COMPARATIVE LITERATURE is a thriving interdisciplinary program at Rutgers offering an undergraduate major and minor and an innovative, wide-ranging doctoral program.
Comp Lit students consider texts, performances and theoretical inquiries across multiple languages, histories, disciplines, and media. Students who speak languages in addition to English find our program an especially congenial place in which to read, watch, think, and create. Each of our majors or minors constructs a unique course of literary, linguistic, and cultural study with the supervision and support of our distinguished faculty.
Known for its emphases on critical thinking and incisive writing, Rutgers Comp Lit prepares its students well for the diverse world we commonly inhabit. Our graduates contribute significantly to the professions, the arts, education, and the global media.
The Graduate Program in Comparative Literature offers opportunities for talented and independent students to explore a variety of questions about the nature and history of global expressive forms. Transcending national and linguistic boundaries, and drawing on a richly diverse faculty, the program helps students analyze the complex field of relations underlying concepts such as genre, medium, movement, and canon. Literary and cultural theory is a particular interest and strength of the Program.
Recent PhDs teach at various domestic and international institutions, including the DePaul University (Chicago), Institut des Hautes Études des Communications Sociales (Brussels), KU Leuven, LaGuardia Community College (NYC), Michigan State University, New Era University College University (Malaysia), Northwestern University, Princeton University, University of California-San Diego, Taipei Medical University, the University of Surrey (UK), and the University of Utrecht.