Research in the department spans an expansive range of topics, from world literature, cinema studies, and media theory to performance studies, the environmental humanities, and postcolonial theory. Faculty and students explore literature and culture across multiple genres and platforms from poetry, drama, and the novel to photography, film, and new media. The department’s strengths extend across diverse linguistic and cultural traditions, including African, West Asian, and Middle Eastern studies, Caribbean and Latin American literatures, Chinese and Sinophone studies, Japanese popular culture, Russian and Turkish literature, and many others.
By combining conceptual innovation with global and multilingual breadth, the department fosters a uniquely integrative and forward-looking environment that equips students to think across boundaries, analyze complex cultural phenomena, and contribute meaningfully to the humanities in a rapidly changing world.
Faculty Research Areas
Theoretical and Critical Approaches
- World Literature
- Translation and Translation Studies
- Media Theory
- Performance Studies
- Postcolonial Studies
- Gender and Sexuality Studies
- Environmental Humanities
- Global South Studies
- Film and Visual Culture
Genres and Forms
- Poetry and Poetics
- The Novel
- Drama
- Lyric
- Creative Writing
- Photography
- Film and Video
- New Media
Regional, Linguistic, and Cultural Traditions
- Anglophone Literature
- Caribbean Studies
- Chinese and Sinophone Literature and Culture
- French Studies
- Japanese Popular Culture
- Jewish Studies
- Ladino Studies
- Latin American Studies
- Luso-Afro-Brazilian Studies
- Middle East Studies
- Portuguese Studies
- Russian Literature
- Southwest Asian and North African Studies
- Spanish Literature
- Turkish Drama
- Early Modern Studies
- Gothic Modernism