International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs | Directory of Programs, Centers, and Projects

Institute for Comparative Literature and Society

Columbia University

One of the primary goals of the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society (ICLS) at Columbia University is to provide institutional support for cross-disciplinary and cross-regional comparative work, acknowledging the force of recent changes in the humanities, the social sciences, law, architecture, and the arts.

The work of the Institute is fully historical in its range. Of urgent interest to the Institute is to engage not just the problems but the new horizons open to the humanities today. Both in theory and in practice, in research and in teaching, ICLS brings the comparative methods of studying literature and society into the current globalized conditions of producing knowledge and making history. In this respect, a comparative and cross-disciplinary study of the politics of knowledge resides at the core of the Institute’s practices.

ICLS’s curricular planning relies heavily on cross-disciplinary team-teaching. In the curriculum, as well as in our conferences, lecture series and workshops, ICLS brings a literature-focused study of language and culture to global studies as they seek to establish their proper object of inquiry. Conversely, ICLS tries to give substance and recognition to those directions in comparative literature that can benefit from the breadth of knowledge produced by a reshaped planetary understanding. In this effort, it works collaboratively within the full range of the human sciences.

ICLS offers a concentration for graduate students working in this area.

Contact Information
Lydia Liu, Director
Sarah Monks, Assistant Director

Columbia University
The Heyman Center for the Humanities, Room B-101
Southwest corner of West 118th Street and Morningside Drive
New York, NY
United States
http://icls.columbia.edu/index.html
sm3373@columbia.edu
(212) 854-4541

Region
North America

Year Established
1995

Fellowships and Potential Scholarly Affiliations
ICLS Visiting Scholar Positions