In the 1960’s, inspired by Professor Scott Craig and Professor John Rassias, I signed on for a relatively new honors major entitled Comparative Literature, with the purpose of concentrating on contemporary French, German and American poetry. Besides the opportunity of studying at Cambridge University, University of Munich and the University of Bordeaux and Toulouse in Pau, I had a wonderful opportunity at Dartmouth to study the notion of genre and to devise a three-dimensional system of genre classification that was commended by the Educational Testing Service.
This training in Comparative Literature has informed most of what I have done in my life, including financing feature films, heading up the TV Center at CUNY, Chairing of the Institute for the Study of Media at the "Center for the Arts, Religion and Education” of the Graduate Theological Union at the University of California at Berkeley, and, and most of all, publishing MOVIEGUIDE® Magazine, http://www.movieguide.org, where the depth and breadth of the knowledge of Comparative Literature has been a great blessing when combined with the serious study of the theology of aesthetics. Therefore, I would like to thank everyone in Comparative Literature, especially the small group of originators whose clarity and vision helped educate all of us in a more profound way.
Now there's a question. 35 years down the road, as certain as ever Comp Lit was the right major for me; yet I'm clueless how to respond in a way helpful to a 19-year-old picking a major. I feel about Comp Lit the way I feel about Dartmouth — not for everybody, but if the fit is right it is a wonderful path to choose. I sometimes regret things I did not study at Dartmouth — mostly in the sciences and social sciences — but never doubt that I'd pick Comp Lit again if I were doing it all over again.
I was torn between majoring in literature and art history, but found the faculty in English, Drama, French, and Comp Lit very engaging. The preponderance of art books on Braziller's list allowed me to develop editorial skills and combine my two academic interests for the first time in my professional life. In 1984, I launched my own book production business, in partnership with my now-husband, graphic designer Dana Levy. For the past quarter-century we have edited, designed and produced illustrated books (http://www.perpetuapress.com/).
I worked with Peter Bien on a thesis on Joyce and Mann — a terrific professor whom I still correspond with.
I went on to a PhD program in music history at University of California Berkeley (1980-87) and have been teaching in music depts. (UCLA, Stanford) since 1988. Here at Stanford — I have been involved with various interdisciplinary humanities programs, serving on English, German, History thesis and exam committees in addition to music; and aside form the music history and theory courses I do in the dept. I have often been teaching seminars on (e.g.) music and mythology, music in German lit. and philosophy, Shakespeare and music, etc. all of which continue the music and literature thread I had started to spin back in Dartmouth days.
I finished my Comp. Lit degree at Dartmouth after taking 2 years off in the middle of college to get a License de Lettes Modernes at the Université de Besançon, in France. My honors thesis in Comp. Lit, under the direction of Lynn Higgins, was about Beckett's bilingualism. Even though I am now the Director of the Center for Technology and Social Behavior at Northwestern University, and a professor in the departments of Communication Studies, Computer Science, Education, and Linguistics. My college studies of narrative have greatly influenced the research I do today on building computers that can tell stories, and respond to people's life stories. In fact, I was one of the early researchers in this new field of Computer Science, known as "narrative intelligence". In addition, Comp. Lit was my first opportunity to do interdisciplinary research, and that love of the interstices between fields, of the discovery of how to applying the methods of one field to the problems of another, came from my Comp. Lit degree.
Finally, it was in Comp. Lit that I met my first intellectuals — Peter Bien, Lynn Higgins, and Marianne Hirsch — they seemed always to be engaged in intellectual debate, and to be willing to open that debate to me. I hope I am half the professor that any of them was.
There are lots of photos on my work web page: http://www.soc.northwestern.edu/justine/index.htm and my research group's web page: http://articulab.northwestern.edu/. And, if you want to laugh, you can look at the video of me giving an acceptance speech for the Women of Vision leadership award, where I mention being a bad girl in college: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4vZRLwbm5Q&feature=related.
I took the drama part of my senior thesis very seriously, and went on to study performance at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. This led to a minor acting career in which I hopscotched from London to New York and eventually to Los Angeles where I currently reside — although I no longer act. In retrospect, I would say that acting was a way of transitioning from the kind of critical study of art that I did as an undergrad, to the active production of art that I wanted to do as a career. Once I had made that leap, I felt emboldened to proceed to the kind of art I was really drawn to producing, which was not literary, but object-oriented.
I enrolled in an M.F.A. program at the Otis College of Art and Design, and embarked on my current path of work as a sculptor. I have attached some images from my two most recent exhibitions — "Re-Public Works" and "Useable Histories" — and anyone who is interested will find an archive of past work and reviews at my gallery's website: solwayjonesgallery.com. This may seem like a far cry from the literary concerns of Comparative Literature, but it isn't. My critical skills simply switched from the life of literature to the life of objects. Upon receiving my M.F.A., I spent many years writing for a variety of art journals and newspapers (most notably the magazine Art issues, where my reviews of contemporary art appeared in the same copies of the journal that launched the career of Dave Hickey, who is probably one of the most influential art critics writing today). I also began to teach at this point, and the courses I have designed for visual artists all build directly upon the kind of critical theory I studied at Dartmouth. I'm currently developing a seminar at Claremont Graduate University called "A Field Guide to Contemporary Fantasy" in which we will compare themes in contemporary fiction to analogous trends in visual art. I also teach an overview of visual art theory to undergrads at the University of Southern California, Roski School of the Arts
Polly Geller, '90 - "The comparative literature degree was extremely beneficial to me as i still use interdisciplinary means of communication."I have been a graduate at Otis College of Art & Design since 2007. This fall is my last semester before I embark on my thesis. I am majoring in Writing, emphasis on Poetry. I was recently published in The Strip, a literary journal which publishes MFA work from around the US. And last month, had my first collaborative poetry reading at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. I am cofounder of 3+3, a poetry organization which seeks to bridge young poets with established poets. Prior to embarking on my love affair with poetics, I was an on-camera and voice-over actor. I make a living working with my hands and "pushing skin" as a massage therapist (a calling which, pardon the pun always comes in handy and has been a grounding force in my life). The comparative literature degree was extremely beneficial to me as i still use interdisciplinary means of communication (i love taking digital pictures; and am a recorded jazz vocalist) in all i create. Words and language are my life and soon with my MFA degree, I hope to be able to teach anywhere in the world — if the world will have me...
I'm an Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley School of Law. I absolutely used my Comp Lit degree — mostly to prepare me in ways I did not anticipate for law school. Comp Lit is of course all about understanding and studying texts, and about searching for meaning and defending an interpretation — exactly like law. The fact that I learned how to study text, and pay close attention to various modes of interpretation (literal words, contextual history, political meanings, etc.) well positioned me for law school success, because that is EXACTLY the project of legal interpretation.
I majored in '97 in Comparative Literature 19th-20th Century French Literature and Art History. My advisor was Kate Conley in the French Department. After graduation I participated at a conference in Cerisy, Normandy. An incredible experience where I had the opportunity of meeting great French theorists of Art History and Literature. It was organized and directed by my Advisor Prof. Conley. In Sept. 97 I started working at Leo Burnett in advertising in Chicago. While in Chicago I not only worked in a very creative environment where I could do a lot of writing and researching, but I was also a volunteer for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and became a licensed tour guide for the Robie House, a house built at a time in history that I had loved studying about during my time at Dartmouth. I then got my masters degree at the London School of Economics where I focused on Social Policy, Planning and Participation in Developing Countries.
My honors thesis was on the rise of the female work force and the free trade zones in Latin America and the Caribbean. Here again I got to use my background in feminist theories which I had used at Dartmouth in both art history and literature courses, which culminated in my Comparative Literature Thesis. I now applied these learnings to a very real situation of women and employment.
Seven years ago I returned to my home country, Dominican Republic.
I work in the family business—in our architecture and interior design firm.
My art history background, literature and writing skills have proved invaluable in our firm's culture and the way we present our knowledge not only of design, but also of our Caribbean culture and way of life. I am back home after years of living in many places. My Comp. Lit major opened doors and interests which only a major as complex and personal as this one can do. I am married with two beautiful children, and from their very young age I have started to teach them about the arts, and what a fulfilling and unique world their study can provide.
In London I completed a Masters in "National and International Literatures in English," meaning more or less postcolonial literature, which was the focus of my major at Dartmouth. While I enjoyed the year of coursework, I decided I wanted to turn to British modernism for my thesis, which is the focus I'm currently pursuing at Illinois. While I've sadly not been able to keep up the foreign language skills central to my BA, I am glad that I pursued them while I could as an undergraduate.
In July 2008, Jennifer Gill, '01, wrote - "The ability to develop new frameworks that allow me to present meaningful analysis for a wide range of business problems has helped me enormously as a consultant and is a direct result of my Comparative Literature background."I am starting an MBA program in France at INSEAD, an international business school. INSEAD requires that all its students graduate with three languages. While business school may seem like an unlikely destination for a Comparative Literature major, the language requirement at INSEAD appealed to me because I know that it values a student body with a deep appreciation for language and culture. I have tried many different professions on for size since graduating from Dartmouth: English teaching, Human Resources, Tourism, and finally, IT consulting. Much to my surprise, I felt the most at home and challenged as an IT consultant with IBM. I really enjoy translating difficult IT concepts to my clients, and then explaining my client's requirements to our development team.
Oliver Bernstein, '03My academic passion was always literature and languages. I sought out comparative literature classes at Dartmouth because they were small and had lively discussions and amazing professors. My extracurricular passion was always environmental protection and activism. At Dartmouth, I worked to make the campus more sustainable and to hold public officials accountable for their environmental actions. After graduating, I combined my two passions and spent a year studying air quality in Mexico City with support from Dartmouth. This phenomenal experience helped me get a job in Texas as the Sierra Club's U.S./Mexico border representative. After two years traveling the border region working with communities on environmental issues, I was named Sierra Club's National Deputy Press Secretary for Diversity Programs. Now I help generate more media coverage for environmental and justice issues across the country, especially among ethnic media. With the support of the country's oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization, I am helping to educate voters, families, and reporters about global warming and environmental justice.
Looking back, every job and internship I have had so far came from my ability to speak a foreign language and my ability to write. Most importantly, I developed these valuable career skills while enjoying myself and staying true to my passions.
I graduated in 2004 with a degree in Comparative Literature, with French and Economics as my comparative disciplines. I was originally an Economics major and French minor, but I decided to change to Comp Lit my junior year. The personalized attention, close community of the majoring class, and ability to do senior thesis research were all highly appealing. My choice of major gelled my interests in such a way that I really consider it to be the defining feature of my Dartmouth education. I chose to write my senior thesis on the Senegalese film director Ousmane Sembene. My senior winter I was chosen for Richter and Dickey Center Grants to travel to Dakar, Senegal to attend a CODESRIA conference on Economic issues relating to a modern day Africa. My undergraduate exposure to foreign cultures and my senior thesis research in Africa were largely instrumental in guiding my future career aspirations. I will be starting at the London Business School this August to pursue a MBA (Class of 2010), and I was awarded a Dartmouth Reynolds Grant as well as a London Business School Annual Fund Scholarship towards this study. Prior to LBS, I was working as a Global Marketing Communications Manager for a brand design consultancy. I plan to leverage the international degree to work in business abroad.
I guess I've taken the traditional course of a comparative literature major: going to graduate school. I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Italian Studies at NYU. My primary interests are fascist culture and post-1968 Italian culture and philosophy.
