About CLCS
Established in 1958, the Comparative Literature & Cultural Studies Program (CLCS) is an innovative interdisciplinary graduate program devoted to the study of literature and culture from a global perspective and across languages, genres, disciplines, nations, and cultures. The program offers advanced academic training in comparative literature, cultural studies, Hispanic studies, literary translation, and world language acquisition.
Our main goal is to train students to think about the nature, function, and value of literature and culture within our current and future times. We achieve this goal by offering students an opportunity to participate in lecture series, go to conferences, publish articles, obtain internships, and conduct research in the U.S. and around the world.
We have built a framework that allows faculty from a variety of departments effectively to interact with a diverse group of students in pursuing individually designed programs of study. The program is supported primarily by the Departments of Communication, English, and World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, but the program also has affiliated faculty members in several programs and departments in the humanities and social sciences, including Anthropology, Art, Theatre, History, Philosophy, Sociology, Education, as well as interdisciplinary programs such as African and African American, Latin American and Latino, Middle Eastern, Indigenous, Jewish, and Gender Studies.
Because of its focus on intercultural communication, the program serves to promote cultural diversity and attracts international students from many countries, including, but not limited to, Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Iraq, Jordan, Mexico, Pakistan, Spain, and the United States. Students in our program are encouraged to interact and explore ideas across cultural boundaries and find new connections previously unexplored in their research topics.
Graduates with a Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies degree have multiple options in teaching and research positions and the college levels in departments of world languages, English, communication, and humanities. The M.A. Program provides a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary studies with a global focus and involving two or more languages, literatures and cultures. Doctoral students’ job placement is very high at regional, national and foreign universities. Many of our graduates are international students and find employment in their home countries or elsewhere in the world. Our graduates have been hired by various universities, including Ohio State, Indiana, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Atlántico, UAFS, John Brown, Southern Missouri and others.