UBC Comparative Literature

[wreckofthehope]

Does anyone know what is going on with the Comparative Literature dep't at the University of British Columbia?

I am hoping to apply there for a PhD, but there is a large message in red letters on their website saying: Please note that we are not currently accepting applications to the Comparative Literature program. Does that just mean - not right now, as in - applications aren't open yet... or does it mean something more permanent?

[melusine]

Does anyone know what is going on with the Comparative Literature dep't at the University of British Columbia?

I am hoping to apply there for a PhD, but there is a large message in red letters on their website saying: Please note that we are not currently accepting applications to the Comparative Literature program. Does that just mean - not right now, as in - applications aren't open yet... or does it mean something more permanent?

sorry for the late reply (i haven't logged in here for a while..) but yeah:

the UBC Comp Lit program (never was a dep't) was pretty much terminated about three or four years ago.

I did my undergrad at UBC and believe me, a lot of students/profs are still quite bitter about it. The main cause is lack of funding/qualified applicants/strange faculty decisions regarding their priorities (our dean last year was an economics' prof who setiously asked why people didn't just go to a language institute to study languages..). Outside of English, I must say UBC humanities are a bit of a mess: French is pretty terrible (very few professors/courses at the graduate level), Slavic languages are a joke (they've actually also closed down Russian and merged it with the German/"Scandinavian" department).

Anyways, the only reason (from what I can tell) the webpage is still up is that there are still a couple of poor folks finishing their PhDs in Comp Lit (they couldn't very well kick the suckers out, after making them pay four years' tuition)..

Sorry for the excess phlegm. As I said we're all very bitter.

[wreckofthehope]

sorry for the late reply (i haven't logged in here for a while..) but yeah:

the UBC Comp Lit program (never was a dep't) was pretty much terminated about three or four years ago.

I did my undergrad at UBC and believe me, a lot of students/profs are still quite bitter about it. The main cause is lack of funding/qualified applicants/strange faculty decisions regarding their priorities (our dean last year was an economics' prof who setiously asked why people didn't just go to a language institute to study languages..). Outside of English, I must say UBC humanities are a bit of a mess: French is pretty terrible (very few professors/courses at the graduate level), Slavic languages are a joke (they've actually also closed down Russian and merged it with the German/"Scandinavian" department).

Anyways, the only reason (from what I can tell) the webpage is still up is that there are still a couple of poor folks finishing their PhDs in Comp Lit (they couldn't very well kick the suckers out, after making them pay four years' tuition)..

Sorry for the excess phlegm. As I said we're all very bitter.

Ahh - thanks for the info'. And something approximating condolences I guess. That all sounds pretty nasty.

I looked into the English department and was generally impressed - you wouldn't happen to know if it would be possible to take classes in the Scandinavian/German department as an English PhD - e.g. take Danish as a language/ secondary literature?