Undergraduate Program News and Updates
Congratulations graduating seniors!
Comparative Literary Studies had three students graduate in 2019-2020: Lois Biggs, Lucy Yang, and Camille Lopez-Silvero.
The World Literature Minor had four students graduate: Jackson Eliot, Kelsey Malone, Emma Rothfield, and Natalie Welch.
On June 18, 2020, the Comparative Literary Studies Program hosted a virtual End of Year Senior Celebration to highlight the accomplishments of the Comparative Literary Studies seniors graduating in 2020.
Lois Biggs: Received a Fulbright award at the University of Leeds in England
Lucy Yang: Next year, Lucy will pursue a fully-funded master’s degree in China studies at the Yenching Academy of Peking University, in Beijing, China. There, she will further her interdisciplinary studies in the environmental humanities through research on Chinese literature and culture.
Camille Lopez-Silvero: Next year I will be studying at Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain pursuing a master's degree in Global Entertainment and Music Business. I have always been passionate about music and this program is the perfect opportunity for me to develop concrete music business skills that will ultimately lead me to a career within the international music industry. Furthermore, studying in Valencia will give me an invaluable opportunity to connect with my Hispanic heritage and diversify my music network. This program will build off my comparative literature courses where I concentrated in Spanish/Latin American literature and culture. Although it is nerve-wracking traveling to a foreign country alone during a global pandemic, I am looking forward to this adventure.
senior seminar - fall 2019
Every Comparative Literary Studies major participates in the Senior Seminar during the Fall of the student's senior year. Students develop a research proposal and work closely with their faculty advisor and seminar instructor to develop their projects. The students and faculty come together at the end of the seminar to present and share their work, as well as celebrate their achievements! This year's seminar included the following presentations:
Isabella Schmidt: “Achilles’ Humanity: From the Exemplary Homeric Hero to the Athenian Tragic Stage”
- Isabella explores Achilles’ humanity as an aspect of what makes him the exemplary “Homeric Hero” in Homer's Iliad. She then compares the transformations this epic “Homeric Hero” undergoes in versions of his character appearing on the stage in the Athenian tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
- Camille investigates how Margaret Randall’s literary publication El Corno Emplumado 23: Poesía Cubana provided a political and aesthetic space for Cuban female poets to showcase their feminist perspectives. Her project explores how the interjection of female voices alongside their renowned male peers counteracts the “masculinized memory” that developed in the aftermath of the Cuban revolution.
Lucy Yang: “Human Landscapes: Seeking Nation and Nature in 1980’s China”
- Lucy examines the place of nature and nation within the Chinese roots-seeking movement of the second half of the 1980s, the turbulent later years of reform in China. Contrary to scholarly accounts that conflate natural imagery with ecological consciousness, this project argues that “nature” as represented by typical rural landscapes is a figure for nation and national identity.
- Lois draws aesthetic and political connections between two decolonial protests: the Algerian manifestation of October 17, 1961 in Paris, and the Alcatraz occupation of 1969-1971 in San Francisco. She examines graffiti, poetry, and photographs from both occupations to show how protestors occupied and reimagined symbolic spaces of colonial power.
honors 2019-2020
The following Comparative Literary Studies seniors received departmental honors for the 2019-20 academic year. Congratulations to Lois and Lucy on their academic achievements!
Lois Biggs
Thesis Title: "Dreams of a Different Bridge: Indigenous Art, Embodied Resurgence, and the Alcatraz Occupation"
Advisor: Kelly Wisecup
Lucy Yang
Thesis Title: "Human Landscapes: Nation and Nature in 1980s China"
Advisor: Corey Byrnes
BA/MA Combined Degree Program
The Comparative Literary Studies Program offers a combined BA/MA degree path for superb undergraduate majors. The following student was accepted to Comp Lit's BA/MA program and will be working toward the joint degree in 2020-2021:
- Sarah Bryant will explore the intersection of comparative literature and American foreign policy.