oxford comparative literature phd

MSt in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation

The MSt in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation is a nine-month, interdisciplinary course designed to give you critical, theoretical and research expertise in the intersecting fields of comparative and world literature and translation studies.

The MSt is attached to Oxford’s research centre in Comparative Criticism and Translation (OCCT) and builds on the recent growth in scholarly awareness of the importance of translation to comparative and world literary study. This is what is meant by ‘critical translation’: not translator training, but rather an interest in the role played by translation and re-writing in literary history, and an alertness to the uses of translation in critical practice.

The core course will introduce you to key topics in comparative and world literature and translation studies, and give you the skills needed to develop your own arguments and pursue original research. You will take one option course in Michaelmas term and one option course in Hilary term . These options are chosen from a wide range available in the faculties of Medieval and Modern Languages, English Language and Literature, and Oriental Studies. Your dissertation may be on any comparative topic that involves your two languages of focus. 

If you wish, you may also choose to study another language at the university’s language centre. This opportunity is free of charge for students taking the MSt in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation, though it is not an assessed part of your MSt course.

The course can be studied as a part of the  Oxford 1+1 MBA programme . The Oxford 1+1 MBA programme is a unique, two-year graduate experience that combines the depth of a specialised, one-year master’s degree with the breadth of a top-ranking, one-year MBA.

Course Structure

A. the core course: comparative literature and critical translation – practices and theories.

The core course will consist of one lecture (1 hour) and one seminar (2 hours) each week during Michaelmas Term weeks 1-6 and Hilary Term weeks 1-6. This course is taught by the Convenor and Co-convenors, along with other specialists as appropriate. It will introduce you to key topics and issues in comparative literature and critical translation, and give you the skills needed to develop your own arguments and pursue your own research.

The lectures , which are open to anyone in the university, will present key topics and offer arguments about them.

The seminars , which are restricted to students taking the MSt CLCT, will include close textual work, training in relevant research skills, and the opportunity to develop and critique the ideas and materials presented in the lectures.

Here is an indicative list of the topics covered in the core course, though please note that it may alter somewhat from year to year: histories of comparison; theories of comparison; worlds of comparison; figures; genres and forms; migration, travel and encounter; translation studies and comparative literatures; translation and transmediality; translation and circulation; translingual and multilingual texts; untranslatables and universals; translational critical practices.

B: Two Option Courses

You will take one option course in Michaelmas Term  and one option course in Hilary Term. The options are provided by the three Faculties that participate in the MSt CLCT – Oriental Studies, Medieval and Modern Languages, and English Language and Literature – and they enable you to work alongside students following other Masters courses within those Faculties. For an indicative list of options, please see section 4.6 of the sample course handbook (see link in the right-hand margin of this page), though please note that the options available may vary from year to year.  

Your options must focus on literature in different languages (eg Arabic in Michaelmas Term, English in Hilary Term) but they may be from the same Faculty (eg Hebrew in Michaelmas and Japanese in Hilary, or Russian in Michaelmas and French in Hilary). Some options may not have a language requirement, or may span more than one language: in such cases, the course convener will advise you so that your choices cover an appropriate range.

C. A dissertation

Your dissertation (10,000-12,000 words) must be on a comparative topic which involves your two main languages of study; it may include the critical analysis of translations. You will confirm your topic with the Course Convenor by the middle of Michaelmas term; have an initial meeting with your dissertation supervisor at the end of that term; and then pursue your research during the rest of the year, working especially intensively in Trinity Term. The  dissertation will be due in at noon on Monday of 8th week of Trinity Term.

Optional Additional Language Course

If you wish, you may also choose to study another language at the university’s language centre. This opportunity is free of charge for students taking the MSt in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation, though it is not an assessed part of your MSt course.    

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is provided in the following ways:

Summative Assessment

The course is assessed in the following ways:

Find out more

Admissions Pages

Course code:  TS_GD1

Length: 9 months, full-time

Course Handbook 2023-24

Tutors and Teaching

The MSt is organised by the following tutors, who also do most of the teaching on the core course: 

Professor Matthew Reynolds (Faculty of English Language and Literature). Course convenor.

tbc (Faculty of Oriental Studies). Co-convenor.

Professor Ben Morgan (Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages). Co-convenor.

Options and dissertations may be taught by members of the three participating faculties:

Oriental Studies

Medieval and Modern Languages

English Language and Literature

Research Culture

You will be able to participate in the rich research culture of Oxford’s Comparative Criticism and Translation research centre (OCCT) . This includes the lively postgraduate-led discussion group, regular research seminars and workshops, the public events of Oxford Translation Day, and lectures by the Weidenfeld Visiting Professor in Comparative European Literature (recent incumbents have included Javier Cercas, Ali Smith, Mario Vargas Llosa, Elif Shafak and Umberto Eco).

You will have common room / study space in the centre. The academic mentor and the graduate teaching assistant who are attached to the course will help you to orient yourself in the research culture of OCCT and the wider university; and you will present your dissertation work-in-progress at a seminar day organised jointly with the OCCT discussion group in Trinity term.

You will also be able to attend seminars and other events from across the faculties of Medieval and Modern Languages, English Language and Literature and Oriental Studies, thereby encountering a wide range of leading writers, critics, and theorists from within and beyond the University.

Study Comparative Literature at Oxford

At Undergraduate Level

The best way in to comparative study or work on translation at  undergraduate level  at the University of Oxford is to take a   joint degree, for example  English and Modern Languages   Classics and English   Classics and Modern Languages   Classics and Oriental Studies   European and Middle Eastern Languages  or  Philosophy and Modern Languages .

At Graduate Level

At graduate level , the  MSt in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation   is linked to the Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation (OCCT) Research Centre and grows out of our research. You can read more about the course is available  here , and information about applying is available  here . 

If you are a student at Oxford, you can access our Core Course reading list on ORLO here .

The  MSt in Modern Languages  also has a comparative component.

To pursue comparative study at  doctoral level  at the University of Oxford, you must apply to a single Faculty, but it is easy to arrange joint supervision across Faculties and therefore to work on topics involving comparative criticism and translation. You can read more about the different doctoral programmes via the links below.

Faculty of English:  DPhil in English

Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages:  DPhil in Modern Languages

Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies:  DPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Faculty of Classics:  DPhil in Classical Languages and Literature

Faculty of Music:  DPhil in Music

The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art:  DPhil in Fine Art

Please contact the Graduate Studies Office in the relevant Faculty/ies for more information.

Comparative Literature and Critical Translation MSt

The MSt in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation is one-year interdisciplinary course supported by several Faculties within the Humanities Division. The MSt is attached to Oxford’s research centre in Comparative Criticism and Translation (OCCT) and builds on the recent growth in scholarly awareness of the importance of translation to comparative and world literary study. This is what is meant by ‘critical translation’: not translator training, but rather an interest in the role played by translation and re-writing in literary history, and an alertness to the uses of translation in critical practice.

For more information please visit https://www.humanities.ox.ac.uk/mst-comparative-literature-and-critical-... .

How to apply

Find a college, where to start with your application.

Level: Postgraduate research

Duration: 4-8 years part-time

Closed to applications for entry in 2024.

Applications for 2025 entry will open in September 2024. 

To be notified when applications open,  please register your interest . 

Questions? Email: [email protected]

DPhil in Literature and Arts

Course details.

The DPhil in Literature and Arts is an advanced research degree by part-time research. Usually this course is intended for students who have already completed the  MSt in Literature and Arts , although other suitably qualified students who have completed a master’s degree in the humanities may also apply. Students will often be building on research and skills developed during the MSt in Literature and Arts.

Quick links

Programme details, assessment methods, level and demands, teaching methods.

• Application details – fees, funding and how to apply

The DPhil programme shares the same historical and multi-disciplinary scope as the MSt. It may encompass the disciplines of literature, art and architectural history, history, and history of ideas.

Compared to the MSt, however, students will be working independently towards their own deeply researched 100,000 word thesis, building on sustained independent research over a number of years, and focusing on a specific subject in depth.

 The thesis can be completed in four to (a maximum) eight years. We encourage students to work towards completion in four to six years and the supervisors help to structure a realistic work schedule and timetable for completion.

The research students on this course carry out independent doctoral research on a subject linked to the British past, c.1450- c.1914. British history is interpreted in the broadest possible sense to include global and imperial connections. For instance, the formation of British culture through the stimuli of influences beyond Europe, from Chinese porcelain to commodities like sugar and tea. Research proposals are welcome across the period, from, for example, Tudor and Jacobean Art and Architecture to the changing place of women in early twentieth century Britain. We have a democratic view of cultural history in which all men's and women's lives play their part.

Students work in at least two of the disciplines and are supervised by academics with two different areas of specialism. The course enables students to make the most of the university's resources (e.g. its libraries, computer facilities, museums and historic monuments) Students are also likely to need to consult archives and other primary sources in different locations depending on their project. There is an attendance requirement for this course of thirty days per academic year, and students will be encouraged to fully participate in the Graduate School in the Department for Continuing Education and to take part in other seminars, workshops and training activities offered across the University.

The DPhil will be awarded on the basis of a thesis and an oral examination. Your thesis will be based on extensive original research and engagement with current scholarship. Students undertaking a part-time DPhil will normally study for four to six years from the time of admission. This compares with a full-time doctorate, which normally takes three to four years to complete.

As a minimum, applicants should hold or be predicted to achieve the following UK qualifications or their equivalent:

• a master's degree with distinction or a high pass in a Humanities subject or from;  and 
• a first-class or strong upper second-class undergraduate degree with honours in any relevant subject.
• Show prior interest in the area of research proposed

Students will be strongly encouraged to participate in seminars and informal meetings with staff and other researchers in the University of Oxford. The major commitment of time will be to individual study and research, involving wide and intense reading, collection of primary evidence, analysis and writing. Students will be expected to attend and to contribute to the wide range of research seminars, conferences and workshops organised in the University. They will also have access to specialist training courses offered by the Bodleian Library and IT services.

Supervision on the DPhil programme will be provided by two supervisors, usually University Lecturers/Professors from the Department for Continuing Education and from within the University of Oxford. The two supervisors will be from different disciplines. Supervisors will help students to develop a programme of research and writing.

Application details

Applications for this course should be made via the University of Oxford  Graduate Admissions  website. This website provides information on fees and entry requirements, along with help on preparing and submitting your application.

Scholarships and funding

Please see the University’s  Fees and Funding  pages for help and information with regard to funding doctoral studies. We further recommend that applicants search for funding opportunities via the online  Fees, Funding and Scholarship search tool.

Terms & conditions for applicants and students

Information on financial support

Graduate School

Mst in literature and arts (mla), art history and design research, history of art.

• Home »
• University of Oxford »
• Interdepartmental »
• Comparative Literature and Critical Translation

find your perfect postgrad program Search our Database of 30,000 Courses

University of oxford: comparative literature and critical translation, full-time, 9 months starts oct 2024.

**The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2023). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas.**

The MSt in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation is a nine-month, interdisciplinary course designed to give you critical, theoretical and research expertise in the intersecting fields of comparative and world literature and translation studies.

To take the course, you must be able to work with two languages and literatures, out of Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, modern Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Sanskrit, Spanish, Turkish, and Urdu. If you are interested in studying two European languages comparatively, you may also wish to apply for the MSt in Modern Languages.

The MSt is attached to Oxford’s research centre in Comparative Criticism and Translation (OCCT) and builds on the recent growth in scholarly awareness of the importance of translation to comparative and world literary study. This is what is meant by ‘critical translation’: not translator training, but rather an interest in the role played by translation and re-writing in literary history, and an alertness to the uses of translation in critical practice.

You will be able to participate in the rich research culture of OCCT. This includes the lively postgraduate-led discussion group, regular research seminars and workshops, the public events of Oxford Translation Day, and lectures by the Weidenfeld Visiting Professor in Comparative European Literature (recent incumbents have included Javier Cercas, Ali Smith, Mario Vargas Llosa, Elif Shafak and Umberto Eco).

**Course structure** The MSt is comprised of a core course, two option courses and a dissertation. Alongside the weekly teaching sessions for the core and option courses, you should expect to undertake approximately 30 hours of self-directed study each week.

**Core course** The core course will introduce you to key topics in comparative and world literature and translation studies, and give you the skills needed to develop your own arguments and pursue original research. It is taught by a weekly lecture and seminar in weeks one through six of Michaelmas (autumn) and Hilary (spring) terms. You will give presentations in the seminars (usually twice each term), and write a short practice essay at the end of Michaelmas term: these formative assignments will not affect your degree result.

The list below provides an indication of the topics covered in the core course, though please note that it may vary from year to year:

histories of comparison theories of comparison worlds of comparison figures genres and forms migration, travel and encounter translation studies and comparative literatures translation and transmediality translation and circulation translingual and multilingual texts untranslatables and universals translational critical practices.

**For the full description, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas**

Full-Time, 9 months started Oct 2023

**The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (October/November 2022). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas**

**Course structure**

**Option courses** You will take one option course in Michaelmas term and one option course in Hilary term. These options are chosen from a wide range available in the faculties of Medieval and Modern Languages, English Language and Literature, and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. The option courses available change from year to year.

**Dissertation** Your dissertation may be on any comparative topic that involves your two languages of focus. You will work closely with a supervisor, starting at the end of Michaelmas term and continuing through Hilary term, though the bulk of the work will be concentrated in Trinity (summer) term. Your dissertation will be due in at the end of Trinity term.

Alongside the weekly teaching sessions for the core and option courses, students should expect to undertake approximately 30 hours of self-directed study each week.

**Supervision** Students can expect to have termly catch-ups with the course convenor, as well as up to six hours of contact time/support from their dissertation supervisors, the majority of which will take place in late Hilary and Trinity Term. The allocation of graduate supervision for this course is the responsibility of the steering committee for the MSt in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation in consultation with faculties in the Humanities Division, and it is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. Under exceptional circumstances a supervisor may be found outside the Humanities Division.

Full-Time, 9 months started Oct 2022

**The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (October/November 2021). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas**

**Course structure Core course** The core course will introduce you to key topics in comparative and world literature and translation studies, and give you the skills needed to develop your own arguments and pursue original research. It is taught by a weekly lecture and seminar in weeks 1-6 of Michaelmas (autumn) and Hilary (spring) terms. You will give presentations in the seminars (usually twice each term), and write a short practice essay (2,000-4,000 words) at the end of Michaelmas term: these formative assignments will not affect your degree result.

- histories of comparison

- theories of comparison

- worlds of comparison

- genres and forms

- migration, travel and encounter

- translation studies and comparative literatures

- translation and transmediality

- translation and circulation

- translingual and multilingual texts

- untranslatables and universals

- translational critical practices.

**Option courses** You will take one option course in Michaelmas term and one option course in Hilary term. These options are chosen from a wide range available in the faculties of Medieval and Modern Languages, English Language and Literature, and Oriental Studies. The option courses available change from year to year, but the following list is indicative of the types of topics which may be offered by participating faculties:

- Travel, Belonging, Identity: 1550-1700

- Utopian Writing from More to Hume

- Victorian and Edwardian Drama 1850-1914

- 19th and 20th Century Spanish Women Writers

- 20th Century German Drama and Theatre

- Contemporary Brazilian Fiction

- Francophone Literature

- Gender and Representation in Russian Culture from 1800

- Greek Literature & Culture after the 19th century: Themes, Texts and Contexts

- The Body in 20th- and 21st-Century Spanish American Fiction

- The Italian Novel in the 19th and 20th Century

- Translation and Adaptation: Texts, Histories, Practices

- Topics in Classical Japanese Poetry

- Womanhood in Korean Literature

- Authority and Rebellion in Modern Arabic Literature

- Chinese Fiction After Tiananmen.

Teaching for an option consists of regular 1-1 or small-group meetings, with feedback being given as appropriate. Your options must focus on literature in different languages (eg Arabic in one term, English in the other; or French in one term, Russian in the other). Some options may not have a language requirement, or may span more than one language: in such cases.

Not what you are looking for?

Postgraduate Bursary Opportunity with Postgrad.com

Are you studying as a PG student at the moment or have you recently been accepted on a postgraduate program? Apply now for one of our £2000 PGS bursaries.

Exclusive bursaries Open day alerts Funding advice Application tips Latest PG news

Sign up now!

Take 2 minutes to sign up to PGS student services and reap the benefits…

• The chance to apply for one of our 5 PGS Bursaries worth £2,000 each
• Fantastic scholarship updates
• Latest PG news sent directly to you.

Comparative Literature

Share this page.

Harvard’s Department of Comparative Literature is one of the most dynamic and diverse in the country. Its impressive faculty has included such scholars as Harry Levine, Claudio Guillén, and Barbara Johnson. You will study literatures from a wide range of historical periods and cultures while learning to conduct cutting-edge research through an exhilarating scope of methods and approaches.

Your dissertation research is well supported by Harvard’s unparalleled library system, the largest university collection in the world, comprising 70 libraries with combined holdings of over 16 million items.

Recent student dissertations include “Imagined Mothers: The Construction of Italy, Ancient Greece, and Anglo-American Hegemony,” “The Untimely Avant-Garde: Literature, Politics and Transculturation in the Sinosphere (1909-2020),” and “Artificial Humanities: A Literary Perspective on Creating and Enhancing Humans from Pygmalion to Cyborgs.”

In addition to securing faculty positions at academic institutions such as Princeton University, Emory University, and Tufts University, graduates have gone on to careers in contiguous fields including the visual arts, music, anthropology, philosophy, and medicine.  Others have chosen alternative careers in film production, administration, journalism, and law.

 Additional information on the graduate program is available from the Department of Comparative Literature and requirements for the degree are detailed in Policies .

Admissions Requirements

Please review admissions requirements and other information before applying. You can find degree program-specific admissions requirements below and access additional guidance on applying from the Department of Comparative Literature .

Writing Sample

The writing sample is supposed to demonstrate your ability to engage in literary criticism and/or theory. It can be a paper written for a course or a section of a senior thesis or essay. It is usually between 10 and 20 pages. Do not send longer papers with instructions to read an excerpt; you should edit the sample so that it is not more than 20 pages. Writing samples should be in English, although candidates are permitted to submit an additional writing sample written in a different language.

Statement of Purpose

The statement of purpose should give the admissions committee a clear sense of your individual interests and strengths. Applicants are not required to indicate a precise field of specialization, but it is helpful to tell us about your aspirations and how the Department of Comparative Literature might help in attaining these goals. The statement of purpose should be one to four pages in length.

Standardized Tests

GRE General: Not Accepted

Theses & Dissertations

Theses & Dissertations for Comparative Literature

See list of Comparative Literature faculty

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Questions about the program.

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

Undergraduate Admissions

Thinking of applying to Oxford? Get the latest information about open days, admissions and course details

Graduate Studies

Visit the Graduate Studies site for prospective and current postgraduates

Information for Schools

Resources and details for teachers and schools

Our Research

Find out about the full range of the faculty's research

Introducing 'The Oxford Polyglot'

The Faculty e-newsletter The Oxford Polyglot is now available online and by subscription. Published termly, the newsletter features articles by our staff and students, academic research, events and updates.

To stay in touch with Modern Languages at Oxford and receive forthcoming issues, click here to subscribe .

About the Faculty

Book Gallery

• Search Menu
• Browse content in Arts and Humanities
• Browse content in Archaeology
• Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Archaeology
• Archaeological Methodology and Techniques
• Archaeology by Region
• Archaeology of Religion
• Archaeology of Trade and Exchange
• Biblical Archaeology
• Contemporary and Public Archaeology
• Environmental Archaeology
• Historical Archaeology
• History and Theory of Archaeology
• Industrial Archaeology
• Landscape Archaeology
• Mortuary Archaeology
• Prehistoric Archaeology
• Underwater Archaeology
• Urban Archaeology
• Zooarchaeology
• Browse content in Architecture
• Architectural Structure and Design
• History of Architecture
• Residential and Domestic Buildings
• Theory of Architecture
• Browse content in Art
• Art Subjects and Themes
• History of Art
• Industrial and Commercial Art
• Theory of Art
• Biographical Studies
• Byzantine Studies
• Browse content in Classical Studies
• Classical History
• Classical Philosophy
• Classical Mythology
• Classical Literature
• Classical Reception
• Classical Art and Architecture
• Classical Oratory and Rhetoric
• Greek and Roman Epigraphy
• Greek and Roman Law
• Greek and Roman Archaeology
• Greek and Roman Papyrology
• Late Antiquity
• Religion in the Ancient World
• Digital Humanities
• Browse content in History
• Colonialism and Imperialism
• Diplomatic History
• Environmental History
• Genealogy, Heraldry, Names, and Honours
• Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
• Historical Geography
• History by Period
• History of Agriculture
• History of Education
• History of Emotions
• History of Gender and Sexuality
• Industrial History
• Intellectual History
• International History
• Labour History
• Legal and Constitutional History
• Local and Family History
• Maritime History
• Military History
• National Liberation and Post-Colonialism
• Oral History
• Political History
• Public History
• Regional and National History
• Revolutions and Rebellions
• Slavery and Abolition of Slavery
• Social and Cultural History
• Theory, Methods, and Historiography
• Urban History
• World History
• Browse content in Language Teaching and Learning
• Language Learning (Specific Skills)
• Language Teaching Theory and Methods
• Browse content in Linguistics
• Applied Linguistics
• Cognitive Linguistics
• Computational Linguistics
• Forensic Linguistics
• Grammar, Syntax and Morphology
• Historical and Diachronic Linguistics
• History of English
• Language Acquisition
• Language Variation
• Language Families
• Language Evolution
• Language Reference
• Lexicography
• Linguistic Theories
• Linguistic Typology
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Phonetics and Phonology
• Psycholinguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Translation and Interpretation
• Writing Systems
• Browse content in Literature
• Bibliography
• Children's Literature Studies
• Literary Studies (Asian)
• Literary Studies (European)
• Literary Studies (Eco-criticism)
• Literary Studies (Modernism)
• Literary Studies (Romanticism)
• Literary Studies (American)
• Literary Studies - World
• Literary Studies (1500 to 1800)
• Literary Studies (19th Century)
• Literary Studies (20th Century onwards)
• Literary Studies (African American Literature)
• Literary Studies (British and Irish)
• Literary Studies (Early and Medieval)
• Literary Studies (Fiction, Novelists, and Prose Writers)
• Literary Studies (Gender Studies)
• Literary Studies (Graphic Novels)
• Literary Studies (History of the Book)
• Literary Studies (Plays and Playwrights)
• Literary Studies (Poetry and Poets)
• Literary Studies (Postcolonial Literature)
• Literary Studies (Queer Studies)
• Literary Studies (Science Fiction)
• Literary Studies (Travel Literature)
• Literary Studies (War Literature)
• Literary Studies (Women's Writing)
• Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
• Mythology and Folklore
• Shakespeare Studies and Criticism
• Browse content in Media Studies
• Browse content in Music
• Applied Music
• Dance and Music
• Ethics in Music
• Ethnomusicology
• Gender and Sexuality in Music
• Medicine and Music
• Music Cultures
• Music and Religion
• Music and Culture
• Music and Media
• Music Education and Pedagogy
• Music Theory and Analysis
• Musical Scores, Lyrics, and Libretti
• Musical Structures, Styles, and Techniques
• Musicology and Music History
• Performance Practice and Studies
• Race and Ethnicity in Music
• Sound Studies
• Browse content in Performing Arts
• Browse content in Philosophy
• Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
• Epistemology
• Feminist Philosophy
• History of Western Philosophy
• Metaphysics
• Moral Philosophy
• Non-Western Philosophy
• Philosophy of Science
• Philosophy of Action
• Philosophy of Law
• Philosophy of Religion
• Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Mind
• Philosophy of Perception
• Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic
• Practical Ethics
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Browse content in Religion
• Biblical Studies
• Christianity
• East Asian Religions
• History of Religion
• Judaism and Jewish Studies
• Qumran Studies
• Religion and Education
• Religion and Health
• Religion and Politics
• Religion and Science
• Religion and Law
• Religion and Art, Literature, and Music
• Religious Studies
• Browse content in Society and Culture
• Cookery, Food, and Drink
• Cultural Studies
• Customs and Traditions
• Ethical Issues and Debates
• Hobbies, Games, Arts and Crafts
• Lifestyle, Home, and Garden
• Natural world, Country Life, and Pets
• Popular Beliefs and Controversial Knowledge
• Sports and Outdoor Recreation
• Technology and Society
• Travel and Holiday
• Visual Culture
• Browse content in Law
• Arbitration
• Browse content in Company and Commercial Law
• Commercial Law
• Company Law
• Browse content in Comparative Law
• Systems of Law
• Competition Law
• Browse content in Constitutional and Administrative Law
• Government Powers
• Judicial Review
• Local Government Law
• Military and Defence Law
• Parliamentary and Legislative Practice
• Construction Law
• Contract Law
• Browse content in Criminal Law
• Criminal Procedure
• Criminal Evidence Law
• Sentencing and Punishment
• Employment and Labour Law
• Environment and Energy Law
• Browse content in Financial Law
• Banking Law
• Insolvency Law
• History of Law
• Human Rights and Immigration
• Intellectual Property Law
• Browse content in International Law
• Private International Law and Conflict of Laws
• Public International Law
• IT and Communications Law
• Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law
• Law and Politics
• Law and Society
• Browse content in Legal System and Practice
• Courts and Procedure
• Legal Skills and Practice
• Primary Sources of Law
• Regulation of Legal Profession
• Medical and Healthcare Law
• Browse content in Policing
• Criminal Investigation and Detection
• Police and Security Services
• Police Procedure and Law
• Police Regional Planning
• Browse content in Property Law
• Personal Property Law
• Study and Revision
• Terrorism and National Security Law
• Browse content in Trusts Law
• Wills and Probate or Succession
• Browse content in Medicine and Health
• Browse content in Allied Health Professions
• Arts Therapies
• Clinical Science
• Dietetics and Nutrition
• Occupational Therapy
• Operating Department Practice
• Physiotherapy
• Radiography
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Browse content in Anaesthetics
• General Anaesthesia
• Neuroanaesthesia
• Browse content in Clinical Medicine
• Acute Medicine
• Cardiovascular Medicine
• Clinical Genetics
• Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Dermatology
• Endocrinology and Diabetes
• Gastroenterology
• Genito-urinary Medicine
• Geriatric Medicine
• Infectious Diseases
• Medical Oncology
• Medical Toxicology
• Pain Medicine
• Palliative Medicine
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Respiratory Medicine and Pulmonology
• Rheumatology
• Sleep Medicine
• Sports and Exercise Medicine
• Clinical Neuroscience
• Community Medical Services
• Critical Care
• Emergency Medicine
• Forensic Medicine
• Haematology
• History of Medicine
• Browse content in Medical Dentistry
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Paediatric Dentistry
• Restorative Dentistry and Orthodontics
• Surgical Dentistry
• Medical Ethics
• Browse content in Medical Skills
• Clinical Skills
• Communication Skills
• Nursing Skills
• Surgical Skills
• Medical Statistics and Methodology
• Browse content in Neurology
• Clinical Neurophysiology
• Neuropathology
• Nursing Studies
• Browse content in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Gynaecology
• Occupational Medicine
• Ophthalmology
• Otolaryngology (ENT)
• Browse content in Paediatrics
• Neonatology
• Browse content in Pathology
• Chemical Pathology
• Clinical Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics
• Histopathology
• Medical Microbiology and Virology
• Patient Education and Information
• Browse content in Pharmacology
• Psychopharmacology
• Browse content in Popular Health
• Caring for Others
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Self-help and Personal Development
• Browse content in Preclinical Medicine
• Cell Biology
• Molecular Biology and Genetics
• Reproduction, Growth and Development
• Primary Care
• Professional Development in Medicine
• Browse content in Psychiatry
• Addiction Medicine
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Forensic Psychiatry
• Learning Disabilities
• Old Age Psychiatry
• Psychotherapy
• Browse content in Public Health and Epidemiology
• Epidemiology
• Public Health
• Browse content in Radiology
• Clinical Radiology
• Interventional Radiology
• Nuclear Medicine
• Radiation Oncology
• Reproductive Medicine
• Browse content in Surgery
• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Gastro-intestinal and Colorectal Surgery
• General Surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Paediatric Surgery
• Peri-operative Care
• Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• Surgical Oncology
• Transplant Surgery
• Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery
• Vascular Surgery
• Browse content in Science and Mathematics
• Browse content in Biological Sciences
• Aquatic Biology
• Biochemistry
• Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Ecology and Conservation
• Evolutionary Biology
• Genetics and Genomics
• Microbiology
• Molecular and Cell Biology
• Natural History
• Plant Sciences and Forestry
• Research Methods in Life Sciences
• Structural Biology
• Systems Biology
• Zoology and Animal Sciences
• Browse content in Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Computational Chemistry
• Crystallography
• Environmental Chemistry
• Industrial Chemistry
• Inorganic Chemistry
• Materials Chemistry
• Medicinal Chemistry
• Mineralogy and Gems
• Organic Chemistry
• Physical Chemistry
• Polymer Chemistry
• Study and Communication Skills in Chemistry
• Theoretical Chemistry
• Browse content in Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Architecture and Logic Design
• Game Studies
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Mathematical Theory of Computation
• Programming Languages
• Software Engineering
• Systems Analysis and Design
• Virtual Reality
• Browse content in Computing
• Business Applications
• Computer Security
• Computer Games
• Computer Networking and Communications
• Digital Lifestyle
• Graphical and Digital Media Applications
• Operating Systems
• Browse content in Earth Sciences and Geography
• Atmospheric Sciences
• Environmental Geography
• Geology and the Lithosphere
• Maps and Map-making
• Meteorology and Climatology
• Oceanography and Hydrology
• Palaeontology
• Physical Geography and Topography
• Regional Geography
• Soil Science
• Urban Geography
• Browse content in Engineering and Technology
• Agriculture and Farming
• Biological Engineering
• Civil Engineering, Surveying, and Building
• Electronics and Communications Engineering
• Energy Technology
• Engineering (General)
• Environmental Science, Engineering, and Technology
• History of Engineering and Technology
• Mechanical Engineering and Materials
• Technology of Industrial Chemistry
• Transport Technology and Trades
• Browse content in Environmental Science
• Applied Ecology (Environmental Science)
• Conservation of the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Environmental Sustainability
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Environmental Science)
• Management of Land and Natural Resources (Environmental Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environmental Science)
• Nuclear Issues (Environmental Science)
• Pollution and Threats to the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Environmental Science)
• History of Science and Technology
• Browse content in Materials Science
• Ceramics and Glasses
• Composite Materials
• Metals, Alloying, and Corrosion
• Nanotechnology
• Browse content in Mathematics
• Applied Mathematics
• Biomathematics and Statistics
• History of Mathematics
• Mathematical Education
• Mathematical Finance
• Mathematical Analysis
• Numerical and Computational Mathematics
• Probability and Statistics
• Pure Mathematics
• Browse content in Neuroscience
• Cognition and Behavioural Neuroscience
• Development of the Nervous System
• Disorders of the Nervous System
• History of Neuroscience
• Invertebrate Neurobiology
• Molecular and Cellular Systems
• Neuroendocrinology and Autonomic Nervous System
• Neuroscientific Techniques
• Sensory and Motor Systems
• Browse content in Physics
• Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
• Biological and Medical Physics
• Classical Mechanics
• Computational Physics
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Electromagnetism, Optics, and Acoustics
• History of Physics
• Mathematical and Statistical Physics
• Measurement Science
• Nuclear Physics
• Particles and Fields
• Plasma Physics
• Quantum Physics
• Relativity and Gravitation
• Semiconductor and Mesoscopic Physics
• Browse content in Psychology
• Affective Sciences
• Clinical Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Criminal and Forensic Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Evolutionary Psychology
• Health Psychology
• History and Systems in Psychology
• Music Psychology
• Neuropsychology
• Organizational Psychology
• Psychological Assessment and Testing
• Psychology of Human-Technology Interaction
• Psychology Professional Development and Training
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Browse content in Social Sciences
• Browse content in Anthropology
• Anthropology of Religion
• Human Evolution
• Medical Anthropology
• Physical Anthropology
• Regional Anthropology
• Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Theory and Practice of Anthropology
• Browse content in Business and Management
• Business Strategy
• Business History
• Business Ethics
• Business and Government
• Business and Technology
• Business and the Environment
• Comparative Management
• Corporate Governance
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Entrepreneurship
• Health Management
• Human Resource Management
• Industrial and Employment Relations
• Industry Studies
• Information and Communication Technologies
• International Business
• Knowledge Management
• Management and Management Techniques
• Operations Management
• Organizational Theory and Behaviour
• Pensions and Pension Management
• Public and Nonprofit Management
• Strategic Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Browse content in Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice
• Criminology
• Forms of Crime
• International and Comparative Criminology
• Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice
• Development Studies
• Browse content in Economics
• Agricultural, Environmental, and Natural Resource Economics
• Asian Economics
• Behavioural Finance
• Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics
• Econometrics and Mathematical Economics
• Economic Systems
• Economic Methodology
• Economic History
• Economic Development and Growth
• Financial Markets
• Financial Institutions and Services
• General Economics and Teaching
• Health, Education, and Welfare
• History of Economic Thought
• International Economics
• Labour and Demographic Economics
• Law and Economics
• Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics
• Microeconomics
• Public Economics
• Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
• Welfare Economics
• Browse content in Education
• Adult Education and Continuous Learning
• Care and Counselling of Students
• Early Childhood and Elementary Education
• Educational Equipment and Technology
• Educational Strategies and Policy
• Higher and Further Education
• Organization and Management of Education
• Philosophy and Theory of Education
• Schools Studies
• Secondary Education
• Teaching of a Specific Subject
• Teaching of Specific Groups and Special Educational Needs
• Teaching Skills and Techniques
• Browse content in Environment
• Applied Ecology (Social Science)
• Climate Change
• Conservation of the Environment (Social Science)
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Social Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environment)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Social Science)
• Browse content in Human Geography
• Cultural Geography
• Economic Geography
• Political Geography
• Browse content in Interdisciplinary Studies
• Communication Studies
• Museums, Libraries, and Information Sciences
• Browse content in Politics
• African Politics
• Asian Politics
• Chinese Politics
• Comparative Politics
• Conflict Politics
• Elections and Electoral Studies
• Environmental Politics
• European Union
• Foreign Policy
• Gender and Politics
• Human Rights and Politics
• Indian Politics
• International Relations
• International Organization (Politics)
• International Political Economy
• Irish Politics
• Latin American Politics
• Middle Eastern Politics
• Political Methodology
• Political Communication
• Political Philosophy
• Political Sociology
• Political Theory
• Political Behaviour
• Political Economy
• Political Institutions
• Politics and Law
• Public Administration
• Public Policy
• Quantitative Political Methodology
• Regional Political Studies
• Russian Politics
• Security Studies
• State and Local Government
• UK Politics
• US Politics
• Browse content in Regional and Area Studies
• African Studies
• Asian Studies
• East Asian Studies
• Japanese Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Middle Eastern Studies
• Native American Studies
• Scottish Studies
• Browse content in Research and Information
• Research Methods
• Browse content in Social Work
• Addictions and Substance Misuse
• Adoption and Fostering
• Care of the Elderly
• Child and Adolescent Social Work
• Couple and Family Social Work
• Developmental and Physical Disabilities Social Work
• Direct Practice and Clinical Social Work
• Emergency Services
• Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
• International and Global Issues in Social Work
• Mental and Behavioural Health
• Social Justice and Human Rights
• Social Policy and Advocacy
• Social Work and Crime and Justice
• Social Work Macro Practice
• Social Work Practice Settings
• Social Work Research and Evidence-based Practice
• Welfare and Benefit Systems
• Browse content in Sociology
• Childhood Studies
• Community Development
• Comparative and Historical Sociology
• Economic Sociology
• Gender and Sexuality
• Gerontology and Ageing
• Health, Illness, and Medicine
• Marriage and the Family
• Migration Studies
• Occupations, Professions, and Work
• Organizations
• Population and Demography
• Race and Ethnicity
• Social Theory
• Social Movements and Social Change
• Social Research and Statistics
• Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
• Sociology of Religion
• Sociology of Education
• Sport and Leisure
• Urban and Rural Studies
• Browse content in Warfare and Defence
• Defence Strategy, Planning, and Research
• Land Forces and Warfare
• Military Administration
• Military Life and Institutions
• Naval Forces and Warfare
• Other Warfare and Defence Issues
• Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution
• Weapons and Equipment

Comparative Literature: A Very Short Introduction

Author webpage

• Cite Icon Cite
• Permissions Icon Permissions

Comparative literature is both the past and the future of literary studies. Its history is intimately linked to the political upheavals of modernity: from colonial empire-building in the 19th century to the postcolonial culture wars of the 21st century. But what is comparative literature? Comparative Literature: A Very Short Introduction tells the story of comparative literature as an agent of international relations, from the point of view both of scholarship and of cultural history. Outlining the complex history and competing theories of comparative literature, it offers an accessible means of entry into a notoriously slippery subject, and shows the value and importance of encountering literature from outside one’s own culture.

Signed in as

Institutional accounts.

• Google Scholar Indexing
• GoogleCrawler [DO NOT DELETE]

Personal account

• Sign in with email/username & password
• Get email alerts
• Save searches
• Purchase content
• Activate your purchase/trial code

Institutional access

• Sign in with a library card Sign in with username/password Recommend to your librarian
• Institutional account management
• Get help with access

Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:

IP based access

Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.

Sign in through your institution

Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.

• Click Sign in through your institution.
• Select your institution from the list provided, which will take you to your institution's website to sign in.
• When on the institution site, please use the credentials provided by your institution. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
• Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.

If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.

Sign in with a library card

Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.

Society Members

Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:

Sign in through society site

Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:

• Click Sign in through society site.
• When on the society site, please use the credentials provided by that society. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.

If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.

Sign in using a personal account

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.

A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.

Viewing your signed in accounts

Click the account icon in the top right to:

• View your signed in personal account and access account management features.
• View the institutional accounts that are providing access.

Signed in but can't access content

Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.

For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.

Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.

External resource

• In the OUP print catalogue
• About Oxford Academic
• Publish journals with us
• University press partners
• What we publish
• New features  
• Open access
• Rights and permissions
• Accessibility
• Advertising
• Media enquiries
• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Languages
• University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

• Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
• Cookie settings
• Cookie policy
• Privacy policy
• Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Comparative Literature MPhil/PhD

London, Bloomsbury

UCL is a leader in the thriving field of comparative literature, building on the great strength of its well-established language-specific literary and cultural degrees. With its exceptional range of modern and ancient languages, UCL provides an ideal environment for comparative inquiry. We actively support interdisciplinary research across languages and cultural periods, and welcome comparative projects that may benefit from joint supervisory support.

UK tuition fees (2024/25)

Overseas tuition fees (2024/25), programme starts, applications accepted.

• Entry requirements

A minimum of an upper second-class Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard, and a Master's degree with Merit in a relevant field. In the first instance, candidates should establish a dialogue with a potential supervisor before making a formal application. Admission is normally dependent on the submission of a detailed research project proposal.

The English language level for this programme is: Level 4

UCL Pre-Master's and Pre-sessional English courses are for international students who are aiming to study for a postgraduate degree at UCL. The courses will develop your academic English and academic skills required to succeed at postgraduate level.

Further information can be found on our English language requirements page.

Equivalent qualifications

Country-specific information, including details of when UCL representatives are visiting your part of the world, can be obtained from the International Students website .

International applicants can find out the equivalent qualification for their country by selecting from the list below. Please note that the equivalency will correspond to the broad UK degree classification stated on this page (e.g. upper second-class). Where a specific overall percentage is required in the UK qualification, the international equivalency will be higher than that stated below. Please contact Graduate Admissions should you require further advice.

About this degree

Research students can specialise in any aspect of comparative literature for which suitable supervision is available. Potential supervisors' disciplinary perspectives are drawn from language departments including the School of Slavonic & East European Studies, Greek & Latin, Anthropology, Geography, literary studies and queer studies and across UCL.

Who this course is for

This programme is for applicants with a background or interest in comparative literary study and research. It is suitable for both recent Masters graduates as well as early or mid-career professionals. This MPhil/PhD is for applicants who want to do multi-disciplinary research, who may have completed post-graduate training or study and want to develop an advanced critical analysis in a specific research area.

What this course will give you

The Comparative Literature programme draws on the collective expertise of specialists in the Faculties of Arts & Humanities, Social & Historical Sciences, the Institute of Education, the School of Slavonic & East European Studies (SSEES).

We are especially interested in creative critical research and in proposals that articulate and examine new developments in literary and cultural studies, in the English-speaking world and beyond.

Training programmes are designed on an individual basis by the student's supervisor, and generally involve participation in activities offered by the department of the primary supervisor. Students also take advantage of training provided by the UCL Doctoral School and our departmental research student seminars.

The foundation of your career

PhD students may go on to academic careers in higher education or careers in research, in publishing or in creative writing. Graduates are able to use to their language, writing and communication skills in a range of different fields and industries such as translation, consultancy, teaching, marketing, international NGO's, charities, the arts and heritage.

Employability

Skills acquired as a result of taking this programme include: ability to conduct research in library archives and electronic archives; ability to synthesise and summarise large amounts of information; ability to use evidence in order to construct a convincing argument; ability to work with texts in more than one language; acquisition of sensitivity to the cultural register of texts; ability to plan workloads efficiently and meet deadlines.

Doctoral students develop a range of skills that are invaluable in academia and in numerous other fields where PhD holders are prized for their skills in communication, critical analysis, management of projects and intercultural mediation.

Supervision and mentorship is available from world-leading researchers with international and national contacts and collaborations across policy, government, cultural institutions, academia and industry. With 83% of SELCS-CMII research activity being graded 4* ‘world leading’ and 3* ‘internationally excellent’ in the REF 2021.

There are many opportunities for networking whilst undertaking this programme, namely in areas within membership of cultural institutions like the British Museum. There are also research organisations such as the British Library and cultural organisations, such as the Cervantes Institute. There are research hubs at UCL (IAS or the SAS) all available for great networking opportunities.

Students are strongly encouraged to attend and give papers at conferences, establishing contacts with academics and also peers working in their field.

Teaching and learning

Research students undertake relevant induction sessions and can take advantage of the Doctoral Skills Development Programme. PhD students meet regularly in term time with their supervisors and may be offered opportunities to gain valuable teaching experience and participate in reading groups and conferences.

Students are normally required to make a presentation on their plans to the departmental staff in the summer of their first year. All UCL research students have to submit a substantial report and defend their research plans in an Upgrade Exam in order to transfer from MPhil to PhD registration status, normally within 9 to 18 months of first enrolment.

The maximum length of the PhD thesis is 100,000 words. The ideal length of a PhD thesis in Comparative Literature is 80,000 words.

To successfully upgrade to a PhD you are required to submit a piece of writing (this is usually based on one chapter from your thesis and a chapter plan for the remainder). You are also required to present and answer questions about this work to a panel consisting of your subsidiary supervisor and another member of the Faculty who acts as an independent assessor.

PhD students should treat their research programme as a full-time job, which equates roughly to 35 hours per week, or 15 hours for Part-time students. Students agree to a timetable of regular meetings with the Principal Supervisor to effectively manage the progression of project aims. This is flexible, at some points it may be necessary to meet more or less often. Full-time students can expect to meet supervisors every two weeks during the academic year, and part-time students every four weeks. If a student has external funding, they should also ensure they meet the Terms & Conditions of the funder.

Research areas and structure

We invite proposals with a comparative, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary focus, including comparative studies of themes, genres, and periods, and research in the following fields: world literature, literary and cultural theory; material and visual cultures; reception studies; cultural history; comparative gender studies and performance studies; diasporas and migration studies; new media. 

Research environment

Research students are encouraged to participate in research seminars across and outside SELCS-CMII including networks such as the London Intercollegiate Network for Comparative Studies . Students contribute significantly to the research environment through the organisation of annual conferences, and participation in seminars and online journals. Students can access special collections in Modern Languages, Culture and History at UCL and other world-class libraries (Senate House and British Library) within walking distance of campus. As well as access to research support in the form of academic skills courses, student-led workshops and reading groups.

In the first instance, candidates should establish a dialogue with a potential supervisor before making a formal application. The length of registration for the research degree programmes is usually three years for full-time and five years for part-time. You are required to register initially for the MPhil degree with the expectation of transfer to PhD after successful completion of an upgrade viva 9-18 months after initial registration.

Upon successful completion of your approved period of registration you may register as a completing research student (CRS) while you write up your thesis.

In the first year, you will be required to take part in a mandatory Skills Seminar Programme. You are expected to agree with your supervisor the basic structure of your research project, an appropriate research method and a realistic plan of work. You will produce and submit a detailed outline of your proposed research to your supervisor for their comments and feedback and be given the opportunity to present your research to UCL academic staff and fellow PhD students.

In the second year, you will be expected to upgrade from MPhil to a PhD. To successfully upgrade to a PhD you are required to submit a piece of writing (this is usually based on one chapter from your thesis and a chapter plan for the remainder). You are also required to present and answer questions about this work to a panel consisting of your subsidiary supervisor and another member of the Faculty who acts as an independent assessor.

The length of registration for the research degree programmes is usually three years for full-time and five years for part-time. You are required to register initially for the MPhil degree with the expectation of transfer to PhD after successful completion of an upgrade viva 9-18 months after initial registration. 

There is no compulsory placement in this programme, but we encourage students to apply to the Yale-UCL exchange programme that offers students to pursue their Comparative Literature studies for one term at the University of Yale.

Accessibility

Details of the accessibility of UCL buildings can be obtained from AccessAble accessable.co.uk . Further information can also be obtained from the UCL Student Support and Wellbeing team .

Fees and funding

Fees for this course.

The tuition fees shown are for the year indicated above. Fees for subsequent years may increase or otherwise vary. Where the programme is offered on a flexible/modular basis, fees are charged pro-rata to the appropriate full-time Master's fee taken in an academic session. Further information on fee status, fee increases and the fee schedule can be viewed on the UCL Students website: ucl.ac.uk/students/fees .

Additional costs

For more information on additional costs for prospective students please go to our estimated cost of essential expenditure at  Accommodation and living costs .

Additional costs may include expenses such as books, stationery, printing or photocopying, and conference registration fees.

The department strives to keep additional costs low. Books and journal articles are usually available via the UCL library (hard copies or via e-journal subscriptions).

The wealth of departmental seminars / colloquiums / symposiums and student organised work in progress sessions give ample opportunities to present research, receive feedback and participate in discussion.

For more information on additional costs for prospective students please go to our estimated cost of essential expenditure at Accommodation and living costs .

Funding your studies

Depending on eligibilty students can apply for a fully funded LAHP studentship. For information about available funding and scholarships please visit our Funding and Scholarships webpage .

For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding website .

Quirk PhD Scholarship

Deadline: 26 January 2024 Value: Fees and maintenance (3yrs) Criteria Based on both academic merit and financial need Eligibility: UK

All applicants must identify and contact potential supervisors before making their application. For more information see our ' Need to Know ' page.

Please note that you may submit applications for a maximum of two graduate programmes (or one application for the Law LLM) in any application cycle.

Choose your programme

Please read the Application Guidance before proceeding with your application.

Year of entry: 2024-2025

Got questions get in touch.

Centre for Multidisciplinary and Intercultural Inquiry

[email protected]

UCL is regulated by the Office for Students .

Prospective Students Graduate

• Graduate degrees
• Taught degrees
• Taught Degrees
• Applying for Graduate Taught Study at UCL
• Research degrees
• Research Degrees
• Funded Research Opportunities
• Doctoral School
• Funded Doctoral Training Programmes
• Applying for Graduate Research Study at UCL
• Teacher training
• Teacher Training
• Early Years PGCE programmes
• Primary PGCE programmes
• Secondary PGCE programmes
• Further Education PGCE programme
• How to apply
• The IOE approach
• Teacher training in the heart of London
• Why choose UCL?
• Entrepreneurship
• Inspiring facilities and resources
• Careers and employability
• Your global alumni community
• Your wellbeing
• Postgraduate Students' Association
• Your life in London
• Accommodation
• Funding your Master's

Recommended pages

• Undergraduate open days
• Postgraduate open days
• Accommodation
• Information for teachers
• Maps and directions
• Sport and fitness

Comparative Literature PhD (On-Campus or by Distance Learning)

Annual tuition fee 2024 entry: UK: £4,778 full-time, £2,389 part-time International: £21,840 full-time; £10,920 part-time (distance learning only) More detail .

• Visit an Open Day
• Request a prospectus
• Course details
• Entry Requirements
• Employability

The PhD in Comparative Literature and Critical Theories at the University of Birmingham offers students the opportunity to propose and develop exciting doctoral projects exploring relevant aspects of the cultures of the world through the study of literature, as well as other cultural forms, and critical theory. 

Hosted in the Department of Modern Languages, this programme counts on the wide expertise of academics able to supervise projects that look into cultural forms produced not only in English, but also in Arabic, Catalan, French, Italian, Persian, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian.  Students are also enabled to work on many aspects of critical theory, from those associated with the Frankfurt School to postcolonial theory, decolonial studies, eco-criticism, critical race theory, gender and sexuality studies, feminist and queer theory, memory studies, translation theory and linguistics.

Students can also benefit from the supervision of academics across the School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music and the College of Arts and Law, enabling support for projects interested in cultural forms beyond literature such as music, film and visual art.

The plurality and diversity that characterises the work of our academics provide unique combinations of expertise that are ideal for ambitious, interdisciplinary projects dialoguing with comparative studies and critical theory.

Virtual Open Day: Postgraduate opportunities in Modern Languages - 27 April 2020, 10:00-11:00

Join us online to watch a range of staff and student videos, and take part in our online chat where Emma Tyler and Lorraine Ryan will be answering your questions about postgraduate study.

Find out more and register

AHRC funding for PhD students

The University of Birmingham is part of the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (M4C), offering Arts and Humanities Research Council PhD studentships for campus-based programmes. These include a number of Collaborative Doctoral Award opportunities. Each studentship includes research fees, a substantial maintenance grant and additional research training support. Applications are open until 12:00 (noon), 13 January 2021.

Find out more

Scholarships for 2024 entry

The University of Birmingham is proud to offer a range of scholarships for our postgraduate programmes. With a scholarship pot worth over £2 million, we are committed to alleviating financial barriers to support you in taking your next steps.

Each scholarship has its own specific deadlines and eligibility criteria. Please familiarise yourself with the information on individual scholarship webpages prior to submitting an application.

Explore our scholarships

A PhD is assessed by a thesis of 80,000 words. You will also need to defend your thesis at a viva voce (oral examination) before a panel of expert examiners. Find out more about what to expect from a PhD.

You can study our Comparative Literature PhD full-time or part-time, on campus or by distance learning. The College of Arts and Law is experienced in delivering high-quality distance learning to students all over the world. Find out more on our  distance learning website .

Incorporating a comparative approach has helped me uncover links and establish parallels between geographically and temporally distant histories and cultures. Employing a comparative perspective has given my research visibility at several conferences this year Yana , PhD Student - Modern Languages

Why study this course?

• Cultural comparisons : You can work comparatively with cultural artefacts in languages other than English
• Truly Interdisciplinary : With access to our wide range of expertise, you can get the right supervision team to develop an interdisciplinary project
• Training and community : You will have access to a strong postgraduate training programme which includes the possibility to learn another language, as well as numerous training courses that will enhance your skills as a researcher. The Department of Modern Languages boasts a  vibrant postgraduate community  and provides a range of support for its research students
• World-leading research : The University of Birmingham is ranked equal 10th in the UK amongst Russell Group universities in the Research Excellence Framework exercise 2021 according to the Times Higher Education

The postgraduate experience

The College of Arts and Law offers excellent support to its postgraduates, from libraries and research spaces, to careers support and funding opportunities. Learn more about your postgraduate experience .

We charge an annual tuition fee. Fees for 2024 entry are as follows:

• UK: £4,778 full-time; £2,389 part-time *
• International: £21,840 full-time; £10,920 part-time (distance learning only)

The same fees apply to both campus-based and distance learning study. The distance learning programme also includes one fully-funded visit to campus in the first year of study.

The above fees quoted are for one year only; for those studying over two or more years, tuition fees will also be payable in subsequent years of your programme.

* For UK postgraduate research students the University fee level is set at Research Council rates and as such is subject to change. The final fee will be announced by Research Councils UK in spring 2024.

Eligibility for UK or international fees can be verified with Admissions. Learn more about fees for international students .

Paying your fees

Tuition fees can either be paid in full or by instalments. Learn more about postgraduate tuition fees and funding .

* Please note if you apply for the Postgraduate Doctoral loan you will need to enter the course name as PhD Modern Languages on the UK Government application webpage. 

How To Apply

Application deadlines.

Postgraduate research can start at any time during the year, but it is important to allow time for us to review your application and communicate a decision. If you wish to start in September 2024, we would recommend that you aim to submit your application and supporting documents by 1 June 2024.

If the programme has a Distance learning option then students will usually attend a residential visit in September or January, and those students wishing to attend the September residential are also encouraged to apply by 1 June 2024. The visit will take place at the end of September/beginning of October and you will receive further details once you have accepted your offer.

Six easy steps to apply for a postgraduate research course in the College of Arts and Law

Six steps to apply for our Postgraduate Research courses

Do you have an idea for an interesting research project? You can follow our six easy steps to apply to study for our postgraduate research courses . These include guidance on identifying funding opportunities and writing your research proposal .

Please also see our additional guidance for  applicants to the PhD Distance Learning study mode .

Please note: While our PhD programmes are normally studied in three years full-time or six years part-time, and Masters-level research programmes one year full-time or two years part-time, many programmes have a longer length listed in course or funding applications. This is because the course length is defined as the maximum period of registration, which includes a period of supervised study plus a thesis awaited period. The maximum period of registration for a full-time PhD is four years (three years supervision plus one year thesis awaited). For a full-time Masters-level research programme, it is two years (one year supervision plus one year thesis awaited). For part-time programmes, the periods are double the full-time equivalent.

Making your application

• How to apply

To apply for a postgraduate research programme, you will need to submit your application and supporting documents online. We have put together some helpful information on the research programme application process and supporting documents on our how to apply page . Please read this information carefully before completing your application.

Our Standard Requirements

Our requirements for postgraduate research are dependent on the type of programme you are applying for:

• For MRes and MA by Research programmes, entry to our programmes usually requires a good (normally a 2:1 or above) Honours degree, or an equivalent qualification if you were educated outside the UK, usually in a relevant area.
• Applicants for a PhD will also need to hold a Masters qualification at Merit level or above (or its international equivalent), usually in a relevant area.

Any academic and professional qualifications or relevant professional experience you may have are normally taken into account, and in some cases, form an integral part of the entrance requirements.

If you are applying for distance learning research programmes, you will also be required to demonstrate that you have the time, commitment, facilities and experience to study by distance learning.

If your qualifications are non-standard or different from the entry requirements stated here, please contact the admissions tutor.

International students

IELTS 6.5 with no less than 6.0 in any band is equivalent to:

• TOEFL: 88 overall with no less than 21 in Reading, 21 Listening, 22 Speaking and 21 in Writing
• Pearson Test of English (PTE): Academic 59 in all four skills
• Cambridge English (exams taken from 2015): Advanced - minimum overall score of 176, with no less than 169 in any component

Learn more about international entry requirements

International Requirements

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree, with a GPA of 14/20 from a recognised institution to be considered. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Holders of the Licenciado or an equivalent professional title from a recognised Argentinian university, with a promedio of at least 7.5, may be considered for entry to a postgraduate degree programme. Applicants for PhD degrees will normally have a Maestria or equivalent

Applicants who hold a Masters degree will be considered for admission to PhD study.

Holders of a good four-year Diplomstudium/Magister or a Masters degree from a recognised university with a minimum overall grade of 2.5 will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Students with a good 5-year Specialist Diploma or 4-year Bachelor degree from a recognised higher education institution in Azerbaijan, with a minimum GPA of 4/5 or 80% will be considered for entry to postgraduate taught programmes at the University of Birmingham.

For postgraduate research programmes applicants should have a good 5-year Specialist Diploma (completed after 1991), with a minimum grade point average of 4/5 or 80%, from a recognised higher education institution or a Masters or “Magistr Diplomu” or “Kandidat Nauk” from a recognised higher education institution in Azerbaijan.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree, with a GPA of 3.0/4.0 or 75% from a recognised institution to be considered. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and will usually be required to have completed a Masters degree, with a CGPA of 3.0-3.3/4.0 or higher for 2:1 equivalency from a recognised institution to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Students who hold a Masters degree from the University of Botswana with a minimum GPA of 3.0/4.0 or 3.5/5.0 (70%/B/'very good') will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees.

Please note 4-year bachelor degrees from the University of Botswana are considered equivalent to a Diploma of Higher Education. 5-year bachelor degrees from the University of Botswana are considered equivalent to a British Bachelor (Ordinary) degree.

Students who have completed a Masters degree from a recognised institution will be considered for PhD study.

A Licenciatura or Bacharelado degree from a recognised Brazilian university:

• A grade of 7.5/10 for entry to programmes with a 2:1 requirement
• A grade of 6.5/10for entry to programmes with a 2:2 requirement

Holders of a good Bachelors degree with honours (4 to 6 years) from a recognised university with a upper second class grade or higher will be considered for entry to taught postgraduate programmes.  Holders of a good Masters degree from a recognised university will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Holders of a good post-2001 Masters degree from a recognised university will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Students with a minimum average of 14 out of 20 (or 70%) on a 4-year Licence, Bachelor degree or Diplôme d'Etudes Superieures de Commerce (DESC) or Diplôme d'Ingénieur or a Maîtrise will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees.

Holders of a bachelor degree with honours from a recognised Canadian university may be considered for entry to a postgraduate degree programme. A GPA of 3.0/4, 7.0/9 or 75% is usually equivalent to a UK 2.1.

Holders of the Licenciado or equivalent Professional Title from a recognised Chilean university will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees. Applicants for PhD study will preferably hold a Magister degree or equivalent.

Students with a bachelor’s degree (4 years minimum) may be considered for entry to a postgraduate degree programme. However please note that we will only consider students who meet the entry guidance below.  Please note: for the subject areas below we use the Shanghai Ranking 2022 (full table)  ,  Shanghai Ranking 2023 (full table) , and Shanghai Ranking of Chinese Art Universities 2023 .

需要具备学士学位（4年制）的申请人可申请研究生课程。请根据所申请的课程查看相应的入学要求。 请注意，中国院校名单参考 软科中国大学排名2022（总榜） ，  软科中国大学排名2023（总榜） ，以及 软科中国艺术类高校名单2023 。  

Business School    - MSc programmes (excluding MBA)  

商学院硕士课程（MBA除外）入学要求

School of Computer Science – all MSc programmes 计算机学院硕士课程入学要求

College of Social Sciences – courses listed below 社会科学 学院部分硕士课程入学要求 MA Education  (including all pathways) MSc TESOL Education MSc Public Management MA Global Public Policy MA Social Policy MA Sociology Department of Political Science and International Studies  全部硕士课程 International Development Department  全部硕士课程

  All other programmes (including MBA)   所有其他 硕士课程（包括 MBA）入学要求

Please note:

• Borderline cases: We may consider students with lower average score (within 5%) on a case-by-case basis if you have a relevant degree and very excellent grades in relevant subjects and/or relevant work experience. 如申请人均分低于相应录取要求（5%以内），但具有出色学术背景，优异的专业成绩，以及（或）相关的工作经验，部分课程将有可能单独酌情考虑。
• Please contact the China Recruitment Team for any questions on the above entry requirements. 如果您对录取要求有疑问，请联系伯明翰大学中国办公室   [email protected]

Holders of the Licenciado/Professional Title from a recognised Colombian university will be considered for our Postgraduate Diploma and Masters degrees. Applicants for PhD degrees will normally have a Maestria or equivalent.

Holders of a good bachelor degree with honours (4 to 6 years) from a recognised university with a upper second class grade or higher will be considered for entry to taught postgraduate programmes.  Holders of a good Masters degree from a recognised university will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Holders of a good Bacclaureus (Bachelors) from a recognised Croatian Higher Education institution with a minimum overall grade of 4.0 out of 5.0, vrlo dobar ‘very good’, or a Masters degree, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Holders of a Bachelors degree(from the University of the West Indies or the University of Technology) may be considered for entry to a postgraduate degree programme. A Class II Upper Division degree is usually equivalent to a UK 2.1. For further details on particular institutions please refer to the list below.  Applicants for PhD level study will preferably hold a Masters degree or Mphil from the University of the West Indies.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a good Bachelors degree from a recognised institution with a minimum overall grade of 6.5 out of 10, or a GPA of 3 out of 4, and will usually be required to have completed a good Masters degree to be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Holders of a good Bakalár from a recognised Czech Higher Education institution with a minimum overall grade of 1.5, B, velmi dobre ‘very good’ (post-2004) or 2, velmi dobre ‘good’ (pre-2004), or a good post-2002 Magistr (Masters), will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a good Bachelors degree from a recognised institution with a minimum overall grade of 7-10 out of 12 (or 8 out of 13) or higher for 2:1 equivalence and will usually be required to have completed a good Masters/ Magisterkonfereus/Magister Artium degree to be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Holders of the Licenciado or an equivalent professional title from a recognised Ecuadorian university may be considered for entry to a postgraduate degree programme. Grades of 70% or higher can be considered as UK 2.1 equivalent.  Applicants for PhD level study will preferably hold a Magister/Masterado or equivalent qualification, but holders of the Licenciado with excellent grades can be considered.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree, with a GPA of 3.0/4.0 or 75% from a recognised institution. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Holders of a good Bakalaurusekraad from a recognised university with a minimum overall grade of 4/5 or B, or a good one- or two-year Magistrikraad from a recognised university, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Students who hold a Masters degree with very good grades (grade B, 3.5/4 GPA or 85%) will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees. 

Holders of a good Kandidaatti / Kandidat (old system), a professional title such as Ekonomi, Diplomi-insinööri, Arkkitehti, Lisensiaatti (in Medicine, Dentistry and Vetinary Medicine), or a Maisteri / Magister (new system), Lisensiaatti / Licenciat, Oikeustieteen Kandidaatti / Juris Kandidat (new system) or Proviisori / Provisor from a recognised Finnish Higher Education institution, with a minimum overall grade of 2/3 or 4/5, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a should hold a Bachelors degree and will usually be required to have completed a Masters/Maîtrise with a minimum overall grade of 13 out of 20, or a Magistère / Diplôme d'Etudes Approfondies / Diplôme d'Etudes Supérieures Specialisées / Mastère Specialis, from a recognised French university or Grande École to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Holders of a Magister Artium, a Diplom or an Erstes Staatsexamen from a recognised university with a minimum overall grade of 2.5, or a good two-year Lizentiat / Aufbaustudium / Zweites Staatsexamen or a Masters degree from a recognised university, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Students who hold a Bachelor degree from a recognised institution will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees. Most taught Masters programmes require a minimum of an upper second class degree (2.1) with a minimum GPA of at least 3.0/4.0 or 3.5/5.0 Students who have completed a Masters degree from a recognised institution will be considered for PhD study.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a good four-year Ptychio (Bachelor degree) with a minimum overall grade of 6.5 out of 10, from a recognised Greek university (AEI), and will usually be required to have completed a good Metaptychiako Diploma Eidikefsis (Masters degree) from a recognised institution to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

4-year Licenciado is deemed equivalent to a UK bachelors degree. A score of 75 or higher from Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC) can be considered comparable to a UK 2.1, 60 is comparable to a UK 2.2.  Private universities have a higher pass mark, so 80 or higher should be considered comparable to a UK 2.1, 70 is comparable to a UK 2.2

The Hong Kong Bachelor degree is considered comparable to British Bachelor degree standard. Students with bachelor degrees awarded by universities in Hong Kong may be considered for entry to one of our postgraduate degree programmes.

Students with Masters degrees may be considered for PhD study.

Holders of a good Alapfokozat / Alapképzés or Egyetemi Oklevel from a recognised university with a minimum overall grade of 3.5, or a good Mesterfokozat (Masters degree) or Egyetemi Doktor (university doctorate), will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and will usually be required to have completed a Masters degree, with a 60% or higher for 2:1 equivalency from a recognised institution to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Holders of the 4 year Sarjana (S1) from a recognised Indonesian institution will be considered for postgraduate study. Entry requirements vary with a minimum requirement of a GPA of 2.8.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree, with a score of 14/20 or 70% from a recognised institution to be considered. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and will usually be required to have completed a Masters degree from a recognised institution, with 100 out of 110 or higher for 2:1 equivalency from a recognised institution to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Students who hold the Maitrise, Diplome d'Etude Approfondies, Diplome d'Etude Superieures or Diplome d'Etude Superieures Specialisees will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees (14-15/20 or Bien from a well ranked institution is considered comparable to a UK 2.1, while a score of 12-13/20 or Assez Bien is considered comparable to a UK 2.2).

Students with a Bachelor degree from a recognised university in Japan will be considered for entry to a postgraduate Masters degree provided they achieve a sufficiently high overall score in their first (Bachelor) degree. A GPA of 3.0/4.0 or a B average from a good Japanese university is usually considered equivalent to a UK 2:1.

Students with a Masters degree from a recognised university in Japan will be considered for PhD study. A high overall grade will be necessary to be considered.

Students who have completed their Specialist Diploma Мамаң дипломы/Диплом специалиста) or "Magistr" (Магистр дипломы/Диплом магистра) degree (completed after 1991) from a recognised higher education institution, with a minimum GPA of 2.67/4.00 for courses requiring a UK lower second and 3.00/4.00 for courses requiring a UK upper second class degree, will be considered for entry to postgraduate Masters degrees and, occasionally, directly for PhD degrees.  Holders of a Bachelor "Bakalavr" degree (Бакалавр дипломы/Диплом бакалавра) from a recognised higher education institution, with a minimum GPA of  2.67/4.00 for courses requiring a UK lower second and 3.00/4.00 for courses requiring a UK upper second class degree, may also be considered for entry to taught postgraduate programmes.

Students who hold a Bachelor degree from a recognised institution will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees. Most taught Masters programmes require a minimum of an upper second class degree (2.1) with a minimum GPA of at least 3.0/4.0 or 3.5/50

Holders of a good Postgraduate Diploma (professional programme) from a recognised university or institution of Higher Education, with a minimum overall grade of 7.5 out of 10, or a post-2000 Magistrs, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree, with a score of 16/20 or 80% from a recognised institution to be considered. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Holders of a Bachelors degree from a recognised university in Libya will be considered for postgraduate study. Holders of a Bachelors degree will normally be expected to have achieved score of 70% for 2:1 equivalency or 65% for 2:2 equivalency. Alternatively students will require a minimum of 3.0/4.0 or BB to be considered.

Holders of a good pre-2001 Magistras from a recognised university with a minimum overall grade of 8 out of 10, or a good post-2001 Magistras, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes

Holders of a good Bachelors degree from a recognised Luxembourgish Higher Education institution with a minimum overall grade of 16 out of 20, or a Diplôme d'Études Supérieures Spécialisées (comparable to a UK PGDip) or Masters degree from a recognised Luxembourgish Higher Education institution will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Students who hold a Masters degree will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees (70-74% or A or Marginal Distinction from a well ranked institution is considered comparable to a UK 2.1, while a score of 60-69% or B or Bare Distinction/Credit is considered comparable to a UK 2.2).

Holders of a Bachelors degree from a recognised Malaysian institution (usually achieved with the equivalent of a second class upper or a grade point average minimum of 3.0) will be considered for postgraduate study at Diploma or Masters level.

Holders of a good Bachelors degree from the University of Malta with a minimum grade of 2:1 (Hons), and/or a Masters degree, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Students who hold a Bachelor degree (Honours) from a recognised institution (including the University of Mauritius) will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees.  Most taught Masters programmes require a minimum of an upper second class degree (2:1).

Students who hold the Licenciado/Professional Titulo from a recognised Mexican university with a promedio of at least 8 will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees.

Students who have completed a Maestria from a recognised institution will be considered for PhD study.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree, licence or Maîtrise and a Masters degree, with a score of 14/20 or 70% from a recognised institution to be considered. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Students with a good four year honours degree from a recognised university will be considered for postgraduate study at the University of Birmingham. PhD applications will be considered on an individual basis.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and will usually be required to have completed a Masters degree, with 60-74% or higher for 2:1 equivalency from a recognised institution to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Holders of a good Doctoraal from a recognised Dutch university with a minimum overall grade of 7 out of 10, and/or a good Masters degree, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Students who hold a Bachelor degree (minimum 4 years and/or level 400) from a recognised institution will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees.  Most taught Masters programmes require a minimum of an upper second class degree (2.1) with a minimum GPA of at least 3.0/4.0 or 3.5/5.0

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a good Bachelors degree from a recognised institution with a minimum GPA of B/Very Good or 1.6-2.5 for a 2.1 equivalency, and will usually be required to have completed a good Masters, Mastergrad, Magister. Artium, Sivilingeniør, Candidatus realium or Candidatus philologiae degree to be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and will usually be required to have completed a Masters degree, with a CGPA of 3.0/4 or higher for 2:1 equivalency from a recognised institution to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Holders of a Bachelors degree from a recognised university in the Palestinian Territories will be considered for postgraduate study. Holders of Bachelors degree will normally be expected to have achieved a GPA of 3/4 or 80% for 2:1 equivalency or a GPA of 2.5/4 or 70% for 2:2 equivalency.    

Holders of the Título de Licenciado /Título de (4-6 years) or an equivalent professional title from a recognised Paraguayan university may be considered for entry to a postgraduate degree programme. Grades of 4/5 or higher can be considered as UK 2.1 equivalent.  The Título Intermedio is a 2-3 year degree and is equivalent to a HNC, it is not suitable for postgraduate entry but holders of this award could be considered for second year undergraduate entry or pre-Masters.  Applicants for PhD level study will preferably hold a Título de Maestría / Magister or equivalent qualification, but holders of the Título/Grado de Licenciado/a with excellent grades can be considered.

Holders of the Licenciado, with at least 13/20 may be considered as UK 2.1 equivalent. The Grado de Bachiller is equivalent to an ordinary degree, so grades of 15+/20 are required.  Applicants for PhD level study will preferably hold a Título de Maestría or equivalent qualification.

Holders of a good pre-2001 Magister from a recognised Polish university with a minimum overall grade of 4 out of 5, dobry ‘good’, and/or a good Swiadectwo Ukonczenia Studiów Podyplomowych (Certificate of Postgraduate Study) or post-2001 Magister from a recognised Polish university with a minimum overall grade of 4.5/4+ out of 5, dobry plus 'better than good', will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Holders of a good Licenciado from a recognised university, or a Diploma de Estudos Superiores Especializados (DESE) from a recognised Polytechnic Institution, with a minimum overall grade of 16 out of 20, and/or a good Mestrado / Mestre (Masters) from a recognised university, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a good Bachelors degree from a recognised Romanian Higher Education institution with a minimum overall grade of 8 out of 10, and will usually be required to have completed a Masters degree/Diploma de Master/Diploma de Studii Academice Postuniversitare (Postgraduate Diploma - Academic Studies) or Diploma de Studii Postuniversitare de Specializare (Postgraduate Diploma - Specialised Studies) to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Holders of a good Диплом Специалиста (Specialist Diploma) or Диплом Магистра (Magistr) degree from recognised universities in Russia (minimum GPA of 4.0) will be considered for entry to taught postgraduate programmes/PhD study.

Students who hold a 4-year Bachelor degree with at least 16/20 or 70% will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees.   

Students who hold a Maitrise, Diplome d'Etude Approfondies,Diplome d'Etude Superieures or Diplome d'Etude Superieures Specialisees will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees. A score of 14-15/20 or Bien from a well ranked institution is considered comparable to a UK 2.1, while a score of 12-13/20 or Assez Bien is considered comparable to a UK 2.2

Students who hold a Bachelor (Honours) degree from a recognised institution with a minimum GPA of 3.0/4.0 or 3.5/5.0 (or a score of 60-69% or B+) from a well ranked institution will be considered for most our Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees with a 2:1 requirement.

Students holding a good Bachelors Honours degree will be considered for postgraduate study at Diploma or Masters level.

Holders of a good three-year Bakalár or pre-2002 Magister from a recognised Slovakian Higher Education institution with a minimum overall grade of 1.5, B, Vel’mi dobrý ‘very good’, and/or a good Inžinier or a post-2002 Magister from a recognised Slovakian Higher Education institution will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Holders of a good Diploma o pridobljeni univerzitetni izobrazbi (Bachelors degree), Diplomant (Professionally oriented first degree), Univerzitetni diplomant (Academically oriented first degree) or Visoko Obrazovanja (until 1999) from a recognised Slovenian Higher Education institution with a minimum overall grade of 8.0 out of 10, and/or a good Diploma specializacija (Postgraduate Diploma) or Magister (Masters) will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Students who hold a Bachelor Honours degree (also known as Baccalaureus Honores / Baccalaureus Cum Honoribus) from a recognised institution will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees. Most Masters programmes will require a second class upper (70%) or a distinction (75%).

Holders of a Masters degree will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Holders of a Bachelor degree from a recognised South Korean institution (usually with the equivalent of a second class upper or a grade point average 3.0/4.0 or 3.2/4.5) will be considered for Masters programmes.

Holders of a good Masters degree from a recognised institution will be considered for PhD study on an individual basis.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and will usually be required to have completed a Masters degree, with 7 out of 10 or higher for 2:1 equivalency from a recognised institution to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and will usually be required to have completed a Masters degree, with 60-74% or a CGPA 3.30/4.0 or higher for 2:1 equivalency from a recognised institution to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Holders of a good Kandidatexamen (Bachelors degree) or Yrkesexamen (Professional Bachelors degree) from a recognised Swedish Higher Education institution with the majority of subjects with a grade of VG (Val godkänd), and/or a good Magisterexamen (Masters degree), International Masters degree or Licentiatexamen (comparable to a UK Mphil), will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Holders of a good "PostGraduate Certificate" or "PostGraduate Diploma" or a Masters degree from a recognised Swiss higher education institution (with a minimum GPA of 5/6 or 8/10 or 2/5 (gut-bien-bene/good) for a 2.1 equivalence) may be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree, with a GPA of 3.0/4.0, 3.5/5 or 75% from a recognised institution to be considered. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

Holders of a good Bachelor degree (from 75% to 85% depending upon the university in Taiwan) from a recognised institution will be considered for postgraduate Masters study. Holders of a good Masters degree from a recognised institution will be considered for PhD study.

Students who hold a Bachelor degree from a recognised institution will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees.  Most taught Masters programmes require a minimum of an upper second class degree (2.1) Students who have completed a Masters degree from a recognised institution will be considered for PhD study.

Holders of a good Masters degree from a recognised institution will be considered for entry to our postgraduate research programmes.

Holders of a good Masters degree or Mphil from a recognised university will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.

Students with a Bachelors degree from the following universities may be considered for entry to postgraduate programmes:

• Ateneo de Manila University - Quezon City
• De La Salle University - Manila
• University of Santo Tomas
• University of the Philippines - Diliman

Students from all other institutions with a Bachelors and a Masters degree or relevant work experience may be considered for postgraduate programmes.

Grading Schemes

1-5 where 1 is the highest 2.1 = 1.75 2.2 = 2.25 

Out of 4.0 where 4 is the highest 2.1 = 3.0 2.2 = 2.5

Letter grades and percentages 2.1 = B / 3.00 / 83% 2.2 = C+ / 2.5 / 77%

Holders of a postdoctoral qualification from a recognised institution will be considered for PhD study.  Students may be considered for PhD study if they have a Masters from one of the above listed universities.

Holders of a Lisans Diplomasi with a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.0/4.0 from a recognised university will be considered for postgraduate study at Diploma or Masters level.

Holders of a Yuksek Diplomasi from a recognised university will be considered for PhD study.

Students who hold a Bachelor degree from a recognised institution will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees. Most Masters programmes will require a second class upper (2.1) or GPA of 3.5/5.0

Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a good Bachelors degree / Диплом бакалавра (Dyplom Bakalavra), Диплом спеціаліста (Specialist Diploma) or a Dyplom Magistra from a recognised Ukrainian higher education institution with a minimum GPA of 4.0/5.0, 3.5/4, 8/12 or 80% or higher for 2:1 equivalence and will usually be required to have completed a good Masters degree to be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.

The University will consider students who hold an Honours degree from a recognised institution in the USA with a GPA of:

• 2.8 GPA (on a 4.0 scale) for entry to programmes with a 2:2 requirement 
• 3.2 GPA (on a 4.0 scale) for entry to programmes with a 2:1 requirement 

Please note that some subjects which are studied at postgraduate level in the USA, eg. Medicine and Law, are traditionally studied at undergraduate level in the UK.

Holders of the Magistr Diplomi (Master's degree) or Diplomi (Specialist Diploma), awarded by prestigious universities, who have attained high grades in their studies will be considered for postgraduate study.  Holders of the Fanlari Nomzodi (Candidate of Science), where appropriate, will be considered for PhD study.

Holders of the Licenciatura/Título or an equivalent professional title from a recognised Venezuelan university may be considered for entry to a postgraduate degree programme. Scales of 1-5, 1-10 and 1-20 are used, an overall score of 70% or equivalent can be considered equivalent to a UK 2.1.  Applicants for PhD level study will preferably hold a Maestria or equivalent qualification

Holders of a Bachelors degree from a recognised Vietnamese institution (usually achieved with the equivalent of a second class upper or a grade point average minimum GPA of 7.0 and above) will be considered for postgraduate study at Diploma or Masters level.  Holders of a Masters degree (thac si) will be considered for entry to PhD programmes.

Students who hold a Masters degree with a minimum GPA of 3.5/5.0 or a mark of 2.0/2.5 (A) will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees.   

Students who hold a good Bachelor Honours degree will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees. 

Our specific research strengths include expertise in postcolonial and decolonial studies, world literature, translation studies, gender and sexuality studies, world cinema, adaptation theory, memory studies.

Potential supervisors are drawn principally from the Departments of Modern Languages, Art History, Curating and Visual Studies, and English, but may also be based in other departments.

We list here some of the potential supervisors able to support research in this field and encourage applicants to contact the Programme Convenor, Dr Charlotte Ross in the first instance for advice on whom to approach.

Modern Languages:

• Hilary Brown
• Elliot Evans
• Louise Hardwick
• Margarida McMurray
• Lucy O’Sullivan
• Charlotte Ross
• Emanuelle Santos
• Berny Sèbe
• Emma Wagstaff
• Andrew Watts

English Studies:

• Peter Auger
• Rebecca Mitchell
• Asha Rogers

Your degree will provide excellent preparation for your future career, but this can also be enhanced by a range of employability support services offered by the University and the College of Arts and Law.

The University's Careers Network  provides expert guidance and activities especially for postgraduates, which will help you achieve your career goals. The College of Arts and Law also has a dedicated  careers and employability team  who offer tailored advice and a programme of College-specific careers events.

You will be encouraged to make the most of your postgraduate experience and will have the opportunity to:

• Receive one-to-one careers advice, including guidance on your job applications, writing your CV and improving your interview technique, whether you are looking for a career inside or outside of academia
• Meet employers face-to-face at on-campus recruitment fairs and employer presentations
• Attend an annual programme of careers fairs, skills workshops and conferences, including bespoke events for postgraduates in the College of Arts and Law
• Take part in a range of activities to demonstrate your knowledge and skills to potential employers and enhance your CV

What’s more, you will be able to access our full range of careers support for up to 2 years after graduation.

Postgraduate employability: Modern Languages

Our Modern Languages postgraduates develop excellent communication skills, cultural awareness and foreign language skills - all highly sought after by employers at home or abroad. Postgraduates in Modern Languages also have a range of transferable skills including the ability to gather and interpret information, organisational skills and the ability to work well with others.

Many of our graduates enter roles for which their programme prepared them, such as language teaching oe translation. Others use their transferable skills in a wide range of occupations including publishing, executive research and project management. Employers that graduates have gone on to work for include Language Connect, RWS Group, TransPerfect Global Business Solutions, University of Birmingham, University of Cambridge and University of Oxford.

The department has an excellent employability record, and the majority of graduates go on to successful careers. Find out about how our alumni, have used the skills they developed studying Modern Languages at postgraduate level within their careers.

Graduates in Comparative Literature can pursue careers in academia, the arts and media, journalism, public relations, publishing, and teaching (including Teacher of English as a Foreign Language), the charity sector, and politics.

• Online chat events
• Ask our students

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)

Our cookies

We use cookies for three reasons: to give you the best experience on PGS, to make sure the PGS ads you see on other sites are relevant , and to measure website usage. Some of these cookies are necessary to help the site work properly and can’t be switched off. Cookies also support us to provide our services for free, and by click on “Accept” below, you are agreeing to our use of cookies .You can manage your preferences now or at any time.

Privacy overview

We use cookies, which are small text files placed on your computer, to allow the site to work for you, improve your user experience, to provide us with information about how our site is used, and to deliver personalised ads which help fund our work and deliver our service to you for free.

The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalised web experience.

You can accept all, or else manage cookies individually. However, blocking some types of cookies may affect your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

You can change your cookies preference at any time by visiting our Cookies Notice page. Please remember to clear your browsing data and cookies when you change your cookies preferences. This will remove all cookies previously placed on your browser.

For more detailed information about the cookies we use, or how to clear your browser cookies data see our Cookies Notice

Manage consent preferences

Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems.

They are essential for you to browse the website and use its features.

You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. We can’t identify you from these cookies.

Functional cookies

These help us personalise our sites for you by remembering your preferences and settings. They may be set by us or by third party providers, whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies, then these services may not function properly.

Performance cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and see where our traffic comes from, so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are popular and see how visitors move around the site. The cookies cannot directly identify any individual users.

If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site and will not be able to improve its performance for you.

Marketing cookies

These cookies may be set through our site by social media services or our advertising partners. Social media cookies enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They can track your browser across other sites and build up a profile of your interests. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to see or use the content sharing tools.

Advertising cookies may be used to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but work by uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will still see ads, but they won’t be tailored to your interests.

Comparative Literature PhD

University of glasgow, different course options.

• Key information

Course Summary

Tuition fees, entry requirements, university information, similar courses at this uni, key information data source : idp connect, qualification type.

PhD/DPhil - Doctor of Philosophy

Subject areas

Comparative Literature

Course type

Comparative Literature is an exciting interdisciplinary, intercultural, and inter-medial discipline housed in our School of Modern Languages and Cultures with expertise in ten modern languages and cultures.

The strengths of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures (SMLC) lie in the languages and literatures of Europe, both east and west. For this reason our Comparative Literature Programme might be subtitled: European and European Influenced. There is indeed still much work to be done in having East meet West since the fall of the Wall so many years ago, and we are proudly placed, with our Slavonic subject areas, to enable research and teaching in this cross-over area. We cross into the New World as well, having staff working on, for example, Quebecois literature, Mexican and Brazilian, as well as North American Anglophone literature.

Comparative Literature has close collaborative links, not only with disciplines such as Translations Studies, English Literature, Scottish Literature and Classics, but also with History, Art History, Philosophy, Gender History, as well as Central and East European Studies and Economic and Social History, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Medical Humanities, and Digital Humanities. We are also involved within larger networks such as Human Rights Network and GRAMnet (Glasgow Refugee, Asylum and Migration network), and the School of Modern Languages and Cultures is home to the Stirling Maxwell Centre for Text/Image Studies.

This allows us to offer a very wide variety of research pathways for students with diverse backgrounds and interests. Our special strengths linguistically include languages of Eastern, Central, and Western Europe and Latin America as well as Mandarin. Links with other Schools provides access to classical, mediaeval, and other modern languages.

We currently have a cohort of 25 taught Masters and roughly 30 postgraduate research students within the School of Modern Languages and Culture. Our research students organise a regular seminar series and play an active role in building a thriving research environment beneficial to all postgraduate students within modern languages and cultures.

Thesis length: 70,000-100,000 words, including references, bibliography and appendices (other than documentary appendices).

A Doctor of Philosophy may be awarded to a student whose thesis is an original work making a significant contribution to knowledge in, or understanding of, a field of study and normally containing material worthy of publication.

UK fees Course fees for UK students

For this course (per year)

International fees Course fees for EU and international students

Our regular standard of admission is at least an Upper Second Class Honours degree (2:1), although candidates will usually also have completed or be undertaking a Masters qualification.

The University of Glasgow is one of four ancient universities in Scotland, founded back in 1451. Alumni include seven Nobel Prize winners, Scotland’s First Minister and a Prime Minister, while Albert Einstein gave a seminal lecture on the theory of relativity there in 1933. The university consists of four colleges: College of Arts College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences College of Science and Engineering College of... more

Comparative Literature MLitt

Full time | 12 months | 23-SEP-24

Comparative Literature MLitt (Research)

Full time | 2 years | 23-SEP-24

Comparative Literature MPhil (Research)

Full time | 1 year | 23-SEP-24

Comparative Literature MRes

MPhil in Modern Languages

• Entry requirements
• Funding and Costs

College preference

• How to Apply

About the course

The MPhil in Modern Languages is designed to allow those who have a high level of attainment in a foreign language, and have studied literature to a degree level, to undertake more advanced work. The course is suitable either if you wish to proceed to a research degree or if you wish to spend only two years at Oxford.

The MPhil in Modern Languages allows you to undertake advanced work in one or more languages and literatures, and as part of the faculty's dedicated comparative pathway. The Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages is one of the largest centres of its kind in the world and is consistently ranked highly in the QS rankings of Modern Languages departments. You will join a research community spanning medieval studies, early modern literature and culture, through to modern and contemporary literature, film, and cultural history.

Areas of particular interest that span the faculty's different languages and period specialisms include:

• Cognitive Literary Studies
• Comparative Literature and Translation Studies
• Gender and Diversity
• Ecology and Environmental Humanities
• Medical Humanities and Life Writing
• Performance and Voice
• Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies

If you wish to proceed to a research degree, the MPhil will allow you to work towards the identification of a precise thesis subject and to gather research materials. This degree is also suitable if you do not wish to proceed to a research degree, as it will enable you to build upon your undergraduate studies and to reflect on the methods of literary and cultural analysis.

Course structure

The emphasis in the MPhil course is on self-directed learning. You may choose to pursue a single language or study two literatures (including English) comparatively. You may also follow programmes in European Enlightenment, cultural studies, or medieval literatures. The course provides a general framework within which you will be encouraged, in conversation with the faculty, to develop your own programme of study. The degree comprises three components:

Special subject options

You will take three special subject options

Courses are offered across different language strands and specialisms, subject to the availability of the relevant supervisors in any particular year. Each special subject runs across one of either Michaelmas or Hilary terms, and normally involves four meetings, which, depending on student numbers, may take the form of classes or tutorials. These meetings are normally fortnightly.

Popular language-specific options include:

• Conscience and Consciousness in French and Francophone Literature.
• Contemporary Brazilian Fiction
• Francophone Literature
• Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Russian Literature
• Latin American Cinema
• Literature and Culture of the Berlin Republic
• Lusophone Women Writers
• Modern Greek Literature in Comparative Frames
• Problems in Dante Interpretation
• Realism and Its Alternatives in Spanish American Narrative
• Women’s Writing in Medieval Germany

You may also study cross-linguistic comparative options including European Enlightenment, Cultural Studies, Contesting Colonialisms, and Rethinking Subjectivity: Technology, Ecology, Critique, and Fictions.  Full listings and further details of courses  can be found on the faculty's website.

Theoretical or methodological component

The theoretical/methodological course runs across during Michaelmas and Hilary terms, and involves a series of hour-long lectures and, depending on student numbers, either seminars or tutorials, lasting up to two hours, in which you will give presentations to your tutor/s and peers. At the end of Hilary term, you will be required to submit an essay for assessment. Students can undertake one of the following courses:

• History of Ideas in Germany from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Centuries
• Key Questions in Critical Thought
• Palaeography, History of the Book and Digital Humanities
• Spaces of Comparison

Dissertation

You will complete a dissertation project during your second year of study.

Supervision

The allocation of graduate supervision for this course is the responsibility of the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and it is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. Under exceptional circumstances a supervisor may be found outside the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages. The frequency of your meetings with your supervisor will vary across the year, but you will see them on average at least once a fortnight.

For your three special subjects options, with your supervisor(s), you will select your best essay(s) to be submitted for examination. Special subject submissions may comprise of one essay, or a portfolio of two essays.

The portfolio will be jointly marked by an examiner and your special subject tutor. Should there be any substantial disagreement between the two markers, an external examiner will adjudicate. The assessor(s) will take account of the fact that the essays were written in the first two terms of your course.

You will choose one of the faculty's Methods of Criticism or Scholarship seminars, and submit an essay at the end of the second term.

Lastly, you will submit a dissertation in the final term of study.

Graduate destinations

Many MPhil students proceed to doctoral degrees at Oxford or at other universities. Other graduate destinations include teaching, journalism, law, publishing and the civil service.

Changes to this course and your supervision

The University will seek to deliver this course in accordance with the description set out in this course page. However, there may be situations in which it is desirable or necessary for the University to make changes in course provision, either before or after registration. The safety of students, staff and visitors is paramount and major changes to delivery or services may have to be made in circumstances of a pandemic, epidemic or local health emergency. In addition, in certain circumstances, for example due to visa difficulties or because the health needs of students cannot be met, it may be necessary to make adjustments to course requirements for international study.

Where possible your academic supervisor will not change for the duration of your course. However, it may be necessary to assign a new academic supervisor during the course of study or before registration for reasons which might include illness, sabbatical leave, parental leave or change in employment.

For further information please see our page on changes to courses and the provisions of the student contract regarding changes to courses.

Entry requirements for entry in 2024-25

Proven and potential academic excellence.

The requirements described below are specific to this course and apply only in the year of entry that is shown. You can use our interactive tool to help you  evaluate whether your application is likely to be competitive .

Please be aware that any studentships that are linked to this course may have different or additional requirements and you should read any studentship information carefully before applying. 

Degree-level qualifications

As a minimum, applicants should hold or be predicted to achieve the following UK qualifications or their equivalent:

• a first-class or strong upper second-class undergraduate degree with honours in the relevant modern language for your proposed study, or a similar course of academic study with substantial course components in the area of modern language to be studied.

Degree-level competence in at least one modern language is a requirement for admission.

Entrance is very competitive and most successful applicants have a high first-class degree or the equivalent.

For applicants with a degree from the USA, the minimum GPA sought is 3.75 out of 4.0.

If your degree is not from the UK or another country specified above, visit our International Qualifications page for guidance on the qualifications and grades that would usually be considered to meet the University’s minimum entry requirements.

GRE General Test scores

No Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or GMAT scores are sought.

Other qualifications, evidence of excellence and relevant experience

Details of any publications would be of interest to the assessors and should be included in the application.

English language proficiency

This course requires proficiency in English at the University's  higher level . If your first language is not English, you may need to provide evidence that you meet this requirement. The minimum scores required to meet the University's higher level are detailed in the table below.

*Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English or Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) † Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English or Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE)

Your test must have been taken no more than two years before the start date of your course. Our Application Guide provides  further information about the English language test requirement .

Declaring extenuating circumstances

If your ability to meet the entry requirements has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (eg you were awarded an unclassified/ungraded degree) or any other exceptional personal circumstance (eg other illness or bereavement), please refer to the guidance on extenuating circumstances in the Application Guide for information about how to declare this so that your application can be considered appropriately.

You will need to register three referees who can give an informed view of your academic ability and suitability for the course. The  How to apply  section of this page provides details of the types of reference that are required in support of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.

Supporting documents

You will be required to supply supporting documents with your application. The  How to apply  section of this page provides details of the supporting documents that are required as part of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.

Performance at interview

Interviews are not normally held as part of the admissions process. However, MPhil candidates may be interviewed in order to clarify aspects of their application. Any interviews will be held as soon as possible after the closing date, either in person, by telephone, or via video call.

How your application is assessed

Your application will be assessed purely on your proven and potential academic excellence and other entry requirements described under that heading.

References  and  supporting documents  submitted as part of your application, and your performance at interview (if interviews are held) will be considered as part of the assessment process. Whether or not you have secured funding will not be taken into consideration when your application is assessed.

An overview of the shortlisting and selection process is provided below. Our ' After you apply ' pages provide  more information about how applications are assessed . 

Shortlisting and selection

Students are considered for shortlisting and selected for admission without regard to age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity, race (including colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief (including lack of belief), sex, sexual orientation, as well as other relevant circumstances including parental or caring responsibilities or social background. However, please note the following:

• socio-economic information may be taken into account in the selection of applicants and award of scholarships for courses that are part of  the University’s pilot selection procedure  and for  scholarships aimed at under-represented groups ;
• country of ordinary residence may be taken into account in the awarding of certain scholarships; and
• protected characteristics may be taken into account during shortlisting for interview or the award of scholarships where the University has approved a positive action case under the Equality Act 2010.

Processing your data for shortlisting and selection

Information about  processing special category data for the purposes of positive action  and  using your data to assess your eligibility for funding , can be found in our Postgraduate Applicant Privacy Policy.

Admissions panels and assessors

All recommendations to admit a student involve the judgement of at least two members of the academic staff with relevant experience and expertise, and must also be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies or Admissions Committee (or equivalent within the department).

Admissions panels or committees will always include at least one member of academic staff who has undertaken appropriate training.

Other factors governing whether places can be offered

The following factors will also govern whether candidates can be offered places:

• the ability of the University to provide the appropriate supervision for your studies, as outlined under the 'Supervision' heading in the  About  section of this page;
• the ability of the University to provide appropriate support for your studies (eg through the provision of facilities, resources, teaching and/or research opportunities); and
• minimum and maximum limits to the numbers of students who may be admitted to the University's taught and research programmes.

Offer conditions for successful applications

If you receive an offer of a place at Oxford, your offer will outline any conditions that you need to satisfy and any actions you need to take, together with any associated deadlines. These may include academic conditions, such as achieving a specific final grade in your current degree course. These conditions will usually depend on your individual academic circumstances and may vary between applicants. Our ' After you apply ' pages provide more information about offers and conditions . 

In addition to any academic conditions which are set, you will also be required to meet the following requirements:

Financial Declaration

If you are offered a place, you will be required to complete a  Financial Declaration  in order to meet your financial condition of admission.

Disclosure of criminal convictions

In accordance with the University’s obligations towards students and staff, we will ask you to declare any  relevant, unspent criminal convictions  before you can take up a place at Oxford.

The Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages at Oxford is one of the world’s leading centres for the study of European languages, literatures, and cultures and their relations with other communities and cultures around the globe. It is consistently ranked highly in the QS World University Rankings in Modern Languages. Academic staff working in the sub-faculties of French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Russian, and Slavonic offer expertise in areas ranging from the medieval period to the present day, including postcolonial and transnational contexts. In the Taylor Institution Library you will have an internationally renowned research collection at your disposal, which comprises well over 650,000 volumes, including 1,000 current periodical titles and approximately 58,000 pre-1801 titles, including 56 incunabula.

Academic activities include widespread links with universities in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, and graduate exchange links and host exchanges with lecturers from other universities take place. The faculty has an active research culture and is committed to integrating graduate students into our regular research seminars. Workshops and conferences with Oxford-based and visiting academics are regularly hosted by the faculty, which bring together students and faculty members in – and between – individual languages and disciplines. The Modern Languages Graduate Network offers academic and social opportunities for graduate students, including graduate-led seminars, and a mentoring scheme is in place to help new graduates integrate into the Oxford academic community.

The faculty engages with the Oxford University Careers Services and programmes such as the Royal Literary Fund to provide professional development and training initiatives, including teaching qualifications, a mentored Graduate Lecture Scheme for doctoral students, writing workshops, and assistance in planning for academic and non-academic careers following graduation. Our graduate students also often engage actively with other institutes such as TORCH (The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities) to gain experience in public engagement and media training.

Medieval and Modern Languages

The Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages at Oxford is one of the world’s leading centres for the study of multiple literatures and cultures in one of the biggest and most vibrant languages faculties in the world.

These literatures embrace over a thousand years of human experience and invention, encompass both the formation of traditions and the wildest of innovation, and offer spaces for imaginative experiments in making, shaping, and representing worlds, identities, pasts, and futures.

Our graduate students work on projects that engage with these literatures and cultures from medieval and early modern literature and culture through to modern and contemporary literature, film and cultural history, investigating literature’s ability to address the formation and, in some cases, breakdown of political, aesthetic, and racial relations. Areas of particular interest that span our different languages and period specialisms include History of the Book, Performance and Voice, Translation and Adaptation, Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies, Gender and Diversity, Ecology and Environmental Humanities, Cognitive Literary Studies, Medical Humanities and Life Writing, and Comparative Literature. As a student on one of the faculty’s one- and two-year master’s courses, you may develop a more general study programme in your chosen language or choose to focus your study on Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies, Enlightenment Studies, Medieval Literature, Slavonic Studies, or Yiddish Studies.

With academic staff working across Czech, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Slavonic, and Spanish, an internationally renowned research collection in the Taylor Institution Library, and widespread links with universities in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, our graduate programmes offer a vibrant and unique environment with supervision in medieval, early modern and contemporary literature in each language.

View all courses   View taught courses View research courses

The University expects to be able to offer over 1,000 full or partial graduate scholarships across the collegiate University in 2024-25. You will be automatically considered for the majority of Oxford scholarships , if you fulfil the eligibility criteria and submit your graduate application by the relevant December or January deadline. Most scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit and/or potential. 

For further details about searching for funding as a graduate student visit our dedicated Funding pages, which contain information about how to apply for Oxford scholarships requiring an additional application, details of external funding, loan schemes and other funding sources.

Please ensure that you visit individual college websites for details of any college-specific funding opportunities using the links provided on our college pages or below:

Please note that not all the colleges listed above may accept students on this course. For details of those which do, please refer to the College preference section of this page.

Further information about funding opportunities  for this course can be found on the faculty's website.

Annual fees for entry in 2024-25

Further details about fee status eligibility can be found on the fee status webpage.

Information about course fees

Course fees are payable each year, for the duration of your fee liability (your fee liability is the length of time for which you are required to pay course fees). For courses lasting longer than one year, please be aware that fees will usually increase annually. For details, please see our guidance on changes to fees and charges .

Course fees cover your teaching as well as other academic services and facilities provided to support your studies. Unless specified in the additional information section below, course fees do not cover your accommodation, residential costs or other living costs. They also don’t cover any additional costs and charges that are outlined in the additional information below.

Where can I find further information about fees?

The Fees and Funding  section of this website provides further information about course fees , including information about fee status and eligibility  and your length of fee liability .

Additional information

There are no compulsory elements of this course that entail additional costs beyond fees and living costs. However, as part of your course requirements, you may need to choose a dissertation, a project or a thesis topic. Please note that, depending on your choice of topic and the research required to complete it, you may incur additional expenses, such as travel expenses, research expenses, and field trips. You will need to meet these additional costs, although you may be able to apply for small grants from your department and/or college to help you cover some of these expenses.

Living costs

In addition to your course fees, you will need to ensure that you have adequate funds to support your living costs for the duration of your course.

For the 2024-25 academic year, the range of likely living costs for full-time study is between c. £1,345 and £1,955 for each month spent in Oxford. Full information, including a breakdown of likely living costs in Oxford for items such as food, accommodation and study costs, is available on our living costs page. The current economic climate and high national rate of inflation make it very hard to estimate potential changes to the cost of living over the next few years. When planning your finances for any future years of study in Oxford beyond 2024-25, it is suggested that you allow for potential increases in living expenses of around 5% each year – although this rate may vary depending on the national economic situation. UK inflationary increases will be kept under review and this page updated.

Students enrolled on this course will belong to both a department/faculty and a college. Please note that ‘college’ and ‘colleges’ refers to all 43 of the University’s colleges, including those designated as societies and permanent private halls (PPHs). 

If you apply for a place on this course you will have the option to express a preference for one of the colleges listed below, or you can ask us to find a college for you. Before deciding, we suggest that you read our brief  introduction to the college system at Oxford  and our  advice about expressing a college preference . For some courses, the department may have provided some additional advice below to help you decide.

The following colleges accept students on the MPhil in Modern Languages:

• Balliol College
• Blackfriars
• Brasenose College
• Campion Hall
• Christ Church
• Exeter College
• Hertford College
• Jesus College
• Keble College
• Lady Margaret Hall
• Linacre College
• Lincoln College
• Magdalen College
• Merton College
• New College
• Oriel College
• Pembroke College
• The Queen's College
• Regent's Park College
• St Anne's College
• St Antony's College
• St Catherine's College
• St Cross College
• St Edmund Hall
• St Hilda's College
• St Hugh's College
• St John's College
• St Peter's College
• Somerville College
• Trinity College
• University College
• Wadham College
• Wolfson College
• Worcester College
• Wycliffe Hall

Before you apply

Our  guide to getting started  provides general advice on how to prepare for and start your application. You can use our interactive tool to help you  evaluate whether your application is likely to be competitive .

If it's important for you to have your application considered under a particular deadline – eg under a December or January deadline in order to be considered for Oxford scholarships – we recommend that you aim to complete and submit your application at least two weeks in advance . Check the deadlines on this page and the  information about deadlines  in our Application Guide.

Application fee waivers

An application fee of £75 is payable per course application. Application fee waivers are available for the following applicants who meet the eligibility criteria:

• applicants from low-income countries;
• refugees and displaced persons; 
• UK applicants from low-income backgrounds; and 
• applicants who applied for our Graduate Access Programmes in the past two years and met the eligibility criteria.

You are encouraged to  check whether you're eligible for an application fee waiver  before you apply.

Do I need to contact anyone before I apply?

You are encouraged to communicate with the faculty in order to refine your application, especially where studentships are involved, using the contact details provided on this page. However, it is not a pre-requisite to an application.

Completing your application

You should refer to the information below when completing the application form, paying attention to the specific requirements for the supporting documents .

For this course, the application form will include questions that collect information that would usually be included in a CV/résumé. You should not upload a separate document. If a separate CV/résumé is uploaded, it will be removed from your application .

If any document does not meet the specification, including the stipulated word count, your application may be considered incomplete and not assessed by the academic department. Expand each section to show further details.

Referees Three overall, of which at least two must be academic

Whilst you must register three referees, the department may start the assessment of your application if two of the three references are submitted by the course deadline and your application is otherwise complete. Please note that you may still be required to ensure your third referee supplies a reference for consideration.

At least two of your references should be academic; the third may be professional but it should nevertheless speak to your ability to study European language/literature.

Your references will support intellectual ability, academic achievement and motivation.

Official transcript(s)

Your transcripts should give detailed information of the individual grades received in your university-level qualifications to date. You should only upload official documents issued by your institution and any transcript not in English should be accompanied by a certified translation.

More information about the transcript requirement is available in the Application Guide.

Statement of purpose/personal statement: A maximum of 700 words

Your statement should be written in English and explain your motivation for applying for the course at Oxford, your relevant experience and education, and the specific areas that interest you and/or you intend to specialise in. The statement should be written with reference to the course structure of the MPhil.

If possible, please ensure that the word count is clearly displayed on the document.

The statement will be assessed with reference to:

• your reasons for applying
• the coherence of the statement
• evidence of motivation for and understanding of the proposed area of study
• the ability to present a reasoned case in English
• commitment to the subject, beyond the requirements of the degree course
• preliminary knowledge of research techniques
• capacity for sustained and intense work
• reasoning ability
• the ability to absorb new ideas, often presented abstractly, at a rapid pace.

Your statement should focus on your academic qualifications to the extent that they are relevant to your academic plans, rather than on personal achievements, interests and aspirations.

Written work: Two essays of a maximum of 2,000 words each

Academic essays or other writing samples from your most recent qualification are required. Clearly-highlighted extracts of the requisite length from longer work are also permissible. Where necessary, a cover note may be attached placing an extract in a larger context.

Work should be submitted in English or the language relevant to the proposed course of study. Submissions in other languages may be permissible after consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies, but at least one piece of written work should be in English or, if necessary, translated into English by you.

At least one piece of work should relate closely to the proposed area of study. The word count does not need to include any bibliography or brief footnotes.

This will be assessed for comprehensive understanding of the subject area; understanding of problems in the area; ability to construct and defend an argument; powers of analysis; and powers of expression.

Start or continue your application

You can start or return to an application using the relevant link below. As you complete the form, please  refer to the requirements above  and  consult our Application Guide for advice . You'll find the answers to most common queries in our FAQs.

Application Guide   Apply

ADMISSION STATUS

Closed to applications for entry in 2024-25

Register to be notified via email when the next application cycle opens (for entry in 2025-26)

12:00 midday UK time on:

Friday 5 January 2024 Latest deadline for most Oxford scholarships

Friday 1 March 2024 Final application deadline for entry in 2024-25

*Three-year average (applications for entry in 2021-22 to 2023-24)

Further information and enquiries

This course is offered by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages

• Course page on the faculty's website
• Funding information from the faculty
• Academic and research staff
• Faculty research
• Humanities Division
• Residence requirements for full-time courses
• Postgraduate applicant privacy policy

Course-related enquiries

Advice about contacting the department can be found in the How to apply section of this page

✉ [email protected] ☎ +44 (0)1865 270751

Application-process enquiries

See the application guide

Other courses to consider

You may also wish to consider applying to other courses that are similar or related to this course:

View related courses

• Participating Members
• Annual Brochure
• Academic Programs
• Professorships and Fellowships
• Public Lectures
• Annual Humanities Colloquium
• Working Groups
• Global Initiatives
• Being Human at Princeton
• Faculty Bookshelf
• Magic Grants for Innovation
• Team Teaching Grants
• Visiting Fellowships
• Professorships
• Collaborative Humanities
• Faculty Outreach Grants
• Co-Sponsorships
• Gauss Seminars in Criticism
• Belknap Visitors
• Eberhard L. Faber IV Memorial Lectures
• Events Archive

Sign up for the Humanities Council newsletter

Programs & initiatives.

• Certificate Programs
• Professors and Fellows
• Lectures and Colloquia
• Reading and Discussion Groups
• Being Human

Funding Opportunities

• Visiting Faculty
• Research Professorships

Humanities Council

• Participating Units
• Administration
• Annual Report

We seek to foster creative scholarship, transformative teaching, and intellectual collaboration by bringing humanities departments and programs into dialogue with arts and sciences.

People in the Humanities Council

• Executive Committee
• Directors and Chairs
• Visiting Faculty and Lecturers
• Postdoctoral Fellows
• Affiliated Faculty

The Council Chair and Executive Director lead an administrative team that is responsible for day-to-day operations and activities.

April 24, 2024

Ananya agustin malhotra ’20 awarded paul and daisy soros fellowship, april 22, 2024, medieval studies certificate student shane patrick receives barry scholarship for study at oxford, april 18, 2024, new minor in humanistic studies asks major questions, back to princeton university humanities council news, council announces 2024-25 long-term and short-term visiting fellows, april 26, 2024.

The Humanities Council will welcome 11 visiting fellows in the academic year 2024-25. These fellowships bring distinguished scholars, artists, writers, and practitioners to Princeton where they contribute to the University community through their work in and out of the classroom. Visiting fellows are nominated by chairs of humanities departments with support from directors of interdisciplinary programs in the humanities.

Six Long-Term Fellows, who are “in-residence” at the University, will teach or co-teach a course for a full semester. Next year’s course topics include Indigenous cosmologies, Caribbean literature and culture, filming liberation, fairy tales and narrated musical theater, the works of Horace, and gender and genre theory.

Five Short-Term Fellows will visit campus for three to five days, where they will lecture and participate in class discussions, colloquia, performances, or other informal events within their nominating departments.

“Next year’s Long-Term and Short-Term Visiting Fellows bring an exciting array of fresh ideas to our curriculum and our conversation,” said Esther Schor ( English ), chair of the Humanities Council. “We look forward to welcoming them in September.”

Long-Term Visiting Fellows

• Branka Arsić Charles and Lynn Zhang Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University

Branka Arsić specializes in literatures of the 19th century Americas and their scientific, philosophical, and religious contexts. She is the author of several essays and books, including Bird Relics: Grief and Vitalism in Thoreau (Harvard University Press, 2016), which was awarded the MLA James Russell Lowell Prize for the outstanding book of 2016. Arsić is currently completing a book entitled Ambient Life, Melville, Materialism and the Ethereal Enlightenment , a project for which she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019. The book focuses on images of the elemental, vegetal, and animal that traverse Melville’s work as a means of investigating how he imagined the capacity of matter to move and transform.

Arsić will be a Class of 1932 Long-Term Visiting Fellow in the Humanities Council and the Effron Center for the Study of America in Spring 2025. She will co-teach an undergraduate course with Sarah Rivett ( English and American Studies ) on Indigenous cosmologies.

• Patrick Chamoiseau Poet, novelist, and essayist

Patrick Chamoiseau is a poet, novelist, and essayist whose multifaceted oeuvre, translated worldwide, has won numerous prizes including the Prix Goncourt (1992), the Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe (1993), and the Prix Marguerite Yourcenar (2023). His work involves an aesthetic exploration of creolization and of relational poetics in the contemporary world. He is widely recognized as one of the most important literary figures of the Caribbean and a major writer in the international arena.

Chamoiseau will serve as a Belknap Long-Term Visiting Fellow in the Humanities Council and the Department of French and Italian in Fall 2024. He will teach a graduate seminar on the literature and culture of the Caribbean.

• Adam Gidwitz Author, producer, and storyteller

Adam Gidwitz is an award-winning author, producer, and storyteller for young people. He wrote the bestselling novel  A Tale Dark & Grimm and its companions,adaptations of the darker and lesser-known Grimm fairy tales. His medieval epic The Inquisitor’s Tale  won the Newbery Honor. He also wrote a Star Wars novel, The Empire Strikes Back: So You Want to Be a Jedi and the bestselling Unicorn Rescue Society series. His newest book is the bestselling Max in the House of Spies. Adam also created Grimm, Grimmer, Grimmest , a podcast on which he tells real Grimm tales live to kids, and he produced the animated Netflix adaptation of his novel A Tale Dark & Grimm , which was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Series. 

Gidwitz will be a Belknap Long-Term Visiting Fellow in the Humanities Council and the Department of Music in Fall 2024. He will co-teach an undergraduate course with Steven Mackey ( Music ), titled “Opera without the Singing: Fables, Fairy Tales and Narrated Musical Theater.”

• Peter Heslin Professor of Classics and co-director for Digital Humanities of the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Durham University

Peter Heslin is a scholar of Classical Latin poetry, Roman art and topography, and the digital humanities. He is the developer of the Diogenes software, open-source software providing digital access to the Classics. He is the author of Propertius, Greek Myth, and Virgil: Rivalry, Allegory and Polemic (Oxford University Press, 2018), The Museum of Augustus: The Temple of Apollo in Pompeii, the Portico of Philippus and Roman Poetry (Getty Museum, 2015), and The Transvestite Achilles: Gender and Genre in the Achilleid of Statius (Cambridge University Press, 2005). His current research focuses on applying machine learning and Bayesian models to ancient languages, and on the poet Horace.

Heslin will serve as a Class of 1932 Long-Term Visiting Fellow in the Humanities Council and the Department of Classics in Spring 2025. He will teach a graduate seminar on Horace.

• Damani J. Partridge Professor of Anthropology and Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan

Damani J. Partridge has published broadly on questions of citizenship, urban futures, decoloniality, sexuality, post-Cold War “freedom,” Holocaust memorialization, African-American military occupation, Global Blackness, anti-Blackness, the culture and politics of “fair trade,” and the Obama moment in Berlin. He currently directs the Filming Future Cities Project in Detroit and Berlin and has worked on documentaries for private and public broadcasters in the United States and Canada. His books include Hypersexuality and headscarves: Race, sex, and citizenship in the new Germany (Indiana University Press, 2012) and Blackness as a Universal Claim: Holocaust Heritage, Noncitizen Politics, and Black Power in Berlin (University of California Press, 2023).

Partridge will be a Whitney J. Oates Long-Term Visiting Fellow in the Humanities Council and Department of Anthropology in Fall 2024. He will teach the undergraduate seminar “Filming the Future of Liberation.”

• C. Riley Snorton Mary R. Morton Professor of English Language and Literature and Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity and Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Chicago

C. Riley Snorton is a cultural theorist who focuses on racial, sexual, and transgender histories and cultural productions. He is the author of Nobody Is Supposed to Know: Black Sexuality on the Down Low (University of Minnesota Press, 2014) and Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity (University of Minnesota Press, 2017), which won multiple awards including the John Boswell Prize from the American Historical Association and the Sylvia Rivera Award in Transgender Studies from the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies. He is the co-editor of GLQ: A Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies (Duke University Press), Saturation: Race, Art and the Circulation of Value (MIT Press/New Museum, 2020), and The Flesh of the Matter: A Critical Forum on Hortense Spillers (Vanderbilt University Press, 2024).

Snorton will be a Class of 1932 Long-Term Visiting Fellow in the Humanities Council and the Department of English in Spring 2025. He will teach an undergraduate seminar on genre theory and gender.

Short-Term Visiting Fellows

• Nicolas Bouchard French stage actor

Nicolas Bouchaud is a renowned French stage actor with over 30 years of experience in the public theater. He has regularly performed on prominent stages and festivals in France including the Odéon Théâtre de l’Europe, Festival d’Avignon, and Théâtre National Populaire. His roles have included Alceste in Le Misanthrope , Dom Juan, King Lear, and Count Almaviva in Le Mariage de Figaro , Mésa in Partagede Midi by Claudel. and most recently Iago in Jean-François Sivadier’s Othello .He received the Best Actor award from the Syndicat de la Critique de Théâtre for his role as Alceste in Jean-François Silvadier’s 2013 staging of Le Misanthrope. He recently published a memoir titled Sauver le moment (Actes Sud-Papiers, 2021), reflecting on his craft and career.

Bouchard will be a Belknap Fellow in the Humanities Council and the Department of French and Italian in Fall 2024.

• Max Haiven Associate Professor in English and co-director of the ReImagining Value Action Lab at Lakehead University

Max Haiven is a writer and teacher and serves as the Canada Research Chair in the Radical Imagination for the Government of Canada. His most recent books are  Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire  (2022),   Revenge Capitalism: The Ghosts of Empire, the Demons of Capital, and the Settling of Unpayable Debts  (2020) and  Art after Money, Money after Art: Creative Strategies Against Financialization ( 2018) .  Haiven is editor of VAGABONDS, a series of short, radical books from Pluto Press. He teaches at Lakehead University, where he directs the ReImagining Value Action Lab (RiVAL), a workshop for the radical imagination, social justice, and decolonization.  

Haiven will be a Whitney J. Oates Short-Term Fellow in the Humanities Council and the Department of English in Fall 2024.

• Carolin Meister Chair of Art History at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe

Carolin Meister is an art historian and the Chair of Art History at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe in Germany, where she has served as Vice Rector from 2017 to 2023. Her latest book, Begegnung–Rencontre (Zurich/Berlin, 2021), is co-authored with French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy. She has coedited several volumes on topics such as touch in art, physiology and the history of images, drawing as aesthetic knowledge, and the politics of exhibition. She is currently working on the reception of pre-cinematographic techniques in art around 1970.

Meister will be a Whitney J. Oates Short-Term Fellow in the Humanities Council and the Lewis Center for the Arts in Fall 2024.

• Helen Steward Professor of Mind and Action, University of Leeds

Helen Steward, a Fellow of the British Academy, has worked on a variety of philosophical topics, including free will, determinism, causation, emergence, supervenience, levels of explanation, the event/state distinction, and the concepts of process and power. She has also worked on animality and on understandings of the human being. Before arriving at Leeds, she was a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, for 14 years. She is the author of The Ontology of Mind: Events, States and Processes (Oxford University Press, 1997) and A Metaphysics for Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2012). Currently, she is writing a book on causation.

Steward will serve as a Class of 1932 Short-Term Fellow in the Humanities Council and the Department of Philosophy in Fall 2024. 

• Julietta Singh Stephanie Bennett-Smith Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Richmond

Julietta Singh is an academic and nonfiction writer whose work is rooted in postcolonial feminisms and the ecological humanities. Her three books include Unthinking Mastery: Dehumanism and Decolonial Entanglements (Duke University Press, 2018), No Archive Will Restore You (Punctum Books, 2018), and The Breaks (Coffee House Press, 2021). She is currently completing as writer and co-director The Nest , an experimental feature-length documentary collaboration about radical matriarchs, interracial alliances, and anticolonial histories across 140 years told through the portal of a single house in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Singh will serve as a Whitney J. Oates Short-Term Fellow in the Humanities Council and the Effron Center for the Study of America in Fall 2024.

The Council’s Long-Term and Short-Term Visitors are made possible with support from the Belknap Visitors in the Humanities Fund, the Class of 1932 Visiting Lectureship Fund, the David A. Gardner ’69 Magic Project, the Eberhard L. Faber Class of 1915 Memorial Lecture Fund, the Edward T. Cone ’39 Humanities Fund, the Old Dominion Fellowship Fund, the Virginia and Richard Stewart Memorial Fund, and the Whitney J. Oates Fund for Scholarship in the Humanities. For more information, visit the Humanities Council website .

• Council News