiménez Hall College Park MD, 20742

Valerie Orlando

Professor, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Professor & Chair, French Professor, Cinema and Media Studies Affiliate Professor, The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

3106C Jiménez Hall College Park MD, 20742

Marisa Parham

Professor, English

Andrew Schonebaum

Associate Professor, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Associate Professor, Chinese Affiliate Faculty, English

2106G Jiménez Hall College Park MD, 20742

Program Description

Combining an apprenticeship in rigorous, traditional scholarship with exposure to the most advanced work in literary and cultural theory, the program in comparative literature at Chicago prepares students to compete successfully for academic careers in both national literature departments and programs that stress comparative or interdisciplinary study. All students take a two-quarter sequence in their M.A. year that provides a solid grounding in literary criticism and theory and poses some of the central challenges facing literary scholars today. Students design the remainder of their program to serve their own interests, either studying several national literatures (with primary emphasis on one) or exploring the relationship between literature and another discipline. Students develop individualized dissertation topics working closely not only with the faculty in comparative literature but also with other professors from the department of the University that best complements their interests. These have included projects ranging from the myth of the artist to illusion, confusion and the Romantic imagination, from  the hermeneutics of divination to the quest to fail, and comparisons between a wide variety of national literatures, such as  Polish and Irish,  Chinese and Indian, Russian and German, English and Portuguese along the African/Indian Ocean. Please see the  Graduate Student  section of the website for information about current research interests.

The University is famous for the vibrancy and intensity of its interdisciplinary studies and Comparative Literature students often work with faculty in many departments. The university is also renowned for treating graduate students as co-participants in the humanistic enterprise. Through a unique system of some forty interdisciplinary workshops  offered annually, students and faculty together focus on topics of current interest, invite speakers from outside the university and share their own work in progress. Recent workshops at which comparative literature students have presented or are scheduled to present their work include: Poetry and Poetics; Literature and Philosophy; Metaphor; Medieval Studies; Renaissance Studies; Critical Animal Studies; African Studies;  Modern France and Francophone Studies;  East Asian and Trans-Regional Histories; Western Mediterranean Culture, and Theater and Performance Studies.

Ph.D. students will find many opportunities for scholarly engagement in lectures, conferences, workshops, and other activities fostered by the University's many research centers and institutes. These include: 

• Center for Latin American Studies
• Center for Middle Eastern Studies
• South Asia Language and Area Center

Interdisciplinary centers include:

• Center for Gender Studies
• Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture
• Film Studies Center ,  Poetry and Poetics
• Franke Institute of the Humanities .

A standing joint degree program has also been established between Comparative Literature and the Committee on Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS). It allows students to complement their doctoral studies in Comparative Literature with a program of study in TAPS that reflects their particular training and interests, encompassing both academic and artistic work. Students apply to this standing program at the time of their application to the University.

Our Ph.D.'s hold tenured or tenure-track positions in a variety of literature departments at many colleges and universities both in the United States and abroad, including, in the U.S., Colorado College, Reed College, Rutgers University and Stanford University, and abroad, University College London, University of Paris, University of São Paolo, and Taiwan Normal University. Recent Ph.D.'s have earned positions at Indiana University and the University of Louisville, as well as jobs in consulting, software development, high school teaching, and established scholars among our alumni have published major books and articles, and contributed to the profession in, for example, the American Comparative Literature Association’s annual  State of the Discipline Report . Please see  our listing of Alums for further details.

• Comp Lit Alumni
• State of the Discipline Report

Admission and Degree Requirements

To gain admission to the Department of Comparative Literature, a student must have a B.A. or its equivalent, strong preparation in one foreign language and adequate preparation in at least one other foreign language, a strong background in literature or a relevant humanistic discipline, and an overall record of marked distinction. For the online application form and other essential information about admissions policy, including TOEFL and/or IELTS scores, please visit the Admissions page of the Humanities Division at: 

https://humanities.uchicago.edu/students/admissions

Humanities Division Admissions

Divisional Admissions Information

Ph.D. Application Checklist and FAQ

Our application process is now entirely online. Please do not send any materials in hard copy. All materials should be submitted through the online application.

Students applying to the PhD program in Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago must have the following materials:

• Transcripts from all college-level, degree-track programs
• 3-4 confidential letters of recommendation
• A 15-20 page writing sample (double-spaced; page count does not include bibliography) 
• A statement of academic purpose, 1-3 pages, single-spaced
• All applicants for whom English is not a primary language may be required to submit current scores from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Current scores are no more than two years old at the time of application submission. A complete description of the English proficiency policy may be found at this website , and questions about the English proficiency requirement should be directed to [email protected] .

More information on English Language Requirements available on the Office of International Affairs Website . For comprehensive information about admissions requirements and procedures, see the University of Chicago Humanities Division's  Prospective Students  webpage.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Department of Comparative Literature require the GRE Subject Exam? No, the department does not require the GRE subject exam, and scores for this exam are not considered in the admissions process. Do not submit GRE subject exam scores in your online application.

Supplemental Materials

My writing sample is over 20 pages long. Will my application still be considered? 
Your application will still be considered if your writing sample is over the recommended upper limit of 20 pages. This recommended limit is not absolutely fixed, but we strongly suggest that applicants try to adhere to it as closely as possible. If you are unable to reduce the paper you want to use as a writing sample in your PhD application to 20 pages, please consider providing an 20-page excerpt from that paper and supplying a brief (one-page or less) abstract that contextualizes the function and place of the excerpted section within the paper as a whole.

Where should I mail my supplementary application materials?  All materials are submitted online.

Do page counts refer to single- or double-spaced pages? 
The writing sample should be 15-20 pages double-spaced. The statement of academic purpose (also referred to as the Candidate or Personal Statement, or the "Statement of Intent") should be 1-3 pages single-spaced.

Additional PhD application information can be found on the  Division of Humanities  webpage.

Master's Degree

Does the Department of Comparative Literature offer a master's degree? 
The Department of Comparative Literature does not offer a terminal MA degree. The University of Chicago offers Masters level study in Comparative Literature through the  Master of Arts Program in the Humanities . In this one-year program, students build their own curriculum with graduate-level courses in any humanities department (including Comparative Literature) and complete a thesis with a faculty advisor.

Department of Comparative Literature students can earn an MA while on the PhD track, providing they do not already hold an MA in Comparative Literature.

If I already have a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature, how will this affect my application?

Applicants with a Masters degree in Comparative Literature will be evaluated according to the same criteria as all applicants. If accepted, students with masters degrees in Comparative Literature will receive partial credit in the form of a reduced course load but must still fulfill core courses and other  requirements. For further information, see Course Requirements page.

Applicants with Masters degrees in single literatures or in other humanities disciplines will be evaluated according to the same criteria as all applicants including the language and other requirements as stated. Credit, if any, will be decided at the time of admission.

Miscellaneous

Once I've submitted my application, how can I check that my materials were received? 
Once your application is submitted, you can log in to the submission site to track the receipt of your application. As the Admissions Office receives your application materials, they will update your checklist.

How many applicants does the PhD program receive per year and how many of these applicants are admitted? 
This past year we received almost 150 applications. In recent years, anywhere from 3% to 6% of the applicants have been admitted into the program.

How many admitted applicants receive funding? All incoming graduate students receive a full fellowship renewable based on satisfactory progress for a total of five years. Most of our PhD candidates are successful in the competition for dissertation completion fellowships in the sixth year. For more information, see Funding Opportunities .

I would like to apply for a joint degree program at the University of Chicago. How can I go about doing this? 
In the Humanities Division at Chicago, applicants cannot apply for a joint degree program upfront. It is recommended that you apply to one of the two departments in which you are interested and, in the following year, apply for a joint degree with the other department.

I am currently enrolled in a PhD program at another University and would like to transfer to the University of Chicago. How can I do this? The PhD program in Comparative Literature does not accept transfer students. For admission, you must apply as would any other prospective student, regardless of your academic background. The admission committee will assess your academic progress and see what graduate courses, if any, may be counted toward your PhD course work at University of Chicago. If your work meets the language and other requirements of Comparative Literature, it is possible that you might be admitted with the same credit as those applying with a previous MA (see above) but you would still be required to take ten graduate courses including the required two core seminars. See program requirements .

How many times a year do you accept PhD applicants? 
We only accept new PhD students in the fall. The deadline is typically in the third week of December.

Can prospective students schedule campus visits? 
The Department of Comparative Literature hosts an Open House each year solely for prospective students who have already been admitted to the PhD program. The Office of Enrollment also offers tours of campus throughout the year.  While registration is not required, it is strongly advised to ensure that a tour is indeed scheduled and that the tour guide will be familiar with your area of study.

Please see also the FAQ page for the Division of the Humanities . 

Campus Tours

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Comparative Literature, PhD

The Ph.D. Program in Comparative Literature covers the study of narrative, poetry, representation and cultural history.  The Program enables students to engage rigorously with critical theory.  We draw our faculty from many disciplines: the languages and literary histories of Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, East Asia, and South Asia: history, art history, religion; anthropology; folklore; political science; Africana studies; Jewish studies; Gender and Sexuality studies; sociology; communications.

We provide a structured and challenging program in which graduate students can combine the careful study of a particular literary tradition with interests in other languages and disciplinary approaches. The broad interests that our students bring to their projects include the history of philosophy, film and media studies, technology and the history of science, and area studies. Students work in varied historical periods, from antiquity and the Middle Ages to the postmodern, and in diverse language fields. Proficiency in two languages is required for graduation (English excluded).

Comparative Literature at Penn has a dynamic intellectual community.  Our signature event is our public colloquium series, Theorizing, which is organized primarily by the graduate students.  Our students and faculty are active participants in the many interdisciplinary lecture and seminar series at Penn, including the Medieval-Renaissance Seminar, the History of Material Texts Seminar, the Wolf Humanities Center, the Latitudes Seminar, and several student reading groups.

For more information: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/Complit/graduate.htm

View the University’s Academic Rules for PhD Programs .

Sample Plan of Study

The total course units required for graduation is 14.

The degree and major requirements displayed are intended as a guide for students entering in the Fall of 2023 and later. Students should consult with their academic program regarding final certifications and requirements for graduation.

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Department of Comparative Literature

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The Graduate Program of the Comparative Literature department invites students to the study and understanding of literature beyond linguistic or national boundaries. We challenge our students to engage with the theory, interpretation, and criticism of literature from across the globe and to explore its interactions with adjacent fields like visual and material culture, linguistics, film and media studies, psychology, law, philosophy and history. The department encourages students to develop their skill at textual analysis while challenging them to reflect theoretically on the acts of writing and reading, as on the connections between literature and other realms of human experience. It is home four doctoral degree programs: a degree in Comparative Literature, as well as joint degrees with Classics , Film and Media Studies and Renaissance Studies . Our current graduate students , who come from over fifteen different countries, work in over twenty languages from all over the world and pursued a variety of innovative research projects. 

PhD in Comparative Literature

International students: Check out the International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS)  office for useful resources.

Questions? Contact [email protected] .

Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota has the distinction of being the first department to introduce continental European as well as Latin American and other non-European cultural and theoretical writings to English-speaking readers in the United States and abroad. Under the auspices of the University of Minnesota Press, our department launched the Theory and History of Literature series (1981–1998). We changed the landscape of comparative literary study via critical editions and translated writings of major figures such as Tzvetan Todorov, Vladimir Propp, Mikhail Bakhtin, Hélène Cixous, José Antonio Maravall, Malek Alloula, Gilles Deleuze, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Theodor W. Adorno (among others).

Today the department is a preeminent site for integrating conceptual, historical, literary, and philosophical scholarship. We engage literature, culture, and thought across Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Our PhD program in comparative literature emphasizes the importance of reading tradition against the grain—of national boundaries, textual practices, and intellectual production in the humanities. We conceive literature broadly—as a field of interrelation between word, image, and sound—and comparatism as a polycentric enterprise. Over the years, graduates of our program have been very successful at carrying forward our department’s critical comparatism and signature stress on word, image, and sound in their own scholarship. (View our  recent dissertations and job placement and achievements .) Our faculty teach seminars that explore a wide range of literary and cultural problems, embedding the understanding of texts within their material and discursive conditions of possibility. We regard comparatism as the heart and soul of cross-cultural inquiry and understanding and encourage students to pursue interdisciplinary projects that are at the same time disciplined and critical. 

Our PhD program admits a small cohort of students each year; we foster a close-knit and collaborative research and teaching community. As a graduate student in our program, you will work closely with departmental faculty (as well as affiliated faculty from across the university) who are committed to grasping the complexity and diversity of our contemporary world via engagements with forms of aesthetic, cultural, and philosophical expression from across the global North and South.

Our curriculum emphasizes seminars and independent studies that explore:

• Conceptual thought from a variety of perspectives—such as literary theory, feminist approaches, gender and sexuality studies, Marxism, psychoanalytic criticism, empire studies and postcolonial theory, critical translation studies, semiotic theory, intellectual history, visuality, and the sociology of literature and culture
• The politics and practices of comparatism
• Archival methods
• The analysis of form
• Disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity
• Historiography
• Translation and the circulation of intelligibility
• Geopolitics

Proficiency in two languages (other than English) is required for the degree. Students whose first language is not English may waive one of the two required languages; no other waivers are possible. For more information, see the Graduate Language Examination Policies .

• See further guidelines on committee composition .
• Enter your committee through our online system.
• If need be, you may  change your advisor or committee of record . 
• For guidelines on the written and oral preliminary examinations themselves, see Section IV of Doctoral Degree: Performance Standards and Progress .

College Resources for Graduate Students

Visit CLA’s website for graduate students to learn about collegiate funding opportunities, student support, career services, and more.

Student Services      Career Services     Funding & Support

Ph.D. Program

The graduate program in Comparative Literature at Penn State offers a 5-year Ph.D.-only Program. Students must hold an M.A. in Comparative Literature or related field(s) (whether from Penn State or from other universities) to enter the 5-year PhD–only program.

Students entering the graduate program who hold an M.A. degree in Comparative Literature or a related field(s) may be selected to enter the 5-year Ph.D.-only admission track.

The total credits required for the 5-year program are 33. The program consists of course work, a candidacy examination, a demonstration of language proficiency, a comprehensive examination, and a dissertation—in that order.

Ph.D. course work is in addition to courses used to satisfy M.A. requirements. It includes

• 10 required credits in Comparative Literature  are required: CMLIT 501 (3 credits), 502 (3 credits), and 503 (3 credits); and CMLIT 602 (1 credit). (If these courses have been taken in the student’s master’s program, other Comparative Literature courses are substituted.)
• Additional credits to satisfy the requirements appropriate to the program (up to 33 for the five-year program, and 48 for the six-year program). Some courses should focus on the languages and literatures that will be the subject of the student’s dissertation, and his or her major professional field(s).

Students should organize their coursework around an identifiable unifying principle, such as a genre, period, or theme, or a specific, well-defined problem involving literature and another discipline, or literary theory and criticism.

Students in the 6-year pattern take the candidacy exam and the comprehensive exam; they also prepare an M.A. paper in accordance with the guidelines specified for the M.A. degree.  This paper requirement should be met by the fourth semester of the program. Students in the 5-year program do not do an M.A. paper.

To meet university requirements for an M.A., by the end of the first two years, 18 or more credits must be at 500 levels or above.  The usual expectation is that all, or nearly all, courses in the 5-year program will be at that level.

Doctoral work requires graduate-level study in three languages. One of these languages may be English. The choice of languages depends on the student’s intellectual development and program of study, and is made in consultation with the advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies. Some students find that their areas of interest will require the acquisition of additional languages during their doctoral program. Graduates of our doctoral program have tended to concentrated on literatures in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Ukrainian. Work in the medieval literatures of some of these languages (for example, Old French) is also common.

The foreign language requirement can be fulfilled in three ways:

• A grade of B or better in an intermediate- or advanced-level foreign language or literature course at Penn State.
• Successful performance on an examination administered by a Comparative Literature department faculty (or faculty in other Liberal Arts departments) with competence in the language.
• A waiver granted by the Graduate Committee for bilingual students, native speakers, or students whose academic records otherwise demonstrate competence (e.g., an undergraduate major or minor).

Working with their advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies, students should in their first year establish a clear plan for fulfilling the foreign language requirement during their time of study.

During the second year of coursework, students prepare for the PhD candidacy exam, which consists of written and oral portions.  The purpose of the exam is to determine whether the student should continue to work toward the Ph.D., and if so, to plan the doctoral program. It must be taken early in the Ph.D. program, so this decision can be made before either the department or the student has made an extensive commitment. Working with the Director of Graduate Studies, students select an advisor and form faculty committees to administer the exam.

During the final year of coursework, students take a Comprehensive Exam in consultation with their doctoral committee, which prepares, conducts, and evaluates the exam.   The comprehensive exam has two parts. The first part is a written exam based on three reading lists in the student’s fields of study, followed by a discussion of the written exam with the doctoral committee. The second part consists of an oral exam based on the dissertation prospectus.

The first part of the exam measures the student’s mastery of his/her field(s) of study. It serves two purposes: first, to prepare the student as a prospective teacher in his/her field(s) of study; and secod, to develop the necessary historical, literary, theoretical, and critical knowledge and thinking skills that will help the student determine a dissertation topic and compose a dissertation prospectus. The second part of the exam is dedicated to discussing the dissertation prospectus.

The final oral examination (“defense”) concentrates on, but is not necessarily limited to, the dissertation’s subject. It is conducted by the candidate’s dissertation committee. A complete draft of the dissertation must be made available to the committee at least two weeks before the scheduled defense. Immediately following the defense, the doctoral committee meets to discuss the quality of the written and oral components of the dissertation, to make the decision of pass or fail, and to determine the revisions, if any, to be undertaken before they will approve the dissertation. Dissertations judged by the committee to be of superior quality are awarded departmental distinction. The student and the dissertation chairperson should plan a calendar of progress that will allow adequate time for the final draft to be read within the department and revised, if necessary, before it is due at the Graduate School. In some cases (for example, if a member of the committee is out of town), it may be necessary to allow more time.

Each student works with an individually appointed doctoral committee of faculty members. The composition of the committee, the nucleus of which is usually the same group of faculty that has administered the candidacy exam, is subject to the approval of the Graduate Director and to the regulations of the Graduate School, which officially appoints these individual committees for each doctoral student. At least four Penn State members are needed. The major field (CMLIT) must be represented by at least two members of the department. The committee also includes a faculty member whose field of interest is different from that of the candidate, and a faculty member whose home department is outside CMLIT (these may or may not be the same). The doctoral minor or dual-title degree program (if any) must have representation on the committee. A CMLIT faculty member must be chair or co-chair.

Comparative Literature offers dual-title PhD programs in  Comparative Literature and African Studies ,  Comparative Literature and Asian Studies ,  Comparative Literature and Visual Studies , and  Comparative Literature and Women’s Studies .

Dual-title degree programs give students a solid grounding in the fundamental methods and background of a single discipline, while allowing the student’s work to be extended through participation in an interdisciplinary program that connects students to faculty across the university, allow them to do creative, high-level scholarship, and make them compelling candidates on the academic job market. Students are admitted first to their primary department (Comparative Literature) and then to the second field. Students take coursework in both programs and have representatives of both programs on their committees.  They may also have teaching opportunities in both programs. 

To apply for a dual-title PhD, you need simply to indicate on your application that you wish to be considered for acceptance into a dual-title degree program.

A formal doctoral minor requires 15 credits of approved coursework. A representative of the minor (from a participating department other than the student’s home department) must be included on the student’s doctoral committee. Students interested in minors should notify the Graduate Director and their advisor, to discuss the feasibility of fitting in the minor, and then approach the department of the minor field in order to ascertain specific course requirements.

Doctoral Minor in Literary Theory, Criticism, and Aesthetics .  Students in Comparative Literature and in other disciplines may choose to take a minor in literary theory, criticism, and aesthetics, which is administered jointly by Philosophy and Comparative Literature.

The minor strengthens the training of students in literature and in related fields by providing a coherent philosophical and theoretical basis for their advanced work. It also provides an interdisciplinary context for their doctoral program. A core of 6 credits exposes students to literary theory and criticism (through either CMLIT 502 or 503) and to aesthetics or interpretation theory (through either PHIL 409 or 516).

In addition to the minor in criticism, theory, and aesthetics, other minors may be useful. The minor in women’s studies has been especially popular. Minors may also be taken in fields such as geography, history, anthropology, philosophy, theatre, or marketing. When a minor is undertaken, a representative of the minor field is included on the student’s doctoral committee, and some aspect or methodology of the minor subject must be present in the dissertation.

Admission to graduate study in Comparative Literature at Penn State is based on a number of considerations. Above all we seek intellectually curious, highly motivated students whose interests suggest a good fit with our departmental strengths. We welcome well-qualified applicants from diverse backgrounds.

We are often asked what our committee looks for and the truth is that there is no standard formula. Above all we look for intellectual engagement and scholarly commitment. The graduate committee that evaluates applicants seeks evidence of intellectual promise, openness to new ideas and methods, capacity for original scholarship, the ability to think critically and to write clearly, and potential for professional success. Of obvious importance for scholars who will work across cultures is appropriate language preparation. Research plans that are in synch with our areas of expertise are also of importance. We do not consider GRE scores.

For full funding consideration, completed applications should be submitted by  January 5 . We will continue to accept applications on rolling basis thereafter; however, those who apply by  January 5  will have the best opportunity for support.

We recognize that the vast majority of graduate students require financial assistance to complete their studies. We admit students with multi-year funding packages that include both a stipend and a tuition grant-in-aid. No separate application for financial aid or graduate assistantship is required.

Your application to Comparative Literature at Penn State consists of two groups of items:

A.   Items that are provided through the on-line Graduate School Application Portal.

If you are ready to proceed to the application but have NOT read the Graduate School requirements (included application fee information) please visit that website at  http://www.gradschool.psu.edu/index.cfm/prospective-students/requirements/ .

If you have read the Graduate School and program requirements and are ready to apply, you may proceed to the application at  http://www.gradschool.psu.edu/index.cfm/apply/ .

This on-line process includes the following items which you will input or upload:

• Transcripts.  Applicants are required to electronically upload copies of transcripts (or equivalent documents for institutions outside the U.S., e.g., degree/study certificates, diplomas, etc.) from all post-secondary institutions attended, in the language of instruction (and copies of an official English translation if English is not the language of instruction).  Applicants recommended for admission who accept an offer through the online graduate admission system will be notified by the Graduate School that official/original transcripts/documents must be sent from the originating institutions in the official language of the institution(s) attended (and if the language of instruction is not English, an official English translation must also be sent).  The Graduate School will review all official documents to finalize the offer of admission.  An offer of admission will be revoked if official/original documents are not received by the Graduate School within specified deadlines, or if official/original documents differ from the copies uploaded by the applicant prior to the offer of admission.  For applicants whose degree conferral is in progress at the time of uploading copies, the deadline specified for receipt of official/original documents will allow for the passage of the reported date of degree conferral, and that conferral must be confirmed on the official/original documents received by the Graduate School, in order for the offer of admission to be finalized.
• Self-reporting of   ETS Scores :  TOEFL   scores  are required of applicants who do not hold prior degrees from institutions where the language of instruction is English. These are self-reported in your online application, with official scores submitted to the department of Comparative Literature at Penn State through the normal mechanisms of the agencies that administer these tests. Use institution code 2660. We do not consider GRE scores.
• Sample of your written work , preferably an essay on literature. 
• Statement of purpose.   The statement of purpose should include information on a) your education and other relevant background, including teaching experience or other activities that have prepared you for graduate work in Comparative Literature; b) your research interests; c) your language skills and their application to your research interests; d) your reasons for considering graduate work in Comparative Literature, especially your interest in our specific program.  
• A C.V. or resumé.
• Three Letters of Reference.  We do not require a specific form for recommenders. You input your recommenders’ information on the application and they will be sent an email asking them to upload their letter directly.

B. Items sent directly to our department:

• Official   ETS Scores :  TOEFL  scores  are required of applicants who do not hold prior degrees from institutions where the language of instruction is English. These are self-reported in your online application, with official scores submitted to the department of Comparative Literature at Penn State through the normal mechanisms of the agencies that administer these tests.

Applicants are instructed to request that TOEFL scores be sent to Penn State  electronically .  MAT scores are only available in hard copy, so those scores should be sent by postal mail directly from Pearson to Penn State.

IELTS and MAT scores should be mailed to:

The Pennsylvania State University Graduate Enrollment Services 114 Kern Building University Park, PA  16802

We encourage you to get to know our faculty, graduate student cohort, and program thoroughly before applying.

Our program is committed to fostering an intellectually vibrant and international environment at the university.  Fully half the students in Comparative Literature come to Penn State from universities outside the United States. We have extensive experience working with, and training, students whose native language is not English, and in preparing them to succeed as scholars, either in the United States or abroad.         

We do not consider GRE scores. The TOEFL test is instead a requirement for admission. While we do take test scores into consideration, the graduate committee that evaluates applicants seeks evidence of intellectual promise, the ability to think critically and to write clearly, the capacity for original scholarship, and openness to new ideas and methods.

Because we admit only 3-5 students a year, we are able to offer an innovative and flexible curriculum that allows students to design individualized programs of study tailored to their interests. We aim to produce accomplished, serious intellectuals and scholars who are ready to become college or university professors, or to use the skills and training they receive at Penn State in other capacities and other professions.

First-year students go through a semester-long course, CMLIT 501, that introduces them to the fundamental interpretive, research, and writing skills of the discipline. We continue to work with students on research and writing, not only in coursework, but also through our Writing Fellowship Program. The WFP offers $4,000 in summer salary, and $1,000 in research support, to up to five students a year. Students in the program attend writing workshops and do independent studies with faculty members as they spend 9-12 months working on an article to be submitted for publication in a scholarly journal. Preference for the WFP is normally given to students in their second year of study, but all students are eligible.

When it comes time to go on the academic job market, all our students receive extensive support. We work with students to craft letters, CVs, and other important documents; we also run mock interviews and mock job talks to prepare our job candidates to do their best in Skype interviews, at the MLA, or on campus.

The department provides a comprehensive support program for helping students prepare themselves for a successful job search. Throughout the graduate program, our faculty offers substantial career mentoring and advice on how to develop strong credentials, including planning for professional development from the start of a student’s graduate career.

Of our PhD graduates from the past ten years (2002-2012), 85% currently hold full-time academic positions, of which roughly two thirds are tenure-track. In the United States, institutions that have hired our graduates include research universities such as Carnegie Mellon, Central Michigan, Florida Atlantic, Florida State, the University of Illinois, the University of Minnesota, the University of Nebraska, the University of Utah, and Rochester Institute of Technology, as well as liberal arts colleges such as Bay Path, Bennington, Dartmouth, Middlebury, Nicolette, Reed, Smith, Stockton, Vassar, the University of Dubuque, and Shawnee State University. In a testament to the global focus of our graduate program, our students have also successfully found employment around the world; recent graduates currently teach at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia; Tsinghua University in China; the Universität Bielefeld in Germany; El Colegio de México; Prague Metropolitan University in the Czech Republic; the University of Athens in Greece; Dogus University in Turkey; Tokyo Gakugei University in Japan, and the American University of Central Asia in the Kyrgyz Republic, among other international universities.

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The PhD in Comparative Literature is a six-year doctoral program that emphasizes the international and interdisciplinary nature of Comparative Literature.  Our curriculum is designed to be as flexible as possible, allowing students to develop expertise in areas of traditional interest to comparatists and to learn about new developments in the humanities. The program has strong language requirements but provides flexibility in the ways that students put their language and cultural proficiency to use. The program places strong emphasis on literary, critical and cultural theory but makes possible a variety of definitions of what theory is and how it is to be applied. Current PhD students should refer to the Graduate Student Handbook for a comprehensive description of requirements and policies.

Language Requirements

Students establish expertise in two or more languages, but the minimum requirement is advanced proficiency in two languages in addition to the English. Advanced proficiency, demonstrated through either teaching or advanced course work, must be established by the end of the second year in order to fulfill candidacy requirements and to make satisfactory progress to examinations and the dissertation.

Coursework 

Students generally complete their coursework in the first three years of the program, with the option to complete additional courses in year four and beyond if they wish to pursue graduate certificates or additional training. During the fourth year, students often leave campus to pursue study abroad or research in other locations. 

Course requirements include:

•  COMPLIT 600-Topics in Theory (Year 1)
•  COMPLIT 601 & COMPLIT 602-Preparation for the Preliminary Examination in Comparative Literature (Year 2)
• 4 COMPLIT seminars (up to 1 seminar may be fulfilled by completing 3 credits of mini-courses in COMPLIT)
• 8 graduate seminar electives taught in any department
• Click HERE  for a sample year by year breakdown

Milestones to the PhD

Built into the PhD program in Comparative Literature are a number of milestones: 

The Third Term Review is designed to allow students to share their experiences in the graduate program, receive feedback on their coursework and skills, and plan next steps. Takes place in the fall of the second year. 

The Preliminary Examination is the first step in defining a field for research and consists of a reading list and rationale submitted by the student to a committee which may form the basis for the student’s doctoral dissertation committee. Takes place in the fall of the third year. 

The Preliminary Project expands on a topic that is relevant to the student’s research interests. The format of the project is flexible (e.g., a research essay, translation project, multimodal writing, or public-facing project). This milestone is designed to provide opportunities for the student to synthesize course work, to acquire knowledge in areas that may not be studied in courses, and to begin formulating a dissertation topic. Completed by the end of the third year. 

A Prospectus detailing the dissertation project is the final step before writing the dissertation itself. Completed in the fall of the fourth year. 

The Dissertation Defense is scheduled through Rackham when the student has completed the dissertation. 

Study Abroad for Language Training and Research

The program creates flexibility for students to pursue study abroad.  All graduate students receive a start-up funding package to support language study in the summers after years 1 and 2. 

When students reach candidacy, they are guaranteed at least one semester of fellowship in year 4 to do research in another location.  To extend study abroad for a second term, students can also apply for additional funding from the International Institute, Rackham Graduate School, and other sources to support language study and dissertation research projects. 

Pedagogical Training & Teaching Experiences

Students begin teaching as Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs) in their second year, with pedagogical support through GSI training and peer mentoring.  Typically, first teaching appointments are in the first-year writing courses ENGLISH 125 (Writing and Academic Inquiry) and COMPLIT 122 (Writing World Literatures).  More advanced GSIs have the opportunity to teach courses beyond the 100-level including COMPLIT 241 (Topics in Comparative Literature), and COMPLIT 322 (Translating  World Literatures). Our aim is to match student teaching and placement goals and to give students the opportunity to teach in two different areas during their graduate careers. To diversify their teaching dossiers, our students have had opportunities to teach introductory language courses, Great Books or national literature courses, and occasionally in departments such as American Culture , Film, Television, and Media , and Women's and Gender Studies . 

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PhD in Comparative Literature

During your first year as a doctoral student in comparative literature, you will focus on your academic coursework and developing your teaching skills as a TA, working alongside a faculty mentor and leading discussion sections for a faculty-led lecture course. A standard course load for doctoral students is three graduate courses (nine credits) per semester, in addition to the one-credit TA workshop or language study. You are expected to complete all course-related requirements in the semester in which they are due; you are permitted one active incomplete (INC) at most. All first-year students meet regularly with the graduate program director (GPD) who serves as their official advisor and approves their course selections each semester.

Application information & deadlines

January 5, 2024, comparative literature.

Design your course of study as you explore broad-ranging issues such as relationships between translation and transnationalism, theory, and media.

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• Share This: Share Lana Jaffe Neufeld ’23, PhD, Comparative Literature on Facebook Share Lana Jaffe Neufeld ’23, PhD, Comparative Literature on LinkedIn Share Lana Jaffe Neufeld ’23, PhD, Comparative Literature on X

Lana Jaffe Neufeld ’23, PhD, Comparative Literature

Lecturer in spanish.

Department or Degree Program? PhD, Comparative Literature

What are your post-graduation plans? Lecturer in Spanish at Harvard Divinity School and Upper School English Teacher at Maimonides School.

What advice do you have for Harvard GSAS students, now that you are graduating? It’s okay to not know what you want to do after graduation. The best advice I have is to read job descriptions every day to see what kinds of roles excite you and you can see yourself doing successfully. It’s also okay if that role is not what you imagined for yourself when you started your program.

Victoria Jones received the Fulbright IK award for her doctoral research

Victoria jones received the fulbright iky award for her doctoral research.

This April, Victoria Jones received the Fulbright/IKY PhD Research Award to do field research during the 2024-2025 academic year. Victoria’s dissertation project focuses on how the asylum process for displaced families creates barriers to education for children at the borders of Europe (Greece-Turkey maritime border) and the US (US-Mexico border). Thus, Victoria will conduct fieldwork between September 2024 and March 2025 in Greece and during March and June 2025 at the US-Mexico border.

Victoria, originally from Texas, is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Comparative and International Education Program. Victoria has vast international experience, including having lived abroad for seven years in different countries, including Italy, Colombia, England, and Spain, among others.  In 2017 and 2018, Victoria worked as a language teacher in Italy and in 2019 in Colombia, an experience that led her to co-found a refugee education nonprofit, ELNOR , in 2020. This international pathway and personal experiences have shaped Victoria’s research and professional interests, passionate about access to education for displaced children, education in emergency contexts, and the criminalization of asylum seekers, among many others.

Victoria doing research in Greece during the summer of 2023

As part of her Ph.D. experience, Victoria has worked on different research projects with her advisor, Professor Garnett Russell, including “ The Contexts of Reception and Access to Education: Perspective of Diverse Organizations and Newcomer Families in New York City” or “Education for Transitional Justice, Reconciliation and Peacebuilding: The Case of Colombia”. In her own words, “I am grateful for my work with my advisor in these different projects, which have helped me sharpen my research skills and leverage my prior knowledge towards conducting my dissertation project.”

Victoria Jones presenting her research on asylum seekers and access to education at CIES 2024

Again, we congratulate Victoria for obtaining the Fulbright/IKY PhD Research Award and are excited to see her work developing in the next academic year.

Tags: International Education International Education

Programs: Comparative and International Education International Educational Development

Departments: International & Transcultural Studies

Published Thursday, Apr 18, 2024

Program Director : Garnett Russell, Associate Professor of International & Comparative Education

Teachers College, Columbia University 374 Grace Dodge Hall

Contact Person: Michelle Guo, Program Assistant

Phone: 212-678-3184 Fax: 212-678-8237

Email: iceinfo@tc.columbia.edu