Click here for a list of current graduate students.
Each student in the CLS program also has a home department. Departments currently functioning as home departments for graduate students in the CLS Program are:
Classics, English, French and Italian, German, RTF, Slavics.
In the first year:
All CLS graduate students, regardless of “home department,” take the following three courses in their first year. At the end of their first year students will be take two oral examinations.
1) CLS 410: Literary Theories The aim of this course is to cover a wide variety of literary-theoretical work. Each year the focus changes; it will be possible for students to re-take the class.
2) CLS 411: Critical Practices Composed of four components, organized around a unifying theme. Four members of Core Faculty discuss certain aspects of their work, the topics of which is announced long in advance of the class, so that students can be prepared to participate in the discussion; each discussion is preceded by a preparatory class.
3) CLS 412: Literary-Studies Colloquium The aim of this course is to help first-year graduate students prepare for two examinations in literary theory.
In May of the first year students take two examinations: the first covers a broad range of literary theory, based on a common list for the year; the second concentrates on a single theorist or school (e.g. Prague formalism), chosen by the student in consultation with an advisor during the fall quarter.
Reading List for first year oral exam.
In the second and third years:
Students largely focus on fulfilling the requirements of their “home departments,” each of which develops its own procedures within which the examination is conducted. With the completion of the “home department” examination the student is officially “qualified” by the Graduate School to write his or her dissertation.
Number of courses required for the degree:
First year sequence: 3
Courses in “home department”: 6-8
Electives: 4-6
Total required units: 15
Financial Support and Teaching:
Students are generally accepted with five years of support, two of which are in the form of fellowships. Under a fellowship there is no teaching. In general students take their fellowships in the first year and then again at the beginning of the dissertation work. There are three basic forms of teaching in which students participate in teaching our undergraduate: assisting with a class taught by a CLS faculty member; participating in language instruction (usually but not always the language of the “home department”); teaching a small seminar of one’s own. The “mix” of teaching depends on a number of factors, most especially each individual student’s evolving academic profile; but it generally includes all three of these forms.
Professional development:
CLS maintains a regular program of professional development within which students are brought into contact with faculty members, university press editors, and fellowship consultants who discuss a wide variety of contemporary issues in the study of literature and culture.
Language requirement:
Two languages other than a native language. A primary foreign language requires two levels of examination (reading and seminar work; reading and writing; advanced reading in no-longer-spoken languages, etc.). A secondary language requires only a single level of examination.
Prospectus:
Students should have a prospectus of 12-15 pages, along with a detailed bibliography. The prospectus-bibliography should be reviewed by the graduate committee in CLS by the end of the fall of the fourth year.
Applying to the Program in Comparative Literary Studies
The Graduate School at Northwestern University only accepts online applications.
Before beginning the online application (Online Northwestern Graduate Application) please read both the information below and the following guidelines for applying: The Graduate School Admission Process.
Specify Comparative Literary Studies (0416) as the field of graduate work in the online application.
Application deadlines are listed here: Application Deadlines.
Supplemental Materials
Letters of Recommendation, transcripts of all course work, a writing sample, a statement of purpose and any other supplemental materials should be sent directly to the Program Office:
Program in Comparative Literary Studies
4-130 Crowe Hall
1860 Campus Dr.
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL 60208
The statement of purpose should specify with which home department the student would expect to be affiliated (if more than one is possible, please list in order of preference). For more information on the statement of purpose visit the admission guidelines for application materials.
THE GRADUATE INTERDISCIPLINARY CLUSTER INITIATIVE
Graduate students in Humanities and related fields are encouraged to participate in the Interdisciplinary Cluster Initiative, a program designed to help graduate students during their academic career at Northwestern by fostering connections with students and faculty in other programs with whom they might have natural intellectual affinities. Interdisciplinary clusters in different areas of intellectual inquiry have been developed by faculty across schools and programs and will provide a second intellectual home for incoming and current graduate students. Clusters offer their own discrete courses as well as sponsor a number of activities and events for students and faculty. Students interested in pursuing dedicated interdisciplinary study should visit http://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/academics/interdisciplinary/ for more information about the intellectual activities of these programs. Prospective students have the opportunity to select on their application to graduate school the cluster with which they would like to affiliate, though choosing a cluster is not a requirement for admission. Students may affiliate with a cluster at any point during their study at Northwestern.
Current interdisciplinary clusters are:
African Studies
Asian Studies
Classical Traditions
Comparative and Historical Social Science
Critical Studies in Theatre and Performance
Critical Theory
Gender Studies
Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Medieval Studies
Rhetoric and Public Culture
Russian, East European and Jewish Studies
