Program in Comparative and World Literature, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
The Program in Comparative & World Literature at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, offers two major concentrations and one minor. The Major in Comparative Literature provides an engagement with two or more literary and cultural traditions, studied in their original languages. The Major in World Literature retains the comparative and international dimension of comparative literature, but focuses on literature and culture from around the globe in English translation (no foreign language required). A Minor in World Literature<svg class="ext" aria-label="(link is external)" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 80 40"></svg> introduces students to the study of literature and culture as a discipline, with emphasis on cross-cultural, transnational, and interdisciplinary practices. Study Abroad<svg class="ext" aria-label="(link is external)" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 80 40"></svg> and work in other disciplines is strongly encouraged.
Research Overview
Over the past decade, CWL faculty have received a truly impressive number of College, campus, and national awards for their research. University of Illinois awards have included: the Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors, Conrad Humanities, LAS Centennial, University Scholar, Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (both college and campus), and (most recently) the Richard and Margaret Romano Professorial Scholar. National-level fellowships have included the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mellon, and the John Simon Guggenheim Award. Given that our faculty do their best to literally cover the world, it would be impossible to give even an overview of that work, but highlights might include Prof. Calderwood’s award-winning work on ‘al-Andalus,’ the idea of a shared culture between Spain and Morocco; Prof. Hilger’s ground-breaking work on gender and the medical humanities; or Prof. Mehta’s “Big Data” approach to Indian cinema in a global context.
Comparative and World Literature is, by its nature, interdisciplinary — most of our faculty also have appointments in other units, and all of faculty work extensively across campus, well beyond traditional national literature departments: Religion, Cinema Studies, Criticism and Interpretive Theory, Gender and Women’s Studies, the Illinois Humanities Institute, Jewish Society and Culture, Media and Cinema Studies, Medicine and many more. CWL is an energetic participant and collaborator across campus.