About the Program

The Department of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, offers opportunities for graduate study in a wide variety of literary traditions with emphasis on historical coverage, on issues of influence and reception, and on critical and theoretical approaches ranging from textual criticism to cultural studies. Comparative Literature faculty hold joint appointments with many different language and literature departments on the campus, and Comparative Literature graduate students enroll in a diverse selection of classes offered by those departments, in addition to Comparative Literature seminars.

Students are admitted for post-baccalaureate work leading to the PhD degree. This degree prepares students for teaching and research in classical and modern languages and literatures and is especially designed to encourage interdisciplinary research involving the study of literary and theoretical documents in several languages. The program is designed to provide students with the maximum of flexibility compatible with a rigorous course of study. The program emphasizes comprehensive historical coverage of one literature, with students designing an individual program of study that involves two additional literatures.

Because of the size and diversity of its faculty, the importance of its general library, its several special collections, and its other research facilities, Berkeley offers superior opportunities for graduate study in nearly all areas of comparative literature. Specifically, the Department of Comparative Literature offers organized programs leading to specialization in all areas of Western literature from the earliest Mediterranean texts to the twentieth century, as well as in major areas of East-West, Latin American and African studies, and it is equipped to devise individual degree programs in some special areas in which regular course instruction is not normally listed. The fact that graduates of this department are currently teaching at the university level such widely different literatures as English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Italian, Russian, Greek, Sanskrit, Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic, along with film, gender, and ethnic studies, illustrates the wealth of choices facing entering students.

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Admissions

Admission to the University

Minimum Requirements for Admission

The following minimum requirements apply to all graduate programs and will be verified by the Graduate Division:

1. A bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent from an accredited institution;
2. A grade point average of B or better (3.0);
3. If the applicant comes from a country or political entity (e.g., Quebec) where English is not the official language, adequate proficiency in English to do graduate work, as evidenced by a TOEFL score of at least 90 on the iBT test, 570 on the paper-and-pencil test, 230 on the computer-based test, or an IELTS Band score of at least 7 (note that individual programs may set higher levels for any of these); and
4. Sufficient undergraduate training to do graduate work in the given field.

Applicants Who Already Hold a Graduate Degree

The Graduate Council views academic degrees not as vocational training certificates but as evidence of broad training in research methods, independent study, and articulation of learning. Therefore, applicants who already have academic graduate degrees should be able to pursue new subject matter at an advanced level without need to enroll in a related or similar graduate program.

Programs may consider students for an additional academic master’s or professional master’s degree only if the additional degree is in a distinctly different field.

Applicants admitted to a doctoral program that requires a master’s degree to be earned at Berkeley as a prerequisite (even though the applicant already has a master’s degree from another institution in the same or a closely allied field of study) will be permitted to undertake the second master’s degree, despite the overlap in field.

The Graduate Division will admit students for a second doctoral degree only if they meet the following guidelines:

1. Applicants with doctoral degrees may be admitted for an additional doctoral degree only if that degree program is in a general area of knowledge distinctly different from the field in which they earned their original degree. For example, a physics PhD could be admitted to a doctoral degree program in music or history; however, a student with a doctoral degree in mathematics would not be permitted to add a PhD in statistics.
2. Applicants who hold the PhD degree may be admitted to a professional doctorate or professional master’s degree program if there is no duplication of training involved.

Applicants may apply only to one single degree program or one concurrent degree program per admission cycle.

Any applicant who was previously registered at Berkeley as a graduate student, no matter how briefly, must apply for readmission, not admission, even if the new application is to a different program.

Required Documents for Applications

1. Transcripts:  Applicants may upload unofficial transcripts with your application for the departmental initial review. If the applicant is admitted, then official transcripts of all college-level work will be required. Admitted applicants must request a current transcript from every post-secondary school attended, including community colleges, summer sessions, and extension programs. Official transcripts must be in sealed envelopes as issued by the school(s) attended. 
   If you have attended Berkeley, upload your unofficial transcript with your application for the departmental initial review. If you are admitted, an official transcript with evidence of degree conferral will not be required.
2. Letters of recommendation: Applicants may request online letters of recommendation through the online application system. Hard copies of recommendation letters must be sent directly to the program, not the Graduate Division.
3. Evidence of English language proficiency: All applicants from countries or political entities in which the official language is not English are required to submit official evidence of English language proficiency. This applies to applicants from Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Latin America, the Middle East, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, most European countries, and Quebec (Canada). However, applicants who, at the time of application, have already completed at least one year of full-time academic course work with grades of B or better at a US university may submit an official transcript from the US university to fulfill this requirement. The following courses will not fulfill this requirement: 1) courses in English as a Second Language, 2) courses conducted in a language other than English, 3) courses that will be completed after the application is submitted, and 4) courses of a non-academic nature. If applicants have previously been denied admission to Berkeley on the basis of their English language proficiency, they must submit new test scores that meet the current minimum from one of the standardized tests.

Where to Apply

Visit the Berkeley Graduate Division application page . 

Admission to the Program

Students should have done advanced work in at least one language other than English and, ideally, have begun the study of a second language as well. They should be able to demonstrate the skills of close rhetorical analysis of literary texts through the submission of a writing sample, usually a college-level essay.

Doctoral Degree Requirements

Normative Time Requirements

Normative time to advancement: 8 semesters
Normative in candidacy: 6 semesters
Total normative time: 14 semesters

Time to Advancement

Curriculum

Foreign Language(s)

Doctoral students are expected to work in three literatures. They are expected to demonstrate competence in at least three languages other than English. We recommend that you choose a third language according to your research interests. You may wish to learn the language of the scholarship in your field, to gain historical knowledge of your primary language, to strengthen your profile as a comparatist, to gain exposure to a culturally remote body of literature, or to broaden the cultural range of your literary knowledge.

Permission to Proceed Review

Permission to proceed to the PhD program in Comparative Literature is granted by the Second Year Review Committee. The review is designed to be diagnostic in nature; it should assess the student’s progress toward the degree and assist students in planning their course of study toward the PhD.

No later than the fourth semester after entrance into the PhD program, all students will be reviewed by a committee identified by them and approved by the vice chair in charge of graduate studies (the head graduate adviser) and consisting of three faculty members, two of whom should be members of the department. The committee should include the student’s adviser. 

The student submits a one-page statement to the committee in which s/he indicates courses taken and future course plans. Statements should include student progress in the languages chosen for study and the competence already attained in each. The committee should include the student’s adviser.

Based on submitted materials and an oral interview with the student, the committee will assess the work done toward coverage in the major literature, recommend further course work, assess language preparation and the student’s overall preparation to date. This report constitutes a binding recommendation concerning future course work and advancement toward the degree.

Qualifying Examination

Students should plan to take their qualifying examination no later than their eighth semester in the program.

Preparation for the PhD qualifying examination is intended to encourage students to pursue advanced, independent, and intellectually mature work. The PhD QE constitutes the last review of students’ academic progress before the writing of the dissertation. Students are required to prepare a written Statement of Interest and Reading List in advance of the examination for approval. The final QE consists of two written sections and an oral section.

Prospectus

No later than one semester after passing the PhD qualifying examination, students are required to schedule a prospectus meeting with the members of their dissertation committee. At least two weeks before the meeting, the prospectus, which should not exceed 20 pages, must be distributed to the committee. At the meeting, the student and committee will discuss the prospectus, and plan the writing of the dissertation.

Time in Candidacy

Advancement

The student advances to candidacy upon successful completion of written qualifying exams, an oral examination by a five-person committee, and approval of the Application for Candidacy for the Doctoral degree by the Graduate Division.

Required Professional Development

Teaching

Most students will teach reading and composition courses for the department as part of their professional development. Opportunities for teaching foreign languages are also available in other departments. Students are required to take a pedagogy course in the first semester of teaching.

Courses

Comparative Literature

Faculty and Instructors

Faculty

Frank Bezner, Associate Professor. Medieval Latin literature; Medieval literary culture; Neo-Latin; Intellectual history.
Research Profile

Karl A. Britto, Associate Professor. Africa, cultural studies, the Caribbean, literature, francophone literature, colonial and postcolonial literature, Vietnam, gender and identity.
Research Profile

Judith Butler, Professor. Critical theory, gender and sexuality studies, comparative literature, 19th and 20th century continental philosophy, social and political thought, philosophy and literature.
Research Profile

Anthony J. Cascardi, Professor. English, comparative literature, literature, Spanish, Portuguese, philosophy, aesthetics, early modern literature, French, Spanish Baroque.
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Anne-Lise Francois, Associate Professor. Popular culture, English, comparative literature, the modern period, comparative romanticisms; lyric poetry; the psychological novel, novel of manners; gender, critical theory; literature, philosophy; fashion.
Research Profile

Timothy Hampton, Professor. Culture, politics, English, comparative literature, French, renaissance and early modern European culture, the romance languages, the ideology of literary genre, the literary construction of nationhood, the rhetoric of historiography.
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Victoria Kahn, Professor. Rhetoric, comparative literature, Renaissance literature, poetics, early modern political theory, the Frankfurt School.
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Robert G. Kaufman, Associate Professor. Modern/contemporary poetry and poetics; aesthetics, literary theory, & history of criticism; Frankfurt School Critical Theory and the arts.
Research Profile

Chana Kronfeld, Professor. Comparative literature, modernism, Hebrew, Yiddish, modern poetry, minor literatures, politics of literary history, feminist stylistics, intertextuality, translation studies.
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Leslie V. Kurke, Professor. Classics, Greek literature and culture, archaic Greek poetry, Herodotus.
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Niklaus Largier, Professor. Religion, literature, German, history of medieval and early modern German literature, theology, mysticism, secularism, senses, sensuality, history of emotions, passions, asceticism, flagellation, sexuality.
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Michael Lucey, Professor. Pragmatics, the novel, sexuality studies, comparative literature, French, French literature, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, British literature and culture, social and literary theory, cultural studies of music, studies of language in use, theories of practice, twentieth-century American literature.
Research Profile

Francine R. Masiello, Professor. Gender theory, culture, globalization, comparative literature, Spanish, Latin American literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, comparative North and South literatures.
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Eric Naiman, Professor. Sexuality, history, comparative literature, Slavic language, ideological poetics, history of medicine, Soviet culture, the gothic novel.
Research Profile

Harsha Ram, Associate Professor. Russian and European romanticism and modernism, Russian and European avant-gardes, Russian, European, Near Eastern and South Asian poetic traditions, Indian literature, Italian literature, Georgian history and literature, theories of world literature, literary theory, comparative poetics, genre theory, literary history, comparative modernisms and modernities, vernacular and high culture, cultural and political history of Russia-Eurasia and the Caucasus, postcolonial studies, theories of nationalism, imperialism and cosmopolitanism, the city and literature.
Research Profile

Miryam Sas, Professor. Comparative literature, 20th century avant-gardes, Japanese literature, film, theater and dance, contemporary art, critical theory, gender theory.
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Barbara Spackman, Professor. Feminist theory, psychoanalysis, culture, fascism, gender studies, comparative literature, Italian studies, narrative, European decadence, travel writing.
Research Profile

Sophie Volpp, Associate Professor. East asian languages and cultures, history of performance, gender theory, the history of sexuality, material culture, material objects in late-imperial literature.
Research Profile

Dora Zhang, Assistant Professor. Critical theory, linguistics, narrative & the novel, 20th and 21st century Britain.
Research Profile

Lecturers

Kfir Cohen, Lecturer.

Maria Kotzamanidou, Lecturer.

Annalee Rejhon, Lecturer.

Jonathan B. Rowan, Lecturer.

David D. Walter, Lecturer.

Emeritus Faculty

Robert B. Alter, Professor Emeritus. Comparative literature, Near Eastern studies, 19th-century European and American novel, modernism, literary aspects of the bible, modern and biblical Hebrew literature.
Research Profile

Bertrand Augst, Professor Emeritus. Literary criticism, semiology.
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Phillip W. Damon, Professor Emeritus.

Joseph J. Duggan, Professor Emeritus. French, medieval epic, romance, lyric poetry, the theory and practice of editing medieval texts, oral literature, theory of genres, the relationship between literature and social context.
Research Profile

Eric O. Johannesson, Professor Emeritus.

James T. Monroe, Professor Emeritus.