A message from the Chair

The Department’s two dozen faculty are appointed either fully in Comparative Literature or jointly with other literature departments. In this way, Comparative Literature maintains a central position within the humanities at Harvard and provides our students with direct access and connections to departments across the university. We host an exciting array of visiting scholars each year from around the world, and serve as the home base for the Institute for World Literature, a month-long summer program meeting at Harvard and in locations around the world.
At the heart of our activities are our exceptional students, both undergraduates and graduates, working closely with our faculty to devise eclectic, ambitious programs of study that reach widely across linguistic, cultural and disciplinary boundaries. On this site you can learn more about our faculty and students, and you will find extensive information on our programs, newly reconceived to offer fresh approaches to comparative literary and cultural studies today.
– David Damrosch