One of the Institute's primary goals is to provide institutional support for cross-disciplinary and cross-regional comparative work, acknowledging the force of recent changes in the humanities, the social sciences, law, and architecture.
The work of the Institute is fully historical in its range. Of particular interest to the Institute is the post-Cold War rethinking of area studies paradigms in relationship to new developments in the discipline of comparative literature itself.
Our curricular planning relies heavily on cross-disciplinary team-teaching. In the curriculum, as well as in our conferences, lecture series and workshops, we bring a literature-focused study of language and culture to the area studies as they rethink their mandate; and, conversely, we try to give substance and recognition to those directions in comparative literature that can benefit from the breadth of knowledge produced by a reshaped area studies. In this effort, we work collaboratively with the social sciences. The name of our endeavor — Institute for Comparative Literature and Society — acknowledges that goal.
