Explore Our Doctoral Program
Comparative Literature at the University of Oregon is home to the oldest doctoral program in the field on the West Coast, a distinction that reflects both its deep intellectual legacy and its continued leadership in shaping the discipline. Since its founding in 1962, the program has combined a strong grounding in the traditions of comparative literary study with a dynamic openness to emerging critical methods, making it a vibrant hub for innovative research across languages, cultures, and media.
Every student’s path through the program is distinctly their own. Comparative Literature at the University of Oregon is committed to intensive, individualized advising, fostering close working relationships with both core and affiliated faculty at every stage of study—from coursework and exams to dissertation research and preparation for a wide range of careers. The result is a program that not only cultivates rigorous, original scholarship but also supports students as emerging scholars, teachers, and public humanists in a global and evolving field.
At the heart of the program is an exceptionally strong and diverse community of doctoral students, including a significant international cohort whose linguistic and scholarly perspectives enrich every aspect of intellectual life in the department. Students engage deeply with core areas that define comparative literature today—translation, media, performance, and theory. This breadth is matched by methodological rigor, as students develop advanced skills in analysis, interpretation, and scholarly writing alongside creative and interdisciplinary approaches that span a wide array of historical and cultural contexts.
Faculty Collaboration
The program’s collaborative structure extends beyond the department itself. The graduate program is anchored by our core faculty – Akçamete, Allan, Balbuena, Chan, Gopal, Hokanson, Middlebrook, Millar, Presto, and Teo – whose work spans multiple languages, historical periods, and critical approaches. Doctoral students also benefit from close connections with affiliated faculty across campus in areas such as philosophy, cinema studies, history, the environmental humanities, global studies, new media and culture, comics studies, anthropology, gender and sexuality studies, and indigenous, race, and ethnic studies. This interdisciplinary reach allows students to situate their work within broader scholarly conversations and to develop expertise that is both specialized and responsive to contemporary academic and cultural concerns.
Doctorate Degree in Comparative Literature
As a department, we are committed to working closely and individually with each of our students, and our multi-year advising structure is in place to guide you through coursework and to prepare you for an academic career. Once admitted, you already begin to tailor your program of study to your research interest and to your mastery of at least two national literary traditions. Four foundation courses taken during the first and second years help to establish a cohort among our students and a common critical reflexivity. And as you go on to pursue courses in national languages and literatures, we remain in conversation to help you generate connections between your three fields.
Oregon’s Department of Comparative Literature is known for the humane environment it cultivates—a community conducive to interdisciplinarity, cooperation, and experimentation.
Funding your Graduate Studies
Want to learn more about funding options for graduate students in the Department of Comparative Literature? Explore opportunities for funding your graduate studies.
Prepare for the Professional World
A graduate degree from the Department of Comparative Literature opens the door to exciting job possibilities. Discover resources to help you prepare for your chosen career path.