Program in Comparative Literature, Washington University in St. Louis

The Program in Comparative Literature at Washington University in St. Louis offers an undergraduate major and minor in two overlapping tracks of study: comparative literature and comparative arts. On the graduate level, it offers a PhD program with a choice of one of two intertwined tracks as well as two graduate certificates, one in translation and one in early modern studies. Additionally it supports joint PhD degrees with six different literature and culture programs and departments. The program, on both the undergraduate and graduate levels, prides itself on enabling students to put together a flexible program of study that supports both critical and historical scholarship and creative endeavor (including creative writing and translation). Undergraduates find that both tracks pair well with language study, studies in the other arts, international studies, and study abroad.

PhD students choose between two related tracks: one supporting a course of study in comparative theoretically informed critical and historical inquiry, usually in at least two literary (national) cultures, and the other supporting a combination of translation or creative writing with critical and historical inquiry. The Writers’ Track comprises a uniquely calibrated combination of creative project (translation, poetry, novel, etc.) and an accompanying critical piece. A broad range of affiliate faculty from across literature and culture studies in Arts & Sciences facilitates work that crosses boundaries, seeks to make connections, and strives for the stereoscopic view of the local and the global. The program is home to a diverse international group of students who for all their differences find generative points of contact in scholarly research and creative work.