ucla phd comparative literature

Comparative Literature

Standing at the forefront of innovative literary, theoretical, and cultural studies, comparative literature is one of the most exciting fields in the Humanities. The discipline demands exceptional linguistic ability, advanced critical tools, and high intellectual caliber.

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General Catalog

Comparative literature ma, cphil, phd.

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UCLA Graduate Programs

Program Requirements for Comparative Literature

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2015-2016 academic year.

Comparative Literature

College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Comparative Literature offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Comparative Literature. The department only admits students with the objective of the Ph.D. degree.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Students should meet each quarter with the Director of Graduate Studies before the second year review, and once a year thereafter. The Director of Graduate Studies is the main faculty advisor for all incoming Ph.D. students. Student records are reviewed on a regular basis by the Director of Graduate Studies and the Student Affairs Officer in consultation with the core department faculty. Students whose grade-point average falls below 3.0 are sent a warning by the Chair.

Areas of Study

During the first two years of study toward the MA degree en route to Ph.D., each student’s study plan combines the work in the major and minor fields.

The major area is that of primary concentration. The student specializes in one historically defined period of literary and cultural studies spanning at least 200 years. A general knowledge of the major field, must be demonstrated in coursework.

In the minor field, the student focuses either on another literary or cultural tradition, or on a defined theoretical or interdisciplinary approach preapproved by the Director of Graduate Studies.

Foreign Language Requirement

Proficiency in the language of the major field is an essential prerequisite for courses and degrees in Comparative Literature. Students must demonstrate knowledge of one foreign language for the MA degree. Proficiency in one language must be certified by completing two or more upper division and/or graduate courses, taken for a letter grade in the appropriate language department. These courses have pre-requisites of at least a level 6 language proficiency as demonstrated at UCLA (equivalent to two years of language) or through a university placement exam.

In rare cases where sufficient courses are not available to meet this requirement, students may substitute a translation examination administered by a departmental faculty member in lieu of coursework. In such cases, the Director of Graduate Studies, or the chair of the department must approve this action and write a memorandum of support.

Course Requirements

A minimum of 12 letter-graded seminar courses (including one teaching pedagogy course taken at UCLA) are required by the end of the second year, distributed as follows:

Comparative Literature 200A and 200B, three additional Comparative Literature graduate courses, six major and minor field courses of which at least three must be in the major field (two may be upper-division courses), and Comparative Literature 495, the teaching pedagogy course. The three Comparative Literature graduate courses may also count as major and minor field courses pending approval of the DGS and/or the student’s primary advisor. Two upper-division courses may count towards the major and minor field requirement with approval from the Director of Graduate Studies.

Students who come to the program with an MA may petition to validate up to three courses taken at another institution towards the course requirement.

12 letter-graded seminar courses must be completed by the end of the second year. The recommended schedule is as follows:

First year: Two seminars in the first quarter, followed by a three seminar load for the following quarter, and two seminars in the third quarter as well as CL 495.

Second year: For all teaching graduate students, the recommended course load, excluding language coursework, is two seminars per quarter.

Altogether, a minimum of 11 seminars in addition to CL 495 (teaching pedagogy course) should be completed by the end of the second year and before the second year review.

Graduate Summer Research Mentor coursework does not count toward graduate degree requirements.

Under special circumstances student may petition for an exception to apply up to two individual study 500-series courses, taken for a letter grade, toward the course requirements with approval from the Director of Graduate Studies.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is not required but is routinely offered to all graduate students who have completed the CL 495 teaching pedagogy course.

Field Experience

Not required.

Comprehensive Examination Plan

Second Year Review/MA Exam

Students in the Department of Comparative Literature are required to have a Second Year Review/MA Exam in the Spring quarter of their second year. Under exceptional circumstances, students may be allowed to do the Second Year Review/MA Exam in Fall quarter of their third year with permission of the Director of Graduate Studies. Prior to the review, students must demonstrate that they are on track to completing the coursework for the first two years (altogether, a minimum of 12 seminars, including CL 495, the teaching pedagogy course). The requirements for at least one of the two foreign languages must be completed prior to the review.

With the SAO’s assistance students must convene a committee of three faculty members (one of which must be the Director of Graduate Studies and two others from Comparative Literature. One additional member may be added from outside the department. The committee reviews progress toward the degree and plans the remaining coursework required for the Ph.D. Students are required to choose two seminar papers (with or without revisions) and circulate them among the review committee at least two weeks in advance of the review. The papers shall serve as writing samples that will be discussed during the review.

Students who enter the program with an MA in Comparative Literature, must hold a Second Year Review, but will not be awarded an MA from UCLA, as this would be a duplicate degree. The outcome of the second year review for students who hold an MA is as follows: (1) Pass with permission to continue to the Ph.D., (2) Pass with reservations and specific recommendations for improvement, or (3) Fail without permission to continue to the Ph.D.

Students who do not hold a Comparative Literature MA when they enter the program will be awarded an MA provided they pass their Second Year Review and complete their coursework and language proficiency requirement. The three outcomes of a Second Year review for students in this category are: (1) Pass, with an MA and permission to continue to the Ph.D., (2) Pass with reservations, with an MA and specific recommendations for improvement, (3) Pass with a terminal MA, or (4) Fail without an MA or with permission to continue to the Ph.D.

Thesis Plan

Time-to-Degree

Students who are admitted to graduate status and who carry a standard course load as outlined above, in the Course Requirements section should be able to obtain the MA degree within six quarters. This does not apply for students who already hold an MA degree in Comparative Literature.

Doctoral Degree

Students should meet on a quarterly basis with the Director of Graduate Studies before the second year review, and once a year thereafter. Student records are reviewed on a regular basis by the Director of Graduate Studies and the Student Affairs Officer in consultation with the core department faculty. Students whose grade-point average falls below 3.0 are sent a warning by the Chair.

Major Fields or Sub-disciplines

During the third and fourth years of study, the study plan combines the work in a major and minor field. Any changes in student’s major and minor fields must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.

In addition to completing the foreign language requirement for the MA degree, students at the Ph.D. level must demonstrate proficiency in an additional language requirement by the second evaluation stage. Proficiency in this language must be certified by a B+ grade or above in one upper division and/or graduate course, taken for a letter grade in the appropriate language department. These courses have pre-requisites equivalent to two years of college language courses, or an equivalent language placement exam.

In rare cases where sufficient courses are not available, students may substitute a translation examination administered by a departmental faculty member in place of coursework. In such cases, the Director of Graduate Studies, or the chair of the department must approve and write a memo of support.

All coursework must be completed by the end of the third year. In addition to MA coursework, students are required to take four more letter-graded courses: three must be Comparative Literature Graduate seminar courses, and two must be courses in the major and minor fields so as to complete the breadth requirements of 6 major field courses, 2 minor field courses. This is a total of 15 courses, plus 495 teaching padagogy course for the Ph.D.:

• 2 Comparative Literature 200A, 200B
• 1 Comparative Literature 495 pedagogy course
• 6 Comparative Literature graduate seminars (3 for MA, 3 for Ph.D.).

Through courses within and outside the department, students must complete:

• 6 major field courses (of which one course may be upper division)
• 2 minor field courses (of which one course may be upper division)

Students ought to consult with the Director of Graduate Studies and with their primary advisor to plan their coursework for their third year to make sure they are on track to complete the required courses in Comparative Literature, the major field and the minor field.

Teaching experience is not required but is routinely offered to all graduate students who have completed the teaching pedagogy course, CL 495.

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.

First Stage Evaluation: Qualifying Examination

Students must take a two-section qualifying examination. The first section consists of a written examination comprised of a 72-hour take home examination in the major and minor fields based on a reading list of 50 works in the major field and 25 works in the minor field; 15-20 percent of these lists will be theoretical works related to each field. The student prepares reading lists for one major field and one minor field. All reading lists must be approved by the field examiners and the Director of Graduate Studies by the end of the quarter preceding the written exam, and a copy of the reading list must be on file in the department. It is the student’s responsibility to constitute an examining committee, of which two members must be from the department, in the quarter preceding the one in which the examination is given.

The take home written examinations consist of one long or two shorter questions for the major field examination and one question for the minor field. In total, students are expected to demonstrate their knowledge of the field and engagement with relevant ideas and methodologies as they produce some 25-30 pages of original writing during the 72-hour examination period. In these pages, they may not include any excerpts from previously written work, and plagiarism is grounds for dismissal from the program. Once the student receives their questions they may not review or quote from any works that are not included in the reading lists. Students may quote from works on the reading lists, but quotations are not required.

The second section is an oral examination that follows the written examination, no later than two weeks after the submission of the written portion. In consultation with the department’s Student Affairs Officer, it is the student’s responsibility to constitute a three-member faculty committee that includes the faculty member who drafted the major examination question(s) and at least two other faculty members from the department.

The outcome of the exam can be pass with permission to proceed to the prospectus phase of the disseration or fail . In the case of failure the committee may decide to offer the student an opportunity to retake the exam in the following quarter. A second failed exam terminates the student from the program.

Second Stage Evaluation

All coursework and the foreign language requirement must be completed at this stage. After completion of the first stage examination, as outlined above, students enroll in a 597 course with their major adviser to begin work on the disseration prospectus. This 35 to 50-page prospectus includes a substantial bibliography, a review of the relevant secondary literature, and a critical or theoretical perspective. Students should nominate their examination committee (which is their Ph.D. committee) at least two months in advance of the prospectus defense. The doctoral committee is composed of three faculty members from the department and one faculty member from outside of the department. Students must circulate their prospectus to their committee, at least two weeks in advance of the exam. The University Oral Qualifying Examination is a two-hour examination based primarily on a defense of the prospectus. The outcomes of the prospectus examination is pass with permission to advance to candidacy, or fail without permission to advance to candidacy. A prospectus exam may be retaken once.

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.

Following advancement to candidacy and the completion of the dissertation, the student’s decision to file the dissertation must first be approved by the chair of the doctoral committee. The Director of Graduate Studies and all certifying members of the doctoral committee must be notified of the student’s plan to file the dissertation, and the final draft of the dissertation must be submitted to these members for review no later than two months prior to the planned date of filing to allow sufficient time for any needed final revisions.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the doctoral committee.

By the tenth quarter in the program (typically the beginning of fourth year), students must have completed the first stage of the qualifying examination in the major and minor fields and the two-hour oral examination.

By the twelfth quarter in the program (the end of fourth year), students must have completed the second stage of the qualifying examinations, course requirements (16 courses in addition to 495), and been advanced to doctoral candidacy.

After Advancement to Doctoral Candidacy, the dissertation normally takes one to three years to complete. It must be completed no later than by the third year after Advancement to Doctoral Candidacy.

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of 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 termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA .

Special Departmental or Program Policy

Students may be recommended for termination if their grade point average falls below a 3.4 for two consecutive terms, failure to progress toward the degree through the completion of five courses per academic year or failure to pass the written or oral qualifying examinations. A student may appeal a recommendation for termination to the program chair who will appoint a committee, which may include the chair, to review the recommendation, and if necessary, meet with the student. The chair makes a final decision based on the committee’s report.

Friday, April 26, 2024

Los Angeles

Science & health, former harbor-ucla doctor failed to disclose more than $700k in industry payments.

The Harbor-UCLA Medical Center is pictured. The hospital’s former chief of orthopedics, Louis Kwong – who staff said fostered a racist and sexist culture – was found to have not disclosed thousands in payments from medical device companies. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

By Anna Dai-Liu

April 21, 2024 11:48 p.m..

Investigators found that Harbor-UCLA Medical Center’s former chief of orthopedics Dr. Louis Kwong – who currently faces two sexual misconduct lawsuits against him – also failed to disclose more than $700,000 in payments from a medical device company.

Kwong, who received a formal notice of termination Feb. 27 from Chief Medical Officer Griselda Gutierrez, received thousands of dollars and private plane rides from joint replacement manufacturer Zimmer Biomet, according to the Los Angeles Times . In the notice, Gutierrez also claimed that Kwong hid his employment at the Lundquist Institute , a nonprofit research institution affiliated with UCLA, and that both the institute and Zimmer Biomet offered him financial incentives for referrals.

In addition, investigators were told by doctors that Kwong created an environment of racism and sexism at the hospital, as he and his colleagues would make anti-Black remarks about both residents and patients, as well as comment on female residents’ sexual preferences, according to the LA Times. Kwong – who has been at the center of complaints since 2013 – would also stare openly at anesthetized patients under the drapes to discuss the “genitals of the day,” staff said.

Concerns about Kwong’s conflict of interest arose as early as 2016, according to the LA Times. In 2018 alone, Kwong received 143 payments from drug and device companies totaling $131,466, according to ProPublica’s Dollars for Docs portal.

Per county policy, Kwong was placed on paid administrative leave from March 2022 until the investigations concluded recently. His 2023 compensation totaled $997,551 – one of the highest earnings among all county employees, according to the LA County Auditor-Controller .

[Related: Harbor-UCLA, former orthopedics chief part ways amid sexual misconduct allegations ]

Though the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center – located in Torrance, California – is independently operated by the LA County Department of Health Services, many of its faculty hold joint appointments at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and have clinical duties at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

In October, orthopedic surgeons Drs. Haleh Badkoobehi and Jennifer Hsu, as well as former director of emergency medicine Dr. Madonna Fernandez-Frackelton, sued Harbor-UCLA – alleging instances of sexual misconduct on unconscious patients and that Kwong carried a gun on hospital premises. Similar allegations had been made by former medical student Dr. Melani Cargle in a June lawsuit .

The hospital has since been placed on probation by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, and its director of graduate medical education, Dr. Darrell W. Harrington – who plaintiffs said had ignored complaints about Kwong – resigned in December.

[Related: Harbor-UCLA Medical Center director resigns amid doctor’s misconduct litigation ]

Kwong appealed his firing March 20 to the county’s Civil Service Commission, according to the LA Times.

Harbor-UCLA did not respond in time to a request for comment.

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GU Graduate Wins Presidential Undergraduate Prize for Thesis

The American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) awarded Dominic Pham (CAS ’23) with the presidential undergraduate prize at the organization’s annual conference in Montreal, Canada from April 14 to 17. 

Full disclosure: Dominic Pham served as The Hoya’s Senior Design Editor in Fall 2020, Managing Editor in Spring 2021, Creative Director in Fall 2021 and Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Spring 2022.

The award recognized his honors thesis, titled “The Struggle Continues: Cosmopolitan Encounters and Spatial Disjunctions in Singaporean and Vietnamese Literature,” which focuses on cosmopolitanism in Vietnamese and Singaporean literature. An Asian American Literature class Pham took his freshman year and a class he took on Singaporean literature as a junior studying abroad in Singapore inspired his thesis, which was completed last year. 

Pham, who is now pursuing a Ph.D. in biophysics at Stanford University, said that the decision to focus on Vietnamese literature came in part from his family’s experiences as refugees.  

“Ultimately, I went back to my personal identity and the fact that my family are Vietnamese refugees,” Pham told The Hoya. “I think growing up, I, always in the back of my mind, was interested in these issues of migration, how people move and how people are displaced. And doing that in the context of Southeast Asia made sense so that I could explore my own personal identity at the same time that I was writing this academic piece.”

Pham’s research centered on the issues of migration and identity in the 20th century, examining the idea of a global, cosmopolitan identity connecting others through more than nationality or culture. 

Pham added that his findings did not indicate a universal human experience among the four books he analyzed.

“The argument is like, you can be cosmopolitan, you can have different ties to a lot of different cultures, but that doesn’t mean that you will connect with every single person on a universal level,” Pham said. “And the second finding is that literature helps us fill in that void by allowing us to imagine a world where people are more connected than they actually are.”

Nicoletta Pierddu, the director of the global and comparative literature program, and Philip Kafalas, an associate professor in the department of East Asian languages and cultures , served as Pham’s mentors as he developed his thesis.

Kafalas, who worked with Pham during the first half of his research process, said that Pham’s experience in the biology field was evident as he researched, a fact that set him apart from other students. 

“He worked on trying to refine the theory of cosmopolitanism in view of what he was seeing, and I never really asked him about this, but I always had a hunch because he’s also a biochemistry person,” Kalafas told The Hoya. “And this is what scientists do all the time, right? You always question the theory.”

Pierddu, who worked with Pham during the second half of his thesis, said his research is unique in the way it not only compares two post-independence Singaporean novels with two Vietnamese novels written during the Vietnam War but also looks into the complexities of globalization.

“So it’s not only one way of addressing this issue of globalism but rather he delves into the problematic relationship between different nations, between different ethnicities, colonization, political ideologies, cold wars, created fractures,” Pierddu told The Hoya.“He really asks, ‘What kind of cosmopolitanism can individuals construct when they try to transcend these difficult conditions?’”

Pierddu is active in the ACLA and nominated Pham for the prize along with Kafalas and Nicole Rizzuto, an English professor. She organized a seminar that took place at the ACLA conference and was able to be there when Pham received his award.

“It was all the more touching, to be there to support your student who’s being recognized at the national level,” Pierddu said. “So we were all thrilled and proud.”

Pham added that being recognized by the ACLA and attending the conference was a special experience for him. 

“It was great to have recognition from a larger audience than just me and my committee members,” Pham said. “And I felt very proud of the work I had done my senior year.”

• national award

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From literature to AI: UC grad shares career path to success

Humanities and storytelling lead to lucrative tech entrepreneurship.

Before Katie Trauth Taylor worked with international organizations like NASA, Boeing and Hershey, and before receiving accolades for her work in the generative AI space, she was in a much different industry: English and literature. 

Taylor earned her master's in English and Comparative Literature in UC’s College of Arts and Sciences. She completed her educational journey at Purdue University with a doctorate degree in rhetoric and composition. After working as a graduate assistant at Purdue and UC, she became a research professor at Miami University. 

It might seem from there that her career was set — perhaps a tenured professorship or a university administrative position. That might have been her path, but Taylor had her eyes set on different goals.

So how did Taylor transition from literature and composition to tech entrepreneurship? She enjoys sharing that part of her story.

A&S masters grad Katie Trauth Taylor, who has launched two businesses. Photo/Provided

“I love that question, and I think it's so important for everyone in the humanities to see that they have just as much entrepreneurial potential as any other person.”

Taylor founded Untold Content in 2015, jumping from academia to entrepreneurship. Untold Content is a business-to-business content strategy company that recognizes storytelling patterns and frameworks that will help innovative companies make their ideas clear, compelling and impactful to an audience.  

She then took innovation to the next level in 2022 with the launch of Narratize, a generative-AI storytelling platform that transforms the ideas of scientific, technical and medical innovators into impactful and detailed content and stories quickly.

It's so important for everyone in the humanities to see that they have just as much entrepreneurial potential as any other person.

Katie Trauth Taylor Entrepreneur and A&S master's grad in English

English to entrepreneurship

With 10 years of successful partnerships with lucrative companies like AAA and Boeing, Taylor is just getting started. And yet, it took a while for her to get here.

“I think sometimes we feel stuck — like, ‘I have to follow a path because I made us a choice about what to major in or what to study.’

  “But really, once you get out into the workforce, you see that everything is almost interdisciplinary and you can see and cut across those boundaries more seamlessly as long as you're a strong critical thinker, a great communicator and hungry to constantly learn.” 

Taylor was just that person during college. As she matriculated through her institutions, she formed bonds and met many mentors along the way who pushed her towards starting her own business.

“I think wherever you want to grow in your professional life, you just have to ask those questions. Ask, ‘what do I need to learn to get there and find my mentors?’ And sometimes, mentors are thrust upon you in the most wonderful ways. And it surprises you,” said Taylor. 

Along the way she continued her love for storytelling and sharing that passion. And yet, she felt that she could help scientists, tech moguls and medical professionals share their stories in more effective and impactful manners. 

“I had a mentor somewhere along the way, who said ‘look me in the eyes. You know, you could just start a business, right?’” 

And Taylor did just that with Untold Content while she was a research professor at Miami University. Untold Content kept growing and growing, so she made her decision and pursued her new passion fulltime, as the leader of the then up-and-coming narrative storytelling strategy company.

Making her mark in tech

“I never got a business degree, but here I am running my second company,” Taylor said.

The generative AI leader took herself into a new avenue of business and networking. However, she identified the potential of using generative AI to push the ideas of innovators in science, technology and medicine into impactful storytelling and long-form content.  As such, she found what would be her company’s foothold in the tech industry. 

“We came to generative AI as a way to solve a problem that we had already discovered, so we already knew the problem. The problem was, it is so challenging to communicate effectively within science, tech and medical industries, and there are so many roadblocks related to that,” said Taylor.

“I've always been in love with that problem. So, we were in this really intensive moment in my first company where we were trying to ask ‘how do we solve that problem at scale?’And so, we were designing tech platform for communicating internally and help people craft more clear and impactful messages.”

She received the perfect gem of knowledge pertaining to this issue during her time at UC from associate professor of English Laura Micciche — a lesson at the basis of her women-led companies.

UC for me was completely life-changing. The people I met were the most generous and thoughtful subject-matter experts that I have ever met, and they remain strong forces in my success today.

Katie Trauth Taylor A&S alum, tech entrepreneur

“Laura Micciche taught me about rhetoric and composition and the way that words hold power and how they structure society and public rhetoric the way they shape opinion,” Taylor said.

Taylor and her company never left their storytelling roots. Her team consists of data scientists, engineers and ‘narrative scientists,’ people who are science, tech and medical communicators with journalistic and marketing backgrounds. 

“Narrative scientists see the way words make meaning. And that is essentially the design of the predictive models,” said Taylor. “That is the most exciting, possible moment to be able to bring those diverse skill sets together. That's where the magic happens with Gen AI. And that's where we see solutions that will actually be transformative.”

The teams at Narratize and Untold Content continue with these tenets in mind under Taylor’s leadership.

To the future

Narratize and Untold Content work to help a variety of stakeholders understand the ideas and insights of innovators around the world, from consumers to potential investors. However, given the recent surge in open AI, creatives like journalists and marketers are concerned.

AI software continues to evolve, and as technology advances, it is inevitable that jobs may be lost. And yet, Taylor has her own response to this question: ‘What happens to creatives as AI continues to get better?'

“It's the question everybody is asking. How do we keep pace with this rapid rise of technology? We set out really early on to ask how do we empower people? How do we do AI with good intent?”

One of the major pillars of both companies is to keep AI in the hands of creatives and to ensure AI is nothing but human-led. 

“And that means that we design the user experience to pull insights from the person and to support the person in their workflow and embed the AI into those workflows so they can be more effective in their work and do that more efficiently.”

The focus is on teaching and empowering creatives with generative AI, and according to Taylor, the best path forward is through embracing AI and maintaining focus on amplifying storytelling. An emphasis on focus that she strengthened during her time at UC. 

"UC for me was completely life-changing. The people I met were the most generous and thoughtful subject-matter experts that I have ever met," Taylor said, "and they remain strong forces for my success today."

Featured image at top: Graphic representation of artificial intelligence. Credit/Steve Johnson on Unsplash.

By Serigne Thiam

Student Journalist , A&S Department of Marketing and Communication

[email protected]

• Department of English
• College of Arts and Sciences
• Alumni Association
• Graduate School

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The Department of Comparative Literature

• Majors and Minors

Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Faculty expert, Stephanie Bosch Santana.

PREPARATION FOR A MAJOR IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:

• *Department credit will not be given if students repeat lettered courses (e.g., 1A and 2AW, 1AW and 4AW, or 2AW and 4AW)
• Completion of the College Writing I requirement
• Literary proficiency in at least one language other than English, to be demonstrated by successful completion of coursework equivalent to two years of UCLA foreign language study , AP/IB exam scores awarding credit equivalent to two years of UCLA foreign language study, or a UCLA foreign language placement or proficiency exam

More information about satisfying the foreign language requirement for the Comparative Literature major is available  here

TRANSFER STUDENTS:

Transfer applicants to the Comparative Literature major with 90 or more units must complete as many of the following introductory courses as possible prior to admission to UCLA: one English composition course, two literature survey courses, at least one of which is world literature, and the equivalent of at least one year of foreign language.

REQUIREMENTS FOR A MAJOR IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:  

• Comparative Literature 100
• Four upper division courses in Comparative Literature selected from M101 through 197
• Three upper division literature courses using original language texts in the primary language area (such as Spanish, English, Chinese, Korean, Armenian, Classics, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, Polish, or Greek)
• Two upper division literature courses using original language texts in the secondary language area (students may petition the Director of Undergraduate Studies to take two upper division literature courses in translation if their primary literature area is in a language area other than English)

NOTE: Courses for the primary and secondary language area requirements must be applied to students’ Degree Audit Reports (DARS) or Degree Progress Reports (DPRs) manually. Please contact the Student Services Advisor to update the degree audit. The department maintains a list of pre-approved courses for the primary and secondary language area requirements that students can use to plan their study lists each quarter. Courses not listed there must be approved by the Student Services Advisor and/or Director of Undergraduate Studies in order for credit to apply toward the major.

Download:  Comparative Literature Major Worksheet Complete online: Course Substitution Petition

The Comparative Literature minor offers students interested in literature and the humanities the opportunity to gain insight into the critical problems and theories addressed by comparative literature and to apply that knowledge in literature and comparative literature courses.

PREPARATION FOR A MINOR IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:

• Overall GPA of 2.0 or better
• Completion of at least one year (or equivalent) of a language other than English.

More information about satisfying the foreign language requirement for the Comparative Literature minor is available  here

REQUIREMENTS FOR A MINOR IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE: 

• Four upper division comparative literature courses (one course from Comparative Literature 1A through 4DW may be substituted)
• Two upper division courses in one literature (e.g., Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Korean, Russian, Spanish) in the original language
• One upper division course in a second literature in the original language (one level six foreign language course may be substituted). If students complete two upper division courses in a language other than English, they may petition to take one upper division course taught in English translation to fulfill the third requirement

NOTE: Courses for the language area requirements must be applied to students’ Degree Audit Reports (DARS) or Degree Progress Reports (DPRs) manually. Please contact the Student Services Advisor regularly to update the degree audit. The Department maintains a list of pre-approved courses for the primary and secondary language area requirements that students can use to plan their study lists each quarter. Courses not listed there must be approved by the Student Services Advisor and/or Director of Undergraduate Studies in order for credit to apply toward the minor.

Download:   Comparative Literature Minor Worksheet Complete online: Course Substitution Petition

Please note that a minimum of 20 units applied toward the minor requirements must be in addition to units applied toward the major requirements or another minor.

Each minor course must be taken for a letter grade, and students must have an overall grade-point average of 2.0 or better. Successful completion of the minor is indicated on the transcript and diploma.

Students interested in declaring the major or minor are strongly encouraged to contact the Student Services Advisor. Please see the Advising page for contact information.

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