ucla phd comparative literature

Humanities Division welcomes 7 new faculty members for 2024-25

Photos courtesy of the subjects

Top row, left to right: Nina Duthie, Dieter Gunkel and Allison Kanner-Botan. Bottom row: Jonah Katz, Nancy Alicia Martínez, Roberta Morosini and Vetri Nathan.

Sean Brenner | September 24, 2024

As the 2024–25 academic year begins, the Humanities Division is welcoming seven new faculty members. Collectively, they bring to the division a wide array of expertise and interests; the subjects of their research span the globe, range from ancient times to the present day and even transcend species.

We extend a warm welcome to each of them. Following is a look at our newest faculty members’ scholarly interests and the courses they plan to teach:

Nina Duthie, Asian Languages and Cultures , studies narrative literature from early medieval through medieval China (220–907 CE), with an emphasis on texts from the northern dynasties. Her current project explores the representation of the Tuoba Xianbei rulers of the Northern Wei state (386–534 CE) through the sixth-century Wei shu, and incorporates issues of mythology, ritual and Buddhist writing. She teaches undergraduate courses in premodern Chinese narrative and fiction, classical Chinese, early Chinese philosophy and the survey course Chinese Civilization.

Dieter Gunkel, Classics and Indo-European Studies , specializes in the development of ancient Greek, Latin, and related Indo-European languages, and will be teaching courses on those topics. He is also interested in how language is set to poetic meter and melody, and he is currently researching the relationship between the melody of speech and song in ancient Greek vocal music.

Allison Kanner-Botan, Comparative Literature , is a scholar of the literary cultures of early Eurasia, specializing in Arabic and Persian literature of the Persianate world — roughly from the Balkans to Bengal. Her interdisciplinary research extends across the fields of the history of sexuality, madness and disability studies, Mediterranean and Central Asian literary history, and global south studies. She enjoys teaching broad comparative courses that bring into dialogue European and Middle Eastern materials around themes such as love, madness and animality.

Jonah Katz, Linguistics , studies the physical and perceptual nature of speech sounds, the way that different types of sounds pattern together in natural languages, and the relationship between these two areas. He also conducts research on the structure and cognition of music and its relationship to language. At UCLA, he will teach graduate and undergraduate classes at all levels on spoken-language phonology, the nature and structure of linguistic sounds.

Nancy Alicia Martínez, Comparative Literature , works on the histories of recorded knowledge, including technologies like writing and books, and how they impact communication across languages and cultures. She focuses on the cultures of Central America and Central Europe from the 20th century to the present, addressing how indigeneity, decoloniality, coloniality and empire influence creative production and its reception.

Roberta Morosini, European Languages and Transcultural Studies , investigates Dante and, more generally, Medieval and Early Modern visual and literary culture within a pan-Mediterranean perspective. Her studies revolve around blue humanism, and her teaching and research raise awareness of forced migrations, displacement and slavery of and in the Black Mediterranean. She is teaching courses on Archipelagic-Mediterranean Dante and on Boccaccio and women at the sea.

Vetri Nathan, European Languages and Transcultural Studies , studies a range of subjects, from the cultural foundations of environmental justice — and injustice — to national, racial and diasporic identities, particularly but not limited to Italy and the wider Mediterranean region. He is the founder and director of the Cybercene Lab, a new humanities lab that will start up at UCLA in the coming year. The lab is envisioned as a gathering space to study multispecies wellbeing, healing and habitability, and the connections between cultural discourse in a digitally connected world, manufactured conflicts, climate change and habitat and biodiversity loss. His courses will explore various topics such as Italian and global food studies, Black and migrant Italy and the multispecies humanities.

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Copy of – Program Requirements for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Languages and Cultures

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2024-2025 academic year.

Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Languages and Cultures

College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Languages and Cultures. The department only admits students with the objective of the Ph.D. degree though provisions are made for a terminal M. A. degree (see below).

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Students must meet with the Director of Graduate Studies at the beginning of each quarter for consultation about their programs and progress toward the degree. Students who wish to enroll in Slavic 596 and 597 must obtain prior permission from the instructor with whom they plan to work before the Director of Graduate Studies can include the course on the study list.

All graduate students in the department receive a written evaluation of their progress each year.

Areas of Study

Candidates for the M.A. follow a foundational program in Russian language and literature. Concentration in linguistics or a language and literature other than Russian is permitted with the consent of the DGS if course offerings permit.

Foreign Language Requirement

Demonstrated proficiency in Russian (or another Slavic / area language – see above) is required for the M.A. degree: students must have taken equivalent coursework or pass a departmental language proficiency examination which tests ability to translate from the target language to English and vice versa. This examination may be retaken each quarter until a pass grade is achieved, within the time limits for completion of the M.A. degree, and must be passed before the Second Year Review (spring quarter of their second year). The language proficiency examination is offered at the beginning of each quarter.

Students should also begin their studies of a second Slavic or another area-related language (to be determined in consultation with the DGS) during the M.A. period, but will not be required to complete it until prior to their doctoral exams.

Course Requirements

A minimum of 40 units is required for the degree. The following courses are obligatory:

• Slavic 200A • Slavic 201 • Slavic 202 • Russian 211A or Russian 291A • Russian 212A or Russian 292A. • Russian 212Bor Russian 292B. • Russian213A or R293A. • Russian213B or R293B. • One course chosen from Slavic 230A, 230B or 230C • One elective course chosen from the Departments of Comparative Literature, ELTS, History, Linguistics or other related field, or other Slavic Department offerings

Substitutions are allowed with the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies. Students may be required to take one or more courses from Russian 201A-201B-201C if it is determined that their level of competence in Russian is below the level necessary for literatures courses in the program.

Courses in the 500 series may not be applied toward the M.A. course requirements.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Capstone Plan

Second Year Review

Students in the Department of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures are required to undergo a Second Year Review during the spring quarter of their second year.

Applications for advancement to candidacy must be submitted no later than the second week of the quarter in which the Second Year Review is to be taken and are accepted only if students have passed the Russian Language Proficiency Examination or have completed equivalent coursework. The Director of Graduate Studies will then convene a review/exam committee comprised of three faculty members to serve on the Second Year Review; all three faculty members must be from the Department of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures.

Students are required to choose two seminar papers (with or without revisions) from different historical /literary periods, chosen in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies, and circulate them among the review committee no later than Week 6 of the Spring quarter in which they are participating in the Review. The papers serve as tangible evidence of successfully completed academic tasks. Students are advised to submit two papers totaling 30-50 pages of written work. They are permitted to revise or work on these papers after the seminars in which they were submitted have concluded, but they are not required to do so. Papers should demonstrate mastery of course material covered in years one and two and potential for future research, but need not be relevant to possible dissertation topics. Papers should also demonstrate mastery of documentation protocols.

Students should review these papers in advance, and should be able to speak knowledgeably about their content. Both form and content are evaluated and discussed during the review. The Second Year Review will consist of a formal conversation (1 hr 30 mins) with the chosen committee to assess the student’s readiness to pursue the PhD. The committee’s decision about the results of the Second Year Review are communicated to the student in writing within 24 hours of the completion of the Review.

Students who enter the program with a comparable M.A. in Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures must hold a Second Year Review, but will not be awarded an M.A. from UCLA. The results of the Second Year Review for students who hold an M.A. are recorded as follows: (1) Pass with permission to continue toward the Ph.D.; (2) Pass with reservations and specific recommendations for improvement with permission to continue toward the Ph.D; or (3) Fail without permission to continue toward the Ph.D. Students may fail the Second Year Review/M.A. if they are unable to demonstrate the level of mastery necessary for success in the more advanced stages of doctoral study. The faculty will not permit students to retake the Second Year Review. Students who fail the Second Year Review will be recommended for academic disqualification.

Students who do not hold a M.A. in Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures upon entering the Ph.D. program may be awarded an M.A. contingent upon successful completion of the Second Year Review, coursework, and language proficiency requirement. The results of the Second Year Review for students who do not hold an M.A. in Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures upon matriculation are recorded as follows: (1) Pass, with an M.A. and permission to continue toward the Ph.D.; (2) Pass with reservations, with an M.A. and specific recommendations for improvement with permission to continue toward the Ph.D; (3) Pass with a terminal M.A.; or (4) Fail without an M.A. or permission toward continue to the Ph.D. Students may fail the Second Year Review/M.A. Exam if they are unable to demonstrate the level of mastery necessary for success in the advanced stages of doctoral study. The faculty will not permit students to retake the Second Year Review. Students who fail the Second Year Review will be recommended for academic disqualification.

Thesis Plan

Time-to-Degree

From admission to conferral of the degree should not exceed six quarters.

Doctoral Degree

Following completion of the above requirements students choose their principal adviser and future dissertation director from among the ladder faculty.

Students must meet with the Director of Graduate Studies at the beginning of each quarter for consultation about their programs and progress toward the degree. Students who wish to enroll in Slavic 596, 597 and 599 must obtain prior permission from the instructor with whom they plan to work before the Director of Graduate Studies can include the course on the study list.

All the department’s graduate students receive a written evaluation of their progress each year.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Doctoral students may choose a specialization in either literature or applied linguistics.

In addition to their major field of study, students may create an optional sub-specialty (minor field) at the Ph.D. level that consists of at least four courses approved by the Director of Graduate Studies. The courses come from graduate offerings in one or more departments or programs. These include the following departments or programs: Anthropology, Art History, Classics, Comparative Literature, English, Film, Gender Studies, History, Indo-European Studies, language and literature departments (ELTS, Spanish & Portuguese, etc.), Linguistics, Music, Philosophy, Psychology, and Theater. The courses also may come from graduate offerings within this department. Students are urged to pursue certificates in Critical Theory, Digital Humanities, Greek or Latin, and/or professional degrees in other recognized programs.

Proficiency in a second Slavic or another area-related language is required for the Ph.D. degree. The selection of the language is to be determined in consultation with the student’s dissertation advisor and proficiency in the language must be attested by coursework and/or proficiency exam (as approved by the dissertation director). Reading knowledge of a research language may be required as determined by the doctoral committee.

Before the formation of a doctoral committee, students must take the following courses: • Russian 204 • Russian 211B or 291B • Russian 220A • Russian 214 or 200-level topics on contemporary Russian literature or culture • Polish C280 or Ukrainian C280 • One elective (an advanced 200-level literature course or seminar)

Although teaching experience is not a formal requirement for the degree, students are expected to serve as a teaching assistant during their graduate study.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the  Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution .

All students are expected to have a sound general knowledge of both Slavic philology and literary history.

Written Examinations Students take three take-home exams across 72 hours where they will be expected to produce 7,500 words of original writing. The PhD Exam committee consists of four committee members chosen by the student (the committee chair must be from the department and is usually the dissertation director; one member may be external to UCLA). The written examination will consist of three parts:

1) Comprehensive or major fields exam: Based on a department PhD reading list and completed coursework (about 40 entries, selected in consultation with all members of the committee). Students will be given four questions from which they must answer two from two different periods (1,500 words each) – answers should aim to demonstrate the student’s range and comprehensive command of the material.

2) Dissertation topic: Based on a reading list compiled by the student in consultation with all members of the committee (about 40 entries, includes primary sources, history / theory as appropriate, and secondary sources). Students will be given four questions, from which they must answer two (1,500 words each) – answers should aim to demonstrate the student’s in-depth knowledge and place the material within a larger theoretical and/or historical framework.

3) Minor field exam: Based on a reading list compiled by the student in consultation with appropriate members of the committee (about 20 entries, includes primary sources, history / theory as appropriate, and secondary sources). Possible minor fields are: another Slavic or non-Slavic literature; film; linguistics; music; other. Students will be given two questions, from which they must answer one (1,500 words) – the answer should aim to demonstrate the student’s comprehensive command of the material.

All examinations are prepared and approved by the unanimous consent of the Ph.D. Examination committee.

Oral Examination

Students who receive a grade of pass on the written examinations are admitted to a two-hour University Oral Qualifying Examination, which is designed to test the fields of major interest and general background, and which typically includes discussion of the dissertation topic. Students should be prepared to demonstrate thorough knowledge of the material they did not address in the written portion of the exam.

After considering students’ overall performance in both the oral and written examinations, the committee assigns a cumulative grade. A pass grade entitles students to write a dissertation. At the committee’s discretion, students may be required to retake any or all portions of the Ph.D. examinations within two quarters following the first attempt.

Formal Lecture

Students are required to deliver a formal lecture in the California Slavic Colloquium no later than two calendar years after advancement to candidacy.

Conference Presentation

Students are required to present their work at the California Slavic Colloquium (or another professionally recognized conference) during their time in the program or no later than two calendar years after advancement to candidacy.

Preparation of Prospectus and Prospectus Defense

The dissertation prospectus is a formal document that includes a narrative (12-15 pages in length; 12pt font, double-spaced, 1 in. margins) outlining the objectives, main research questions and contribution made by the dissertation; and a substantial bibliography (around 40-50 sources, both primary and secondary).

The prospectus should aim to address the following questions:

Significance and Contribution:

Describes the intellectual contribution of the proposed project; provides an overview of the project, explaining the basic ideas, problems, or questions examined by the study; describes the research objectives and states the project’s thesis or claim(s); explains how the project will complement, challenge, or expand relevant studies in the field.

Organization, concepts, and methods:

Explains concepts and terminology; describes and discusses method(s) and sources; explains how the dissertation will be organized and provides a chapter outline with brief explanations of each chapter’s arguments.

Bibliography:

The bibliography consists of primary and secondary sources that relate most directly to the dissertation. It includes works that pertain to the project’s substance, the intellectual field as it has been defined, and the theoretical or methodological approaches to give a well-rounded representation of the project.

Prospectus Defense

Once the prospectus has been approved by all of the members of the dissertation committee, a prospectus defense (2 hours) is scheduled to discuss the proposal and form a work-plan for completing the dissertation. All members of the dissertation committee must be present at the defense; other members of the department (including graduate students and faculty) may be invited to join the discussion.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study. Dissertations must be written in English and observe acceptable documentation protocols (MLA, Chicago, etc.)

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Optional for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the doctoral committee.

Normative progress toward completion of the degree program is defined as follows: six academic quarters from matriculation in graduate study to the award of the M.A. degree; six academic quarters from the award of the M.A. degree to advancement to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree; and six academic quarters from advancement to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree to completion of the dissertation and award of the Ph.D. degree. For teaching and research assistants, the program may take slightly longer.

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA .

Special Departmental or Program Policy

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for failure to pass the Second Year Review. A recommendation for academic disqualification based on any reason other than this, failure of a Ph.D. qualifying examination or low grade point average, must be recommended by the departmental Admissions and Support Committee. A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification to the departmental chair.

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Alumni and Placement

Comparative Literature at UCI has an exceptional placement record. Between 2004 and 2023, the program graduated 96 Ph.D.s. Comparative Literature Ph.D.s from the past two decades hold tenure-track positions ranging in rank from Professor and Department Chair to Associate and Assistant Professor at universities including Adelphi University, Arkansas University, Art Center College of Design (Los Angeles), Bilkent University (Turkey), BYU, Bentley University, CSU Chico, Fullerton, Long Beach, & San Marcos, College of the Canyons, Columbia University, Cornell University, Glendale College (Los Angeles), Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Jamestown Community College, University of Lille (France), Minnesota, McGill University, Mt. Saint Antonio College, New York University (NYU), Ohio State University, Rowan University, Stanford University, Syracuse University, Tulane University, University of Colorado, University of Houston, University of Illinois (Chicago), University of Michigan, University of Utah, USC, UC Riverside, University of Bogotá (Columbia), SUNY Albany, SUNY Buffalo, Western Oregon State, Yale University, the Coast Guard Academy, and others.

Three UCI Comparative Literature Ph.D.s have gone on to earn J.D.s and are now practicing law. Academic professional positions held by others include the Associate Directorship of the Sweetland Writing Center at the University of Michigan and the Writing Directorship of UCSD’s Sixth College Writing Program.  One Comparative Literature Ph.D. is also currently Associate Director of UCI’s Program in Literary Journalism and Associate Director of the Center for Storytelling at UCI, and four additional graduates hold permanent positions in libraries or instructional resource units. Another Comparative Literature Ph.D. alumni who graduated in just  2022 is currently the Director of the Writing Program at Washington and Lee University. 

Students with UCI Comparative Literature Ph.D.s have held and currently hold post-doctoral fellowships at Brown, Cornell, Barnard, Duke, Institute of Contemporary Arts - NYU Shanghai, Stanford, Texas A&M University, Tulane, the University of London, Stockholm University (Sweden), and the Pomona Colleges. Others hold Visiting Assistant Professorships at Clemson University, Pacific Lutheran University, Swathmore College, Washington and Lee University, Williams College, UC Berkeley and the University of Victoria.  These placement levels compare very favorably with those reported in the most recent survey conducted by the Modern Language Association (2011). The study presents data from 628 departments of English, foreign language, Comparative Literature, and interdisciplinary studies in the United States and Canada. The range of placement in tenure-track jobs over the period of two years (2006-2008) was 49.2 – 55.1 % in English; 41.4 – 49.5 % in foreign languages (“ MLA Survey of Ph.D. Placement "). Although Comparative Literature placements were not broken out as a separate category, it is clear from these data that UCI Comp Lit graduates are faring very well at a wide range of institutions in the U.S. and abroad, even with the recent pressure put on academic hiring. This extraordinarily strong record speaks eloquently to the quality of our program and the currency of a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UCI.

Pedro Soares Daher (Graduated: 2024)

Degrees:  B.A. Social Communications, Potíficia Universidades Católica do Rio de Janeiro, 2013 Placement:  Assistant Professor of Academic Studies at the Maine College of Art and Design, Fall 2024

Rose Ducharme (Graduated: 2024)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2024; B.A. English and French Studies, Scripps College, 2014 Placement: Lectrice de Langues, Anglais / Lecturer in English Language, University of Paris, Nanterre, present Research Interests:  Transatlantic modernism; feminist and queer studies; critical race studies; affect; literary and aesthetic engagements with subjectivity, structure, and space.

Williston Chase (Graduated: 2023)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2023; M.A. International Relations and African Studies, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, 2010; B.A. Philosophy, UCLA, 2008 Dissertation:  Institutional Alibis: Chilean Letrados, Black Study, and the Stakes of Thinking Research Interests:  20th century Latin American literature, film, and culture; critical theory; critical university studies; neoliberalism; anarchist pedagogies

Shiqi Lin (Graduated: 2023)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2023; B.A. Political Science and French & Francophone Studies, Vassar College, 2017 Placement: Postdoctoral Klarman Fellowship in the Department of Asian Studies, Cornell University Research Interests : Chinese literature, cinema, and media cultures; decolonial politics of East Asia; memory studies; media studies; urban studies; documentary; speculative fiction; translation theory; political theory

Anders Johnson (Graduated: 2023)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2023;   B.A. Rhetoric, UC Berkeley, 2013 Placement : Librarian, Department of Transportation, Montana Research Interests:  Continental Philosophy with an emphasis in German idealism and existentialism; Rhetoric, understood as the phenomenology of language; the tension between hermeneutics and poetics; nihilism; morbidity; tragedy

Robert Barrett (Graduated: 2023)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2023; B.A. English/Liberal Studies, Sonoma State University, 2013 Placement: Lecturer, Rhetoric, UC Berkeley Research Interests: 20th Century North American Literature; LGBTQIA+ Literature, Film, Visual & Performing Arts; Cultural Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; HIV/AIDS Activism, Trauma, and the Literary, Visual and Performing Arts; Feminist and Queer Fantasy and Speculative/Science Fiction

Edward Batres (Graduated: 2023)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2023; B.A. International Relations & French, summa cum laude, University of Redlands, 2016 Placement : IB Upper School Spanish Teacher at Annie Wright Private Schools in Tacoma, WA Research Interests : Francophone and Hispanic Caribbean literature (19th century-contemporary); the production of space; archipelagic thinking; postcolonial studies; anthropological studies of the Martinican peasantry; the decolonization of belonging and attachment; the preservation of colonial waste

 Babak Mazloumi (Graduated: 2023)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2023; M.A. Humanities & Social Thought, New York University, 2015 Placement: Adjunct Lecturer, Houston Community College                                                                                                                        Research Interests:  Contemporary Persian literature, literary translation (theory and practice), exile literature Select Publications:  “Where is Akbar Radi’s Home? A Study of the Concept of Exile at Home in Through the Windowpanes by Akbar Radi,” Text & Presentation: Journal of the Comparative Drama Conference , April 2019, 111-124. “Mapping the Unmappable: A Critical Study of Dead Reckoning : A Novel by Bahman Sho‘levar,” Iran Namag , Volume 6, Number 1 (Spring 2021), 30-45. “Will I Be Strong Enough for You? Nasim Marashi’s I’ll Be Strong for You” World Literature Today [Online], 6/22/21 https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Fww%0Dmazloumi&title=Will%20I%20Be%20Strong%20Enough%20for%20You%3F Translation: Jamali, Rosa. “Here is the Promised Latitude” [“Inja Aez-e Mo’ud Ast”] by Rosa Jamali. Los Angeles Review of Books . [online] https://lareviewofbooks.org/short-takes/here-is-the-promised-latitude/

Ann Thuy-Ling Tran (Graduated: 2023)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2023;   B.A. English, University of California, Los Angeles, 2017 Placement:  Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies and Asian Studies at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) Research Interests : comparative race studies, humor, and popular culture/ new media, cross-racial and multicultural comedy, language, accents, critical refugee studies

Michael Berlin (Graduated: 2022)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2022; B.A. Liberal Arts, Sarah Lawrence College, New York, 2011        Placement:  Director of the Writing Program & Visiting Assistant Professor of English, Washington and Lee University                          Research Interests : Michael's dissertation The Poetry of Origins: Odes, Palinodes, and Literary History reevaluates the ode and its influence on the study of lyric poetry: "Whereas twentieth-century criticism has viewed the ode as a constitutive genre of Western literature, I show that its development is essentially modern. Examining the Atlantic context of the ode, I trace how this genre became a medium for allegories of colonial authority that relied upon a racialized sense of literary futurity. Inherently unstable, these efforts ran up against the genre of poetic recantation (“palinode”), which served as an anticipatory counterbalance to the progressive literary history encoded in the ode." For more information see his website .

 Carlos Colmenares Gil (Graduated: 2022)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2022; M.A. Philosophy and Critical Theory, Kingston University, London, 2012, B.A. Psychology, Universidad Catolica Andres Bello, 2009 Placement: Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Indiana Research Interests : Latin American thought, contemporary Latin American literature, film, essay as form, scientificity of form, negativity, mediation, continental philosophy, psychoanalysis

Wujun Ke (Graduated: 2022)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2021; B.A. Comparative Literature, University of Chicago, 2013 Placement:  Curatorial Fellow, Fall 2022; Global Perspectives on Society Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), NYU Shanghai, Fall 2023-present Research interests : Medical humanities; immigration and transnational/trans-cultural identities; feminist theory and critical race theory; East Asian history; autobiography; liberation movements

AJ Baginski (Graduated: 2021)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2021 Placement:   Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at   Bryn Mawr College (2021-22); Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University, 2022-present;   Tenure-Track Assistant Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Programs and Community Engagement, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Fall 2024 Dissertation: Alta and Baja: Environments of Fantasy Along the U.S.-Mexico Border

Laura Hatch (Graduated: 2021)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, UC Irvine, 2021; B.A. Humanities & German, Minor Scandinavian Studies, BYU, 2013 Placement: Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Comparative Literature at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, 2022-present Dissertation: Making Virtue of Necessity: Facing Uncertainty in Romance Research Interests: Embodiment; phenomenology; Medieval and Early Modern literature and visual art

Amanda Mixon (Graduated: 2021)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2021 Placement:  Lecturer, English, Texas State University, 2021; Assistant Professor of Instruction, Center for Women’s & Gender Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, present Dissertation: Twentieth-Century White Southern Lesbian Writers & Anti-Racist Praxis

Jon-David Settell (Graduated: 2021)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2021; M.S.W. Clinical Social Work, Columbia University; M.A. Comparative Literature, SFSU; B.A. English and World Literature, Pitzer College Placement:  Visiting Assistant Professor, Literature, Pitzer College, 2021-2022; Clinical Social Work/Therapist, owns his own private practice Dissertation: Bird Freedom: Lumpen Dreams and the Long Picaresque                                                                                               Research Interests:  Histories of psychoanalysis; critical theory; accumulation and enclosure; homelessness; Gothic Marxism; the picaresque novel; 20th century literature of the Americas

Anandi Rao (Graduated: 2020)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California. Irvine, 2020 Placement:  Lecturer in South Asian Studies, SOAS University of London Dissertation: In the Name of Shakespeare:(En)gendering India Through Translation

Kirsty Singer (Graduated: 2020)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2020 Dissertation: Intimate Historiographies: Racial Crisis and Poetics in the American Mid-Twentieth Century

Michael Simmons (Graduated: 2020)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2020; B.A. in Philosophy, B.A. in Women's Studies, UCI, 2012 Placement:  Instructor, English Composition and Oral Communication, American Musical and Dramatic Academy, 2020-present      Dissertation : Neutrality in Queer Theory

Daniel Carnie (Graduated: 2020)  

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2020; B.A. Comparative Literature, UCLA 2012          Dissertation : "A Scarecrow to the Nations": Engulfment and Historicity in Jewish Writing

Philip Anselmo (Graduated: 2019)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2019 Placement: Instructor, University Writing Program, Rochester Institute of Technology, NY, August 2018 – present; Instructor, Department of English and Communication, Nazareth College, NY, August 2018 – present              Dissertation: In Defense of the Political: Housework and Policework in the Post-Civil Rights Era                               

Karen Jallatyan (Graduated: 2019)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2019 Placement:  Postdoctoral Fellow, Fall 2019-2020, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Dissertation: Becoming Diaspora: Global Armenian Literature and Film After 1950                                                                                  Research Interests: Diaspora, Multilingual Multiculturalism, Survival I am grateful for UCI Comparative Literature for having provided me with one of the most dynamic Ph.D. experiences in the country.

Aubrey Tang (Graduated: 2019)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2019 Placement: Lecturer in Directing, Editing, & Film Studies, Chapman University, 2020-present Advisor(s): Ackbar Abbas, Man Fung Yip, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Dissertation: Johnnie To's Cinema and the Phenomenology of the Senses Research Interests: Film Phenomenology, Sensory Studies, Chinese and Sinophone Cinemas

Nathaniel Murphy (Graduated: 2019)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2019 Dissertation: The Utopian Call: Utopian Projects and the Struggle for the "Good" Anthropocene

Jamie Rogers (Graduated: 2018)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2018 Placement:  Fall 2017 Clemson University, English - African American Studies; Hartwick College, NY, English - Postcolonial Media Studies; One year visiting teaching position, Wooster College, 2018; Lecturer, Clemson University, 2018-2022; Digital Media Specialist, MetroConnects, 2022-2023; Tenure-Track Assistant Professor, Film Studies at Western Washington University, present Advisor: Adriana Johnson Dissertation: After the Revolution: Memory, Absence, and Carrying On in Black Literature and Film of the Americas Research Interests: Postcolonial Literature and Film; Black Literature and Film; Decolonial and Black Feminist Thought

Parisa Vaziri (Graduated: 2018)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2018;   B.A. Comparative Literature & French minor, NYU, 2007 Placement:  Assistant Professor, Comparative Literature and Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, 2018-present Research Interests : Iranian film and history, theories of racialization, theories of history, intellectual histories of poststructuralism and postcolonialism, African-American film and theory, legacies of third cinema

Alexander Jabbari (Graduated: 2017)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2017; B.A. Community Studies, UC Santa Cruz, 2008 Placement:  Farzaneh Family Assistant Professor of Persian Language and Literature tenure-track, University of Oklahoma 2017-present  Dissertation : Late Persianate Literary Culture: Modernizing Conventions Between Persian and Urdu  Research Interests: Persianate literary history and historiography; language; sexuality; modernization

Monica Katiboglu (Graduated: 2017)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2017 Placement: /* /*]]>*/ Full-time Core Faculty, Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey, 2018-present Dissertation: Haunted Modernities: Linguistic and Cultural Change in Ottoman Turkey                                                                          Research Interests: critical translation theory, modernity, Turkish and French literatures

Ryanson Alessandro Ku  (Graduated: 2017)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2017; M.A. Comparative Literature, Louisiana State University, 2008; M.A. Philosophy, Louisiana State University, 2009; B.S. Economics, The George Washington University, 2004 Placement : Postdoctoral Associate in English and Asian American Studies, Duke University, 2018; Visiting Professor, Department of English, U Penn, 2021; Visiting Assistant Professor, English Literature, Swathmore College, present Dissertation: Wounded Language/Time: History, The Novel, and the Filipino-American Relation Research Interests : semiotics/genealogy/pragmatics; imperialism, trauma, intimacy, justice; economy, sublimation, time, and the queer

Chris Malcolm (Graduated: 2017)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2017; M.A. Social & Political Thought, York University, Toronto, 2011; B.A. Contemporary History & Politics, University of Sussex, UK, 2008 Placement:  Assistant Professor of Environmental Humanities and Coordinator of Minor in Sustainable Ecosystems: Art & Design at Maine College of Art in Portland, ME, Fall 2019-present; Visiting Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies, Humboldt State University, 2018 Research Interests : Documentary film; Visual Studies; Environmental Humanities; Film and Media Studies; Critical Theory. My dissertation, Perceiving Extraction: Landscape, Use and the Conditions of Visuality , tracks a history of extraction in landscapes affected by an absence of life, value, habitat, or political possibility to show that the experience of climate change helps produce a theory of perception.

Ghada Mourad (Graduated: 2017)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2017; B.A. English, CSU Los Angeles, 2007 Placement: /* /*]]>*/ Lecturer, French, UCI Humanities Core Course, 2017-present  Dissertation: Unruly Bodies: Modernity, Dissensus, and the Political Subject in the Postcolonial Arab World Research Interests:  Modernity, politics, subjectivation, sexuality and the body in postcolonial Arabic and Francophone literature in the Middle East and North Africa. Critical theory emphasis; literary translation emphasis.

Sarah Kessler (Graduated: 2016)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2016;   M.A. English, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2008; B.A. Art-Semiotics, Brown University, 2003 Placement: Lecturer, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, USC, 2017-2020; Assistant Professor of English, USC Dornsife, 2020-present Dissertation: Anachronism Effects: Ventriloquism and Popular Media Research Interests:  20th and 21st Century Transatlantic Media and Culture, Film and Media History and Theory, Voice and Sound Studies, Television Studies, Queer and Critical Race Theory

Toru Oda (Graduated: 2016)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2016; M.A. Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, University of Tokyo, 2006; B.A. Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, University of Tokyo, 2003 Placement:  Full-time Instructor, University of Shizuoka, Language and Communication Research Center, 2018-present Dissertation: Anarchistic Hermeneutics of Utopian Desires in the Late Nineteenth Century: Defining, Narrating, and Reading Anarchism  Research Interests:  Literary anarchism; cultural history in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; French naturalism; English modernism

Kim Icreverzi  (Graduated: 2015)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2015;   B.A. Linguistics & English: Culture and Performance, Georgetown University, 2002 Placement(s):  Postdoctoral Fellowship Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, 2016-17; 1 yr teaching appt, Boston University, Modern Languages & Comparative Literature, and Visiting Scholar appt in Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program; Lecturer in Film & Television, Boston University, 2017-2018; Affiliate Faculty in Visual & Media Arts, Emerson College 2017-2018; Visiting Assistant Professor, Dept of Comparative Literature & Languages, UCR, Jan-July 2023; Lecturer (Part-Time Faculty) in Film and Television Studies, LMU 2020-present                                                                                                                                                                                          Advisor(s): Rei Terada, Akira Mizuta Lippit Dissertation: Reproduction without End: The Gendered Labor of Japanese High Growth Cinema Research Interests: Japanese film, literature, and cultural studies; feminist theory; film theory; labor studies

Ameeth Vijay (Graduated: 2015)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2015;   B.A. Comparative Literature, Brown University, 2004 Placement: Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Literature, UCSD Fall 2016-present; Visiting Assistant Professor of Western Languages and Literatures, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey Fall 2015-16                                                                                                                            Dissertation: Misplaced Communities: The Reproduction of Locality in Twentieth Century Planning and British Literature                    Research Interests:  Migration, globalization

Tamara Beauchamp (Graduated: 2014)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, UC Irvine, 2014; B.A. Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York University, 2004 Placement:  Writing Director / Academic Coordinator & Continuing Unit 18 Lecturer in Humanities Core Course Program, UCI 2014-present Dissertation: Enemies of the Unconscious: Modernist Resistances to Psychoanalysis                                                                                   Research Interests: Anglo-American, Continental European, and global modernisms, critical theory, psychoanalysis as theoretical and clinical practice, feminist and critical race theory, anti-psychiatric theories of subjectivity.                                                                      Emphases: Critical Theory Emphasis and Graduate Feminist Emphasis

Dan Costello  (Graduated: 2014)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2014; B.A. University of Chicago, 2005 Dissertation:  Publishing Words to Prevent them from Becoming True: The Radical Praxis of Gunther Anders                                        Research Interests: Post-war German and American literature, collective memory, and the tensions between fiction, memoir, and history

Brandon J. Granier (Graduated: 2014)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2014;   M.A. Comparative Literature, Dartmouth College, 2006; M.A. French, Middlebury College, France, 2007; B.A. English, UC Santa Cruz, 2001 Dissertation: Flights from the Hermeneutic: Precisions of Reading in Derrida, De Man, and Deleuze Research Interests: deconstruction; long 19th century European literature

Will Jordan (Graduated: 2014)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2014;   B.S. Computer Science, Yale University, 2005 Placement: K-12 Computer Science curriculum, San Francisco, Full-Time Software Engineer at code.org, 2014-present Dissertation:  Ludocapital: The Political Economy of Digital Play Research Interests: Media theory; Japanese; games

Ali Meghdadi (Graduated: 2014)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2014;   M.A. English, Loyola Marymount University, 2007; M.F.A. Poetry, Otis College of Art & Design, 2008; B.A. English with Theology minor, Loyola Marymount University, 2005 Placement:  Lecturer in English, UCI, Fall 2014-present                                                                                                                                      Dissertation: Translator, Traitor, or Teacher: A Neophyte-Focused Communication Pedagogy                                                                      Research Interests: My critical and creative writings articulate a hybridized language that mediates between American and Iranian cultures and their specific histories, with an explicit focus on the political and theological aesthetics established in their literatures.

Mark Pangilinan (Graduated: 2014)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, UC Irvine, 2014;   B.A. English with Spanish minor, Christopher Newport University, 2006 Placement:  Upper School English Teacher, Chadwick School, Palos Verdes, 2016-present; Academy Summer School English Teacher, Punahou School, Honolulu, Hawaii, Summer 2016-present; Director of Critical Reading, Lead Curriculum Developer, Hamilton College Consulting, 2015-16 Dissertation: Haunting the Metropole: Return Effects, Screen Memories, and Figures of Exile in 20th Century Filipino American Literature Research Interests : Pilipino literature and culture; cultural studies; critical theory; ethnography; Anglophone modernist literature; postcolonial theory; gender studies; translation studies

Sharareh Frouzesh  (Graduated: 2013)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2013; M.A. Social Sciences with Social Thought emphasis, University of Chicago; B.A. Philosophy and Political Science, UC Irvine Placement: Continuing Lecturer, English, Comparative Literature, Humanities Core Depts, UCI, 2013-present                                Dissertation: The Use and Abuse of Guilt                                                                                                                                                          Research Interests:  Modern Iranian literatures and cultural productions; transnational literatures and feminisms; political and legal theory; postcolonial literatures and theory; psychoanalysis and phenomenology; dialectics of resistance and modernisms.

Colby Gordon (Graduated: 2013)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2013; B.A. English & History, University of Kansas, 2007 Placement:  Assistant Course Director, 39B, UCI Composition Program, 2015-2016; Lecturer, UCI Composition, 2014-2016 Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) of Literatures in English and Gender and Sexuality, Bryn Mawr College, 2016-present Dissertation: Shakespearean Futurism: Utopia and Landscapes in Renaissance Drama                                                                                    Research Interests:  Law and literature, architecture, global Shakespeare

Eddie Pinuelas (Graduated: 2013)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2013; B.A. Comparative Literature, UCLA Placement:  Postdoctoral Fellow, Thompson Writing Program Duke University, 2014-2016; Associate Professor, Department of English, Comparative Literature, & Linguistics, CSU Fullerton, 2016-present Dissertation: The Sound that Broke the Back of Words: Voice, Aurality, and (Dis)embodied Subjectivity in Neo-Slave Literature of the Black Atlantic Research Interests : Postcolonialism; diasporic literature and culture

Abraham Romney (Graduated: 2013)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2013; M.A. in English, University of Oregon, 2007; B.A. English with Spanish minor, BYU-Idaho, 2005 Placement:  Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition 2013-2019, Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Composition, 2019-2022, Michigan Technological University; Director, Michigan Tech Multiliteracies Center; Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Composition, Idaho State University, 2022-present Dissertation:  Civilization/Barbarism: Indigenous and Criollo Receptions of Rhetoric in Latin America Research Interests : History of rhetoric; translation; 19th-century Hemispheric American literature; 19th-century rhetoric and philology; digital rhetoric

Denise Spampinato (Graduated: 2013)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, UC Irvine, 2013;   B.F.A., Art Center College of Design, M.F.A. Writing, Cal Arts, 2002 Placement:  Freelance writer, 2016-present; Lecturer, UCI Comparative Literature, Fall 2013; October 2015-Feb 2016 Fulbright Award, Universita` degli studi di Napoli “L’ Orientale”, Naples, Italy Dissertation:  From the City to the Cine-City: Re-Imagining Naples Through Goethe, Benjamin, Sohn-Rethel, and Pasolini

Engel Szwaja-Franken (Graduated: 2013)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, UC Irvine, 2013; B.A. Comparative Literature and History, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2005 Placement:  World Languages Department Chair & Spanish Professor, Bellevue College, Seattle, WA, 2014-present Dissertation:  Inadequate Politics: Literature and Organic Thought in Borges, Arlt and Cuesta Research Interests: Latin American literature and poetry (mostly 20th century), modernism, French literature (19th and early 20th century)

Jason Willwerscheid (Graduated: 2013)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, UC Irvine, 2013; B.S. Mathematics and French Studies, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2003 Placement:  Software developer as of 2015; PhD student of Statistics; Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Providence College, RI, 2022-present Dissertation: Political Ecologies of the Irish Fin de Siecle                                                                                                                                            Research Interests: 19th and 20th Century British and Irish Drama, Poetry, and Fiction; Ecocriticism; Science and Literature; Theories of Games; Critical Theory

Robert Wood (Graduated: 2013)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, UC Irvine, 2013; B.A. History with Minor in Comparative Literature, University of Minnesota, 2003 Placement:  Lecturer, Composition and Writing Center Specialist, Soka University, 2015-2017; Adjunct Lecturer, Irvine Valley College, 2015-2023; Adjunct Lecturer, Santiago Canyon College, 2018-2023; Lecturer, English, UCI, 2023-present                                          Dissertation: Estranging Social Reproduction in the Era of Mass Production: Science Fiction, Utopia, and the Reconstruction of and Resistance to the Labor of the Domestic Sphere                                                                                                                                                              Research Interests: Marxism, modernism, science fiction, crisis, the body and production, critical theory, the avant-garde, the fantastic

Anna Cavness (Graduated: 2012)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2012; B.A., University of Virginia, 2003 Placement:  Adjunct Professor, French, Soka University, 2012 Dissertation:  Vernacular Optics: Phantasms of National Culture in the Postcolonial Maghreb Research Interests : Postcolonialism; twentieth-century North African and Arabic literature and culture

Vuslat D. Katsanis (Graduated: 2012)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2012; M.A. Visual Studies, University of California, Irvine, 2007; B.A. English and Studio Art, University of California, Riverside, 2004 Placement: /* /*]]>*/ Adjunct Professor, Department of Peace Studies, Chapman; Assistant Professor of Rhetoric & Composition/Manager of Writing Center, Soka University, Fall 2013; Tenured Professor of Literary Arts & Studies at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, present  Dissertation: Becoming Stranger: Identity and Estrangement in Contemporary Turkish Visual Culture                                                  Research Interests: Postcolonial critique, Orientalism, cultural studies, race critical theory, contemporary Turkish film and visual culture

Olivia Gunn (Graduated: 2012)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2012;   M.A. Performance Studies, NYU, 2003; B.A. Norwegian and English with Dance Minor, University of Washington, 2002 Placement:  Visiting Assistant Professor, Norwegian & Scandinavian Area Studies, Pacific Lutheran University, Fall 2012-2015; Assistant Professor, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of Washington, Seattle, 2015; Associate Professor, Sverre Arestad Endowed Chair & Graduate Program Coordinator in Norwegian Studies, Dept of Scandinavian Studies, University of Washington, Seattle, 2015-present Dissertation: At the Limits of Realism: Late Ibsen and Other Neo-Romantic Estrangements Research Interests: European culture at the fin de siècle; Scandinavian literature; decadence; literary expatriation; cosmopolitanism; queer theory; deconstruction

Maryam El-Shall (Graduated: 2012)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2012; M.A. in English, University of Florida, 2006; B.A. English, University of Florida, 2004 Placement: Assistant Professor of English, Santa Fe College, Gainesville, FL, 2018-2023; Proposal Writer, A. Harold & Associates, Jacksonville, FL, 2023-present Dissertation: Technologies of the Self in Popular US Culture, 1980-2010 Research Interests: Critical Theory, Cultural Studies Teaching Interests: English composition and research, World Culture, World Literature, Introduction to Islamic Studies

Anna Guercio (Graduated: 2012)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2012;   M.F.A., University of Iowa, 2007; B.A. Comparative Literature and Literary Translation, Brown University, 2003 Placement:  Translation Editor of Drunken Boat; Online contributing editor of translation journals, Words Without Borders; Teacher at Pacific Ridge Schools, Carlsbad, CA, 2023-present Dissertation: Reading and Writing the World: World Literature as Translation Research Interests : literary translation; translation theory (particularly as it applies to ethics, authorship, and gender); poetry; contemporary and post-Franco Spanish and Catalan literature; Latin American literature; power, framing, and art objects

Emma Heaney (Graduated: 2012)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2012; B.A., Smith College, 2003 Placement:  Assistant Professor of English (Tenure-Track), William Patterson University, NJ, Fall 2016; Assistant Professor, John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master's Program in Humanities and Social Thought--to spring 2016; Associate Director & Clinical Assistant Professor, XE Program in Experimental Humanities and Social Engagement, NYU, present Dissertation: The New Woman: Literary Modernism and the Trans Feminine Allegory 

Vicki Hsieh (Graduated: 2012)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2012; B.A. Comparative Literature and Psychology, Cornell University, 2006 Placement: Project Manager and Editor, K-12 and higher education research, Hanover Research, 2012-2015; Senior Editor, Public Policy Institute of California, 2016-present Dissertation: Speech After Mao: Literature and Belonging Research Interests: Contemporary poetry; language learning; postcolonial literature and theory; cultural comparison; disciplinary formations

Erin Yu-Tien Huang (Graduated: 2012)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2012; B.A. Comparative Literature and Psychology, University of California, Davis, 2004 Placement:   /* /*]]>*/ Lecturer, Writing, Irvine Valley College; Lecturer, East Asian Studies Dept, UCI; Visiting Assistant Professor, East Asian Studies Dept, NYU 2013-2014; TT Assistant Professor, East Asian Studies & Comparative Literature, Princeton University, Fall 2014-2023; Assistant Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto, Fall 2023-present Dissertation: Capital's Abjects: Chinese Cinemas, Urban Horror, and the Limits of Visibility Research Interests: East Asian Cinema; psychoanalysis; sexuality and space; the city, the body, and urbanism

Nasser Mufti (Graduated: 2012)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2012; B.A. Political Philosophy and History, Hampshire College, 2005 Placement:  /* /*]]>*/ Assistant Professor of English (Tenure-Track), University of Illinois Chicago, 2014; Associate Head & Associate Professor of English, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, University of Illinois Chicago, 2014-present Dissertation: Civil War by "Other Means": Internal Strife in British Colonial Culture                         Research Interests: Civil War and its relationship to the British empire, Victorian literature, Global Anglophone literature, postcolonial theory, political theory.

Duy Lap Nguyen (Graduated: 2012)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2012; B.A. Modern Literature, UC Santa Cruz, 2002 Placement:  Post Doctoral Fellowship, Pembroke Center, Brown Univerity; Tenure-Track Associate Professor, Department of World Cultures and Literatures, University of Houston, 2014-present Dissertation: The Postcolonial Present: Redemption and Revolution in Twentieth-Century Vietnamese Culture and History                 Research Interests: Vietnamese colonial literature and history; Vietnamese popular fiction; Hegel and paleo-Marxist approaches to time, social space and the critique of political economy

Bernard Richter (Graduated: 2012)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2012; M.A., UC Santa Cruz, 2003 Placement:   /* /*]]>*/ Associate Faculty, Butte College, English 2013-2018; Assistant Director of the Bruce Initiative on Rethinking Capitalism Research Assistant, UC Santa Cruz; Instructor, Journalism & Public Relations, CSU Chico, present Dissertation: Seeing After Auschwitz: Sebald, Conrad, Levi Research interests : the Holocaust and related issues of affect and epistemology in postwar German literature and culture; critical theory

Annette Rubado (Graduated: 2012)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2012; B.A., University of Oregon, 1996 Placement:  Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish; Instructor, Department of Romance Languages; Instructor, School of Writing, Literature, & Film, Oregon State University, 2014-present Dissertation: Expropriated Subjectivities: The Limits of Form in Twentieth Century Latin America                                                    Research Interests : Luso-Brazilian language and culture, Hispanic language and culture, Cinema and Political Economy, Modern Subjectivities, Political Theory

Matthew Schilleman (Graduated: 2012)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2012; B.A., Michigan State University, 2005 Placement:  Fellow, Center for Humanistic Inquiry, Amherst College, Year-long full-time research appointment; Visiting Assistant Professor, English Dept, Clemson University, 2012-2015 Dissertation: Typewrite Psyche: Office Media, Modernism, and the Creation of the Unconscious, 1880-1930 Research Interests : media studies, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, and philosophy, especially through the lens of cybernetics

Jonathan Tanner (Graduated: 2012)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2012; B.A. English with Creative Writing: Poetry emphasis and second B.A. in French Language and Literature, University of Oklahoma, 2003 Placement :  /* /*]]>*/ Technical Director, Epic Systems, Verona, Wisconsin (Healthcare software company), present Dissertation: The End(s) of Time: Induction and Narrative in the Works of Lyell, M. Shelley, Flaubert, and Wells Research Interests: (will, hopefully, not forever be limited to): epic poetry; 19th-century French poetry; German and English Romanticism; scientific romance; Godzilla; and zinfandel; French and Critical Theory emphases.

Kyle Wanberg (Graduated: 2012)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2012; B.A. Philosophy, Skidmore College, 2002 Placement:  Master Teacher in Liberal Studies program, NYU; Clinical Associate Professor, Global Liberal Studies, NYU, present Dissertation: Burrowed Tongues: A Critical Pedagogy of Global Literature from Post-Colonial Translation to Orature Research Interests: critiques of reason, poco and translation studies, psychoanalysis, “minor” languages and literatures, orature

Tim Wong (Graduated: 2012)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, UC Irvine, 2012; M.A., Philosophy, UC Santa Cruz 2002; B.A., Philosophy, UC Santa Cruz, 2000 Placement:  AP English Teacher, Pacific Ridge School, Carlsbad, present Research Interests:  Continental philosophy (especially Kant, Heidegger and Foucault), French post-war literature, theories of violence, aesthetic theory, U.S. modernism and post-war literature

Juan R. Buriel (Graduated: 2011)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2011 Placement: /* /*]]>*/ Department Chair, English Dept, College of the Canyons, 2014-2016; Ford Diversity Fellow with National Research Council of the National Academies; Professor of English, College of the Canyons, 2016-present Advisor: Adriana Johnson Dissertation: Textual Misfits: Subaltern Narratives and Chicano Representation in an Age of Multiculturalism Research Interests: Subaltern Studies, Critical Theory, Chicano Studies Currently, I am full professor, as well as former chair, of the English Department at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, CA. My Humanities graduate degree has, in general, fostered my ability to craft and explore critical questions on how historically disenfranchised communities are, and have been, represented and serviced. Working in a community college setting has allowed me to apply my training in theory in a variety pedagogical and administrative settings in the service of students and communities with diverse needs, challenges, and goals. In turn, these professional experiences have, sometimes in surprising ways, shaped my own scholarly orientations and work.

Michelle Cho (Graduated: 2011)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2011; B.A. Comparative Literature, Northwestern University, 2003 Placement:   /* /*]]>*/ Cogut Humanities Center Postdoctoral Fellowship in International Humanities, Departments of Modern Culture and Media & East Asian Studies, Brown University, Fall 2013; Korea Foundation Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track), Department of East Asian Studies, McGill University; Assistant Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto, present Dissertation: Generic Realities: The Transnational Spaces of South Korean Cinema

Polina Kroik (Graduated: 2011)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2011; M.A. English, Syracuse University, 2006; B.A. English, Boston University, 2004 Placement:   /* /*]]>*/ Faculty, English Dept; Lane Community College; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Israeli Cinema and Expository Writing at Hunter College; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Introductory and Advanced Hebrew at Baruch College, The City University of New York, present Dissertation: Producing Modern Girls: Gender and Work in American Literature and Film, 1910-1960

Annie Moore (Graduated: 2011)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2011; M.A. Peace Studies, Lancaster University, UK, 2004; B.A. English and History, University of British Columbia, 2003 Placement:  Postdoctoral Fellowship & Visiting Assistant Professor, Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, University of Victoria, 2011-2013; Research Educator and Grant Facilitator, Island Health - Vancouver Island Health Authority, Canada, 2013-present Research Interests : 20th & 21st C poetry; 20th & 21st C Irish and Canadian literatures; global Englishes; lyric theory and history; vitalisms; biopolitics; animal studies; queer theory; ecocriticism; politics and limits of language; trauma and memory Dissertation: Survival By Suicide: The Biopoetics of Twentieth-Century Lyric and Criticism 

Benjamin Bishop (Graduated: 2010)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2010 Placement:   /* /*]]>*/ Visiting Assistant Professor of English/Writing/Linguistics, Western Oregon University, 2010-present Dissertation: Exacting Encounters: Objectivity and Literality in Early Victorian Realism

Wendy Piquemal (Graduated: 2010)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, UC Irvine, 2011; M.A., University of Edinburgh, 1999; B.A., Duke University, 1998 Placement:  /* /*]]>*/ Lecturer, Composition, UCI, 2010-2012; Freelance Translator (French to English), 2010-present Dissertation:  Tradition and Transformation: Culture Recovery in the New World

Lindsay Puente (Graduated: 2010)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2010; B.A. Comparative Literature and Spanish, USC, 2001 Placement:  Assistant Professor, Dept of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Univ of Arkansas, 2010-2014;  /* /*]]>*/ Educational Programs Director, Fort Worth Capoeira, TX, 2010-present; Adjunct Professor of Spanish, Tarrant County College, TX 2014-present; Adjunct Professor, Classical & Contemporary Dance, Texas Christian University - College of Fine Arts, 2018-present Dissertation:  Locating Slavery in the Modern National Imaginary: The Legacy of Haiti

Alexandra Sartor (Graduated: 2010)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2010 Placement:   /* /*]]>*/ Associate Director for Writing, Sixth College, UCSD; Lecturer, Culture, Art, and Technology Program, UCSD; Lecturer, Analytical Writing Program, UCSD, present Dissertation:  Written in Water: The Rhetorical Protests of the Owen Valley Water Wars

Travis Tanner (Graduated: 2010)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2010 Placement:   /* /*]]>*/ Postdoctoral Fellow, Tulane University-2014; Visiting Assistant Professor of English, Loyola Marymount University, 2014-2015; Program Director, Licensed Psychoanalyst, Educator, and Social Worker, Community West Treatment Center, Los Angeles, present; Advanced Candidate in the Adult Program of Psychoanalysis at the New Center for Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles, present; on Board of Directors at New Orleans-Birmingham Psychoanalysis Center (NOBPC), Chair of Outreach at NOBPC, and is a representative on the Education, Curriculum and Faculty Committees at the New Center for Psychoanalysis, present Dissertation:  X-Communicated Subjects in Native American Literature

Kimberly Ball (Graduated: 2009)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2009;  M.A. Folklore, University of California, Berkeley;  B.A. Philosophy, University of California, Los Angeles Placement:   /* /*]]>*/ Continuing Lecturer in the Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies (ELTS), UCLA, 2015-present Dissertation:  The Otherworld Vessel as Metatraditional Motif in Northern European Literature and Folk Narrative

Jian Chen (Graduated: 2009)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2009;  B.A. Ethnic Studies and English, University of California, Berkeley Placement:   /* /*]]>*/ Assistant Professorship, English Department, The Ohio State University; Director of Asian American Studies (Autumn 2020) and Sexuality Studies (2017-2018), The Ohio State University; Associate Professor of Queer Studies, Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, The Ohio State University, present

Margaux Cowden (Graduated: 2009)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2009 Placement:  /* /*]]>*/ Visiting Assistant Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Williams College, 2012-2016; Director, OHIO Honors Program, 2018-2020, & Director, Cutler Scholars Program, 2016-2020, Ohio University; Director, Emory College Scholars Programs, Emery University, GA, 2020-2022; Chief Program Officer, Point Foundation, Los Angeles, 2022-present Dissertation:  Late Modernism & the Landscape of Perversity: Minor Utopianism, 1930-1950

Jane De Leon Griffin (Graduated: 2009)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, 2009;  B.A. University of Wisconsin, Madison Placement: Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish, Indiana University, 2009-10; Associate Professor of Modern Languages, Bentley University (Boston);  /* /*]]>*/ Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences & Associate Professor in Department of Modern Languages, Bentley University, present Research Interests:  Material culture; minority and marginal cultural production; popular and mass culture; folk art and craft; gender studies; intellectual property and copyright laws; state and corporate sponsorship of the arts; translation studies; non-profit arts organizations Dissertation:  The Labor of Literature: Gender and Literary Culture in Chile from Dictatorship to Democracy

Erin Trapp (Graduated: 2009)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2009 Placement:   /* /*]]>*/ Lecturer, Department of English, University of Wisconsin-River Falls, 2012-2014; Senior Lecturer, Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2014-2019; Pursuing clinical licensure as a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, Lyn-Lake Psychotherapy & Wellness, Minnesota, present Dissertation:  Estranging Lyric: Postwar Aggression and the Task of Poetry 

Liz Kiszely (Graduated: 2008)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2008 Placement:   /* /*]]>*/ Faculty Emeritus, English Department, Fullerton College, present Dissertation:  Parallel Infinities: Playing on Time in Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities

Katherine Mack (Graduated: 2008)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2008 Placement:   /* /*]]>*/ Former Department Chair, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs; Professor of English, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, present Dissertation:  A Generative Failure: The Public Hearings of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission

R. John Williams (Graduated: 2008)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2008 Placement: Associate Professor of English & Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies, Yale University, present

Michael Kurt Ozment (Graduated: 2008)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2008 Placement: /* /*]]>*/ Visiting Assistant Professor Doctor, Cultures, Civilizations & Ideas, Bilkent University, Turkey, present

Rodney A. Rodriguez (Graduated: 2008)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2008 Placement:  Instructional Specialist, Writing and Reading Center, Long Beach City College; Department Head of English, Long Beach City College, present Dissertation:  Allegories of Literary Medicine: Cures and Doctors in Don Quixote, Tom Jones, and Tristram Shandy

Matthew Ancell (Graduated: 2007)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2007 Placement:  /* /*]]>*/ Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary Humanities, & Section Head of Comparative Literature, Brigham Young University, present Dissertation:  The Aesthetics of Disfiguration: Skeptical Perspective in Early Modern Spain and England

Craig Carson (Graduated: 2007)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2007; B.A. Rhetoric and Philosophy (Double Major), State University of New York, Binghamton, 1995 /* /*]]>*/ Placement:  Harper-Schmidt Fellow & Collegiate Assistant Professor of Humanities @ The University of Chicago 2007-2010; Assistant Professor of 18th-Century, Adelphi University; Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Honors College, Adelphi University, present Research Interests:  Environmental Humanities, Restoration/18th-Century Literature, History of the Novel, Ecocriticism, Literary Theory Dissertation:  The Aesthetic Community: Eighteenth-Century Politics of the Spectacle

Brook Haley (Graduated: 2007)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2007 Placement: Lecturer, Pomona College; Lecturer, French, UC Irvine-2013; French Instructor, The Bishop's School, La Jolla, CA, present Winner of the Charles Bernheimer Prize of the American Comparative Literature Association for Best Dissertation of 2008 in the U.S., for Atomic Poetry: Materialist Rhythms in Lucretius, Du Bellay and Mallarme

Marina Ludwigs (Graduated: 2007)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2007 Placement: Visiting Assistant Professor of English, Stockholm University; Associate Professor (Docent), Stockholm University, Sweden, present Research Interests:  Narratology, Generative Anthropology, Affect Theory, and Mimetic Theory Dissertation:  Epiphanies in Literature and Narrative Meaning

Erin Obodiac (Graduated: 2007)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2007; B.A., summa cum laude, Cornell University Placement: Researcher, Leeds University, 2008-10; Lecturer, Comparative Literature, UCI, Fall 2010 2012-13; Society for the Humanities Fellowship, Cornell University, 2013-15; Post Doctoral Fellowship, Department of Comparative Literature, Cornell University; Taught at SUNY Albany and SUNY Cortland; Lecturer, UCI-DUT Joint Program, present Research Interests:  arche-writing, the philosophy of technology Dissertation:  Technics and the Sublime

Glenn Odom (Graduated: 2007)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2007;  M.Ed. English Education, Vanderbilt University;  B.A. English and Psychology, Vanderbilt University Placement: Visiting Asst Professor of English, Grinnell College (2008-09); Asst Prof of English, Rowan University (NJ), 2009-2014; Senior Lecturer (equivalent to Associate Professor) Department of Drama, Theatre, & Performance Research, Roehampton University, London, UK; Reader in Department of Situated, Mobile & Socially Engaged Performance Practices, Roehampton University, present; Professor, Centre for Research in Arts and Creative Exchange, Roehampton University, present Research Interests:  My work involves the study of modern and contemporary theatre and performance from Africa and Asia. My current practice involves asset-led applied theatre in London. I also study world literature, comparative literature, and general critical theory, with particular attention to issues of transmission and reception. Dissertation:  Resistant Stagings: Discourses of Power and Metatheatricality in Soyinka, Jonson, and Euirpieds

Margaret Smith (Graduated: 2007) 

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2007; B.S., University of Michigan, 1980; B.A. Classics, UCI, 1992 Placement:  Library Assistant, UCI Dissertation:  Athena and Minerva: Rhetoric, Gender, and Durability

Catherine Winiarski (Graduated: 2007)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2007 Placement: Instructor, Writing and Reading Success Center, Long Beach City College, present; Lecturer, Humanities Core and Composition, UCI, 2014-; Lecturer, English Department, UCI, present Research Interests:   Environmental literature; early modern English literature Dissertation:  Adulterers, Idolaters, and Emperors: The Politics of Iconoclasm in English Renaissance Drama

Kir Kuiken (Graduated: 2006)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2006; M.A. Philosophy, University of California, Irvine, 1999; Honors B.A. Philosophy & English, Trent University, Canada, 1996 Placement: Associate Professor, Department of English, University at Albany, present  Research Interests:  Romantic Literature and Culture, Romantic moral and political philosophy, and contemporary political and aesthetic theory Dissertation:  Crises of the Imagination: Romanticism at the Limits of Philosophy

Mariam B. Lam (Graduated: 2006)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2006 Placement:  Vice Chancellor & Chief Diversity Officer, Diversity Equity & Inclusion Dept, UCR present; Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, UCR present; Cooperating Faculty in Ethnic Studies, UCR present Dissertation:  Surfin' Vietnam: Trauma, Historical Memory, and Cultural Politics in Twentieth Century Literature and Film

Jason E. Smith (Graduated: 2006)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2006; Summer 2001: School of Criticism and Theory, Cornell University; Université de Paris X-Nanterre, Départment de Philosophie (auditeur libre), 2000; B. A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1995 Placement:   /* /*]]>*/ Cornell Society for the Humanities Fellow in 2013-14; Former Chair of the Graduate Art MFA program; Assistant Professor, Graduate Studies in Art, Art Center College of Design, present Dissertation:  The Pure Materiality of the Fact: Studies in Literature and Politics (Husserl, Derrida, Nancy) Co-editor, Hegel After Spinoza: A Volume of Critical Essays , ed. Hasana Sharp and Jason E. Smith (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2011); editor and Introduction. Vittorio Morfino, Plural Temporality: Transindividuality and the Aleatory between Spinoza and Althusser (Brill, 2010)

Lan Duong (Graduated: 2005)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2005 Placement: Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, USC Research Interests:  Feminist Film Theory, Postcolonial Literature, Asian American Cinema, Genre Studies Dissertation:  Viet Nam and the Diaspora: Gender, Nation, and the Politics of Collaboration

Patience Moll (Graduated: 2005)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2005; B.A., Yale University, 1991 Placement:  Lecturer, USC Honors Humanities program, Thematic Option, Fall 2016; Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Dundee, Scotland, 2007-08; Lecturer, Humanities Core Program, UC Irvine, 2008-10; Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of English, Tulane University; Lecturer, USC, present Dissertation:  Inscriptions of the Multitude in Hegel, Heidegger, and Plato

Patricia Pierson (Graduated: 2005)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2005 Placement:   /* /*]]>*/ Associate Director, Literary Journalism Program & Associate Director of Center for Storytelling, UCI, present Research Interests: Writing and rhetoric, narrative and narrative theory, collections and collection theory, critical theory, and storytelling Dissertation:  Secret Agents: Identity, Detection, and the Question of Narrative Authority

Jonathan Singer (Graduated: 2005)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2005; M.A. Culture Studies/Critical Theory and Analysis, Western University, 1996; B.A. English Literature & Cultural Studies, Trent University, 1993 Placement: Full Professor of English, Seneca College, Toronto, Ontario, present Dissertation:  Epistolary Exchange and the Early Modern Subject of Narrative

Rosemary Kwa (Graduated: 2004)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2004 Placement: /* /*]]>*/ English Majors Transfer Program Coordinator & Associate Professor of English, Glendale Community College, present Dissertation:  The Force of Affect in Freudian Psychoanalysis: Representation, Subjectivity, and Drive Theory 

Mark Patrick (Graduated: 2004)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2004; B.A. Comparative Literature, UCI, 1991 Placement:  Faculty, Coast Guard Academy Dissertation:  Italy and the Burden of History in Sannazaro's Arcadia and Shakespeare's Late Pastoral

Jeffrey Atteberry (Graduated: 2003)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature with Critical Theory Emphasis, University of California, Irvine, 2003 - studied under Jacques Derrida; J.D. UC Berkeley; B.A. Princeton University  Placement:  Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship offered, UC Berkeley; Principal Attorney, The Vora Law Firm, present Dissertation:  A Gracious Freedom: The New World of Surrealist Liberation

Julia Lynn Witwer (Graduated: 2003)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2003; B.A., University of California, Santa Cruz, 1991 Placement:  Librarian, Berkeley Public Library Dissertation:  Surface Tension: The Operation of the Screen in Computer and Console Video Games

Jennifer Bajorek (Graduated: 2002)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2002 Placement: Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow; Senior Lecturer and Convenor of MA in Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London; Research Associate, Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre, in the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Johannesburg (South Africa), 2013-present; Professor of Comparative Literature and Visual Studies, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, present  Research Interests:  African photographic archives and decolonial historiography; Francophone (European, African, Caribbean) literature and film; Marxist, post-Marxist, and postcolonial theory; as well as topics in contemporary art, African and African diaspora history, and art history, and critical museum and heritage studies. Her work also includes translation, curating, and diverse forms of collaboration. Dissertation:  Technics of Production: Irony and Capital in Marx and Baudelaire Publications:  Author of Counterfeit Capital: Poetic Labor and Revolutionary Irony (Stanford UP, 2008);  Unfixed: Photography and Decolonial Imagination in West Africa , Duke UP, 2020

Patricia Dailey (Graduated: 2002)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2002 Placement: Woodrow Wilson Postdoctoral Fellow, Northwestern University (2002-2004); Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, 2004-present (awarded tenure-track in 2013) Research Interests:  Medieval literature, medieval women's poetry and prose, Anglo-Saxon poetry, critical theory, psychoanalytic theory, psychoanalysis and cognitive studies; gender, sexuality, queer theory, and feminism; Europe; Britian Dissertation:  Promised Bodies: Embodiment and the Time of a Literary Text Publications:  Trans. of Giorgio Agamben, The Time That Remains (Stanford University Press, 2005); Promised Bodies: Time, Language, and Corporeality in Medieval Women's Mystical Texts. Columbia UP, 2013.

Erin Ferris (Graduated: 2002)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2002; B.A., University of British Columbia, 1992 Placement: Stanford University Dissertation:  Just Poetry

Benjamin Huang (Graduated: 2002)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2002; B.A. English, Yale University, 1976 Placement: Council of Library Resources Fellow, USC, 2005; Lecturer in Humanities, Mount St. Mary's College, 2007-2009 Dissertation:  Framing the Self: Ideology and Subject Formation in Conrad, Joyce, and Ha Jin

Steven L. Miller (Graduated: 2002)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2002; B.A. Semiotics, Brown University, 1990 Placement: Postdoctoral Fellow, Cornell University Society for the Humanities, 2003-04;  /* /*]]>*/ Executive Director for the Center of Psychoanalysis and Culture, Director of Graduate Admissions, & Associate Professor, Department of English, SUNY Buffalo, present Research Interests:  psychoanalytic theory, continental philosophy, 19th- and 20th-century European literatures, translation studies Dissertation:  The Fulfillment of the Law: Contestation in Postwar Thought and Fiction Publications:  Co-translator with Jason Smith of Jean-Luc Nancy, Hegel: The Restlessness of the Negative (University of Minnesota Press, 2002); editor, Literature and the Right to Marriage (special issue of Diacritics , 2007); author,  War After Death: On Violence and Its Limits  (Fordham University Press, 2014)

Irene Wei (Graduated: 2001)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2001; B.A., Comparative Literature, UCI, 1988 Placement:  Practicing Lawyer Dissertation:  The Birth of New Barbarians: The Theater of Encounter in Four Early Twentieth-Century French and Chinese Writers

Dwight Frederick Brooks (Graduated: 2001)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2001 Placement:  Independent Scholar & Novelist (self-employed) Dissertation: Spenser's Ingenium: A Study of Metamorphic Poetics in the 1590 Faerie Queene

Christopher Michael Diffee (Graduated: 2001)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2001; B.A. University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, 1993 Placement:  J.D., Stanford, Practicing Lawyer Dissertation:  A Natural Infamy: Fictions of Endangered Agency in Hardy, Norris, and Zola

Christopher Kuipers (Graduated: 2001)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2001 Placement:  Graduate Faculty Member in Literature and Criticism, Indiana University, Pennsylvania, present Research Interests:  Pastoral literature, Classical literature, Bible as literature, History of the canon, Anthologies, The graphic novel Dissertation:  The Pastoral Initiation: An Ecology of Authorly Emergence from Plato to Milton Publications:  Canon (Taylor & Francis, 2009)

Naomi Silver (Graduated: 2001)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature,   University of California, Irvine, 2001; B.A., University of Chicago, 1990 Placement:  Associate Director and Lecturer, Sweetland Center for Writing, University of Michigan, present Research Interests:  Writing studies, digital rhetoric, writing and multiliteracy centers Dissertation:  Rituals of Contact: Sacrifice and Community in Cullen, Balzac, Larsen, James, and Rilke

Lawrence Albert De Valencia (Graduated: 2001)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2001; B.A. Yale, 1989 Dissertation:  The Exigency of Character - Trees, Tables, and Triangles, Drawing Characters Upon Nature: Cervantes, Wilkins, Newton & Defoe

Kimberly Moekle (Graduated: 2000)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2000; B.A. English, University of California, Los Angeles, 1989 Placement:   /* /*]]>*/ Lecturer, Composition, UCI, 2001-2005; Lecturer, Program in Writing and Rhetoric, Stanford, 2005-2019; Senior Lecturer in Communication Studies & Core Curriculum, Loyola Marymount University, 2019-present Dissertation: Precarious Closets: Privacy and Subjectivity in the Renaissance

Jennifer Thompson (Graduated: 2000)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2000; B.A., General Studies, University of Arizona, 1991 Placement:  Assistant Professor of Humanities and Communication, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, 2000-unknown; Flight Test Engineer, Raytheon Missiles & Defense, present Dissertation:  Realizing Rape

David Victor Maxwell (Graduated: 1999)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 1999; B.A. State University of New York at Buffalo, 1988 Placement:  Graduate Student, MA English Education, CUNY Lehman Dissertation:  The Keys to the Self: Franklin, De Man, Emerson, and Melville

Julie Chung In Park (Graduated: 1999)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 1999; B.A., UCI, 1989 Placement:  Visiting Assistant Professor, Cultures, Civilizations, & Ideas, Bilkent University, Turkey Dissertation: The Question of Literature in Duras, Ch'oe, and Kingston

Tracy McNulty (Graduated: 1998)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 1998; B.A. French and English, UC Berkeley, 1989 Placement: /* /*]]>*/ Professor, French Studies, Romance Studies, and Comparative Literature, Cornell University, present Research Interests:  20th-century French literature and comparative modernism, psychoanalytic theory (especially Freud and Lacan), contemporary French philosophy, and political theory Dissertation:  Under the Sign of the Hostess: Hospitality, Ethics, and the Expropriation of Identity Publications:   The Hostess, My Neighbor: Hospitality and the Expropriation of Identity (University of Minnesota Press, 2006);  Wrestling with the Angel: Experiments in Symbolic Life , Columbia UP, 2014.

David De Kanter Arndt (Graduated: 1998)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 1998; B.A. Yale University, 1991 Placement:  Assistant Professor, Deep Springs College, 1999-2005; Visiting Assistant Professor, Bilkent University, 2005-2010; Assistant Professor, Kutztown University, 2010-Present (as of 2018); Visiting Professor, Deep Springs College, Summer 2011; Professor of Comparative Literature, Deep Springs College, 2007-present  Dissertation: Ground and Abyss: The Question of Poiesis in Heidegger, Arendt, Foucault and Stevens

Thomas Albrecht (Graduated: 1997)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 1997 Placement: Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Modern and Contemporary Studies, UCLA, 2002-03; Assistant Professor of English, Tulane University, 2003-?; Chair of the English Department, Professor of English, Tulane University, present Dissertation:  Petrifying Authority: The Medusa as Metaphor in Freud, Nietzsche, Swinburne, and George Eliot Publications:  Author of The Medusa Effect: Representations of Horror in Psychoanalysis and Victorian Aesthetics (Albany: SUNY Press, 2009); ed., Selected Writings of Sarah Kofman (Stanford UP, 2007).

Mark Calkins (Graduated: 1997)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 1997 Placement:  Professor, Classics Department, San Francisco State University Dissertation: A La Recherche de Lunite Perdue: Genre, Allegory, Irony, Dilation and Decadent Style in Proust

Matthew Potolsky (Graduated: 1997)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 1997;  B.A. Comparative Literature & Philosophy, UC Davis Placement:  Professor of English, University of Utah, present Research Interests:  My research focuses on nineteenth-century British and French literature, particularly late-century movements like Decadence and Aestheticism. I also have a longstanding interest in the history of literary theory and in representations of secrets and secret keeping. Dissertation:  Teaching Decadence: Aestheticism and the Ends of Education in Gautier, Masoch, and Pater Publications:  Mimesis (The New Critical Idiom) (Routledge, 2006); co-ed. with Liz Constable and Dennis Denisoff of Perennial Decay: On the Aesthetics and Politics of Decadence (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998)

Gabriel Riera (Graduated: 1997)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 1997 Placement:  Associate Professor, Hispanic and Italian Studies Department, University of Illinois, Chicago, present Publications:  Alain Badiou: Philosophy and its Conditions (Albany: SUNY Press, 2005);  Intrigues: From Being to the Other (Fordham University Press, 2006);  Littoral of the Letter: Saer’s Art of Narration  (Lewisburg/London: Bucknell University Press, 2006).

Oliver Berghof (Graduated: 1996)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 1996 Placement:  Professor of Literature and Writing, California State University, San Marcos, present Dissertation: Psyche, Soul, Death, Spirit and Mind in Sterne and Diderot 

Michael Mageean (Graduated: 1996)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 1996 Placement:  Professor of English, Mt. San Antonio College, present Dissertation:  Traumatic Readings: Violence and Rhetoric 

Simona Sawhney (Graduated: 1996)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 1996 Placement: /* /*]]>*/ Taught in Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and in the Department of Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Minnesota; Professor of Literature, IIT Delhi, present Dissertation: Secular Interventions: Engaging Forms of the Sacred in Politics and Literature Publications:  The Modernity of Sanskrit (University of Minnesota Press, 2008)

Armando Ismael Silva (Graduated: 1996)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 1996 Placement:   /* /*]]>*/ Director of the Doctorate in Social Studies of the Universidad Externado de Colombia and a Professor and Researcher Emeritus of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia , present Dissertation:  The Family Photo Album: The Image of Ourselves Publications:  co-author, Imaginary Cities: Documenta 11 ; see http://www.divulgacion.unal.edu.co/exposiciones_imaginarios.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armando_Silva

Manya Steinkoler (Graduated: 1996)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 1996; M.A. Comparative Literature, Brandeis University, 1995 Placement:  Professor of English, Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, present Dissertation: "Tell Me More About the Voice": Operatic Psychoanalysis, A Lacanian Vocalise

Gregory Lambert (Graduated: 1995)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 1995 Placement:  Dean's Professor, Humanities & Founding Director of the Syracuse University Humanities Center in Central New York, present Dissertation: The Culture of the Stranger: Reflections on European Aesthetic Ideology in 'The New World' Publications:  Who's Afraid of Deleuze and Guattari ? (Continuum, 2007); The Return of the Baroque in Modern Culture (Continuum, 2005); and The Non-Philosophy of Gilles Deleuze (Continuum, 2002)

Scott McClintock (Graduated: 1995)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 1995 Placement:  Associate Professor, National University, 2005-2020; Professor, Golden Gate University, 2020-present

Thomas Dutoit (Graduated: 1994)

Degrees:  Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 1994 Placement:  Professor of English, Universite de Lille-III, present Dissertation: Ethics' Debt to Aesthetics: Then Obligation Towards an Unpresentable Publications:  A Rose, a Ghost, in Edith Wharton: Reading Proserpinean Poetics in The Custom of the Country (Editions du Temps, 2000); co-ed. with Philippe Romanski,  Angles on Derrida: Jacques Derrida and Anglophone Literature ), Oxford Literary Review , 2004; translator of Jacques Derrida, Sovereignties in Question (2005), Aporias (2003), and On the Name (1995)

Julia Watson (Graduated: 1979)

Degrees: Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 1979 Placement:  Professor Emerita, Academy Professor, Ohio State University  Advisor(s): Alexander Gelley Richard Regosin Research Interests:  Theorizing Autobiography, Life Narrative, Feminist Theory and Women's Writing Publications:  Life Writing in the Long Run: A Smith & Watson Autobiography Studies Reader,  Michigan Publishing Services, 2017. Reading Autobiography: A Guide to Interpreting Life Narratives   (revised edition, Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2010). I was a professor in English, Humanities, and Comparative Studies depts. for 35 years and have published seven books with a co-author as well as many articles, traveled widely (two Fulbrights, five NEH summer seminars), and had a rewarding career. I urge students to learn languages and travel as much as possible during their studies--! there will never be a better time. Follow your passion, but seek an academic career only if nothing else will satisfy you. It's a long, hard struggle, but ultimately rewarding--and a lifetime of working with students is energizing and fun.

Ph.D. Comparative Literature, "

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Ann Xiaoxu Pei

Ann Xiaoxu Pei is a PhD student in Comparative and World Literature program at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She works at the intersection of environmental humanities and memory studies, and is also an avid researcher in oceanic studies and waste studies. She holds a Masters in English from Nanjing University and was a visiting graduate researcher at UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies from 2022-2023.

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Esl teacher for spanish/ korean/ japanese speakers esl teacher for spanish/ korean/ japanese speakers james k., about james.

My name is James K. I graduated from UCLA in 2015 with a degree in English Literature. At the moment I am preparing my thesis for a PhD in Linguistics and/or English Rhetoric. I fell in love with teaching English as a language when I realized syntax and grammar act almost as a coded language storing huge amounts of information in seemingly meaningless and routine acts of speaking and writing. This is precisely I have a special interest in etymology and root words. It has been my belief and...

My name is James K. I graduated from UCLA in 2015 with a degree in English Literature. At the moment I am preparing my thesis for a PhD in Linguistics and/or English Rhetoric. I fell in love with teaching English as a language when I realized syntax and grammar act almost as a coded language storing huge amounts of information in seemingly meaningless and routine acts of speaking and writing. This is precisely I have a special interest in etymology and root words. It has been my belief and practice that understanding why we speak the way we do and structure our speech various ways helps to create a better, deeper understanding of the language. In turn, this makes it easier to learn and grasp concepts.

I have two years of teaching experience teaching English in South Korea. In college, I tutored Spanish native speakers as a part of a program at UCLA. Through these experiences I have become very well versed in handling cultural differences. I am able to identify them and even use them as learning experience. Language holds so much culture and history so I believe there is much to learn from teacher to student and also student to teacher in these exchanges.

I have two years of teaching experience teaching ESL in a foreign country. My degree from UCLA is in English where I graduated with a 3.4 GPA

I am a very personable human being. My experiences in life are wide and ranging. As a byproduct, my patience and understanding have grown exponentially. Life happens! It’s all about how you roll with the punches. I am always easy to get in contact with and I welcome any further questions you may have.

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Writing a research proposal for a PhD in European languages and cultures

Our guidelines for writing a draft PhD proposal for research in French, German, Italian, Russian, Scandinavian Studies, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, Comparative Literature, Intermediality, and European Theatre.

A research proposal is one of the most important elements of your PhD application.

It helps us understand the general and specific areas of your research interests, the originality and importance of your topic, and the feasibility of the proposed project within the given timescale; PhD degrees are awarded on the basis of a thesis of up to 100,000 words (the average is about 80,000 words).

A good research proposal takes time, so it’s advisable to start thinking early about your project by considering the points below, which have been drawn up by the Postgraduate Research Director for European Languages and Cultures for all PhDs in the subject area.

Please read the guidelines in conjunction with the University's general guidance on How to Write a Good Research Proposal.

How to write a good research proposal

It's also worth looking at Section 4.2 (especially ‘Thesis Requirements’ on page 15) of the Code of Practice for Supervisors and Research Students (August 2020).

Take me to the Code of Practice for Supervisors and Research Students (August 2020 ) 

Your proposal should be about 2,000 words long.

The following seven  elements should help you structure your proposal, though depending on your project they may not need to come in the order below (apart from the title of course!). It is a good idea to use subheadings and write short paragraphs to help your reader navigate through your proposal:

• Choose a title that sums up the project well: this may seem obvious, but a good title can catch your reader’s attention and trigger their interest in your project, so they are keen to read on.
• A thesis statement , including your hypothesis , is a good way of opening the main body of your proposal. In a way this is a justification for your project, so you should bear the following questions in mind: what is this project about; why is it important or innovative, why now (i.e. why is it timely); what does it address that previous research hasn’t addressed so far or what does it do differently; briefly, what are you planning to do; and why would scholars in, but also beyond, your field and, if appropriate, wider society be interested in, or benefit from, your research; why would it be worth being funded?
• Outline the primary material (texts, films, or other primary sources) that you will examine in your thesis. Depending on whether you aim for a PhD in a single language area, in Comparative Literature, or in European Theatre, this may be work by one author, or several, or many. For PhDs in Comparative Literature in particular, it is important to justify your choice of authors/texts and explain why these texts are the ones that need to be examined in that combination in order to make your particular argument.
• Situate your research in the research context , that is, in the existing field or fields of criticism and scholarship . This section needs to give your reader an idea of works in existing literary/cultural criticism on, for instance, the authors featuring in your thesis, the literary period(s), or genre(s).You will need to gain an ‘adequate knowledge’ of the existing research, and engage critically with it, to be able to develop your own original argument in your thesis. The areas of scholarship on which you draw are also likely to include critical works or works that outline particular theories or approaches that will inform your methodology (see below) and your overall argument.
• Include the  research questions or problems  that the argument of your thesis will address (a short list of questions may be helpful here).
• Then outline the (theoretical) approach and methods  you will adopt to address those questions or problems and to analyse your material, that is, to achieve your research aims. Explain why this particular methodology is the appropriate means of doing so. Ask yourself what original outcomes will employing those theories and methodologies allow you to reach.
• Finally, we would like to know why you wish to study your topic at the University of Edinburgh.

Your proposal should also include a bibliography of the primary and secondary sources you mention in the proposal and any further titles that you have already identified as relevant to your research.

Depending on your project, you may also wish to include ethical considerations. If you are accepted, a research ethics review will have to be conducted during your first year. 

Find out more about research ethics reviews

Please bear in mind that research projects develop and often change over time. This means that you are not committing yourself absolutely to completing exactly the project you outline in your proposal in the event that you are accepted. However, you do need to propose an original project that will make a significant contribution to knowledge or understanding of your field of study.

What to do next

Dr Jessica Gordon-Burroughs is your first point of contact if you are interested in taking a PhD with us.  Once she has put you in touch with a potential supervisor, it’s a good idea to share a draft of your proposal with them to receive feedback and advice.

Contact Jessica Gordon-Burroughs

This article was published on 2024-08-13

The Department of Comparative Literature

Funding opportunities for incoming graduate students.

The Department of Comparative Literature  automatically considers all admitted students for multi-year funding packages. A typical funding package includes a combination of fees, stipends, and teaching apprenticeships over the course of 4-5 years. Funding commitments are contingent upon continued eligibility, including sustained degree progress in good academic standing.

All non-California residents are awarded non-resident supplemental tuition (NRST) during their first year of doctoral study. All eligible non-resident students (i.e. Permanent Residents and U.S. citizens) must establish California residency after their first year of graduate study. Information regarding California residency requirements is available on the UCLA Registrar’s Office website . All questions regarding California residency for tuition purposes should be directed to the Residence Deputy.

EUGENE V. COTA-ROBLES FELLOWSHIP

The University of California’s commitment to academic excellence places a high value on sustaining diversity of experience and perspective, which is critical in promoting lively intellectual exchange and the breadth of new ideas that are essential for creative research and scholarship. The University, including UCLA, strives to cultivate a student body and faculty that includes individuals from all cultural, linguistic, geographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

The Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship for doctoral students is intended to ensure that  students who might otherwise find it difficult or impossible to pursue a doctorate degree have access to graduate education. This multi-year award, which is funded by the University of California Office of the President and the department, includes registration fees, stipend and/or salary, and non-resident supplemental tuition for the first year of doctoral study (if applicable). U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or undocumented students who qualify for nonresident supplemental tuition exemptions under AB 540, are eligible to apply. All qualified applications will be considered for these fellowships without regard to gender, color, race, ethnicity or national origin. Students from cultural, racial, linguistic, geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds that are currently underrepresented in graduate education are especially encouraged to apply.

For more information regarding the Cota-Robles Fellowship program, including instructions for applying, please visit the Graduate Division website .

OTHER ucla FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Prospective students are highly encouraged to consider applying for special fellowships offered by the UCLA Graduate Division. Each award has its own unique eligibility criteria. Please visit the UCLA Graduate Division fellowship website for more information.

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