Comparative Studies encourages critical reflection about culture across boundaries of discipline, nation, and language.

Scholars in Comparative Studies attend to the construction of knowledge and the dynamics of power and authority in a range of historical discourses and practices: social, religious, literary, aesthetic, technological, scientific, political, and material. Self-reflective and critical analyses of social, cultural, historical and political contexts are central to our research. Using interdisciplinary and comparative methods of inquiry, we work to account for the complexities of social relations and human existence.

Comparative Studies students are encouraged to develop their critical and analytical skills and to become effective global citizens, guided by an ethos of mutual respect and persistent questioning, and recognition of the value and pleasures of critical intellectual work. The Department’s best Senior Seminar essays and annual prize-winning undergraduate and graduate essays are archived here.