poliscar

In terms of books, a few general recommendations I suppose are Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities, Saba Mahmood's Politics of Piety, Afsaneh Majmabadi's Women with Moustaches and Men without Beards, Paul Gilroy's The Black Atlantic, Partha Chatterjee's The Nation and its Fragments, Achille Mbembe's On the Postcolony, and John and Jean Comaroff's Ethnicity Inc. It might also be worth it to look at some Wallerstein/Arrighi/Abu-Lughod if you're interested in transnational or world history. World Systems theory is pretty significant at the moment. As an aside, Vivek Chibber's Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital is making big waves at the moment; it's more or less an attack on Subaltern Studies, so if you're interested in Chakrabarty it's probably worth a read.

Ah sorry I think my initial post was confusing—I meant to say that MIT has placed two PhDs at Berkeley, and one at Concordia. In terms of other schools in Canada, Queen's has an Assistant Prof from Chicago, UWO has one from SUNY-Binghampton, Alberta has one from Ohio State and one from UC-Santa Cruz (History of Consciousness). I'll keep looking, but most of the other universities in Canada are fairly minor.

In terms of MIT placements you can add a second for Berkeley (they have recent PhDs in Art History and Rhetoric). They also have someone at Concordia University in Montreal: http://art-history.concordia.ca/people/faculty/pezolet_nicola.php. On that not, though I understand sticking with American schools in terms of Assistant Prof jobs, I'd take a look at Canadian schools at well. UBC has recent PhDs from Columbia and Rochester, McGill has two from the University of Chicago and one from Harvard, and Toronto has one from Harvard, one from Brown, and one from Columbia.

MIT deserves a mention here in my opinion. It's a small program, but they have an absolutely stellar placement record.

Ming Tiampo at Carleton might be someone to look at then—http://www.carleton.ca/arthistory/people/tiampo-ming/. I don't know if York has any other faculty in the area, but in terms of Gutai she's probably the top scholar in North America. McGill also has a number of really stellar faculty members working on Japan in other departments—Yuriko Furuhata works on Japanese film and has taught courses on photography as well (http://www.yurikofuruhata.com/). Gavin Walker could also be an interesting person to work with in terms of theory (http://www.mcgill.ca/history/gavin-walker). At UBC, John O'Brian has done work on Japanese photography and nuclear power/war. They're currently conducting a search for a new faculty member in Japanese or Korean Art/Architecture as well at the moment. UBC also has a stellar Asian Studies program, as well as faculty in English/Anthropology/Sociology, etc working with trans-Pacific, Japanese, and Japanese-Canadian content. I can also say that I know that McGill and UBC tend to do fairly well in terms of placing MA candidates in top-tier PhD programs, so if you're looking at a doctorate they'd both be schools to consider.

Do you have a particular time period and/or geographical area in mind? Carleton and Queen's are both quite notable in terms of Canadian and pre/early-Modern art, while not being particularly exciting in terms of Modern or Contemporary art. UWO and York aren't particularly strong departments, imo, and I've heard that they can both be somewhat insular. Toronto has a very good department, and in terms of theory has quite a number of great faculty (Cheetham, Ricco, Legge, etc). UBC and McGill are probably equally strong in terms of theory, but with different biases I suppose.

I'd also say that it's fair to mention interdisciplinary programs or certificates, and faculty affiliated with those programs (a.e. Berkeley Critical Theory, Duke Feminist Studies, Princeton IHum & Media and Modernity, etc). It also, as jazzy mentioned, depends a lot on the school. Berkeley, for example, actually prefers candidates to have at least one committee member external to the English department. In any case, I would do a bit of research before hand. Go into ProQuest and look at past disserations; see how many of them have been interdisciplinary and/or involved external readers/committee members. If it looks like it is a common occurrence, I would say that it's fair to briefly mention work that you are excited about in other departments. If not, try to tread lightly. In any case, you do want to emphasize English as the best fit, and treat secondary interests as complimentary.

There are sample exams posted on the University of Chicago and Harvard sites. As far as I know they represent a fairly standard expectation in terms of translation/reading exams. https://registrar.sites.uchicago.edu/languge-exams http://english.fas.harvard.edu/graduate/resources-for-grad-students/#exams In terms of someone passing an exam after 4 days of study—it's doable imo, but would take a lot of work. Since you're generally allowed to work with a dictionary, it would be possible for someone to cram the grammar of a language, and then rely on the dictionary for vocabulary. I can see this being particularly possible in terms of the Romance languages, where someone with French competency/fluency might have an easier time picking up Italian or Spanish. Also: generally schools expect incoming students to be able to pass one of the exams after their first year, and then to have developed proficiency in a second language by the end of the second. In many cases, you are not able to take general exams and/or teach/TA until you have proven competency in two languages.

You have gotten helpful answers; you just have no idea what you're getting into. http://german.lss.wisc.edu/new_web/?q=node/283 Read some of these graduate student profiles, and then compare what you've written. You are not going to get into a PhD program to learn a language. You are not going to get into a PhD program based on an interest in creative writing. You are not going get into a PhD program if you state that you want to go into publishing. Doctoral programs prepare you for Academia, not "other careers." Those who are accepted, and go on to complete dissertations, are almost 99.9% sure to be oriented towards some sort of academic field. While this may be (rarely) museum/archival/library work, it is almost always a) research and teaching. If this is not what you want to do, get an MA (at most) and then go elsewhere.

Have you considered Princeton? In terms of theory-based Medieval Studies Andrew Cole and D. Vance Smith are both very much at the head of the pack. They edited a recent book together (https://www.dukeupress.edu/The-Legitimacy-of-the-Middle-Ages/) and Cole just published http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo18008957.html . There are also quite a few theory-based Medievalists in other departments, as well as Daniel Heller-Roazen in Comparative Lit.

You'd be better off posting this in the Art History forum; it's likely that it will be ignored here. In terms of MIT—the program is fairly small, so it's very much dependant on your research interests. The website makes it sound like the program is very centred around Architecture, but quite a few very interesting scholars in Art History and Visual Studies have come out of the program recently. Most, if not all of these scholars have worked with Caroline Jones, but she would be a good match for you probably since she has published quite a lot on art and science. If you're interested, the following scholars have completed PhDs at MIT: http://rhetoric.berkeley.edu/people.php?page_id=1056&p=180 http://arthistory.berkeley.edu/person/1799032-lauren-kroiz http://art-history.concordia.ca/people/faculty/pezolet_nicola.php

Andreas Huyssen's After the Great Divide is still probably the best text in the area.

Brigid Doherty at Princeton is worth looking at, particularly since Princeton also has a stellar German department. Also look at http://www.caareviews.org/dissertations for a decent view of American/Canadian dissertations; there might be a couple of leads.

No homo?

id quid, the British MAs will cost you $$$ if you're an international student, and with little to no chance for funding. I'd feel out the PhD programs and apply to the American/Canadian MA programs. If the British schools seem viable financially then go for it, but things have changed a lot in terms of cost over the past couple years.

Apply to the programs you're most interested in—there's no reason to exclusively limit yourself to either Comp. Lit or English if you have the requirements for both. First off, most Comp Lit programs ask you to elect one or two principal foreign languages, in which you're more or less fluent. Since you're a native German speaker, and you would be able to attain Spanish fluency within a semester, you really shouldn't have a problem there. The other languages—one of which is often an ancient language (Latin in your case)—required only demonstration of reading knowledge, generally through a short translation exam. The University of Chicago has some practice exams here, which are pretty status quo, http://registrar.uchicago.edu/languge-exams. Based on what you've said though, I think that your language preparation is sufficient. At most you would need brush up on your Latin, so as to be able to pass a translation exam. Following that, because the language requirements are fairly rigorous for Comp Lit programs, they are considerably less competitive than English programs. The professor you spoke with was also correct, in that English graduates quite often hire Comp Lit graduates, particularly from the top departments. Though it would probably help to polish your Spanish/Latin a bit, I think the more important thing to think about how you would present your research interests to a Comp. Lit. department. If you're interested in 20th century American lit, find a way to convincingly articulate that interest in relation to your other languages. Is there a particular matrix through which you'd be interested in studying literatures in English, Spanish, and German? A particular genre or guiding question? I would go back to your thesis and see if you're able to apply the general questions addressed in it to a broader comparative field. Being able to present a compelling area of research is as important as language training; you could be fluent in 10 languages, but if you can't draw meaningful links between them a committee isn't going to be interested in your application. I would also say that 20th century American lit is a competitive field, but American lit/studies is also going through a pretty significant transnational turn. Based on that, a Comp Lit degree could be very helpful if you intend to apply for Americanist jobs.

Berkeley (English and/or Ethnic Studies), Brown, Northwestern, Stanford (Modern Thought and Lit/English), and Michigan come to mind. Victor Mendoza (http://www.lsa.umich.edu/english/people/profile.asp?ID=1787) at Michigan comes to mind in relation to Filipino American work, but since he's not tenured he probably would not be able to supervise a dissertation. He completed his PhD at Berkeley, however, which seems to produce the most interesting work in the field.

Potentially you could look at Education departments?

As a side note, http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/?id=7400. It's Canadian, but it works.

Also, it's a large jump to go from Political Science to something like cultural/intellectual History, whereas if you intend to move from Political Science into a related topic in History, such as international or political history, you're in a good position.

Between Ethnic Studies and English Berkeley is pretty stellar.

I'd check out Princeton. They have a really stellar German department, which, though not explicitly Marxist, is heavily tied in with Benjamin and the Frankfurt School. They also have the Alexander Kluge Research Collection, alongside professors working on everything from Musil and Mann, to Kafka and Dada. Also look http://www.princeton.edu/ihum/ and http://mediamodernity.princeton.edu/index.php . Both are interdisciplinary programs with really awesome course offerings, and I think they'd both be suitable for you if you intend to work across German and American lit. Oh, and I know that Andrew Cole, in the English departmen, recently taught a graduate seminar on philosophical Marxism.

Oh no I wouldn't say naive—there are plenty of superstar intellectuals (Butler, Weber, Spivak, etc) who supervise dissertations quite regularly, Zizek just doesn't happen to be one of them. In terms of other departments, it's difficult to say, as "philosophical aesthetics" is a vast field. You're far more likely to find something appropriate in a comparative lit department than a philosophy department, so I would look into the top schools there (Princeton, Columbia, Harvard, Berkeley, etc). There are also programs at Vanderbilt, SUNY Stony Brook/Buffalo/Binghamton, The New School, Northwestern, and the University of Chicago (probably more that others can list) that are continentally inclined. I would check out the faculty at these schools and see how you feel.

Zizek's post at NYU doesn't involve teaching—he's more of a figurehead than anything else. I believe his post at UCL Birkbeck has involved a couple short modules, but more or less he's a celebrity intellectual and gets to travel the world lecturing. Other than that, yes, NYU is an excellent department and you could very well do work on aesthetics there. Without a more defined description of your research interests, however, it is difficult to know how well the program would be suited to you.

Well clearly you didn't read my post.