Comparative Literature

Engaged Comparative Literature

Engaged Comparative Literature takes what you’re learning in your courses and puts it into practice through internships, research, study away, winter term, career exploration, and beyond.

Here’s a sampling of recent projects, field experiences, and post-graduate destinations for comparative literature majors.

RISE at Oberlin
Research. Internships. Study Away. Experiential Learning.

Ways Comparative Literature Majors Rise

Research

  • Literature and Ecology in Mexico, Brazil, and the United States
  • An interpretation of laughter in the novels of Elena Ferrante
  • The Metonymic Carnival: Showman Figures in Modern German Drama
  • The Scholarly Aestheticization of Jazz: Exploring the Social Implications of Theoretical Discourse
  • Students and alumni regularly publish in the online journal Reading in Translation (edited by Prof. S. Milkova)

Internships

  • Team COCO, Conan O’Brien’s Late Night Show, TBS, Los Angeles
  • The New York Historical Society, New York City
  • La Oveja Roja, small press in Madrid, Spain
  • Portland Monthly Magazine, Oregon
  • Epiphany Magazine, New York City
  • Library of Congress, European Division, Washington, DC
  • Restless Books, Brooklyn, NY

Study Away

  • The Center for University Programs Abroad (CUPA), France
  • Duke in Berlin, Germany
  • University of Havana, Cuba
  • Japan Study: Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

Experiential Learning

  • All CMPL majors demonstrate advanced proficiency in at least one language other than English.
  • The annual Translation Symposium enables students to present their original translations in a public forum.
  • Oberlin’s five-course concentration in literary translation allows students to learn about the history and theory of translation while also completing a substantial translation project of their own.
  • Many CMPL majors with Spanish proficiency teach in the SITES (Spanish in the Elementary Schools) program in local Oberlin schools (Eastwood Elementary and Prospect Elementary).

First Destinations of Recent Comparative Literature Majors

  • Graduate Schools:
    • PhD programs in comparative literature at Duke University, the University of Pennsylvania, CUNY, and University of Texas, Austin
    • English literature at Yale University
    • Musicology at UC-Berkeley and the New England Conservatory. MA programs in the School of Journalism, Columbia University
    • Library information sciences, Boston University
    • Spanish language and literature, Middlebury College
    • Literary translation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
    • Public policy analysis, NYU
  • Fellowships:
    • Fulbright awards
    • TAPIF (Teaching Assistant Program in France)
    • Oberlin Shansi fellowship in Indonesia
  • Positions:
    • Director of outreach for Asymptote
    • Digital marketing producer at Houghton Mifflin in N.Y.
    • Teacher at Montessori school in San Francisco
    • Middle school teacher in Mexico City
    • Stage manager at Cleveland Playhouse
    • House staff at the Jacob Burns Film Center in N.Y.
    • Web content manager, Zamzee, San Francisco
    • Administrative assistant to department head, HarperCollins Publishers
    • Founder and editor, Cleveland Review of Books