Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies
"Pull a thread here and you'll find it's attached to the rest of the world."
Nadeem Aslam, The Wasted Vigil
The program in Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (CLCS) invites students to think about the complex nature, function, and impact of narratives and storytelling in contemporary cultures. Our program proceeds from two assumptions: one, that narratives are the building blocks of human thought that help us not only reflect on the world but contribute to the ways we interpret our pasts and presents and hence design our futures. This aligns with the second assumption, namely that culture is perpetually in motion, and that cultural practices, power relations, values, and belief systems that make up our every-day are constantly in flux, both influenced by and influencing different acts and forms of storytelling.
To foster an understanding of this dialectic, CLCS concentrates on the interplay among three areas of knowledge: theory and methodology in narratology and cultural studies, durable skills such as critical thinking, creativity and analytical thinking, and an understanding of how to apply theoretical framework to narratives, and cultural practices and phenomena. Theoretically and methodologically, we begin with a focus on different kinds of stories and acts of storytelling in literary and filmic texts and analyze how they are put together and shaped by historical and societal contexts, including colonialism and postcolonialism, and how our intersecting identities position us in the world. We also study key theories, debates and thinkers in cultural studies, and ways in which inter-and transdisciplinarity can help us think about the links among different realms of thought, such as law and narrative, or ecology and literature, or psychology and fiction.
In the area of skills development we focus on the meaning and practice of precise, creative and original writing and speaking in different registers, and on productive and ethical problem-solving and collaboration that leads to the kind of teamwork that is essential in today’s world; in topic courses, we analyze the impact of stories in areas such as law, human rights, psychology, environmental studies, politics, marketing, and media studies. The capstone experience allows students to choose between an internship in a cultural area or writing a thesis, both experiences guided by a faculty reader.
We conceptualize our classrooms as experiential spaces where students are coached to become creators and thinkers. In creative writing courses, students learn about narrative by crafting them themselves; in internships in their last two years of study students observe how narratives are deployed in different areas of professional life, such as marketing, the court room, education, different film festivals and our university’s online journal. Stackable mini credentials in areas such as language teaching, filmmaking, design thinking and editorial work prepare graduates for life after college. Ambitious, creative students with a penchant for analytical and critical thought will find a welcoming home with us.
Since the advent of AI, the ability to assess sources, to think independently and critically about events in the world, and to create responses and arguments in a clear and original voice has become one of the most crucial skillsets a university education can impart, regardless of career aspirations. The career paths embarked on by our students have included careers in education, publishing, law, diplomacy, media production, government, law, health, and business. Our graduates have been admitted to advanced degree programs, in various academic areas, at excellent universities, including most recently the University of Rotterdam, Emerson College, the University of British Columbia, Cambridge University, Oxford University, The London School of Economics, The New School, and Columbia University.
Major Requirements (42 Credits)
The courses required in the CLCS major are topic-based, grounded in methodology and theory, and narrative cultures from multiple disciplinary perspectives
Required Courses (9 credits)
| CLCS 100 | The Stories We Live By | 3 |
| CLCS 110 | Reading Cultures: Approaches to Cultural Studies | 3 |
| CLCS 222 | Theories and Methods in Interdisciplinarity | 3 |
Major Electives (21 credits)
200-level courses
Three of the following:
| CLCS 200 | Gender and Sexuality in a Global Context | 3 |
| CLCS 201 | Creative Writing: Craft, Context, and Voice | 3 |
| CLCS 205T | Paris Protagonist: Lost in Translation | 3 |
| CLCS 206 | Reading Film: Visual Storytelling | 3 |
| CLCS 206T | Reading Film on Location: Visual Storytelling, Creative Industry | 3 |
| CLCS 207 | AI, Cinema, and Philosophy: Critical Perspectives | 3 |
| CLCS 216 | Opera: When Music Meets Literature | 3 |
| CLCS 220T | Inventing the Past: The Uses of Memory in a Changing World | 3 |
| CLCS 225 | Music and Popular Culture from the 1950s to the 1990s | 3 |
| CLCS 230 | Science / Fiction: Envisioning the Possible | 3 |
| CLCS 236T | Prague on the Page | 3 |
| CLCS 238T | Reading the Postcolonial City: Berlin and Hamburg | 3 |
| CLCS 241 | Forbidden Acts: Queer Studies and Performance | 3 |
| CLCS 242 | Representations of Poverty in Literature, Film and the Media | 3 |
| CLCS 245 | Critical Approaches to the Graphic Novel: Justice in the Gutter | 3 |
| CLCS 247T | French Cultural Institutions: Power and Representation | 3 |
| CLCS 248T | European Food Systems: You Are Where You Eat | 3 |
| CLCS 250 | Ecocritical Approaches to Film | 3 |
| CLCS 251T | Reading Moroccan Culture | 3 |
| CLCS 253T | On Refugees: Representations, Politics and Realities of Forced Migration: Greece | 3 |
| CLCS 254 | Introduction to Postcolonial Literatures and Theories | 3 |
| CLCS 275 | Literature and the Land: Aotearoa-New Zealand | 3 |
300-level courses
Four of the following:
| CLCS 300 | Masculinities in Literature and Film | 3 |
| CLCS 310T | The Culture of Cities: Sustainability | 3 |
| CLCS 312 | Contraband: Censorship and Book Banning Over the Last Two Centuries | 3 |
| CLCS 315 | Slavery and Its Cultural Legacies | 3 |
| CLCS 316T | Transatlantic Slave Trade: Ghana | 3 |
| CLCS 320 | Culture, Class, Cuisine: Questions of Taste | 3 |
| CLCS 322 | Translation Theory: Staging the Page | 3 |
| CLCS 325 | Advanced Creative Writing Workshop | 3 |
| CLCS 330 | The Politics of Mobility: Exile and Immigration | 3 |
| CLCS 331 | Narrative Ecologies: The Uses of Environmental Humanities | 3 |
| CLCS 332 | Affective Narratives in the Age of Environmental Degradation | 3 |
| CLCS 335 | Hauntings | 3 |
| CLCS 350 | Culture and Human Rights | 3 |
| CLCS 360 | Critical Race Studies in a Global Context | 3 |
CLCS 370
| Topics in Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies | 3 |
| CLCS 371 | Law and Culture | 3 |
| CLCS 372 | Tales of Catastrophe | 3 |
Interdisciplinary Electives (6 credits)
Choose two courses from others disciplines at or above the 200-level, of which at least one course must be at the 300-level. These courses must come from separate disciplines.
Student must select courses with themes of specific interest and related to the student’s course of study in Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies. Specific course selections must first be approved by the student’s academic advisor and by the CLCS Program Director. Documentation of approved course selections must be submitted to the office of the Registrar.
Capstone Requirement (6 credits)
Students may choose between a thesis option and an internship option.
Option I: Thesis
Option II: Internship
CLCS 3XX
| Any 300-level Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies course | 3 |
| CLCS 498 | Capstone: Internship in CLCS | 3 |
A thesis is recommended for students interested in pursuing graduate studies. An internship is recommended for students interested in entering a professional field. Students should take the first capstone course in their penultimate semester or in the second semester of their junior year.
It is strongly recommended that CLCS majors take at least one Academic Travel course with a CLCS designation.