Comparative Literature is changing. Its Eurocentric heritage has been challenged by various formulations of World Literature, while new media and new forms of artistic production are bringing urgency to comparative thinking across literature, film, the visual arts and music. The resulting questions of method are both intellectually compelling and central to the future of the humanities. To confront them, our research programme brings together experts from the disciplines of English, Medieval and Modern Languages, Oriental Studies, and Classics, and draws in collaborators from Music, Visual Art, Film, Philosophy and History. We prefer the phrase ‘Comparative Criticism’ to ‘Comparative Literature’ or ‘World Literature’ because it draws attention to the role of the critic in determining the corpus to be explored and the manner of its exploration; and we flag ‘translation’ as a process fundamental to our work, and indeed to all communication.