Silvia Ferreira, ’09 (wrote January 31, 2011) I'm currently pursuing my PhD in Comparative Literature at UC Santa Barbara. It was Dartmouth's program that first sparked my interest in the field, and provided me with the resources and support necessary to pursue it further. The Comparative Literature program at Dartmouth provided me with the flexibility to create my own project and to think outside of the box. My graduate studies have benefitted greatly from the solid base that I developed there. Stay warm! I miss you all very much but definitely not the Hanover winter.
Andrew Leong, ’03 (wrote January 31, 2011) After graduating from Dartmouth in 2003, I entered the Ph. D. program in comparative literature at UC Berkeley. Majoring in comparative literature under wonderful mentors (Lawrence Kritzman, Laurence Davies, Amy Hollywood, Irene Kacandes, John Kopper) gave me a firm foundation to pursue graduate study. The rigorous linguistic training promoted by the comparative literature program lent me the confidence necessary to learn three new languages - Japanese, Portuguese, and Chinese - and also prepared me for several years of study, research and travel in East Asia and Latin America. My translation of two novels originally published in the 1920s by Japanese immigrant writer Nagahara Shoson will be released in Spring 2011 through Kaya Press as a single volume, Lament in the Night. I am currently finishing my dissertation, The Stillness of the Migrant: Japanese American Vernaculars in Print (1890-1938).
Oliver Bernstein, '03 (wrote February 5, 2011) My comparative literature major honed my language, writing and critical thinking skills and has served me well in my career. I focused on Spanish and Portuguese literature with environmental themes -- a passion of mine. These days I am Senior Communications Strategist for the Sierra Club, the country's oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization. I use my Spanish all the time, do plenty of writing of all types and spend significant time thinking about the effect of specific language and diction on our environmental conservation goals. The small classes and outstanding professors I had in the Comparative Literature program will always be one of my best memories of Dartmouth. I recommend the major to anyone who enjoys language, writing and thinking; it has served me very well.
Catharine Morgan, '06 (wrote February 3, 2011) I am a big fan of Dartmouth's Comp Lit program. My first year after graduating from Dartmouth, I lived in Munich, Germany and worked as a teaching intern at an international school. I've spent the last three years working for a small public relations agency in San Francisco and Boston helping clients in the clean technology and information technology industries. I'm currently wrapping up there and preparing to move to Ukraine to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer. In any career, it's paramount that a person be able to think critically, examine a problem from different angles, connect seemingly unrelated ideas, and write well. Majoring in comparative literature helped me develop precisely those skills. Please share my gratitude with all the professors who helped me along the way: Professors Kacandes, Martín, Parati, Kopper, Gemünden, Mladek, and Aguado.
(January 31, 2011) For James Redfield, '06, the COLT major was a means to acquire fluency in two European languages, to conduct research in France, Germany, North Africa and the Middle East, and to form lasting friendships in all of those places. His phenomenal advisor Veronika Fuechtner and the program's rigorous classes with challenging peers helped to sharpen his writing and presentation skills. These skills, in turn, led to three postgraduate research fellowships and several publications, including a chapter of his B.A. thesis.
James is now a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at UC Berkeley and a Graduate Research Fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, where he is helping to start a new Center for Biological Futures. He is married to Terra Edwards, a linguistic anthropologist, and they are expecting their first child in July.
Alex Lambrow, ’10 (wrote January 29, 2011) I am a 2010 graduate of the COLT program at Dartmouth, and received a Fulbright grant to spend the 2010-11 academic year teaching English and studying in Germany. I am currently living in Dresden, where I work in a secondary school and pursue courses in history and literature at the local Technische Universität. In the following years, I plan to return to the United States, to earn a Ph.D. in German Studies. Without the preparation afforded me by the COLT program at Dartmouth, I would very much be lost in Germany this year. I depend on the German language skills I acquired at Dartmouth everyday to teach and study, and the ability to think critically (sometimes with the help of a healthy dose of theory) and to write clearly have made me a significantly better teacher, student - and according to my job description as a Fulbrighter - "ambassador to the world."
Marisa Taney, '09, (wrote March 10, 2010 while in Argentina) I love it here, wish I could stay forever, am working really hard but having a great experience. Coming back to the states in June to go to Law School. I got into Harvard, Duke, and NYU so I'll be at one of those places!
On April 28, 2010, Marisa let us know she has decided to go to Harvard Law. Good luck, Marisa!
"Dispatches from Kazakhstan"
by Kirby Liu, '09 (wrote on September 13, 2009)I am in the Republic of Kazakhstan for the next year and a half for a Fulbright grant. I just arrived last week and am still adjusting to the lifestyle here. It gets really cold here (much colder than Hanover) so I am having my mother send me my winter coat.
I hope all is well in Hanover and that you have a great group of kids to work with. I really miss Dartmouth!
Aaron J. Schlosser, ’07 (wrote January 30, 2011) It was through the comparative literature program that Dartmouth earned for me its reputation as one of the best undergraduate colleges in the world and as home to the country's most superb teacher-scholars. The amount of personal, one-to-one contact with professors that I was afforded, both inside and outside the classroom, was and still is unparalleled. I felt for the first time that my professors viewed me not as a mere student but as a young scholar, as a participant in the grand tradition of the humanities. Soon ideas of law school appeared as distant memories. Through the comparative literature program, I discovered that my true passion lies in the study of literature.
In this regard, the department prepared me well for the future. It gave me everything that I required, including its excellent honors program, in order to become a strong candidate for graduate school in the humanities. Since leaving Dartmouth in 2007, I have been pursuing a Ph.D. in French literature at Yale University. Every day, what I learned at Dartmouth helps me build the foundation of my career in academia.
Oana Castu, '07, (wrote on July 21, 2009) I am currently working in finance in NY. I am an 3rd Year Analyst in the Credit Risk Management and Advisory Group at Goldman Sachs.
Ji-Young Yoon, ’05 (wrote January 31, 2011) After Dartmouth I obtained a masters degree in creative arts therapy at NYU and worked as a child therapist at a domestic violence agency. Currently, I'm a Temple University Fellow in Philadelphia working towards a school psychology PhD. I'm pleased to say that everything I studied as a COLT major on language, postcolonial theory, ethnic identities in migration, canonical/marginal texts, psychoanalytic theory, etc. etc. directly informs my psychological and educational work with youth, and especially minority youth.
Emily Brunner, ’01 (wrote January 29, 2011) I graduated in 2001. I spent two years working as a grant writer at an educational and leadership development not-for-profit called Prep for Prep. Thereafter I went to law school and am currently practicing as a tax and estate planning lawyer in New York; I use the writing skills developed at Dartmouth every day. I've also continued to travel when I can and in recent years have gotten back to Italy as well as to Macchu Picchu, the Galapagos Islands, Japan and China.
Michael Jennings, '72, (wrote in August of 2008) has taught at Princeton since 1981; his teaching and research focus on European culture in the twentieth century. In addition to literature, he teaches on topics in cultural theory and the visual arts, with special emphasis on photography.
Nancy Kricorian, '82 (wrote in July of 2008), is a writer and political activist. She has published two novels (ZABELLE and DREAMS OF BREAD AND FIRE) and is at work on her third. She is a member of the national staff and New York City coordinator for CODEPINK Women for Peace (www.codepinkalert.org). At Dartmouth, Nancy majored in Comparative Literature (French and Women's Studies) and did a Senior Fellowship in Creative Writing (Poetry). She has an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University's Writing Division.
