Placement

Comparative Literature at UCI has an exceptional placement record. Between 2004 and 2012, the program graduated 46 Ph.D.s, 35 of whom currently have academic positions or full-time professional positions at universities and colleges in the U.S. and abroad. This represents 76% of our recent graduates. An additional five students are teaching either full- or part-time at several colleges and universities. 

CL Ph.D.s from the past two decades hold tenure-track positions ranging in rank from Professor and Chair to Assistant Professor at universities including Adelphi University, Arkansas University, Art Center College of Design (Los Angeles), Bilkent University (Turkey), BYU, Bentley University, Cal State San Marcos, College of the Canyons, Columbia, Cornell University, Glendale College (Los Angeles), Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Jamestown Community College, University of Lille (France), Minnesota, McGill University, Mt. Saint Antonio College, New York University (NYU), Ohio State University, Rowan University, Syracuse University, Tulane University, University of Colorado (Colorado Springs),University of Houston, University of Illinois (Chicago), University of Utah, UC Riverside, University of Bogotá (Columbia), SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Albany, Western Oregon State, Yale University, the Coast Guard Academy, and others. Two of our graduates teach in California’s community college system, and several others teach courses at Butte College, Chapman University, Mt. Saint Mary’s College, Soka University, and Stanford University. Three UCI CL Ph.D.s have gone on to earn JDs and are practicing law. Academic professional positions held by others include the Associate Directorship of the Sweetland Writing Center at the University of Michigan and the Writing Directorship of UCSD’s Sixth College Writing Program. A CL Ph.D. is also currently Assistant Director of UCI’s Program in Literary Journalism, and four additional graduates hold permanent positions in libraries or instructional resource units. Students with UCI CL Ph.D.s have held and currently hold post-doctoral fellowships at Brown, Cornell, Barnard, Stanford, Tulane, the University of London, Stockholm University (Sweden), and Pomona. Others hold Visiting Assistant Professorships at Clemson University, Williams College, Pacific Lutheran University, and University of Victoria.

These placement levels compare very favorably with those reported in the most recent survey conducted by the Modern Language Association (2011). The study presents data from 628 departments of English, foreign language, Comparative Literature, and interdisciplinary studies in the United States and Canada. The range of placement in tenure-track jobs over the period of two years (2006-2008) was 49.2 – 55.1 % in English; 41.4 – 49.5 % in foreign languages (“MLA Survey of Ph.D. Placement"). Although Comparative Literature placements were not broken out as a separate category, it is clear from these data that UCI Comp Lit graduates are faring very well at a wide range of institutions in the U.S. and abroad, even with the recent pressure put on academic hiring.

This extraordinarily strong record speaks eloquently to the quality of our program and the currency of a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UCI.