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Departmental Information

Director of Undergraduate Studies
Prof. Carlos Alonso
305 Casa Hispanica
854-5177
ca2201@columbia.edu

Program Office
HB1-1 Heyman Center, East Campus
854-4541
icls@columbia.edu

Program Web Site
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/icls/

Executive Committee on Comparative Literature and Society

The Institute for Comparative Literature and Society was established at Columbia in 1998 to promote a global perspective in the study of literature and its social context. Committed to cross-disciplinary study of literary works, the institue brings together the rich resources of Columbia in the various literatures of the world; in the social sciences; and in art history, architecture, and media.

The program in comparative literature and society allows qualified students to pursue the study of literature, culture, and society with reference to material from several national traditions, or in combination of literary study with comparative study in other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Under the guidance of the director of undergraduate studies, students select courses offered by the various participating departments.

The program is innovatively designed for students whose interest and expertise in languages other than English permit them to work comparatively in several national or regional cultures. The course of study differs from that of traditional comparative literature programs both in its cross-disciplinary nature and in its expanded geographic range, including not just European, but also Asian, Middle Eastern, African, and Latin American cultures. The program includes course work in the social sciences, and several of the program’s core courses are jointly taught by faculty from different disciplines. Students will thus explore a variety of methodological and disciplinary approaches to cultural and literary artifacts in the broadest sense. The cross-disciplinary range of the program includes visual and media studies; the law and the humanities; and studies of space, cities, and architecture. As a major or concentrator, this program in comparative literature and society can be said to flow naturally from Columbia’s Core Curriculum, which combines literature, art, philosophy, and social thought, and which consistently attracts some of Columbia’s most ambitious and cosmopolitan students.

Given the wide variety of geographic and disciplinary specializations possible within the major, students construct their course sequence in close collaboration with the director of undergraduate studies. All students, however, share the experience of Introduction to comparative literature and society in their sophomore year as well as the required senior seminar. The major is designed for students interested in the cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural study of texts, traditions, media, and discourses in an increasingly transnational world.

Students planning to apply for admission to the major in comparative literature and society should organize their course of study in order to complete the following prerequisites by the end of the sophomore year:

1. reparation to undertake advanced work in one foreign language, to be demonstrated by completion of the third-year introduction to literature course, typically numbered 3333-3334.

2. Completion of at least four terms of study of a second foreign language or two terms in each of two foreign languages.

Application forms for admission into the major in comparative literature and society are available from the assistant director of the Center for Comparative Literature and Society at HB1-1 Heyman Center, 854-4541, and must be completed and returned with a short statement of purpose, by January 15, 2008. Students are advised to meet with the program director or the director of undergraduate studies before submitting the statement of purpose.

Students applying to the Comparative Literature and Society Program are required to take CPLS V3900 in the spring semester of their sophomore year.