Program Statistics
Visit PhD Program Statistics for statistics such as program admissions, enrollment, student demographics and more.
Comparative Literary Studies
Degree Types: PhD
Graduates of Comparative Literary Studies leave with the historical knowledge, linguistic skills, and interpretive methodologies necessary to undertake scholarly research on and to teach literature in at least two languages.
The graduate faculty (drawn from all of Weinberg College’s literature departments, as well as the Department of Art History and the School of Communication's Department of Radio/Television/Film, offer courses and mentoring in a wide range of literary fields and linguistic areas, including African, East and South Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latin American as well as European and English-language literatures. The program’s methodological areas of strength include classical traditions, critical theory, modernism, poetry and poetics, visual culture and media, and the environmental humanities.
In addition to their studies within the program, students also take coursework in their “home departments,” which provides training comparable to that of a PhD in a national literary field, qualifying graduates to work in national language and literature departments. Students’ teaching and research assistantship opportunities are coordinated with their specific goals. Current home departments can be found on the Comparative Literary Studies Graduate page.
Many of our students participate in TGS’s Interdisciplinary Cluster Initiative program, which provides an additional interdisciplinary intellectual “home.” Please visit the Interdisciplinary Cluster Initiative page.
Additional resources:
Program Contact
Contact Phil Hoskins
Program Coordinator
847-491-3864
Degree Requirements
The following requirements are in addition to, or further elaborate upon, those requirements outlined in The Graduate School Policy Guide.
PhD
Total Units Required: 15-18
| Course | Title |
|---|---|
| CLS theory sequence taken in first year (3 units) | |
COMP_LIT 410-0 | Theories of Literature |
COMP_LIT 411-0 | Critical Practices |
COMP_LIT 412-0 | Literary Studies Colloquium |
| Home department (6 units) | |
| Electives (in CLS, home department, or other graduate programs; 6-9 units) | |
Other PhD Degree Requirements
- Examinations:
- Theory exam by Fall quarter of second year;
- Qualifying exam no later than Winter Quarter of third year. During year two, students select a committee of three members and develop three distinctive lists in consultation with them. The first list addresses the student's generally constructed teaching field. The second list addresses the student's specific area of expertise. The third list addresses the methodology or theoretical framework used by the student to engage with one or two sub-disciplines that are useful to the dissertation topic. The QE culminates in an oral examination based on the three lists.
- Public Presentation: following the successful completion of the QE and in order to advance to candidacy, students must present a public paper related to their proposed dissertation project
- Dissertation Prospectus: following the successful completion of the QE and in order to advance to candidacy, students must submit a 12-15 page Dissertation Prospectus
- Language: students must demonstrate proficiency in two languages other than their native language by end of the third year
- PhD Dissertation: the dissertation must demonstrate original, independent research
- Final Evaluations: dissertation defense