The College's interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Comparative Studies has welcomed two new cohorts of students into the newly revised track, Cultures, Languages and Literatures (CLL), beginning in August 2012. As of this fall, 2014, recruitment efforts have resulted in a total of 28 new students. Thanks to initial funding from the departments of English and Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature (LLCL), from the Jupiter Life Long Learning Society, and more recently from an allocation from the Provost's Office, the program has been able to support 18 students with graduate teaching assistantships. The students teach courses in their host departments, gaining valuable experience in pedagogy and providing our programs with excellent instructors. Dr. Richard Shusterman, through the Center of Mind, Body and Culture, has also offered a research assistantship to support a Ph.D. student during his studies in the program. 

The first cohort in CLL began its studies with its first Theory and Criticism seminar on the topic of postcolonial theory, taught by Associate Professor of English, Dr. Taylor Hagood. This fall the Theory and Criticism courses are focusing on French theories from the 1960s and '70s, taught by Dr. Frédéric Conrod of LLCL, and the philosophy of culture, taught by Dr. Richard Shusterman, the College's Eminent Scholar in the Humanities. In addition, Dr. Shusterman is offering an Interdisciplinary Perspectives seminar on the topic of pragmatism and the arts. Students will also be taking seminars in several departments from across the College as they pursue their interdisciplinary interests in a variety of fields.

We were pleased to award two Presidential Fellowships to complement the GTAships in each of the last two years: Jonathan O' Neil plans to study literary and political essays that address the cultures of the European Union, with an emphasis on Spain and Italy. Candy Hurtado plans to combine her interests in ethnomusicology and Latin American studies to study the folk music and literature of her native Peru. Ms. Hurtado is also a recipient of a prestigious McKnight Fellowship, which will support her studies in our program. Betsaida Casanova will specialize in Spanish-speaking Caribbean literature written inside and outside the Caribbean with a major concentration on Cuban writers. Nancy Jarchow plans to specialize in French literature, with an emphasis on theater and its role in resistance and collaboration during the occupation of France by the Nazis in World War II. For profiles of all of our current students, be sure to visit the program website. 

African American Review, Anthurium, College Literature, European Journal of American Culture, Faulkner Journal, Literature Compass, Mississippi Quarterly, Southern Literary Journal, Studies in Popular Culture, and Walt Whitman Quarterly Review.

In the way of current work, Dr. Hagood is pursuing a number of projects. He is an editor with the Digital Yoknapatawpha website, hosted by the University of Virginia (see his video discussing the project).

Journey to the Center of Yoknapatawpha

He is co-editing a collection of essays entitled Undead Souths: The Gothic and Beyond, with Eric Gary Anderson and Daniel Cross Turner. In addition to these projects, his monograph-in-progress is entitled 

The CSSA is sponsoring a conference this fall, 2014, with a focus on what it means to be post-, post or Post, or whether anyone, any place or indeed anything can ever be truly "post" after an initial phase. Join us as we explore the state of academic inquiry and discourse in studies that focus on "after" effects, identities and locations. We are interested in examining how the post makes itself known in a variety of disciplines and ideas, and we have conceived the conference in an attempt to allow for papers that wish to focus on the post itself, on the post under erasure, or on the trace of the past as it locates itself within the post in all areas of study.

Keynote speaker: Dr. Sherryl Vint

Sherryl Vint has published widely on science fiction, including most recently Science Fiction: A Guide to the Perplexed. She is a Professor of Science Fiction Media Studies, Co-Director of the Science Fiction and Technoculture Studies Program at the University of California, Riverside, and an editor for the journals Science Fiction Film and Television and Science Fiction Studies. Her current research is on biopolitics and science fiction. 

Gary Brooten (PI) presented two papers at the May 2014 national conference of the Rhetorical Society of America in San Antonio. "The Rhetorical Production of Useful 'Scientific Controversies' in Democratic Political Discourse" was a full conference presentation. He also presented "Scientists Working Their Rhetorical Situations: Guy Stewart Callendar, Gilbert Plass, Roger Revelle and the Construction of a Climate Change Paradigm" in the RSA's Research Network for Students and New Scholars.

Skye Cervone (CLL) published an article, "Recovering the Effects of Lord Dunsany on J.R.R. Tolkien" in S.T. Joshi's Critical Essays on Lord Dunsany, and she presented her paper "'Fabulous Blood' and Frightful Slaughter: Unicord Hunting in The King of Elfland's Daughter" at the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts' annual conference. She was elected as Secretary of the Comparative Studies Student Association and as Student Caucus Representative for the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts.
 

Daniel Creed (CLL) published an article, "Robert Browning's 'Mesmerism': An In[tro]duction into Gothic Nightmare" in the Explicator, and he has multiple articles under review for forthcoming publication. He presented papers at the International Conference of Fantastic in the Arts and the CSSA Spring Symposium and was elected President of the Comparative Studies Student Association.

Marianna de Tollis (CLL) has presented in several conferences. The focus of her research has been to identity issues of women, such as the "body-hybrid" in Sibilla Aleramo's novel Una donna, the "Christological body" in the movie El laberinto del fauno, and the monstrous "Chimeric body" in Dacia Maraini's La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa. 

Rebecca Karimi (PI) had an article recently selected for publication in an anthology by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 

Edna Lubonja (CLL) presented her paper "Music as the Memory to Keep the Language and Culture Alive for Arbëresh of Italy" at Brown University's Chiasmi Conference on March 7-8, 2014. The Arbëresh is one of the largest minority groups living in the southern part of Italy and the focus of Edna's academic research. 

Inbal Mazar (LLL), pictured above, spent the summer of 2013 conducting field research in Guatemala on her dissertation topic, "A Comparative Study of the Impact of Biomedical Care on Guatemalan-Mayan Maternal Care in Rural Guatemala and South Florida."

Kudos to all!

I am a doctoral candidate in the Public Intellectuals track of the Comparative Studies Program. I research trans politics and visual media with a commitment to peace, justice and human rights. For the 2013-14 academic year, the research was supported by the Lynn-Wold-Schmidt Peace Studies Fellowship and the Peace Studies Joan Joseph Foundation Scholarship. During this time, I progressed toward the completion of a dissertation on trans politics and U.S. science fiction television. Meanwhile, I published an opinion piece on trans allyship, a guide to trans etiquette, and a book chapter on trans activism in Trans Bodies, Trans Selves. In addition, I submitted an article on gender privilege for publication in The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, an article on trans documentary film for prospective publication in Films for the Feminist Classroom, and a proposal for a book chapter on trans politics and Internet television.

While conducting this research, I presented papers at five academic conferences and symposia, including FAU's academic symposium on eugenics. The out-of-state conference travel was funded through the Patricia M. Courtenay Doctoral Fellowship and an FAU Student Government Travel Award. My confirmed upcoming presentations include an activist workshop at the Civic Media Center in Gainesville, Florida, and two papers at the National Women's Studies Association Annual Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

My 2013-14 service included co-planning many academic conferences and educational events, such as FAU's academic workshop Nonviolence, Violence, Ethnicity and Religion in Eurasia. Moreover, as an Agora Project Ambassador, I created the Trans* Initiative at FAU. The asterisk in the name signifies the intention to be inclusive of a broad spectrum of gendered embodiments, identities and expressions. The initiative promotes civility and respect toward, and the freedom and engagement of, transgender and gender-nonconforming members of the FAU community. Outside of FAU, I assisted Broward County with its efforts to maximize trans access to its Homeless Continuum of Care, and I entered my third year as the conference planning coordinator of the Transecting Society Conference, an international conference on trans politics.

Ariana Cascio Bianchi - "My best advice: stick with what interests you most. Know what you like and take courses that fan that interest. Your passion for a subject is what will sustain your academic career."

Nancy Jarchow - "I firmly believe that it is never too late to pursue your passion and that every person we meet and every experience we have are meaningful and necessary to a fulfilled life.  As a secondary educator for the past 10 years I have realized that the goal of education is not merely to impart knowledge, but to help students learn how to learn, how to find the answers themselves and then how to question what they have discovered.  Learning can be messy sometimes and the best teachers know how to get out of the way and allow the students to dig in, get their hands dirty and think for themselves. I encourage students of all ages to remember that learning never stops, it is a lifelong process that will reward the student of life over and over again. 

Inbal Mazar - "I think it's important to write papers that help you narrow your interests and topic for the dissertation. Keep a list of the bibliography you use in classes and a folder of articles that might come in handy for the exams or dissertation." 

Elaine Mendelow - "As a student in the new cohort of the FAU Comparative Studies Ph.D. Program, I am grateful and delighted to be living the words of George Eliot: 'It is never too late to be what you might have been.'"

Out of circulation since 2008, this issue represents a new format for the program's newsletter. Kudos go to Betsaida Casanova (CLL), who spent many hours this past summer compiling, designing and editing this edition of what we hope will return to be a bi-annual publication. Please send your news items, photos and updates to