Comparative literature is the study of cultural expression across linguistic boundaries. At Brown, the Department of Comparative Literature is distinct in its conviction that literary research and instruction must be international in character, and its undergraduate and graduate programs are considered among the finest in the country. Undergraduate students study a generous range of literary works – from Western cultures, both ancient and modern, to Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic – to develop a critical understanding of how cultures differ from one another.
Comparative Literature
Comparative Literature
Comparative Literature
In the spirit of Brown's Open Curriculum, a concentration in Comparative Literature affords great academic freedom.
The graduate program in Comparative Literature at Brown offers a vigorous and comprehensive exploration of literature and culture.
Latest News
Check out the latest news in CompLit@Brown. You can find more stories on the News & Events page.
PhD. student Dima Nasser has been published in the journal "Middle Eastern Literatures", in a special issue titled "On the Margins of Shi'r: Rethinking Histories of Poetic Modernism in the Twentieth-Century Arab World".
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Isabel Farías Velasco is a graduate student in the Comparative Literature program and Professor of “Writing and Resistance in the Indigenous Americas,” which takes a comparative approach to Inca, Nahua, Maya, Narragansett, Wendat, and Wampanoag authors.
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Comparative Literature graduate student, Isabel Farías Velasco, is teaching a new course this semester that "takes an interdisciplinary approach that combines historiography, literature, and art, to analyze the mechanisms of Indigenous resistance within the developing structures of colonialism."
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On Oct. 9, Prof. Clayton’s COLT 1421V: Modernisms North and South course hosted actor Patrick Fitzgerald.
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Prof. Hicks-Bartlett to spend the 2024-2025 academic year in residence at the Huntington Library in Los Angeles, California.
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Over the summer, a few first-year Comp Lit PhD students spent their time doing intensive language studies in various programs. These programs, offered both domestically and internationally, are intended to help graduate students strengthen language skills.
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Brown department of Modern Culture and Media celebrates the release of cross-appointed Professor Ariella Aïsha Azoulay’s newest book, The Jewelers of the Ummah: A Potential History of the Jewish Muslim World!
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On September 20th, Brown celebrated Esther Whitfield, professor of Comparative Literature and Hispanic Studies, through a book launch event hosted by the Department of Hispanic Studies.
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