Comparative World Literature and Classics

Department Interim Chair: Kathryn Chew

Department Office: McIntosh Humanities Building (MHB), Rm 515
Telephone / Fax: (562) 985‑4239 / (562) 985-4863
Website: Comparative World Literature and Classics Department

Professors: Elizabeth Dahab, Vlatka Velcic, Kathryn Chew, Paul Scotton, Crystal Yin Lie, Debby Sneed, Viola Lasmana

Undergraduate Advisor: Kathryn Chew

Administrative Support Coordinator: Nancy Comito

Students desiring information should contact the department office for an appointment with the advisor or the interim chair.

College: College of Liberal Arts

Courses: CWL, CLSC, GK, LAT

Career Possibilities

Creative/Media Writer • Editor • Technical Writer • Librarian • Copywriter • Literary Agent • Foreign Service Officer • Public Relations Worker • Market Researcher • Educator • Lawyer • Government Affairs Officer • Management Trainee • Underwriter • Claims Adjuster • University staff • Professional archaeologist (industry / state park) (Some of these, and other careers, require additional education or experience. For more information, see Career Development Center website.)

Introduction

The Department of Comparative World Literature and Classics houses two disciplines under one roof.

In Comparative World Literature we focus on world literature in comparative contexts. We look at the dialogue between cultures, and in so doing, we always underscore the sociohistorical contexts behind texts in the broader acceptance of the meaning of the text. Our classes often are organized around cross-disciplinary topics, such as Film and Novel, Art and Literature, Music and Literature, Literature and Medicine, Science Fiction and Technology, and challenge students to be perceptive readers, thinkers, and writers. Faculty strengths include literary theory, cultural studies, diaspora studies, digital humanities and visual studies, disability studies, and health humanities. Our mission is to produce students who are culturally sensitive and critical readers and writers, skilled at constructing persuasive arguments, and dedicated to leaving no page unturned! Comparative World Literature offers a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative World Literature with three emphases, in Cultural Studies, World Literature in Translation, and Language and Literature, as well as minors in Comparative World Literature and Health Humanities.

Classics includes the study of the languages, literatures and civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean, encompassing ancient Greece and Rome and the other peoples with whom they interacted-from Eastern Europe and North Africa to Egypt and the Middle East and Asia. Classics is an interdisciplinary field, and we study topics like archaeology, architecture, mythology, ancient math and science, economics, philosophy, linguistics, politics, and history, as well as broad themes like race and ethnicity, sex, gender, and sexuality, and disability. Our mission is to produce students who are culturally sensitive and critical readers and writers, skilled at constructing persuasive arguments, and dedicated to leaving no stone unturned! Classics offers the Bachelor of Arts in Classics and minors in Classical Archaeology, Classical Studies, Greek, and Latin. Within the Classics major four options are offered, Ancient Greek Studies, Classical Archaeology, Classical Studies, Greek Studies, and Roman Studies. Students interested in graduate school in either Classics or Classical Archaeology should consult the departmental advisor as early as possible in their academic careers, and are strongly encouraged to study the ancient languages.

The department recommends that Classics students spend time in either Italy or Greece on one of the many programs designed to familiarize students with the physical remains of these civilizations, either through CSULB study abroad courses or from other institutions e.g. College Year at Athens, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens summer session, the Aegean Institute, the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, one of several ongoing archaeological excavations, etc. Courses at one of these institutions may be substituted for CSULB courses with departmental approval.

Programs

Undergraduate Degrees

Comparative World Literature, B.A.

Minor

Credential

Single Subject Teaching Credential in Latin

Courses

Classics

Note: General Education Category A must be completed prior to taking any upper-division course except upper-division language courses where students meet formal prerequisites and/or competency equivalent for advanced study.

Comparative World Literature

Greek

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