Comp Lit 2021 Applicants

[semiotic_mess]

18 minutes ago, LtotheOG said:

Hey can I ask what folks think about how common interviews generally are for complit programs; that is, if most or all admits are vetted first?

It’s hard to get a grasp from the Results of the past... 

I'm not 100% sure because my pool is so small, but I can say that 2 of my 3 comp lit programs do interviews. I think it is safe to say that if a program had interviews last year on the results page, they will this year.

[angrychalupa]

Thanks for making this thread. What are your guys' areas of focus?

[surplus_value]

4 hours ago, factical.illusion said:

@surplus_valueCongrats! One of my MA committee members graduated from UCI and loved it (and not only because she got a TT job). Good luck! Sending good vibez!

<3 <3 <3 and congrats to you for the Yale interview! 

17 minutes ago, angrychalupa said:

Thanks for making this thread. What are your guys' areas of focus?

I'm interested in intersections and tensions bw Black studies, value-critical Marxism (neue-Marx lekture), and critical legal studies... hoping that this kind of thing is at all legible in a literature dept haha. What are you focusing on?

[factical.illusion]

2 hours ago, surplus_value said:

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ and congrats to you for the Yale interview! 

What are you focusing on?

Thanks! I kind of work all over the place, trying to maintain multiple intersectional perspectives. On the more theoretical side, some of the "busiest" projects I'm working on involve revisionist interpretations/extensions of major philosophers such as Heidegger and Hegel in attempts to retrieve the archive and think the unthought (ie Hartmann) as concerns POC-blindness in the history of the Anthropocene(s), all oriented towards modes of queer futurity. On the more literary side, I'm interested concepts of literary truth and irony in modes of self-mediation and self-construction in our social media/post-truth era (autofiction, autobiography etc). And a whole bunch of other things #complit

2 hours ago, surplus_value said:

I'm interested in intersections and tensions bw Black studies, value-critical Marxism (neue-Marx lekture), and critical legal studies... hoping that this kind of thing is at all legible in a literature dept haha.

I think they def are, especially if the dept is oriented towards or friendly to cultural studies approaches and theory more generally. There generally seems to be room for theory work in lit depts, but of course it all depends (I've seen here that some English depts are having an anti-theory moment rn). I've read some interested pieces that read environmental law/policy/discourse, some of which connect them to literary texts. Probably the most innovative books I've read in recent memory is The Life and Death of Latisha King: A Critical Phenomenology of Transphobia (2018), in which the author (Gayle Salamon, whose at Princeton English, but has a PhD in rhetoric and does almost exclusively theory/philosophy) developed a phenomenological analysis of a murder trial by having been in the court room during the trial, totally transforming the written court record which does not include so many elements of the bodily movement and speech patterns. Another great book was Solitary Confinement: Social Death and Its Afterlives (2013) by Lisa Guenther. SO MANY GREAT BOOKS. I'm also a proponent of, once you're in and acquainted, actively making space and advocating for your work (gracefully), if it doesn't already exist. It's always a matter being able to converse in an intelligible and sympathetic way. Sorry if it seems like a bunch of platitudes, but I've had to deal with this very challenge the last three years. Indeed, do you really want to be in a place where either everything is comfortable or nothing is? Comp lit gets a bad rep (true, some of the biggest egos I have come across been with white men in comp lit, so...), but I think it's one of the most amenable fields to be in. (All of this is just a big IMO and oversharing)

Edited February 2, 2021 by factical.illusion

[angrychalupa]

1 hour ago, surplus_value said:

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ and congrats to you for the Yale interview! 

I'm interested in intersections and tensions bw Black studies, value-critical Marxism (neue-Marx lekture), and critical legal studies... hoping that this kind of thing is at all legible in a literature dept haha. What are you focusing on?

Nice! That sounds super interesting, to someone whose head that is way over I do C and E European (mostly German) and Jewish, politics, etc

[semiotic_mess]

@factical.illusion I am interested to hear what you mean that comp lit gets a bad wrap (other than egos)? I know some Philosophy people make fun of it as not being as rigorous as philosophy (they do a lot of the same theory, at least with continental phil), but phil can be very elitist, so I have ignored that. Haven't heard anything else, so I am curious.

[factical.illusion]

33 minutes ago, semiotic_mess said:

@factical.illusion I am interested to hear what you mean that comp lit gets a bad wrap (other than egos)? I know some Philosophy people make fun of it as not being as rigorous as philosophy (they do a lot of the same theory, at least with continental phil), but phil can be very elitist, so I have ignored that. Haven't heard anything else, so I am curious.

I would say, in my experience, that it's mostly either people's own preferences projected onto/against comp lit, or opinions of scholars in language depts other than English who will never believe anyone can have sufficient knowledge of a given language and national tradition if trained in comp lit and *not* be a native of said language/tradition. Even if it's a potential, given many structures of comp lit programs who emphasize theory and/or world lit, that has no bearing on a specific applicant. It's a stereotype. A prof of German once told me that the only people that are "forgiven" in job searches for doing comp lit are native German-speakers and that few things are more detrimental to a job application than "comp lit Deutsch," whatever that means (I imagine weak language skills besides reading...). That is demonstrably false, but I do feel that that old school perspective is still found (perhaps limited to German and French studies?). There is always the risk of not being "grounded enough" in a certain national tradition, since most comp lit grads have to market themselves to such departments. But imo that's a risk you take and something you have to ensure yourself. I've heard too many people complain that their dept doesn't offer the "right" courses for them (myself included), but that's just deflection of one's own agency to take their education into their own hands and acquire that knowledge. It's pretty simple (I'm oversimplifying and ranting but you get the point). It's a good challenge to bring in or combine your own interests to the class if they're not part of it (most professors are open to that; if not, that's anther convo), and we all spend most of our time in the library anyway (or used to...).

Edited February 3, 2021 by factical.illusion

[buendia.macando]

Hello comp lit comrades. I've been frequently lurking the evil results page for longer than I'd like to admit, but I decided to cave in and make an account when I saw this comp lit thread.  I'm hoping to side-step from my creative background into a more focused course of language and literary study, and I'm crossing my fingers 'til they bleed that I was able to make a case for my all-over-the-place background in my application. I decided to go for the PhD since I already have masters, albeit it's an MFA in poetry. I have a poetry manuscript coming out which hopefully can explain my 5 year break from academia. I did a lot of translation work in my MFA which was the focus of my SOP.  It's fascinating to read about the varied and multifaceted research objectives from comp lit departments. I'm bilingual from birth with additional language study, but I'm hoping to approach comp lit as an opportunity to explore theory - esp. theory of language, deconstruction, post-structuralism, and probably more complex and exciting stuff I haven't encountered yet. I'm not sure I'm pining for the non-existent academic job awaiting the end of a PhD. I don't want to jinx my chances but I will share results as they come! The waiting period is more grueling than I thought it would be, and I'm having a lot of trouble dealing. Like a lot. A lot a lot.

[mnelmcar07]

2 hours ago, buendia.macando said:

Hello comp lit comrades. I've been frequently lurking the evil results page for longer than I'd like to admit, but I decided to cave in and make an account when I saw this comp lit thread.  I'm hoping to side-step from my creative background into a more focused course of language and literary study, and I'm crossing my fingers 'til they bleed that I was able to make a case for my all-over-the-place background in my application. I decided to go for the PhD since I already have masters, albeit it's an MFA in poetry. I have a poetry manuscript coming out which hopefully can explain my 5 year break from academia. I did a lot of translation work in my MFA which was the focus of my SOP.  It's fascinating to read about the varied and multifaceted research objectives from comp lit departments. I'm bilingual from birth with additional language study, but I'm hoping to approach comp lit as an opportunity to explore theory - esp. theory of language, deconstruction, post-structuralism, and probably more complex and exciting stuff I haven't encountered yet. I'm not sure I'm pining for the non-existent academic job awaiting the end of a PhD. I don't want to jinx my chances but I will share results as they come! The waiting period is more grueling than I thought it would be, and I'm having a lot of trouble dealing. Like a lot. A lot a lot.

That sounds awesome!! I assume getting into an MFA program must've been an equally, if not more, difficult process. I had my own (rather brief) period of oscillation between creative writing and literary studies, and my thesis eventually pushed me toward the latter route (though in the long run, I hope to be able to engage in both to some degree). I think the analytic lens in my head sometimes could prevent my ability to write in a fictional mode like my creative writing peers - we would approach a text in very different, though not always conflicting, ways. So it's really exciting to hear how you are crossing between the fields. That will certainly make you stand out from the admission pool.

Which PhD programs have you applied to, if I may ask? I've been also dying to hear back. Especially since most schools I applied did not require an interview (based on the few results I could gather from this page), everything seems to be up in the air. 

[ShivD]

12 hours ago, semiotic_mess said:

Also thanks for this thread! I am a philosophy Master's student so I applied to about 10 philosophy programs and 3 comp lit, which are Duke Literature (which I was interviewed for and am (un)patiently waiting to hear back from), University at Buffalo Comp Lit (which my partner is at), and Emory Comp Lit. I applied to more Philosophy programs, but I think I realized I would rather do Comp Lit ? 

In reduced terms, I do 20th century Continental Phil (Social & Political Phil, Deleuze and Foucault), Psychoanalysis, Queer theory, and Media Studies (but I vary how I frame these depending on the kind of program).

And as for how we are holding up, tbh I have not been holding up well. I am already susceptible to manic episodes and anxiety/panic episodes, so this process has exacerbated everything  and I have been dealing with some extreme ups and downs the past week ?

Oh wow! Sounds like so many overlaps between our respective areas of interest. Mine are: psychoanalysis, queer feminist theory, film theory/ media studies and somewhere lurks behind in all of this: Foucault, and especially his late work on ethics of the self. 
 

Thanks for starting this thread in general. I got accepted to UIUC's Comp Lit program (which I am quite happy about). Other Comp Lit program I applied to was Duke's Literature and I am dreading a rejection by them any day. Other programs that I applied to are all interdisciplinary: 
University at Bufallo's Global Gender Studies (where I got accepted with no funding :/); University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's English (Media, Cinema and Digital Studies track; where I got accepted with no funding again ? ). Have any interview with Emory's WGSS next week. And waiting to hear fro Northwestern, NYU, Rutgers, UCB, CUNY and UCLA. (<-none of these are Comp Lit programs)

[semiotic_mess]

For anyone looking for a distraction, I just found out about https://www.geoguessr.com/ and I am OBSESSED. Basically it is a game where you are dropped somewhere randomly on google maps (you can choose the U.S, the world, famous landmarks, etc.) and you have to try and guess where you are. The free version only lets you play 1 game per day, but it is 5 rounds and that can eat up an hour easily. Shows or videos only distract me for so long since they are passive and I am not much of a gamer (and I unfortunately have reading fatigue from school), so this has been perfect for me and has helped keep me from refreshing my email every 5 minutes which has lowered my stress level. I am so thrilled about finding something that has calmed my nerves that I had to share (and I'm posting this in 2 groups, so sorry if you see this post twice!).

[buendia.macando]

11 hours ago, mnelmcar07 said:

That sounds awesome!! I assume getting into an MFA program must've been an equally, if not more, difficult process. I had my own (rather brief) period of oscillation between creative writing and literary studies, and my thesis eventually pushed me toward the latter route (though in the long run, I hope to be able to engage in both to some degree). I think the analytic lens in my head sometimes could prevent my ability to write in a fictional mode like my creative writing peers - we would approach a text in very different, though not always conflicting, ways. So it's really exciting to hear how you are crossing between the fields. That will certainly make you stand out from the admission pool.

Which PhD programs have you applied to, if I may ask? I've been also dying to hear back. Especially since most schools I applied did not require an interview (based on the few results I could gather from this page), everything seems to be up in the air. 

Yes, I was in a similar position as you when I finished undergrad but we did the opposite thing - I almost went for a PhD but decided on the MFA instead. . It was a nail-biting process for sure, but I don't remember it being as difficult as right now? That might be because I applied with other people, and was engaged in my studies while waiting it out. 

I ended up only applying to places that waived the GRE so that I could use that time for other parts of my app. My top choices are Cornell (given its strength in critical theory and emphasis on creativity) and UC Santa Barbara (given its strength in translation studies and Latin America, Brazil in particular which is a geographic interest of mine). I also applied to Princeton, which I don't feel very optimistic about. They have a strong rep. in Brazilian studies, however, their angle seems very Marxist which I am completely down with and have written critical essays about, but don't feel strongly about it in terms of a critical approach in my own studies. I wanna do more language-y stuff, closer to the sphere of linguistics and psychoanalysis than to materialism / pure historicism. I applied to Stanford as well, which might as well hand me my rejection letter now - when I sat down and dug through their website as I was writing my SOP, I noticed a trend toward ancient / early modern / renaissance among faculty and grad students. Which is cool, but not my jam. My recommendation writers already sent their letters there, though, so I figured why not. I won't be surprised or heartbroken if I don't get in. Same thing happened with UC Berkeley - it felt very "square peg round hole" for me. Needless to say, I already got my rejection letter which was not a shock. That's the only thing I've heard so far. I think I would have applied to U Chicago if they were taking people this year. 

Edited February 3, 2021 by buendia.macando

[mnelmcar07]

1 hour ago, buendia.macando said:

Yes, I was in a similar position as you when I finished undergrad but we did the opposite thing - I almost went for a PhD but decided on the MFA instead. . It was a nail-biting process for sure, but I don't remember it being as difficult as right now? That might be because I applied with other people, and was engaged in my studies while waiting it out. 

I ended up only applying to places that waived the GRE so that I could use that time for other parts of my app. My top choices are Cornell (given its strength in critical theory and emphasis on creativity) and UC Santa Barbara (given its strength in translation studies and Latin America, Brazil in particular which is a geographic interest of mine). I also applied to Princeton, which I don't feel very optimistic about. They have a strong rep. in Brazilian studies, however, their angle seems very Marxist which I am completely down with and have written critical essays about, but don't feel strongly about it in terms of a critical approach in my own studies. I wanna do more language-y stuff, closer to the sphere of linguistics and psychoanalysis than to materialism / pure historicism. I applied to Stanford as well, which might as well hand me my rejection letter now - when I sat down and dug through their website as I was writing my SOP, I noticed a trend toward ancient / early modern / renaissance among faculty and grad students. Which is cool, but not my jam. My recommendation writers already sent their letters there, though, so I figured why not. I won't be surprised or heartbroken if I don't get in. Same thing happened with UC Berkeley - it felt very "square peg round hole" for me. Needless to say, I already got my rejection letter which was not a shock. That's the only thing I've heard so far. I think I would have applied to U Chicago if they were taking people this year. 

Yay, glad to know we have quite a few overlaps but also different interests and priorities. Stanford and Princeton are more on the top of my list for their strengths in East Asian studies. I hope to engage with both ancient and modern China as well as philosophy of art and ethics, which makes my program choices somewhat limited (although I feel that I did not look into as many schools as I should have, oh well). I didn't apply to Cornell and UCSB, but was also rejected from Berkeley since it's a very far-stretched fit in the first place. After I submitted my apps I have the same feeling that the majority of schools I selected was in fact quite random, as I was too afraid to change my mind or add new programs last minute after already requesting my recommenders. Maybe the randomness is just inevitable given how many programs have closed their admissions this year.

I emailed Stanford last week asking if they're doing interviews this year and if they've already been sent out, and if I do get a reply at all I'll let you know!

Edited February 3, 2021 by mnelmcar07

[buendia.macando]

I just got an informal email from UCSB about how they are impressed with my application and are interested in my work, but need to work out the financial information before further updates. I should be hearing back by the end of the month. So that's exciting but still feels like limbo. In any case, it relieves my "everyone hates my application why did I apply I'm a fraud" mood. This process is so mysterious and cryptic. I assume COVID threw a wrench in their process...

[mnelmcar07]

15 minutes ago, buendia.macando said:

I just got an informal email from UCSB about how they are impressed with my application and are interested in my work, but need to work out the financial information before further updates. I should be hearing back by the end of the month. So that's exciting but still feels like limbo. In any case, it relieves my "everyone hates my application why did I apply I'm a fraud" mood. This process is so mysterious and cryptic. I assume COVID threw a wrench in their process...

That is so exciting!! Huge congrats to you ❤️

Edited February 3, 2021 by mnelmcar07

[Kapol-in]

Just got an email that I was denied from Cornell Comp Lit, it seems like a general email.

[harleth]

17 hours ago, mnelmcar07 said:

I emailed Stanford last week asking if they're doing interviews this year and if they've already been sent out, and if I do get a reply at all I'll let you know!

hi everyone! thanks for making this thread, have been lurking for a while but decided to make an acct when I saw this question -- just to say that I got contacted by Stanford for an interview on Jan 22 and met with the DGS and the adcom on Jan 29. got the impression they were doing all the interviews around that time but not 100% sure ofc, and did not get any info on timing otherwise.

(this is for their Comp Lit department, not MTL)

[AdiCallai]

1 hour ago, harleth said:

hi everyone! thanks for making this thread, have been lurking for a while but decided to make an acct when I saw this question -- just to say that I got contacted by Stanford for an interview on Jan 22 and met with the DGS and the adcom on Jan 29. got the impression they were doing all the interviews around that time but not 100% sure ofc, and did not get any info on timing otherwise.

(this is for their Comp Lit department, not MTL)

hi there! same here - interviewed on 29th, email on the 22nd. i guess we'll hear back over the next week or two? it was a full panel with 8 professors, most of whom share some of my languages and research interests. was it similar on your end? (i'm new here so not sure about the lingo..)

good luck!

[harleth]

for me it was the opposite, only one of the 8 or so panelists/interviewers shared one of my languages, so it felt more like they had a set group of interviewers rather than a group tailored to me. good luck you too!! hopefully we'll hear soonish

[angrychalupa]

Still waiting on my rejection from Cornell. I'd rather get it over with. Dont know why it hasn't come yet. Ugh

[buendia.macando]

Got my Cornell rejection, but it doesn't hurt as much since I have another offer pending. I can see the mismatch in hindsight. Still waiting on Princeton - where some of my interests overlap but I'm not sure if it's enough. I guess we'll see. Either way, I'm happy with my choice at UCSB, but I'm awaiting financial information so it still seems like limbo.

[mnelmcar07]

6 hours ago, harleth said:

hi everyone! thanks for making this thread, have been lurking for a while but decided to make an acct when I saw this question -- just to say that I got contacted by Stanford for an interview on Jan 22 and met with the DGS and the adcom on Jan 29. got the impression they were doing all the interviews around that time but not 100% sure ofc, and did not get any info on timing otherwise.

(this is for their Comp Lit department, not MTL)

Oof, I assume that would be an implied rejection for ppl who didn't get the interview. But hurray for you - hope it works out! How was the process like, if you don't mind sharing?

[RamonaQ]

2 hours ago, angrychalupa said:

Still waiting on my rejection from Cornell. I'd rather get it over with. Dont know why it hasn't come yet. Ugh

I haven't heard back either!! Do they do only one round of interviews? Should we already assume rejection?

[Magic Lantern]

9 minutes ago, RamonaQ said:

I haven't heard back either!! Do they do only one round of interviews? Should we already assume rejection?

I asked a current PhD student at Cornell; they said that Cornell Comp Lit usually did not interview applicants. But someone posted on the result page that they recently got an interview invitation. Maybe this year is different? I also haven't heard from Cornell yet. Super confused and anxious. 

[RamonaQ]

4 minutes ago, Magic Lantern said:

I asked a current PhD student at Cornell; they said that Cornell Comp Lit usually did not interview applicants. But someone posted on the result page that they recently got an interview invitation. Maybe this year is different? I also haven't heard from Cornell yet. Super confused and anxious. 

I feel you. This is nerve-racking. It just doesn't make sense for a program to inform rejections before acceptances. So probably they already gave out all the interview/acceptances that they wanted to offer...