ucla phd comparative literature

General Catalog

Comparative literature ma, cphil, phd.

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UCLA Graduate Programs

Program Requirements for Comparative Literature

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Comparative Literature

College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Comparative Literature offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Comparative Literature. The department only admits students with the objective of the Ph.D. degree.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

During their first year of doctoral study, students are assigned a faculty mentor. This person serves as a resource for students’ professional and personal development as they acclimatize to graduate student life at UCLA.

Students should consult regularly with the Director of Graduate Studies to plan their progress to degree. Topics for discussion should include but are not limited to, major and minor areas, course approvals for language and degree requirements and exam planning. Student records are reviewed regularly by the Director of Graduate Studies and the Student Affairs Officer in consultation with the department faculty. Students whose grade-point average falls below 3.0 are sent a warning from the Chair and may be placed on departmental academic probation.

Each year, students are required to submit an end of the year assessment, which is reviewed by the faculty at the last faculty meeting of the year. Following the faculty meeting, the Director of Graduate Studies writes and sends a letter to each student indicating whether the student is making satisfactory or unsatisfactory degree progress.

Students are strongly encouraged to approach faculty regarding mentorship immediately following the Second Year Review/M.A. Exam. Students who are interested in working with a particular faculty member early in their careers may wish to approach that person during their first two years of graduate study.

Areas of Study

The major field should reflect the primary emphasis of the student’s dissertation and illustrate the student’s knowledge of literary studies. The major field should encompass literary and cultural studies in one language area. A general knowledge of the major field is demonstrated through course work. The major field should be discussed with the Director of Graduate Studies during the quarter preceding the Second Year Review/M.A. Exam and declared during the Second Year Review/M.A. Exam.

The student’s minor field should focus either on another literary or cultural tradition, or on a defined theoretical or interdisciplinary approach from related disciplines such as musicology, film studies, gender studies, or art history. The minor field should be discussed with the Director of Graduate Studies prior to the First Stage Ph.D. Evaluation Qualifying Examination.

Students must consult with the Director of Graduate Studies regarding changes to their major and minor fields.

Foreign Language Requirement

Proficiency in the language of the major field is an essential prerequisite for courses and degrees in Comparative Literature. Before completing the Ph.D., students must demonstrate knowledge of two languages other than English. Students should plan to fulfill these requirements early on in their degree because many language courses fill up quickly. At least one of the two required foreign languages must be completed prior to the Second Year Review/M.A. Exam (i.e. by Spring Quarter of a student’s second year in the program). Proficiency in one language must be certified by completing two or more upper division and/or graduate literature courses, taken for a letter grade in the appropriate language department. If the course is not taught in the language in question, students must confirm with the teacher in advance that it can fulfill a language requirement in another way, perhaps with supplemental assignments. Students must demonstrate language competency beyond the intermediate level (or, the equivalent of two years of instruction at UCLA) in order to enroll in these courses.

In cases where sufficient courses are not available, students may substitute a translation examination administered by a departmental faculty member in place of coursework. In such cases, the Director of Graduate Studies or Department Chair must approve the translation examination ahead of time in consultation with the faculty who will be administering it.

Course Requirements

12 courses (48 units), including 11 letter-graded seminar courses and COM LIT 495, are required prior to their Second Year Review/M.A. Exam, distributed as follows:

• Comparative Literature 200A, 200B, and 495; three additional Comparative Literature graduate courses; six major and minor field courses, of which at least three must be in the major field. A maximum of one course in the major field and one course in the minor field may be upper division courses.

The recommended schedule is as follows:

• First year:  COM LIT 200A plus one additional graduate seminar in the first quarter, followed by COM LIT 200B and two graduate seminars for the second quarter, and COM LIT 495 and two graduate seminars in the third quarter.
• Second year:  For all teaching graduate students, the recommended course load, excluding language course work, is two seminars per quarter plus the appropriate 375 teaching apprentice practicum.

Students may petition to apply up to two individual study (596) courses, taken for at least four letter-graded units, toward the course requirements with approval from the Director of Graduate Studies.

Teaching Experience

Departmental teaching experience is not required; however, Teaching Apprentice (TA) appointments are routinely offered to all graduate students who have completed COM LIT 495.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

Second Year Review/M.A. Exam

Students in the Department of Comparative Literature are required to undergo a Second Year Review/M.A. Exam during the spring quarter of their second year. Under exceptional circumstances, students may defer this Exam in fall quarter of their third year with permission of the Director of Graduate Studies. Prior to the review, students must complete a minimum of 12 seminars, including COM LIT 495. At least one of the two required foreign languages must be completed prior to the review.

Students must convene a review/exam committee comprised of three faculty members; one of these three faculty members must be the Director of Graduate Studies, and at least one other must be faculty in the Department of Comparative Literature.

Students are required to choose two seminar papers (with or without revisions) and circulate them among the review committee at least two weeks in advance of the review. With prior approval from their committee members, students may also present papers that were submitted to a conference or journal. The papers serve as tangible evidence of successfully completed academic tasks. Students are advised to submit two papers totaling 30-50 pages of written work. They are permitted to revise or work on these papers after the seminars in which they were submitted have concluded, but they are not required to do so. Papers should demonstrate mastery of course material covered in years 1 and 2 and potential for future research, but need not be relevant to possible dissertation topics. Students should review these papers in advance, and should be able to speak knowledgeably about their content. Both form and content are evaluated and discussed during the review.

Students who enter the program with an M.A. in Comparative Literature must hold a Second Year Review, but will not be awarded an M.A. from UCLA. The results of the Second Year Review for students who hold an M.A. are recorded as follows: (1) Pass with permission to continue toward the Ph.D.; (2) Pass with reservations and specific recommendations for improvement with permission to continue toward the Ph.D; or (3) Fail without permission to continue toward the Ph.D. Students may fail the Second Year Review/M.A. if they are unable to demonstrate the level of mastery necessary for success in the more advanced stages of doctoral study. The faculty will not permit students to retake the Second Year Review. Students who fail the Second Year Review will be recommended for academic disqualification.

Students who do not hold a Comparative Literature M.A. upon entering the Ph.D. program may be awarded an M.A., contingent upon successful completion of the Second Year Review, coursework, and language proficiency requirement. The results of the Second Year Review for students who do not hold an M.A. in Comparative Literature upon matriculation are recorded as follows: (1) Pass, with an M.A. and permission to continue toward the Ph.D.; (2) Pass with reservations, with an M.A. and specific recommendations for improvement with permission to continue toward the Ph.D; (3) Pass with a terminal M.A.; or (4) Fail without an M.A. or permission toward continue to the Ph.D. Students may fail the Second Year Review/M.A. Exam if they are unable to demonstrate the level of mastery necessary for success in the advanced stages of doctoral study. The faculty will not permit students to retake the Second Year Review. Students who fail the Second Year Review will be recommended for academic disqualification.

Thesis Plan

Time-to-Degree

Students who are admitted to graduate status should be able to obtain the M.A. degree within six quarters.

Doctoral Degree

Students should consult regularly with the Director of Graduate Studies to plan their progress to degree. Topics for discussion should include, but are not limited to, major and minor areas, course approvals for language and degree requirements, and exam planning. Student records are reviewed regularly by the Director of Graduate Studies and the Student Affairs Officer in consultation with the department faculty. Students whose grade-point average falls below 3.0 are sent a warning from the Chair and may be placed on departmental academic probation.

Students will be informed in writing if they fall behind in their progress to degree. In certain situations, students not making adequate progress to degree will be required to follow an academic plan, in coordination with Graduate Division. Students who consistently fail to meet deadlines may be recommended for academic disqualification.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Students must consult with the Director of Graduate Studies and all relevant faculty advisers regarding changes to their major and minor fields.

The second language requirement may be satisfied by completion of one graduate or upper division literature class with a letter grade of “B+” or higher. If the course is not taught in the language in question, students must confirm with the teacher in advance that it can fulfill a language requirement in another way, perhaps with supplemental assignments. Students must demonstrate language competency beyond the intermediate level (or, the equivalent of two years of instruction at UCLA) in order to enroll in these courses. In rare cases where sufficient courses are not available, students may substitute a translation examination administered by a departmental faculty member in place of coursework. In such cases, the Director of Graduate Studies or Department Chair must provide a memorandum of support.

All course work must be completed by the end of the third year. 16 letter-graded seminar courses and one pedagogy course taken at UCLA are required for the Ph.D., distributed as follows:

• Comparative Literature 200A and 200B
• Comparative Literature 495 pedagogy course
• Six graduate courses in Comparative Literature
• Six graduate courses in the major literature (of which one may be upper division)
• Two graduate courses in the minor literature/field (of which one may be upper division)

There are two stages in having courses recognized from other institutions. Before the Second Year Review, students can petition to have two courses recognized, if they have not been taken for any other degree previously awarded, at UCLA or another institution, or before the award of the bachelor’s degree.

After the Second Year Review, students who have been admitted to the program with an M.A. may petition to validate up to three courses taken toward a degree at another institution toward the Ph.D. The approval of the Department is required. Correspondence courses are not applicable to graduate degrees at UCLA.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution .

First Stage Evaluation: University Written Qualifying Examination

The Academic Senate requires that students take a written qualifying examination. In the Department of Comparative Literature, this examination is in two parts. The first part consists of a 72-hour take-home written examination in the major and minor fields. The second part is an oral examination. This qualifying exam assesses a student’s ability to draw principles and concepts from the relevant literature.

Students must constitute an examining committee comprised of three faculty members, of which two must be Comparative Literature faculty, in the quarter preceding the examination. Students should provide the Student Affairs Officer with the names and email address of their committee members and specify which faculty members will serve as the major and minor field examiners. Committees are limited to three members. Students should try to choose faculty members who will later be on their dissertation committee, but are not required to do so, in the sense that they will constitute their dissertation committee only after this examination.

The written examination questions are based on a reading list of 50 works in the major field and 25 works in the minor field; 15-20 percent of these lists will be theoretical works related to each field. The student prepares reading lists for one major field and one minor field. Each student is responsible for preparing their own reading lists with guidance from appropriate faculty advisors. Each reading list must be approved by the appropriate field examiner; both lists must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies by the end of the quarter preceding the qualifying examination. Students should send their reading lists to the appropriate faculty in the major and minor fields first, with instructions to send their approval to the Director of Graduate Studies and the Student Affairs Officer via email so that copies can be added to the student’s Departmental file.

The take-home written examinations require responses to one long or two shorter questions for the major field examination and one question for the minor field. The examiners have the choice of asking one question, or allowing the student to answer one or two of a selection of two or more questions. Students are expected to demonstrate their knowledge of the field and engagement with relevant ideas and methodologies as they produce 25-30 pages of original writing during the 72-hour examination period. These pages may not include any excerpts of previously written seminar papers. Plagiarism is grounds for dismissal from the program. Students should not discuss works that are not included in the reading lists. Furthermore, they may quote from works on the reading lists, but are not required to do so. Should a question be deemed problematic (i.e. the question asks about material not included on the approved reading lists), the student should immediately contact the Student Affairs Officer, who will stop the exam period and follow up with the Director of Graduate Studies and Chair.

The oral examination must be completed no later than two weeks after the submission of the written portion. In exceptional situations, this exam can be slightly delayed by a few weeks with permission from the Director of Graduate Studies and/or Chair.

The outcome of the first stage evaluation can be: pass with permission to proceed to the prospectus phase of the dissertation; or fail . Students must pass both the written and oral sections of the exam in the major and minor fields in order to pass with permission to proceed to the prospectus phase of the dissertation. In the case of failure, the committee may offer the student an opportunity to retake one or both sections of the exam in the following quarter. A second failed exam results in a recommendation for academic disqualification from the program.

Second Stage Evaluation: University Oral Qualifying Examination (Prospectus Defense)

After completion of the written qualifying examination, students enroll in COM LIT 597 under the supervision of their major field adviser to begin writing the dissertation prospectus. Although actual times for its completion vary, students would ideally produce a completed draft after two quarters. The prospectus serves as the student’s outline for their dissertation, and should define a thesis and its proposed development over several chapters. The prospectus should answer a question (instead of merely outlining a description) over the course of 35-50 pages.

The University Oral Qualifying Examination is a two-hour examination based primarily on a defense of the prospectus. Students should nominate their doctoral committee, which will serve as their examination committee for the oral qualifying examination, at least two months in advance of the exam. The doctoral committee is comprised of at least four faculty members, including two faculty members from the department (one of whom must serve as the committee chair or co-chair). The size of the committee is not limited, and may include members outside UCLA, and outside the UC system.

Each member of the committee reports the examination as “passed” or “not passed.” A student may not be advanced to candidacy if more than one member votes “not passed” regardless of the size of the committee. Upon majority vote of the doctoral committee, the oral qualifying examination may be repeated once.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree upon successful completion of the University Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations, as described above.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Following completion of the dissertation, and with the approval of the chair of the doctoral committee, the student may file their dissertation. The Director of Graduate Studies and all members of the doctoral committee must be notified of the student’s plan to file the dissertation. The final draft of the dissertation must be submitted to the committee for review no later than two months prior to the planned date of filing to allow sufficient time for final revisions.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The defense of the dissertation may be required for individual students at the discretion of their doctoral committees at the time of the prospectus defense.

By the twelfth quarter in the program, students must have completed the first and second stage of the University Qualifying Examinations, and advance to doctoral candidacy.

Students regularly advance to candidacy (ATC) by the end of their fourth year, and complete their degree by the end of their sixth year (18 quarters). The maximum time to degree allowed in the Department of Comparative Literature is nine years (27 quarters).

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA .

Special Departmental or Program Policy

Students may be recommended for academic disqualification if their grade point average falls below a 3.4 for two consecutive terms, failure to progress toward the degree through the completion of five courses per academic year or failure to pass the Second Year Review, or University Qualifying Examinations. A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification to the program chair who will appoint a committee, which may include the chair, to review the recommendation, and if necessary, meet with the student. The chair makes a final decision based on the committee’s report.

People Faculty

Hayles, n. katherine.

Website: nkhayles.com

N. Katherine Hayles is the Distinguished Research Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the James B. Duke Professor Emerita from Duke University. Her research focuses on the relations of literature, science and technology in the 20th and 21 st centuries. Her twelve print books include Postprint: Books and Becoming Computational (Columbia, 2021), Unthought: The Power of the Cognitive Nonconscious (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2017) and How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis (Univ. of Chicago Press 2015), in addition to over 100 peer-reviewed articles.  Her books have won several prizes, including  The Rene Wellek Award for the Best Book in Literary Theory for How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Literature, Cybernetics and Informatics , and the Suzanne Langer Award for Writing Machines .  She has been recognized by many fellowships and awards, including two NEH Fellowships, a Guggenheim, a Rockefellar Residential Fellowship at Bellagio, and two University of California Presidential Research Fellowships.  She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  She is currently at work on Technosymbiosis: Futures of the Human .

Professional Experience

Distinguished Guest Professor, Uppsala University, 2018-2022

Distinguished Research Professor of English, University of California, Los Angeles 2017-present

James B. Duke Professor of Literature Emerita

Professor of Literature and Director of Graduate Studies, Literature Program, Duke University, 2008-2014

John Charles Hillis Professor of Literature University of California, Los Angeles 2002-2008

Distinguished Professor of English, University of California, Los Angeles, 2003-2008

Distinguished Professor, Design/Media Arts, University of California, Los Angeles, 2003-2008

Professor of English, University of California, Los Angeles, 1992-2003

Professor of English, University of Iowa, 1990-92

Associate Professor of English, University of Iowa, 1985-1989

Visiting Associate Professor of Literature, Caltech, Fall 1988

Assistant Professor of English, University of Missouri-Rolla, 1982-85

Visiting Associate, California Institute of Technology, 1979-80

Assistant Professor of English, Dartmouth College, 1976-82

Instructor, Dartmouth College, 1975-76

Chemical Research Consultant, Beckman Instrument Company, 1968-70

Research Chemist, Xerox Corporation, 1966

Literature, Science and Technology of the 20 th and 21 st Century

Electronic Textuality

Modern and Postmodern American and British Fiction

Critical Theory; Science Fiction

Academic Honors and Fellowships

American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Elected 2015

Hurst Distinguished Professor, Washington University, October 16-19, 2018

Luesebrink Career Achievement Award, Electronic Literature Organization, 2018

Academia Europaea, Elected 2014

Critical Inquiry Professor, University of Chicago, April-May 2015

Holmes Seminar Professor, University of Kansas, June 2014

Lifetime Achievement Award, Society for Literature, Science and the Arts, 2013

Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Durham U.K., 2014-2015

Pilgrim Lifetime Achievement Award, Science Fiction Research Associates, 2012

Digital Publishing Grant, $10,000, Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke University

GreaterThanGames Humanities Laboratory, Co-Director, $225,000 grant for 2011-2014

Honorary Doctorate, Art College of Design, Pasadena CA 2010

Inductee, Innovation Hall of Fame, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester NY, 2010

Honorary Doctorate, Umea University, Sweden, 2007

Presidential Research Fellowship, University of California, 2006-7

ASC Fellowship, National Humanities Center, 2006

Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar, 2005-6

Fulbright Senior Specialist, Moscow University, 2005

Susanne E. Langer Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Symbolic Form,  awarded by the Media Ecology Association to Writing Machines, 2002.

Honorary Phi Beta Kappa Membership, 2001.

René Wellek Prize for Best Book in Literary Theory for 1998-99, awarded by the American Comparative Literature Association to How We Became Posthuman Eaton Award for the Best Book in Science Fiction Theory and Criticism for 1998-99, awarded to How We Became Posthuman Council of the Humanities Fellowship, Princeton University, 2000

Eby Award for Distinction in Undergraduate Teaching, UCLA, 1999

Luckman Distinguished Teaching Award, UCLA, 1999

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 1999

Bellagio Residential Fellowship, Rockefeller Foundation, 1999

PUBLICATIONS

Postprint: Books and Becoming Computational .  New York: Columbia University Press, 2021.

Unthought: The Power of the Cognitive Nonconscious.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017.

A New Paradigm for the Humanities: Comparative Textual Media (co-authored with Jessica Pressman), forthcoming University of Minnesota Press, 2013 .

How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis,  University of Chicago Press, 2012.

Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary .  Notre Dame:  University of Notre Dame Press, 2008.  Accompanying website at http://newhorizons.eliterature.org .

Winner of the Crystal Book Award of Excellence, Scholarly Reference, Chicago Book Clinic and Media Show 2008.

My Mother Was a Computer: Digital Subjects and Literary Texts .  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.

Writing Machines .  Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002.

How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Chaos and Order: Complex Dynamics in Literature and Science . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.

Chaos Bound: Orderly Disorder in Contemporary Literature and Science. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990.

The Cosmic Web: Scientific Field Models and Literary Strategies in the Twentieth Century .  Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.

Over 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters published in such journals as A merican Literature, Critical Inquiry, Science-Fiction Studies, New Literary History , etc.

Interest Areas • Critical Theory • Visual Culture / Media Studies / Digital Humanities

Word to World: The Essence of UCLA Humanities

Website redesign showcases storytelling, imagination at the heart of Humanities Division

The new site, which was developed in house by UCLA HumTech, emphasizes simplified navigation — making it easier to find key resources for faculty and students — and incorporates a bright, engaging design.

‘The art of seeing things anew’: Highlights from David Schaberg’s 2024 commencement keynote

Memory studies scholars take on ‘Violence and Repair’ in summit hosted by UCLA

Facts about our division, graduate programs, cmrs center for early global studies, thinking with materiality in the early global world – memsa graduate student conference.

September 13 – Zoom Meeting

UCLA Division of Humanities

2024 Humanities Welcome

September 25 @ 2:00 pm – Schoenberg Music Building

UCLA SNF Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture

Weaving Community: A Presentation of the UCLA SNF Hellenic Center’s Work in Greece and Los Angeles

September 29 @ 2:00 pm – St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral

Slavic, East European & Eurasian Languages & Cultures

Founded in 1948, the Department of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures is one of the oldest and most prominent programs in its field in the United States. The program, which offers undergraduate and graduate studies, provides students with a comprehensive education in the languages, literatures, cultures and history of Eastern and Central Europe and Eurasia.

Center for the Study of Religion

Religion asks questions that touch every aspect of human life. The Center for the Study of Religion promotes the academic study of religion to explore those questions for the UCLA community and wider public. It houses an undergraduate major and minor, and sponsors events exploring the role of religious ideas, practices and institutions, both historical and contemporary and throughout the world.

Indo-European Studies

UCLA’s interdepartmental graduate program in Indo-European Studies is the only such program in the U.S. and leads to the degree of Ph.D. The program’s focus is historical linguistics, in particular the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European (the ancestor of Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, English and many other languages) as well as the culture of its speakers.

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture

The center promotes interdisciplinary studies of Hellenic culture, from the ancient world through the modern day. It also serves as a vibrant cultural hub for the Southern California Hellenic community, presenting innovative programs, often in collaboration with local Hellenic organizations, and generating interest in Greece’s historical and ongoing contributions to modern culture.

Linguistics

The linguistics department is one of the world’s leading centers for the scientific study of language.

Asian Languages & Cultures

The Department of Asian Languages and Cultures is dedicated to the study of the civilizations of the Asian region in all their diversity. The rich cultural heritages of the region are covered in courses ranging from language to literature, religion, thought, archaeology and other aspects of culture.

Center for the Liberal Arts and Free Institutions

The Center for the Liberal Arts and Free Institutions is an interdisciplinary center created in 2009 as part of the Division of Humanities.

Comparative Literature

Standing at the forefront of innovative literary, theoretical, and cultural studies, comparative literature is one of the most exciting fields in the Humanities. The discipline demands exceptional linguistic ability, advanced critical tools, and high intellectual caliber.  

Center for 17th- and 18th-Century Studies

The Center provides a forum for discussion of issues in 17th- and 18th-century studies. It organizes academic programs, and offers a range of cultural programs, including chamber music, performances, and lectures. The Center administers the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, located on a historic property in the West Adams neighborhood, which serves as the research laboratory for fellows working in early modern studies or Oscar Wilde.

Yarshater Center for the Study of Iranian Literary Traditions

The Yarshater was conceived as a leading research hub for the publication and dissemination of Iranian literary traditions worldwide. The center, which operates under the aegis of the Pourdavoud Institute for the Study of the Iranian World, will attract a new generation of scholars to the field, and it will initiate a robust publication program at UCLA.

The principal goal of the Department of Philosophy is to produce philosophers of high quality, thinkers informed by the great historical traditions of Western philosophers who can apply the methods of philosophical analysis to a broad range of current philosophical problems.

Art History

Building on a long tradition of intellectual innovation, the Department of Art History provides a rigorous program of undergraduate and graduate study that endorses an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach to art history of all periods and places.

Spanish and Portuguese

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese offers a rich and diverse program dedicated to the study of the languages, literatures and cultures of the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries of Europe and North, Central and South America. Along with traditional strengths in Spanish, Spanish American and Luso-Brazilian literatures and cultures, offerings include courses in U.S. Latino/a Studies and language instruction in Basque, Catalan, Nahuatl and Quechua.

The CMRS Center for Early Global Studies promotes transdisciplinary studies of the periods from the third to the middle of the 17th century across the globe. CMRS-CEGS is dedicated to promoting research, teaching. and new methodologies in underrepresented and nontraditional areas, and traditional fields. It is guided by the conviction that without the study of the past, the present and the future are inaccessible and opaque.

European Languages and Transcultural Studies

European Languages and Transcultural Studies brings together the former departments of French and Francophone Studies, Germanic Languages, Italian and Scandinavian. The term “transcultural” emphasizes our shared European roots and our expanded focus on the perspectives of filmmakers, writers and theorists from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and elsewhere, which allows for a comprehensive understanding of history and more accurate contextualization of the European experience.

Program in Digital Humanities

The Digital Humanities program is the curricular arm of digital humanities at UCLA, offering a certificate for graduate students and a minor for undergraduates. Students gain knowledge about the tools, methods and theoretical issues central to this emerging field, and investigate topics including text analysis, data mining, visualization, modeling and simulation, geospatial analysis and mapping, multimedia storytelling, information design, network analysis and interface design.

Pourdavoud Institute for the Study of the Iranian World

The premier center for the study of ancient Iran, the Pourdavoud Institute engages in transformative research on Iranian antiquity, expanding on the traditional domains of Old Iranian studies. The Institute serves as a home to stimulating intellectual encounters and exchanges on ancient Iran and the ancient world, and contributes to the development of collaborative research projects in a diverse range of subjects.

Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies

Since 1994, the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies has been built and been enriched by faculty, staff, students and supporters who are dedicated to rigorous scholarship that unflinchingly answers pressing problems in the field of Jewish studies.

Near Eastern Languages & Cultures

Near Eastern Languages and Cultures brings together a variety of cultural and linguistic studies, both ancient and modern, into a vibrant interdisciplinary whole. We make cultural studies of the Middle East relevant to undergraduate students and the Los Angeles community; in our graduate programs, we create the next generation of experts in the ancient Near Eastern and modern Middle Eastern region.

Widely recognized as one of the leading departments in the nation, English at UCLA has long been known for its innovative research and excellence in teaching. Today, the English Department maintains its strong commitment to traditional areas of study, while also supporting groundbreaking research and teaching in new and interdisciplinary approaches to literary studies.

Writing Programs

The mission of Writing Programs is to enrich the writing experience — and ultimately, the writing performance — of students in our first-year, Writing II and Professional Writing Minor courses. We extend our impact on UCLA graduate and undergraduate students through the graduate certificate in writing pedagogy, through courses for international graduate students and TAs whose first language is not English, and through the work of the Writing Center.

Global Antiquity

Global Antiquity brings together scholars and community members from UCLA, greater Los Angeles and around the globe for a new dialogue on the equivalency of past human experiences and the role that the ancient past still plays in shaping all our contemporary identities.

UCLA’s highly ranked Department of Classics hosts a diverse faculty of scholars and teachers dedicated to bringing the foundational cultures of ancient Greece and Rome to life for the contemporary student. Our courses range widely over areas such as Greek and Roman literature, Mediterranean archaeology, Indo-European linguistics, ancient philosophy and political thought, as well as ancient sexuality and gender studies.

Gail Lenhoff

• 1971   B. A. Comparative Literature (Russian, French, German modernism), University of  Michigan
• 1974   M. A. Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan
• 1978   Ph. D. Slavic Languages and Literatures (Medieval Russian), University of Michigan

Medieval Russian Literature  (988-1700)

• Byzantine, Kievan, and Muscovite Political and Economic History
• Orthodox Liturgy and Theology
• Iconography
• Textual Criticism
• Form Criticism

Publications

• Kniaz’ Feodor Chernyi v russkoi istorii i kul’ture: Issledovanie i teksty . Prince Feodor the Black in Russian History and Culture with academic editions of 9 cult texts (a sequel to my study of Early Russian Hagiography) . Al’ians-Arkheo Publishers, Moscow, 2019 (352 pages)
• Stepennaia kniga tsarskogo rodosloviia po drevneishim spiskam. Teksty i kommentarii v trekh tomakh (The Book of Degrees of the Royal Genealogy: A Critical Edition Based on the Oldest Known Manuscripts. Texts and Commentary in Three Volumes). Iazyki slavianskikh kul’tur, Moscow, 2007–2012 (597 + 559 + 350 pages)
• Early Russian Hagiography: The Lives of Prince Fedor the Black . Slavistische Veröffentlichungen Fachbereich Neuere Fremdsprachliche Philologien der Freien Universität Berlin, Band 82. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1997. (496 pages)
• The Martyred Princes Boris and Gleb: A Socio-Cultural Study of the Cult and the Texts. Slavica Publishers, 1989. (168 pages)
• The Making of the Medieval Russian Journey. University of Michigan, 1978. (266 pages)

Edited Books

• Festschrift for Janet Martin . (edited with A. M. Kleimola). Russian History. 42/1. 2015 (148 pp.) .
• The Book of Royal Degrees and the Genesis of Russian Historical Consciousness (with A. M. Kleimola). UCLA Slavic Studies, n. s., vol. VII. Slavica: Bloomington, Indiana, 2012 (348 pp.)
• Culture and Identity in Muscovy : 1359-1584 (with. A. M. Kleimola). UCLA Slavic Studies, n.s., vol. III. Itz-Garant Publishers: Moscow, 1997. (606 pages)

SELECTED ARTICLES:

• “Termin ‘godov’nie obroky’ v ‘Povesti o Petre, tsareviche Ordynskom’.” Drevniaia Rus’. Voprosy medievistiki 1 (75) (March, 20-19): 57-61.
• “Adjudicating Disputes over Property, Privileges and Immunities After the Troubles: Tsar Mikhail Romanov’s Ruling on the Rostov Petrovskii Monastery’s Claim to Fishing Rights on Lake Nero (1645).” In: Tri daty tragicheskogo piatidesiatiletiia Evropy (1598-1618-1648): Rossiia v gody Smuty.  Academy Institute of History, Moscow, 2018: 183-195.
• “The Book of Degrees and the Illuminated Chronicle : A Comparative Analysis.” Revue des études slaves 87/3-4 (2016: 157-169).
• “The Byzantine Logos for the Fifth Saturday of Lent, Dedicated to the Akathistos, and the Russian Logos for the Presentation of the Theotokos.” Proceedings of the 2013 conference on “Cyril and Methodius: Byzantium and the World of the Slavs”. Thessaloniki, 2015 (in press).
• “Rus’-Tatar Princely Marriages in the Horde: The Literary Sources.” Russian History 42, 1 (2015): 16-31.
• “Smolensk After the Mongol Invasions: A Reconstruction.” (With Janet Martin) Die Welt der Slaven LIX (2014): 111-136.
• “Le Livre des degrés ou l’ècriture hagiographique de l’histoire (1555-1563).” Écrire et réécrire l’histoire russe d’Ivan le Terrible à Vasilij Kljucevskij, 1547-1917). Pierre Gonneau et Ecatherina Raj. Institut d’études slaves: Paris, 2013, 21-31.
• “Uchrezhdenie Kazanskoi eparkhii i proekt sozdaniia Stepennoi knigi.” Drevniaia Rus’. Voprosy Medievistiki 4 (50) (Dekabr, 2012): 95-107.
• “Politics and Form in the Stepennaia kniga .”  The Book of Royal Degrees and the Genesis of Russian Historical Consciousness.  Ed. G. Lenhoff and  A.Kleimola . UCLA SLavic Studies, n.s. vol. 7. Slavica Publishers, Bloomington, Ind. 2011:  157-174.
• “Evangelie ot Ivana Groznogo .” Mesto Rossii v Evrope i Azii . Ed. G. Szak. Tsentr rusistiki: Budapest, 2010: 122-135.
• “The Chudov Monastery and the Stepennaia kniga .” Religion und Integration im Moskauer Russland. Konzepte und Praktiken und Grenzen 14.-17.Jahrhundert. Ed. L. Steindorff. Harrassowitz Verlag: Wiesbaden, 2010: 97-116.
• “Stepennaia kniga: zamysel, ideologiia, adresatsiia.” Stepennaia kniga po drevneishim spiskam . Iazyki slavianskikh kul’tur: Moscow, 2007: 120-144.
• “The Economics of a Medieval Literary Project: Direct and Indirect Costs of Producing the Stepennaia kniga.” Festschrift for Richard Hellie. Part I. Eds. Lawrence Langer and Peter Brown. In: Russian History 34, nos. 1-4 (2007): 219-238.
• “Iz istorii pochitaniia velikoi kniagini moskovskoi Evdokii.” Dukovnyi put’ Moskovskoi Rusi. Materialy nauchnoi konferentsii, posviashchennoi 600-letiiu so dnia blazhennoi konchiny prepodobnoi Evdokii-Evfrosinii velikoi kniaginoi Moskovskoi . Fond Evdokii Moskovskoi: Moscow, 2007: 79-87.
• “The Cult of Metropolitan Iona and the Conceptualization of Ecclesiastical Authority in Muscovy.” Speculum Slaviae Orientalis: Muscovy, Ruthenia and Lithuania in the Later Middle Ages. Ed. V. V. Ivanov and J. Verkholantsev. UCLA Slavic Studies, n. s. Vol. 4. Novoe izdatel’stvo: Moscow, 2005: 122-143.
• “Divine Patronage and Dynasty: Notes on a 1568 Gospel .” Novye napravleniia i rezul’taty v mezhdunarodnykh issledovaniiakh rusistiki.  Lorand Eotvos University Press, Budapest, 2005: 52-60.
• “The Construction of Russian History in Stepennaja kniga .” Revue des etudes slaves 76/1 (2005): 31-50.
• “O bibleiskikh i sviatootecheskikh podtekstakh predisloviia k Stepennoi knige.” O bshchestvennaia mysl’ i traditsii russkoi dukhovnoi kul’tury…XVI-XX vv. SO RAN: Novosibirsk, 2005: 181-189.
• “Temir Aksak’s Dream of the Virgin as Protectress of Muscovy.” Die Welt der Slaven XL (2004): 39-64.
• “The ‘Stepennaja kniga’ and the Idea of the Book in Medieval Russia.” Germano-Slavistische Beitraege. Festschrift fuer Peter Rehder zum 65.Geburtstag. Ed. M. Okuka and U. Schweier. Die Welt der Slaven. Saemmelbaende. Band 21. Otto Sagner: Munich, 2004: 449-458.
• “Novgorod’s Znamenie Legend in Moscow’s Stepennaia kniga .” Muscovite Russia… Lorand Eotvos University Press, Budapest, 2004: 178-186.
• “How the Bones of Plato and Two Kievan Princes Were Baptized: Notes on the Political Theology of the Stepennaja kniga .” Die Welt der Slaven 46, 2 (2001): 313-330.
• “Marfa Boretskaia, Posadnitsa of Novgorod: A Reconsideration of her Legend and her Life .” (With Janet Martin). Slavic Review 59, 2 (2000): 343-368.
• “The Cult of Saint Nikita the Stylite in Pereslavl’ and Among the Muscovite Elite.” Fonctions sociales et politiques du culte des saints dans les societes de rite grec et latin au Moyen Age et a l’epoque moderne. Approche comparative . LARHCOR, Warsaw, 1999: 331-346.
• “Istochnik rasskaza ob otkrytii moshchej jaroslavskix knjazej v L’vovskoj i Sofijskoj II letopis’jax.” Russian History 25, 1-2: 79-88 (1998).
• “Unofficial Veneration of the Daniilovichi in Muscovite Rus’. “ Culture and Identity in Muscovy: 1359-1584 . UCLA Slavic Studies, n.s., vol. III. Itz-Garant Publishers, Moscow, 1997: 391-416.
• “Vsja svjatyja pomjanuvshe…”: Strategies of Biographical Reconstruction in Muscovite Saints’ Lives.” Sprache–Text–Geschichte. Festschrift für Klaus-Dieter Seemann . Eds. A. Guski and W. Kosny. Specimina Philologiae Slavicae, Supplementband 56. Otto Sagner, Munich, 1997: 161-173.
• “Medieval Russian Saints’ Lives in Socio-Cultural Perspective.” Russian Literature 39. Special Issue “Old Russian Literature.” Ed. W.-H. Schmidt: 205-222 (1996).
• “Kanonizacija i knjazheskaja vlast’ v Severo-Vostochnoj Rusi: kul’t Leontija Rostovskogo.” Jaroslavskaja starina , vyp. 3: 13-22 (1996).
• “Torgovo-xozjajstvennyj i kul’turnyj kontekst Xozhenija za tri morja Afanasija Nikitina.” Trudy Otdela drevnerusskoj literatury 47: 95-120 (1993).
• “The Notion of Uncorrupted Relics in Early Russian Culture.” Christianity and the Eastern Slavs. Volume 1: Slavic Cultures in the Middle Ages . (B. Gasparov, O. R. Hughes, eds.). The University of California Press, 1993: 252-275.
• “The Ermolin Chronicle Account of Prince Fedor the Black’s Relics and the Annexation of Iaroslavl’ in 1463.” The Frontier in Russian History (Proceedings of the Conference held at the University of Chicago, May 29-31, 1992) . In: Russian History 19, nos. 1-4 (1992). Ed. Richard Hellie: 155-168.
• “Die nordostrussische Hagiographie im literarischen Prozess: die Vita des Fürsten Fedor Chernyj.” Gattung und Genologie der Slavisch-orthodoxen Literaturen des Mittelalters ( Dritte BerlinerFachtagung , 1988). (K.-D. Seemann, ed.). Otto Harrassowitz, 1992: 63-104.
• “Canonization and Princely Power in Northeast Rus’: The Cult of Leontij Rostovskij.” Welt der Slaven 37, 2: 359-380 (1992).
• “La litterature de la Russie kievienne.” Histoire de la litterature russe (E. Etkind, G. Nivat, I. Serman, V. Strada, eds.). Fayard, 1992: 29-58, 742-748, 815-817.
• “La litterature de la Russie du nord-est.” Histoire de la litterature russe (E. Etkind, G. Nivat, I. Serman, V. Strada, eds.). Fayard, 1992: 125-148, 752-758, 818-820.
• “East Slavic Hagiographical Paradigms and Transformations.” Semiotica 75, 3-4: 355-358 (1989).
• “Problems of Medieval Narrative Typology: The Exemplum.” Gattung und Narration in den aelteren slavischen L iteraturen. Ed. K.-D. Seemann. Harrassowitz: Berlin, 1987: 109-118.
• “Categories of Early Russian Writing.” Slavic and East European Review 31/2 (1987): 259-271.
• “The Commercial and Cultural Context of Afanasij Nikitin’s Journey Beyond Three Seas .” (With Janet Martin). Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 37, 3: 321-344 (1989).
• “The Ordering of Old Russian Narrative: Po rjadu versus Nekako i Smutno .” Studia Slavica Mediaevalia et Humanistica Riccardo Picchio Dicata (M. Colucci, G. Dell’Agata, H. Goldblatt, eds.). Edizione Dell-Ateneo, 1986): 413-423.
• Wolf-Heinrich Schmidt, ed. Gattungsprobleme der älteren slavischen Literaturen (1984). Reviewed in Slavic Review 44, 1: 575-576 (1985).
• “The Liturgical Poetry of Medieval Rus’.” Scando-Slavica 29: 21-43 (1984).
• “Christian and Pagan Strata in the East Slavic Cult of St. Nicholas.” Slavic and East European Journal 28, 2: 147-163 (1984).
• “Toward a Theory of Protogenres in Medieval Russian Letters.” The Russian Review 43, 1: 31-54 (1984).
• “Chronological Error and Irony in Mikhail Bulgakov’s Days of the Turbins .” Russian Literature and American Critics (K. Brostrom, ed.). Michigan Slavic Publications, 1984: 149-160.
• “Trubetzkoy’s ‘Afanasii Nikitin’ Reconsidered.” Canadian-American Slavic Studies 18, 3: 377-392 (1984).
• “Hellenistic Erotica and the Kiev Cave Patericon ‘Tale of Moses the Hungarian’.” Russian History 10, 2: 141-153 (1983).
• “The Aesthetic Function and Medieval Russian Culture.” The Structure of the Literary Process: Studies Dedicated to the Memory of Felix Vodicka (M. Cervenka, P. Steiner, R. Vroon, eds.), John Benjamins Publishing Co., 1982: 321-340.
• “Three Protoexempla and Their Place in a Thirteenth-Century Pilgrim Book.” Slavic Review 4, 4: 603-613 (1981).
• “Ignatii Smol’nianin in Constantinople: A Lesson in Muscovite Literary Etiquette.” Russian History VII, 2: 29-46 (1980).
• “Beyond Three Seas: Afanasij Nikitin’s Journey from Orthodoxy to Apostasy.” East European Quarterly XIII, 4: 431-447 (1979).
• “ Kniga Palomnik : A Study in Old Russian Rhetoric.” Scando-Slavica 23: 39-61 (1977).
• Spectator and Spectacle: The Theater of Okhlopkov.” The Drama Review (March): 9-15 (1973).

Undergraduate

• Russian Civilization
• Medieval Russian History (cross-listed with History Dept.)
• Russian Drama
• Medieval Russian Literature (survey)
• Seventeenth-Century Russian Literature (survey)
• Eighteenth-Century Russian Literature (survey)
• Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature (the Golden Age)
• Introduction to the Analysis of Literary Texts (in Russian)
• Greek Foundations of Russian Culture
• History and Narrative
• The Saints of  Kiev and Northeast Rus’
• Topics in Muscovite Culture
• Topics in Seventeenth-Century Literature
• Office Hours
• Graduate Students
• In Memoriam
• Program Requirements
• Undergraduate Courses
• Course/Requirement Petition
• Contract Courses
• Departmental Honors Program
• Russian Flagship Program
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MA & PhD in Architecture

Ucla architecture and urban design offers two academic graduate degrees: the master of arts in architecture (ma) and doctor of philosophy in architecture (phd)..

The programs produce students whose scholarship aims to provoke and operate within architecture’s public, professional, and scholarly constituencies. Both programs are supported by the Standing Committee, made up of five faculty members: Michael Osman (MA/PhD program director), Cristóbal Amunátegui , Dana Cuff , Samaa Elimam , and Ayala Levin . A number of visiting faculty teach courses to expand the range of offerings.

Applications for the MA/PhD program (Fall 2024 matriculation) are completed via the UCLA Application for Graduate Admission , and are due January 6, 2024. Candidates will be notified of decisions in March 2024; admitted candidates who wish to accept the offer of matriculation must submit their Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) by April 15, 2024.

All MA and PhD students are required to enroll in a two-year colloquium focused on methods for writing, teaching, and researching in the field of architecture. The six courses that constitute the colloquium train students in the apparatus of academic scholarship. Over the two-year sequence, students produce original research projects and develop skills in long-format writing.

Research Opportunities

The intellectual life of the students in the MA and PhD programs are reinforced by the increasing number of opportunities afforded to students through specialized faculty-led research projects. These include cityLAB-UCLA and the Urban Humanities Institute .

MA in Architecture

This program prepares students to work in a variety of intellectual and programmatic milieus including historical research, cultural studies, and interdisciplinary studies with particular emphasis on connections with geography, design, art history, history of science and literary studies, as well as studio and design based research.

Beyond the core colloquium, MA students take a series of approved courses both at UCLA AUD and across campus. The MA program is a two-year degree, culminating in a thesis. The thesis is developed from a paper written by the student in their coursework and developed in consultation with the primary advisor and the standing committee. In addition to courses and individual research, students often participate in collective, project-based activities, including publications, symposia and exhibitions.

The program is distinguished by its engagement with contemporary design and historical techniques as well by the unusual balance it offers: fostering great independence and freedom in the students’ courses of study while providing fundamental training in architectural scholarship.

Recent MA Theses

• Jacqueline Meyer, “Crafting Utopia: Paolo Soleri and the Building of Arcosanti.”
• Joseph Maguid, “The Architecture of the Videogame: Architecture as the Link Between Representational and Participatory Immersion.”
• Meltem Al, “The Agency of Words and Images in the Transformation of Istanbul: The Case of Ayazma.”
• Courtney Coffman, “Addressing Architecture and Fashion: On Simulacrum, Time and Poché.”
• Joseph Ebert, “Prolegomena to a Poiesis of Architectural Phenomenology.”
• Jamie Aron, “Women Images: From the Bauhaus Weaving Workshop to the Knoll Textile Division.”
• Gustave Heully, “Moldy Assumptions.”
• Brigid McManama, “Interventions on Pacoima Wash: Repurposing Linear Infrastructure into Park Spaces.”

MA Typical Study Program

PhD in Architecture

This program prepares students to enter the academic professions, either in architectural history, architectural design, or other allied fields. PhD students are trained to teach courses in the history and theory of architecture while also engaging in studio pedagogy and curatorial work. In addition to the colloquium, PhD students take a series of approved courses both at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design and across campus. They select these courses in relation to their own research interests and in consultation with their primary advisor. The priorities for selection are breadth of knowledge and interdisciplinary experience that retains a focused area of expertise. To this end, the students identify Major and Minor Fields of study. The Minor Field is generally fulfilled by satisfactorily completing three courses given by another department and the Major Field by five courses offered by UCLA Architecture and Urban Design.

Once coursework is completed, PhD students move to the Comprehensive Exam, Qualifying Exam, and the writing of a dissertation, and final defense, if deemed appropriate by the doctoral committee. In the transition from coursework to exams, PhD students work on one paper beyond its original submission as coursework. The paper begins in the context of a departmental seminar, but often continues either in the context of an independent study, summer mentorship, or a second seminar with faculty consent. Upon the research paper’s acceptance, students begin preparing for their comprehensive exam. Before their third year, students must also satisfactorily complete three quarters of language study or its equivalent according to University standards. The particular language will be determined in consultation with the Standing Committee. The Comprehensive Exam is administered by at least two members of the Standing Committee and at most one faculty member from another Department at UCLA, also a member of the Academic Senate.

The Comprehensive Exam tests two fields: the first covers a breadth of historical knowledge—300 years at minimum—and the second focuses on in-depth knowledge of a specialization that is historically and thematically circumscribed. Students submit an abstract on each of these fields, provide a substantial bibliography, and prepare additional documentation requested by their primary advisor. These materials are submitted to the committee no less than two weeks before the exam, which occurs as early as the end of the second year. Students are encouraged to complete the Comprehensive Exam no later than the end of their third year of study.

The Comprehensive Exam itself consists of two parts: an oral component that takes place first, and then a written component. The oral component is comprised of questions posed by the committee based on the student’s submitted materials. The goal of the exam is for students to demonstrate their comprehensive knowledge of their chosen field. The written component of the exam (which may or may not be waived by the committee) consists of a written response to a choice of questions posed by the committee. The goal of this portion of the exam is for students to demonstrate their research skills, their ability to develop and substantiate an argument, and to show promise of original contribution to the field. Students have two weeks to write the exam. After the committee has read the exam, the advisor notifies the student of the committee’s decision. Upon the student’s successful completion of the Comprehensive Exam, they continue to the Qualifying Exam.

Students are expected to take the Qualifying Exam before the beginning of the fourth year. The exam focuses on a dissertation prospectus that a student develops with their primary advisor and in consultation with their PhD committee. Each student’s PhD committee consists of at least two members of the Standing Committee and one outside member from another department at the University (and a member of the Faculty Senate). Committees can also include faculty from another institution. All committees are comprised of at least three members of UCLA Academic Senate. The prospectus includes an argument with broad implications, demonstrates that the dissertation will make a contribution of knowledge and ideas to the field, demonstrates mastery of existing literature and discourses, and includes a plan and schedule for completion.

The PhD dissertation is written after the student passes the qualifying exam, at which point the student has entered PhD candidacy. The dissertation is defended around the sixth year of study. Students graduating from the program have taken posts in a wide range of universities, both in the United States and internationally.

Recent PhD Dissertations

• Marko Icev, "Building Solidarity: Architecture After Disaster and The Skopje 1963 Post-Earthquake Reconstruction." ( Read )
• Anas Alomaim, "Nation Building in Kuwait, 1961-1991."
• Tulay Atak, “Byzantine Modern: Displacements of Modernism in Istanbul.”
• Ewan Branda, “Virtual Machines: Culture, telematique, and the architecture of information at Centre Beaubourg, 1968–1977.”
• Aaron Cayer, "Design and Profit: Architectural Practice in the Age of Accumulation"
• Per-Johan Dahl, “Code Manipulation, Architecture In-Between Universal and Specific Urban Spaces.”
• Penelope Dean, “Delivery without Discipline: Architecture in the Age of Design.”
• Miriam Engler, “Gordon Cullen and the ‘Cut-and-Paste’ Urban Landscape.”
• Dora Epstein-Jones, “Architecture on the Move: Modernism and Mobility in the Postwar.”
• Sergio Figueiredo, “The Nai Effect: Museological Institutions and the Construction of Architectural Discourse.”
• Jose Gamez, “Contested Terrains: Space, Place, and Identity in Postcolonial Los Angeles.”
• Todd Gannon, “Dissipations, Accumulations, and Intermediations: Architecture, Media and the Archigrams, 1961–1974.”
• Whitney Moon, "The Architectural Happening: Diller and Scofidio, 1979-89"
• Eran Neuman, “Oblique Discourses: Claude Parent and Paul Virilio’s Oblique Function Theory and Postwar Architectural Modernity.”
• Alexander Ortenberg, “Drawing Practices: The Art and Craft of Architectural Representation.”
• Brian Sahotsky, "The Roman Construction Process: Building the Basilica of Maxentius"
• Marie Saldana, “A Procedural Reconstruction of the Urban Topography of Magnesia on The Maeander.”
• David Salomon, “One Thing or Another: The World Trade Center and the Implosion of Modernism.”
• Ari Seligmann, “Architectural Publicity in the Age of Globalization.”
• Zheng Tan, “Conditions of The Hong Kong Section: Spatial History and Regulatory Environment of Vertically Integrated Developments.”
• Jon Yoder, “Sight Design: The Immersive Visuality of John Lautner.”

A Sampling of PhD Alumni and Their Pedagogy

Iman Ansari , Assistant Professor of Architecture, the Knowlton School, Ohio State University

Tulay Atak , Adjunct Associate Professor, Pratt School of Architecture

Shannon Starkey , Associate Professor of Architecture, University of San Diego

Ece Okay , Affiliate Research, Université De Pau Et Des Pays De L'adour

Zheng Tan , Department of Architecture, Tongji University

Pelin Yoncaci , Assistant Professor, Department Of Architecture, Middle East Technical University

José L.S. Gámez , Interim Dean, College of Arts + Architecture, UNC Charlotte

Eran Neuman , Professor, School of Architecture, Tel Aviv University

Marie Saldana , Assistant Professor, School of Interior Architecture, University of Tennessee - Knoxville

Sergio M. Figueiredo , Assistant Professor, Eindhoven University of Technology

Rebecca Choi , Assistant Professor of Architecture History, School of Architecture, Tulane University

Will Davis , Lecturer in History, Theory and Criticism, Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore

Maura Lucking , Faculty, School of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Kyle Stover , Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Montana State University

Alex Maymind , Assistant Professor of Architecture and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Architecture, University of Minnesota

Gary Riichirō Fox , visiting faculty member at Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and lecturer at USC School of Architecture

Randy Nakamura , Adjunct Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, University of San Francisco

Aaron Cayer , Assistant Professor of Architecture History, School of Architecture + Planning, University of New Mexico

Whitney Moon , Associate Professor of Architecture, School of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Todd Gannon , Professor of Architecture, the Knowlton School, Ohio State University

Dora Epstein Jones , Professor of Practice, School of Architecture, the University of Texas at Austin

Sarah Hearne , Assistant Professor, College of Architecture and Planning, University of Colorado Denver

PhD Typical Study Program

*The choice of language to fulfill this requirement must be discussed with the Ph.D. Standing Committee

Our Current PhD Cohort

AUD's cohort of PhD candidates are leaders in their fields of study, deepening their scholarship at AUD and at UCLA while sharing their knowledge with the community.

Adam Boggs is a sixth year Ph.D candidate and interdisciplinary artist, scholar, educator and Urban Humanist. His research and teaching interests include the tension between creativity and automation, craft-based epistemologies, and the social and material history of architecture at the U.S.-Mexico border. He holds a BFA in Sculpture Cum Laude from the Ohio State University, and an MFA in Visual Art from the State University of New York at Purchase College. Prior to joining the doctoral program at UCLA he participated in courses in Architecture (studio and history) at Princeton University and Cornell University. His dissertation analyzes the history of indigenous labor during the Mexican baroque period to form a comparative analysis with the 20th century Spanish revival architecture movement in Southern California and how the implementation of the style along the U.S.-Mexico border might function as a Lefebvrian “thirdspace” that disrupts binary thinking. In Spring 2024 he will teach an undergraduate seminar course at AUD on the history of architecture at the U.S.-Mexico border as part of the CUTF program.

Hanyu Chen is a second-year doctoral student at UCLA AUD. Her research focuses on the intersection between (sub)urban studies, heritage conservation, and the genders of the space. Specifically, it concerns the dynamics of genders in (sub)urban areas and how these dynamics are conserved as heritage. Born and raised in China for her first 18 years, Hanyu chose the conservation of comfort stations in China as her master's thesis at the University of Southern California, where she earned her master’s degree in Heritage Conservation and officially started her journey in architecture. Her thesis discusses the fluidity and genders of comfort stations and how they survive in contemporary China’s heritage conservation policies.

Hanyu also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in AMS (Applied Mathematics and Statistics) and Art History from Stony Brook University.

Yixuan Chen

Yixuan Chen is an architectural designer and a first-year doctoral student in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA. Driven by an impulse to demystify both the grand promises and trivial familiarities of architecture, her research embarks on the notion of everydayness to elucidate the power dynamics it reveals. She investigates the conflicts between these two ends and focuses on modernization across different times and places.

Prior to joining UCLA AUD, she was trained as an architect and graduated from the University of Nottingham's China Campus with a first-class honors degree. Her graduation project “Local Culture Preservation Centre,” which questioned the validity of monumental architecture in the climate crisis, was nominated for the RIBA President's Medal in 2016.

She also holds a Master of Arts degree with distinction in Architectural History from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Her dissertation, “Shijing, on the Debris of Shijing,” explores the vanishing shijing places, or urban villages, where rural migrant workers negotiate their urban identity in Chinese cities, revealing shifting power relations. Additionally, she authored an article in Prospectives Journal titled "Architectural Authorship in ‘the Last Mile,’" advocating for a change to relational architectural authorship in response to the digital revolution in architecture.

Pritam Dey is an urban designer and second-year doctoral student at UCLA AUD. His research interest lies at the intersection of colonial urbanism, sensorial history, and somatic inquiries. His architecture thesis investigated the crematorium and temple as sensorial infrastructure, and was presented at World Architecture Congress at Seoul in 2017. Previously Dey worked in the domain of urban design, specifically informal markets, as a shaper of urbanism in Indian cities. Prior to joining the AUD doctoral program, his past research focused on investigating the role of informal and wholesale markets in shaping up urbanity in the Indian city cores and co-mentored workshops on Urbanity of Chitpur Road, Kolkata with ENSAPLV, Paris which was both exhibited at Kolkata and Paris. He also co-mentored the documentation of the retrospective landscape of Hampi with the support of ENSAPLV and French Embassy. His investigations on the slums of Dharavi title ‘The tabooed city’ was published in the McGill University GLSA Research series 2021 under the theme: the city an object or subject of law?

An urban designer and architect, Pritam Dey pursued his post graduation from School of planning and Architecture, Delhi. During his academic tenure at SPA, he was the recipient of 2018 Design Innovation Center Fellowship for Habitat design allowing him to work on the social infrastructure for less catered communities in the Sub Himalayan Villages. In 2022 He mentored a series of exhibitions on the theme of Water, Mountains and Bodies at Ahmadabad.

He was the 2022-23 Urban Humanities Initiatives Fellow at UCLA and recipient of 2023 UCLA Center for India and South Asia fellowship for his summer research.

Carrie Gammell

Carrie Gammell is a doctoral candidate working at the intersection of architectural history, property law, and political economy. Her research focuses on claims, investments, and intermediary organizations in the United States, from the Homestead Act of 1862 to the Housing Act of 1934.

Carrie is also a Senior Research Associate at cityLAB UCLA, where she studies state appropriations for California community college student housing. In the past, she contributed to Education Workforce Housing in California: Developing the 21st Century Campus, a report and companion handbook that provides a comprehensive overview of the potential for land owned by school districts to be designed and developed for teachers and other employees.

Prior to joining AUD, Carrie worked as an architectural designer in Colombia and the United States, where she built a portfolio of affordable housing, multi-family residential, and single-family residential projects as well as civic and cultural renovations and additions. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Rice University and a Master in Design Studies (Critical Conservation) from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Anirudh Gurumoorthy

Anirudh Gurumoorthy is a PhD candidate at UCLA AUD. His dissertation, tentatively titled (Un)Certain Tropics and the Architecture of Certain Commodities, 1803-1926, focuses on the spatial and environmental histories of natural history/sciences in the long-nineteenth century as it related to the political economy of empire within South Asia. He is interested in the ways the materiality of commodity extraction and production contends with how, where, and why certain ‘tropical’ animals, vegetables, and minerals are attributed with a metropolitan sense of ‘value’. Moving from the United States to Britain (and back) through various parts of the Indian Ocean world as markets for singular forms of ice, rubber, and cattle form, peak, and collapse, the dissertation ultimately aims to reveal interconnected spatial settings of knowledge, control, regulation, display, and labor where knowledge systems, technical limits, human and nonhuman action/inaction, differentiated senses of environments and value continually contend with each other to uphold the fetishes of the world market. Gurumoorthy holds a B.Arch. from R.V. College of Architecture, Bangalore, and an M.Des in the History and Philosophy of Design and Media from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Chi-Chia Hou

Chi-Chia Hou is a doctoral candidate in his sixth year at UCLA AUD. His working dissertation, “New Frontier: Architecture and Service 1893-1960,” explores his interest in architecture and wealth, changing ideas of profit and management, and social scientific discourses for measuring work and worker, self and others, and values of landed property.

His research locates moments of theorizing methodologies to manage income-generating properties in schools of agriculture, home economics, and hotel studies. The schools taught their students theories, while instilling the imminence of faithful direction of oneself, of self-as-property. The pedagogies, existing beyond the purview of Architecture, were of immense architectural consideration.

Chi-Chia Hou took a break from school in the previous academic year to learn from his daughter and has now returned to school to learn from his brilliant cohorts.

Adam Lubitz

Adam Lubitz is an urban planner, heritage conservationist, and doctoral student. His research engages the intersection of critical heritage studies and migration studies, with an emphasis on how archival information can inform reparations. His community-based research has been most recently supported by the Columbia GSAPP Incubator Prize as well as the Ziman Center for Real Estate and Leve Center for Jewish Studies at UCLA.

Prior to joining AUD, Adam worked at World Monuments Fund within their Jewish Heritage Program, and taught GIS coursework at Barnard College. His master's thesis applied field research with experimental mapping techniques in the old town of a municipality in Palestine. Adam holds MS degrees in Historic Preservation and Urban Planning from Columbia University and a BA in Urban Studies from New College of Florida.

José Monge is a PhD candidate in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design. His dissertation, titled Maritime Labor, Candles, and the Architecture of the Enlightenment (1750-1872) , focuses on the role that whale-originated illuminants, specifically spermaceti candles and oil, played in the American Enlightenment as an intellectual project and the U.S. as a country. By unravelling the tension between binaries such as intellectual and manual labor–the consumers that bought these commodities and the producers that were not able to afford them–the project understands architecture as a history of activities that moved from sea to land and land to sea, challenging assumptions about the static “nature” of architecture.

Kurt Pelzer

Kurt Pelzer is a fourth-year PhD candidate at UCLA AUD. Their research explores the relational histories, material flows, and politics of land in and beyond California in the long nineteenth century during the United States parks, public lands, and conservation movements.

Their current scholarship traces the settler possession and exhibitionary display of a Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) in the 1850s; an act that contested the ways Miwok peoples ancestral to California's Sierra Nevada knew and related to life and land. Their broader interests include histories of colonialism and capitalism in the Americas, environmental history, and Blackness and Indigeneity as a methodological analytic for political solidarities and possibilities.

Prior to arriving at UCLA, Pelzer worked at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in the Architecture and Design Curatorial Department participating in exhibitions, programming, and collections work. Pelzer completed a Master of Advanced Architectural Design in the History, Theory, and Experiments program from California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and earned their Bachelor's degree in Landscape Architecture from the College of Design at Iowa State University.

Shota Vashakmadze

Email Shota Vashakmadze

Shota Vashakmadze is a sixth-year PhD candidate at UCLA AUD. His dissertation traces the conjoined histories of architectural computing, environmental design, and professional practice in the late 20th century, adopting critical approaches to architecture’s technical substrates—the algorithms, softwares, and user protocols of computation—to examine their social and political dispositions. In his scholarship and pedagogy, he aims to situate forms of architectural labor within the profession’s ongoing acculturation to environmental crisis. Most recently, he has been leading the development of the interdisciplinary “Building Climates” cluster, a year-long course sequence at UCLA, and co-organizing an initiative dedicated to fostering discourse on climate change and architecture, including a two-day conference entitled “Architecture After a Green New Deal.”

His research has been supported by the Canadian Centre for Architecture and appeared in journals including Architectural Theory Review , The Avery Review, and Pidgin Magazine. He is currently completing a contribution to a collection on landscape representation and a chapter for an edited volume on architecture, labor, and political economy.

Shota holds an MArch from Princeton University and has a professional background in architecture, landscape, and software development. Before coming to UCLA, he researched methods for designing with point cloud data and wrote Bison, a software plugin for landscape modeling.

Alexa Vaughn

Alexa Vaughn (ASLA, FAAR) is a first year PhD student in Architecture + Urban Design and a Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellow , from Long Beach, California. She is a Deaf landscape designer, accessibility specialist, consultant, and recent Fellow of the American Academy in Rome (2022-23). She is a visionary speaker, thought leader, prolific writer and researcher, and the author of “ DeafScape : Applying DeafSpace to Landscape,” which has been featured in numerous publications.

Her professional work is centered upon designing public landscapes with and for the Deaf and disabled communities, applying legal standards and Universal Design principles alongside lived experience and direct participation in the design process. She is an expert in designing landscapes for the Deaf community (DeafScape) and in facilitation of disabled community engagement. Prior to joining the A+UD program, Alexa worked for several landscape architecture firms over the course of six years, including OLIN and MIG, Inc.

Through a disability justice lens, her dissertation will seek to formally explore the historical exclusionary and inaccessible design of American urban landscapes and public spaces, as well as the response (activism, policy, and design) to this history through the present and speculative future. She will also actively take part in activist- and practice-based research with cityLAB and the Urban Humanities Institute .

Alexa holds both a BA in Landscape Architecture (with a minor in Conservation and Resource Studies) and a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture (MLA) from the University of California, Berkeley, with specialization in accessible and inclusive design. Much of her work can be found at www.designwithdisabledpeoplenow.com and on Instagram: @DeafScape.

Yashada Wagle

Yashada Wagle is a third year PhD student in Critical Studies at UCLA AUD, and a recipient of the department's Moss Scholarship. Her research focuses on imperial environmental-legislative regimes in British colonial India in the late nineteenth century. She is interested in exploring questions around the histories of spaces of extraction and production as they network between the metropole and the colony, and their relationship with the conceptions of laboring bodies therein. Her master's thesis focused on the Indian Forest Act of 1865, and elucidated the conceptualization of the space of the ‘forest’ through the lenses of its literary, legislative, and biopolitical trajectories, highlighting how these have informed its contemporary lived materiality.

Wagle holds a Bachelor in Architecture (BArch) from the Savitribai Phule Pune University in India, and a Master in Design Studies (History and Philosophy of Design and Media) from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She was previously a Research Fellow at the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies (KRVIA) in Mumbai, India.

In her spare time, Wagle enjoys illustrating and writing poetry, some of which can be found here .

Dexter Walcott

Dexter Walcott is a registered architect currently in his fifth year with the Critical Studies of Architecture program at UCLA. His research focuses on the Latrobe family and early nineteenth century builders in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. He is interested in the role of the built environment in histories of labor, capitalism, steam-power, and industry.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Joy is a fifth-year PhD student in architecture history. Her research explores geology as antiquity from early 19th – 20th century British colonial Hong Kong and China. She holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature with a focus in German from Middlebury College in 2017, and is a graduate of The New Normal program at Strelka Institute, Moscow in 2018. Previously, she has taught in the Department of Architecture at University of Hong Kong, as well as the Department of Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

After working as a curatorial assistant at Tai Kwun Contemporary in 2019, she has continued the practice of art writing and translation, collaborating with many local Hong Kong artists as well as international curators such as Raimundas Malašauskas. In her spare time, she practices long-distance open water swimming. In 2022, she completed a 30km course at the South of Lantau Island, Hong Kong.

The MA and PhD programs welcome and accept applications from students with a diverse range of backgrounds. These programs are designed to help those interested in academic work in architecture develop those skills, so we strongly encourage that you become familiar with fundamental, celebrated works in the history and theory of architecture before entering the program.

Applicants to the academic graduate programs must hold a Bachelor’s degree, or the foreign equivalent. All new students must enter in the fall quarter. The program is full-time and does not accept part-time students.

Applications for the MA and PhD programs (Fall 2024 matriculation) will be available in Fall 2023, with application deadline of January 6, 2024; please revisit this page for updates. Accepted candidates who wish to enroll must file an online Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) by April 15, 2024.

How to Apply

Applying to the MA and PhD programs is an online process via the UCLA Application for Graduate Admission (AGA).

Completing the requirements will take some time, so we strongly recommend logging in to the AGA in advance to familiarize yourself with the site and downloading the documents and forms you will need to complete your application.

You can also download this checklist to make sure you have prepared and submitted all the relevant documents to complete your application.

Your Statement of Purpose is a critical part of your application to the MA and PhD programs. It is your opportunity to introduce yourself and tell us about your specific academic background, interests, achievements, and goals. Our selection committee use it to evaluate your aptitude for study, as well as consideration for merit-based financial support.

Your statement can be up to 1500 words in length. Below are some questions you might want to consider. You don’t need to answer every question; just focus on the elements that are most relevant to you.

• What is your purpose in applying to the MA or PhD program? Describe your area(s) of research interest, including any areas of concentration and specialization.
• What experiences have prepared you for this program? What relevant skills have you gained from these experiences? Have your experiences led to specific or tangible outcomes that would support your potential to contribute to this field (e.g. performances, publications, presentations, awards or recognitions)?
• What other information about your past experience might help the selection committee in evaluating your suitability for this program? E.g. research, employment, teaching, service, artistic or international experiences through which you have developed skills in leadership, communication, project management, teamwork, or other areas.
• Why is UCLA Architecture and Urban Design the best place for you to pursue your academic goals?
• What are your plans for your career after earning this degree?

Your Personal Statement is your opportunity to provide additional information to help the selection committee evaluate your aptitude for study. It will also be used to consider candidates for UCLA Graduate Division fellowships related to diversity. You can read more about the University of California Diversity Statement here .

Your statement can be up to 500 words in length. Below are some questions you might want to consider. You don’t need to answer every question; just focus on the elements that are most relevant to you.

• Are there educational, personal, cultural, economic, or social experiences, not described in your Statement of Purpose, that have shaped your academic journey? If so, how? Have any of these experiences provided unique perspective(s) that you would contribute to your program, field or profession?
• Describe challenge(s) or barriers that you have faced in your pursuit of higher education. What motivated you to persist, and how did you overcome them? What is the evidence of your persistence, progress or success?
• How have your life experiences and educational background informed your understanding of the barriers facing groups that are underrepresented in higher education?
• How have you been actively engaged (e.g., through participation, employment, service, teaching or other activities) in programs or activities focused on increasing participation by groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education?
• How do you intend to engage in scholarly discourse, research, teaching, creative efforts, and/or community engagement during your graduate program that have the potential to advance diversity and equal opportunity in higher education?
• How do you see yourself contributing to diversity in your profession after you complete your academic degree at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design?

A Curriculum Vitae (résumé of your academic and professional experience) is recommended but not required.

Applicants must upload a scanned copy of the official transcripts from each college or university you have attended both in the U.S. and abroad. If you are accepted into the program you will be required to submit hard copies. These can either be sent directly from each institution or hand-delivered as long as they remain in the official, signed, sealed envelopes from your college or university. As a general rule, UCLA Graduate Division sets a minimum required overall grade-point average of 3.0 (B), or the foreign equivalent.

As of this Fall 2023 cycle, the GRE is NOT required as part of your application to UCLA AUD. No preference will be given to those who choose to submit GRE scores as part of their application.

However, if you do take the GRE exam and wish to include it as part of your application: More information on this standardized exam can be found at www.ets.org/gre . In addition to uploading your GRE scores, please direct ETS to send us your official score sheets. Our ETS codes for the GRE are below:

UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Institution Code: 4837 Department Code: 4401

We recommend you take the exam at least three weeks before the application deadline as it usually takes 2-3 weeks for ETS to send us the test scores.

If you have received a Bachelor’s degree in a country where the official language of instruction and primary spoken language of daily life is not English, you must submit either a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or an International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Exempt countries include Australia, Barbados, Canada, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. This is a requirement that is regardless of your visa or citizenship status in the United States.

To be considered for admission to the M.Arch. program, international students must score at least a 92 on the TOEFL or a 7 on the IELTS exam. Because processing, sending, and receiving TOEFL and IELTS scores can take several weeks, international students must schedule their exam no later than October 31 in order to meet UCLA deadlines. TOEFL scores must be sent to us directly and uploaded as part of the online submission. Our ETS codes for the TOEFL are below:

UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Institution Code: 4837 Department Code: 12

If your score is less than 100 on the TOEFL or 7.5 on the IELTS, you are also required to take the English as a Second Language Placement Examination (ESLPE) on arrival at UCLA. The results of this test will determine any English as a Second Language (ESL) courses you need to take in your first term of residence. These courses cannot be applied towards your minimum course requirements. As such, you should expect to have a higher course load than students not required to take ESL courses.

If you have earned a degree or completed two years of full-time college-level coursework in the following countries, your TOEFL / IELTS and ESLPE requirements will be waived: U.S., U.K., Canada (other than Quebec), Australia, and New Zealand. Please provide official transcripts to demonstrate course completion. Unfortunately, we cannot accept any other documentation to demonstrate language proficiency.

Three (3) letters of recommendation are required. These letters should be from individuals who are familiar with your academic and professional experiences and can evaluate your capacity to successfully undertake graduate studies at UCLA. If you do not have an architecture background please note that we are looking for letters that evaluate your potential as a graduate student, not necessarily your architecture experience.

Letters of recommendation must be sent electronically directly to UCLA by the recommender. When logged in, you can enter the name and email address of each of your recommenders. They will be contacted by email with a request to submit a letter on your behalf. You can track which letters have and have not been received. You can also send reminders to your recommenders to send their letters.

Writing samples should illustrate an applicant’s capacities for research, analytical writing and scholarly citation. Texts may include seminar papers, theses, and/or professional writing.

Please complete and submit the Department Supplement Form to confirm your intention to apply to the MA or PhD program.

• Other Conferences

The Scholarly World of Vyacheslav Ivanov: Assessments, Reassessments, Reflections

On November 15 th , 2019, the Program in Indo-European Studies was pleased to be able to co-sponsor (in partnership with the Department of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures) a conference honoring the memory and the scholarship of Vyacheslav Ivanov , a longtime core faculty member of the Program in Indo-European Studies. A dozen scholars from around the world offered contributions addressing (in the words of the event’s title) assessments, reassessments, and reflections on Ivanov and his immense oeuvre.

Day 1: Friday, November 15, 2019

Introductions: david schaberg (dean, ucla division of the humanities), ronald vroon (chair, ucla dept. of slavic, e. european and eurasian languages and cultures), brent vine (chair, ucla program in indo-european studies), indo-european and general linguistics i brent vine (professor, dept. of classics; chair, ucla program in indo-european studies), h. craig melchert.

Professor Emeritus, UCLA

“Pluti” and Poetry

Nikolai Kazansky

Professor, St. Petersburg University; Head of Russian Academy of Sciences’ Dept. of Indo-European Comparative Linguistics, Institute for Linguistic Studies

Hittite Relations with the Aegean and Vyacheslav Ivanov’s Anatolian Etymologies

Indo-European and General Linguistics II Brent Vine (Professor, Dept. of Classics; Chair, UCLA Program in Indo-European Studies)

Professor, Moscow State University; Department Head, Division of Ural-Altaic Languages, Russian Academy of Sciences

Vyacheslav Ivanov’s Role in the Reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European Culture: A Look from the Inside, a Look from the Outside

Ilya Yakubovich

Lead Researcher, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

Vyacheslav Ivanov and Two Classes of Proto-Indo-European Verbal Roots

Georges-Jean Pinault

Professor, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris Sciences et Lettres

Language and Myth in the Indo-Iranian Area: About Indra Again

Semiotics of Culture and Poetics I Ronald Vroon (Professor and Chair, UCLA Dept. of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures)

Tatiana tsivian, nataliya zlydneva.

Head of the Dept. of Russian Culture, Institute of World Culture, Moscow State University; Chief Research Fellow, Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Chief Research Fellow, Institute of World Culture, Moscow State University; Head of the Dept. of the History of the Cultures of the Slavic Peoples, Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Vyacheslav Ivanov’s Last Project: (The) Living Stone

Mihhail Lotman

Professor of Semiotics, Tallinn University; Research Professor, University of Tartu

Finno-Ugric Verse and its Relations with Indo-European Verse

Henryk Baran

Professor Emeritus, SUNY Albany

Vyacheslav Ivanov’s Approaches to Khlebnikov: Achievements, Problems, Broader Perspectives

Semiotics of Culture and Poetics II Ronald Vroon (Professor and Chair, UCLA Dept. of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures)

Yury tsyvian.

William Colvin Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Cinema and Media Studies, Dept. of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Dept. of Comparative Literature, University of Chicago

Synthèse: Vyacheslav Ivanov and Sergei Eisenstein

Barry P. Scherr

Professor Emeritus, Dartmouth College

Vyacheslav Ivanov and the Analysis of Russian Verse Rhythm

Willem Weststeijn

Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam

Vyacheslav Ivanov on the Problem of Time in Modern Culture

Igor Pilshchikov

Professor, UCLA, Dept. of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures

Vyacheslav Ivanov and the Moscow-Tartu / Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics

Informal Buffet, Reminiscences and Memorial (English and Russian)

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CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF RELIGION

Ronald Vroon*

Specializations: Eastern Orthodoxy (history and dogmatics); Russian religious philosophy; Russian literature and religious dissent.

• B.A., Russian and English, University of Michigan (1969)
• M.A., Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan (1971)
• Ph.D., Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan (1978)
• The works of Velimir Khlebnikov
• The poetry of Aleksandr Sumarokov
• The history of the Russian lyric sequence
• Archaism in Russian culture

Undergraduate

• Introduction to Russian Civilization
• Introduction to the Russian Novel
• Survey of 20th Century Russian literature
• Senior Seminar on Pasternak and Sholokhov
• Russian Literature and World Cinema
• Introduction to Russian Drama
• Christianities East and West
• Eastern Christianity in Comparative Perspective: History, Culture, Dogma
• Survey of Early 20th Century Russian Literature
• Movements and Genres
• Russian Poetry (Poetic Sequences)
• The New Peasant Writers (Kljuev, Klyčkov, Esenin)
• Russian Futurism
• Early Russian Romanticism
• Russian Symbolism
• Velimir Khlebnikov
• Archaism in Russian Literary Culture

Publications

• Velimir Xlebnikov’s Krysa : A Commentary. Stanford: Stanford Slavic Studies, 1988.
• Velimir Xlebnikov’s Shorter Poems: A Key to the Coinages. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Michigan Slavic Materials, 1983.
• Sumarokov. Ody toržestvennyia. Elegii ljubovnyia. Reprintnoe vosproizvedenie izdanii 1774 goda. Prilozhenie: Redaktsii i varianty. Dopolneniia. Kommentarii. Stat’i . [A. Sumarokov. Solemn Odes. Love Elegies. Redactions and Variants. Supplementary Texts. Commentary. Essays ]. Moscow: Izd. OGI, 2009).
• Khlebnikov. “Großuch”. Faksimil’noe vosproizvedenie rabochei tetradi. Transkriptsiia. Svodka tekstov. Commentariia [ The “Großuch”: A Facsimile Reproduction of the Notebook, Transcription, Reconstruction, Commentary ]. Moscow: Azbukovnik Publishers. Forthcoming 2016).

Edited Books

• Jurij Lotman. The Structure of the Artistic Text. Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Materials, 1977. 300 pp. (with Gail Lenhoff; translated, with Preface: i-vii; annotations throughout).
• The Structure of the Literary Process. with P. Steiner and M. Červenka. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co., 1982. 613 pp.
• Velimir Khlebnikov. Collected Works , Vol. II. Tr. Paul Schmidt. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989. 400 pp.
• Readings in Russian Modernism: To Honor Vladimir Markov . UCLA Slavic Studies. New Series II. Ed. with John Malmstad. Moscow: Nauka, 1993. 406 pp.
• Velimir Khlebnikov. Collected Works , Vol. III. Tr. Paul Schmidt. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997.
• Poetika, istoriia literatury, lingvistika: sbornik k 70-letiiu Viacheslava Vsevolodovicha Ivanova [ Essays on Poetics, Literary History and Linguistics. Presented to Viacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday ]. Ed. A. A. Visagin, R. Vroon, M. L. Gasparov et al. Moscow: Izd. OGI, 1999.
• I vremia i mesto: Istoriko-filologicheskii sbornik k shestidesiatiletiiu Aleksandra L’vovicha Ospovata [ A Time and a Place: An Historico-Philological Collection in Honor of Alexander L’vovich Ospovat’s Sixtieth Beirthday ]. Moscow, 2008. 640 pp. Ed. R. Vroon, R. Leibov, A. Nemzer et. al.
• Velimir Khlebnikov v XXI stoletii. statei [ Velimir Khlebnikov in the 21st Century ]. Co-edited with V. Tereekhina, N. Pertsova, and S. Starkina. Moscow, 2013.

Recent Articles

• “Matematika ili mistika: k voprosu o nauchnosti istoriosofskikh vzgliadov Velimira Khlebnikova” [“Mathematics or Mysticism? On the Scientific Foundations of Velimir Khlebnikov’s Historiosophic Views”]. Nauchnye kontseptsii XX vekas i russkoe iskusstvo . Belgrade, 2011. 42-71.
• “Liricheskii tsikl” [“The Lyric Cycle”]. In Teoriia literatury. Proizvedenie . ed. Iu. B. Borev, N. K. Gei et al . Moscow: Instut mirovoi literatury im. Gor’kogo, 2011. 126–159.
• “K genezisu tsiklicheskikh obrazovanii v lirike Aleksandra Bloka” [“On the Genesis of Cyclic Structures in the Lyrics of Alesandr Blok”]. Shakhmatovskii vestnik 13: “Nachala i kontsy” : zhizn’ i sud’ba poeta. Materialy mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii, posviashchennoi 90-letiiu so dnia smerti A. Bloka . Ed. I. Prikhod’ko. Moscow, 2013. 276-95.
• “Poetry Speaks to Power: Panegyric Responses to Peter III, Catherine II and the Coup d’État of 1762.” Russian Literature 75, 1-4 (2014). 563-590.
• “A Russian Futurist in Asia: Velimir Khlebnikov’s Travalogue in Verse.” Central Asia in Global History: Writing Travel at a Cultural Crossroads . Ed. Nile Green. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2013. 170-192.
• “Akusticheskaia pamiat’ kak sverkhlichnostnyi tvorcheskii impul’s (na materiale Nabokova, Brodskogo i dr.)” [“Acoustic Memory as a Supra-personal Creative Impulse (Nabokov, Brodskii et al.)”]. In Pamiat’ literaturnogo tvorchestva. Lidiia Sazonova, Moscow, 2014. 449-57.
• “K kharakteristike nauchnogo naslediia V. F. Markova” [“V. F. Markov’s Scholarly Legacy“]. In Metodologiia I praktika russkogo formalizma: Brikovskii sbornik . Vypusk II: Materialy mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii “II Brikovskie chteniia.” . Moscow, 2014. 75–83.
• “Futurizm i Arkhaizm. Zametki k teme” [“Futurism and Archaisms: Some Notes”]. In 1913: Slovo kak takovoe. K iubileinomu godu russkogo futurizma,. Materialy mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii (Zheneva, 10–12 aprelia, 2013) . St. Petersburg, 2015. 113-130.
• “K istokam khlebnikovedeniia v russkom zarubezh’erii” (“On the Origins of Kholebnikov Studies in the Russian Diaspora”). In Velimir Khlebnikov i russkii avangard. Materialy nauchnoi konferentsii. Velikii Novgorod. 17-19 oktiabria 2014. T. V. Igosheva. Moscow: Azbukovnik, 2015.
• “‘Lichnaia’ mifologiia v poeme V. Khlebnikova ‘Khadzhi-Tarkhan’ (k rekonstruktsii zamysla poemy)” [“V. Khlebnikov’s ‘Personal’ Mythology in the Narrative Poem ‘Khadzhi-Tarkhan’ (Toward a Reconstruction of the Poem’s Underlying Plot”]. Velimir Khlebnikov i mirovaia khudozhestvennaia kul’tura. Materialy XII Mezhdunarodnykh Khlebnikovskikh chtenii, posviashchennykh 130-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia Velimira Khlebnikova. Astrakhan: Izd. dom “Astrakhanskii universitet,” 2015. 6-19.
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Amanda La O Cartaya

Amanda completed a BA in English and Medical Anthropology from Creighton University. She is interested in combining anthropological and literary theories to explore suffering in Caribbean fiction. She is also interested in Colonialism and Postcolonialism, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Race and Ethnicity, and Translation Studies. Furthermore, Amanda enjoys writing poetry and short stories in her free time. Her languages include Spanish and French.

Jeremy M. Santiago-Rojas

Jeremy completed a BA in Journalism from the University of Puerto Rico. He found his passion for literature and creative writing through the work of queer and Afro-Puerto Rican authors. Jeremy is interested in exploring race and ethnicity, gender, women's and sexuality studies, cultural studies, colonialism and postcolonialism, and environmental studies comparatively between Latin America, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. His languages are Spanish and Filipino.

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Igor Pilshchikov

Professor / Graduate Faculty Advisor

• 2008. Doctor of philology (equivalent of PhD/Dr hab.), General linguistics and Literary theory, Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow).
• 2003–06. Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow), doktorantura (Postdoctoral). Dissertation: “The Problem of Interlingual Intertextuality”. Adviser: Dr Maksim Shapir.
• 1999. Candidate of philology (PhD equivalent), Russian literature and European literatures, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia).
• 1995–98. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Philological Faculty, aspirantura (Postgraduate). Dissertation: “Batiushkov and Italian Literature”. Supervisor: Prof. Aleksandr Iliushin.
• 1991. Diploma with honors (equivalent of BA), Russian language and literature (major), Bibliography and Library studies (minor), University of Tartu (Estonia).
• 1986–91. University of Tartu (Estonia), Philological Faculty. Honors thesis: “The Problems of Reader’s Response and Self-Translation in the Work of E.A. Baratynsky”. Thesis director: Prof. Yuri Lotman.
• 18th and 19th century Russian poetry (esp. Pushkin, Batiushkov, and Baratynsky)
• Russian-West-European cultural relations
• Comparative literature
• Russian language
• Historical lexicography
• Translation theory
• Editorial theory
• Literary theory (Russian Formalism, Soviet and Central European structuralism)
• Cultural semiotics
• Digital humanities

Publications

(Selected Recent Articles)

• ‘Rhythmical Ambiguity: Verbal Forms and Verse Forms,’  Studia Metrica et Poetica  6.2 (2019): 53–73.
• ‘Dinamika teksta i dinamika literatury: formalizm—funktsionalizm—strukturalizm (istoriko-nauchnye tezisy)’ [The Dynamics of the Text and the Dynamics of Literature: Formalism—Functionalism—Structuralism (Theses on the History of Theory)], in: M. Lotman, T. Kuzovkina, and E. Pilarczyk (eds.),  Dinamicheskaia struktura teksta / The Dynamic Structure of Text , Kraków: Jagiellonian University Press, 2019, 45–63.
• ‘Prazhskaia shkola na “perekrestke kul’tur” (O mnogoiazychii v nauchnoi perepiske i izdaniiakh Prazhskogo lingvisticheskogo kruzhka)’ [The Prague School at the “Crossroads of Cultures” (On Multilingualism in the Correspondence and Publications of the Prague Linguistic Circle)],  Rhema  3 (2019): 25–52.
• ‘The Prague School on a Global Scale: a Coup d’œil from the East,’  Slovo a Slovesnost  80.3 (2019): 215–228.
• ‘K poetike i semantike gogolevskogo “Nosa,” ili Chto skryvaiut govoriashchie detali’ [Towards the Poetics and Semantics of Gogol’s “The Nose,” or What the Telling Details Conceal], in:  Literaturoman(n)iia: K 90-letiiu Iuriia Vladimirovicha Manna , Moscow: RGGU, 2019, 218–237.
• ‘Rhythmically Ambiguous Words or Rhythmically Ambiguous Lines? In Search of New Approaches to an Analysis of the Rhythmical Varieties of Syllabic-Accentual Meters,’ in: Petr Plecháč, Barry P. Scherr, Tatyana Skulacheva et al. (eds.),  Quantitative Approaches to Versification , Prague: The Institute of Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciencies, 2019, 193–200.
• ‘Vyacheslav V. Ivanov (1929–2017) and his Studies in Prosody and Poetics,’  Studia Metrica et Poetica  5.1 (2018): 106–139. With Ronald Vroon.
• ‘Vyach. Vs. Ivanov kak issledovatel’ russkoi i mirovoi literatury’ [Vyacheslav V. Ivanov as a Scholar of Russian and World Literature],  Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie  153 (2018): 163–176. With Ronald Vroon.
• ‘Franko Moretti i novyi kvantitativnyi formalizm’ [Franco Moretti and New Quantitative Formalism],  Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie  150 (2018): 39–45.
• ‘Viktor Shklovskii v OPOIAZe i Moskovskom Lingvisticheskom Kruzhke (1919–1921 gg.)’ [Viktor Shklovsky in OPOIAZ and the Moscow Linguistic Circle (1919–1921)],  Wiener Slavistisches Jahrbuch. Neue Folge  6 (2018): 176–206. With Andrei Ustinov.
• ‘Debiut Viktora Shklovskogo v Moskovskom Lingvisticheskom Kruzhke: Ot “istorii romana” k “razvertyvaniiu siuzheta” ’ [Viktor Shklovsky’s Début in the Moscow Linguistic Circle: From “A History of the Novel” to “Unraveling of the Literary Plot”],  Literaturnyi fakt  9 (2018): 314–334. With Andrei Ustinov.
• ‘Viktor Shklovsky, Roman Jakobson i sozdanie “pervoi teorii siuzhetoslozheniia”’ [Viktor Shklovsky, Roman Jakobson and the Creation of the “First Theory of Plot Structuring”], Siuzhetologiia i siuzhetografiia  2 (2018): 5–24. With Andrei Ustinov.
• ‘Poniatiia “stikh”, “metr” i “ritm” v russkom stikhovedenii XX veka’ [The Concepts of “Verse,” “Meter,” and “Rhythm” in Twentieth-Century Russian Verse Studies],  Trudy Instituta russkogo iazyka imeni V.V. Vinogradova  11 (2017): 12–30.
• “O zadachakh poeticheskikh korpusov” [‘Toward the Further Development of Poetic Corpora’],  Ibid. , 332–337.
• ‘Avantekst kak ob”ekt avtorskoi leksikografii (neskol’ko prakticheskikh voprosov na primere slovaria iazyka Batiushkova)’ [Avant-text as an Object of Description in Poetic Lexigography (Practical Issues Exemplified by the Dictionary of Batiushkov’s Language)], in: M. Akimova, M. Tarlinskaja (eds.),  M.L. Gasparovu-stikhovedu in memoriam , Moscow: Iazyki slavianskoi kul’tury, 2017, 190–201.
• ‘Zasedanie Moskovskogo lingvisticheskogo kruzhka 1 iiunia 1919 goda i zarozhdenie stikhovedcheskikh kontseptsii O. Brika, B. Tomashevskogo i R. Jakobsona’ [The Meeting of the Moscow Linguistic Circle on June 1, 1919, and the Genesis of the Prosodic Theories of Osip Brik, Boris Tomashevsky and Roman Jakobson],  Revue des études slaves  87.1/2 (2017): 151–175.
• ‘“Harlots, Wine and Chibouks”: Tobacco Smoking as a Cultural Signifier in the Age of Pushkin’,  Zeitschrift für slavische Philologie  73.2 (2017): 285–330.
• ‘“The Inner Form of the Word” in Russian Formalist Theory’, in: M. Mrugalski, S. Schahadat (eds.),  Theory of Literature as a Theory of the Arts and the Humanities , Leipzig and Wien: Biblion Media, 2017. ( Wiener Slawistischer Almanach . Sonderband 92.)
• ‘The Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics: A transnational perspective’,  Sign Systems Studies 44.3 (2016): 368–401. With Mikhail Trunin.
• ‘The semiotics of phonetic translation’,  Studia Metrica et Poetica  3.1 (2016): 53–104.
• ‘Semiotika i stikhovedenie: Zametki K.F. Taranovskogo i V.E. Kholshevnikova na poliakh lotmanovskikh “Lektsii po struktural’noi poetike” ’ [Semiotics and Verse Theory: Kiril Taranovsky’s and Vladislav Kholshevnikov’s Marginalia in Their Copies of Juri Lotman’s “Lectures on Structural Poetics”],  Kritika i semiotika  2 (2016): 41–66.
• ‘Evgeny Baratynsky’s “Rome” (1821) in the Context of European  Rom-Dichtung ,’ in: I. Pilshchikov (ed.),  Urban Semiotics: The City as a Cultural-Historical Phenomenon , Tallinn: TLU Press, 2015, 143–162.
• ‘“Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam” and the Typology of the Russian Dolnik,’  Studia Metrica et Poetica  2.1 (2015): 58–80. With Sergei Liapin.
• ‘V šesti jazycích: Nad knihou  Pražská škola v korespondenci ’ [In Six Languages: Reflections on the Book,  The Prague School in Correspondence ], tr. A. Machoninová,  Česká literatura  63.4 (2015): 573–584.
• ‘Reconnaissance automatique des mètres des vers russes: une approche statistique sur corpus’ [Automated Recognition of Russian Verse Meters: A Statistical and Corpus-Based Approach], tr. É. Delente,  Langages  199 (2015): 89–105. (Special issue: Traitement automatique des textes versifiés: problématiques et pratiques.) With Anatoli Starostin.
• ‘K sporam o ritmicheskoi prirode “Slova o polku Igoreve” (Neopublikovannyi otzyv Iu.M. Lotmana o stat’e L.I. Timofeeva i ego mesto v nauchnom kontekste 1960-kh — 1970-kh godov)’ [On the Disputes Regarding the Rhythmic Pattern of the Tale of Igor’s Campaign (Y. M. Lotman’s Unpublished Review of L. I. Timofeev’s Paper and its Place in the Scholarly Context of 1960–70s)],  Russkaia literatura  1 (2015): 30–57. With Mikhail Trunin.
• ‘La perception de la poétique structurale en URSS à la fin des années 1960 et au début des années 1970 (Les avis des critiques internes de la  Petite encyclopédie littéraire  sur l’article non publié de Youri Lotman “Le structuralisme dans les études littéraires”)’, tr. M. Regamey and E. Velmezova,  Slavica Occitania  40 (2015): 121–146. (Special issue: L’École sémiotique de Moscou-Tartu / Tartu-Moscou: Histoire. Épistémologie. Actualité.)
• ‘Inoiazychnaia fonika v stikhakh Lermontova’ [Foreign Phonetics in Lermontov’s Poetry], in: M.N. Virolainen, A.A. Karpov,  Mir Lermontova . St. Petersburg: Scriptorium, 2015, 392–405.
• ‘Nasledie russkoi formal’noi shkoly i sovremennaia filologia’ [The Legacy of Russian Formalism and Contemporary Philology], in: Viach. V. Ivanov (ed.),  Antropologiia kul’tury . Moscow: Institut mirovoi kul’tury MGU, 2015, 5: 319–350.
• ‘Traditsii “russkogo petrarkizma” i sonety Petrarki v perevode M. Kuzmina’ [The Traditions of “Russian Petrarchism” and Petrarch’s Sonnets Translated by Mikhail Kuzmin], in: P.V. Dmi­triev and A.V. Lavrov (eds.),  Mikhail Kuzmin: Literaturnaia sud’ba i khudozhestvennaia sreda . St. Petersburg: Renommée, 2015, 139–157.
• ‘Aleksandr Pushkin mezhdu libertinazhem i dendizmom’ [Aleksandr Pushkin Between Libertinage and Dandyism],  Russian Literature  76.1/2 (2014): 35–84.
• ‘Po kakomu istochniku Pushkin perevodil Ariosto?’ [Which Source Did Pushkin Use to Translate Ariosto?],  Russkaia literatura  3 (2013): 127–150.
• ‘“Est’ naslazhdenie i v dikosti lesov…” K. Batiushkova (predystoriia i editsionnaia sud’ba)’ [Konstantin Batiushkov’s “There is Pleasure Even in the Wildness of Forests” (Its Prehistory and Editorial Fate)], in: A. Vdovin and R. Leibov (eds.),  Khrestomatiinye teksty: russkaia pedagogicheskaia praktika XIX v. i poeticheskii kanon . Tartu: University of Tartu Press, 2013, pp. 106–124. ( Acta Slavica Estonica  IV.)

Edited Books and Editions

• O strukturalizme. Raboty 1965–1970 godov  [On Structuralism: Writings 1965–1970], by Yuri Lotman. Edited with a commentary and supplementary articles by Igor Pilshchikov with Nikolay Poselyagin and Mikhail Trunin, Tallinn: TLU Press, 2018, 518 pp.
• A/Z: Essays in Honor of Alexander Zholkovsky . Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2018, 702 pp. Co-edited with Dennis Ioffe, Marcus Levitt, and Joe Peschio.
• Epokha “ostraneniia”: Russkii formalizm i sovremennoe gumanitarnoe znanie  [The Age of “Defamiliarization”: Russian Formalism and Contemporary Humanities]. Moscow: NLO, 2017, 672 pp. Co-edited with Jan Levchenko.
• Urban Semiotics: The City as a Cultural-Historical Phenomenon . Tallinn: TLU Press, 2015, 336 pp.
• Semiotika goroda: Materialy Tret’ikh Lotmanovskikh dnei v Tallinnskom universitete  [The Semiotics of the City: The Materials of the Third Annual Juri Lotman Days at Tallinn University]. Tallinn: TLU Press, 2014, 437 pp.
• Res Philologica: Essays in memory of Maksim Il’ich Shapir . Amsterdam: Pegasus, 2014, 566 pp. (“Pegasus Oost-Europese studies”, 23). Co-edited with Anastasia Belousova.
• The Unpredictable Workings of Culture , by Juri M. Lotman. Preface by Vyacheslav V. Ivanov, afterword by Mihhail Lotman, tr. from the Russian by Brian James Baer. Ed. by Igor Pilshchikov and Silvi Salupere. Tallinn: TLU Press, 2013, 296 pp.
• Sluchainost’ i nepredskazuemost’ v istorii kul’tury: Materialy Vtorykh Lotmanovskikh dnei v Tallinnskom universitete  [Chance and Indeterminism in Cultural History: The Materials of the Second Annual Juri Lotman Days at Tallinn University]. Tallinn: TLU Press, 2013, 582 pp.
• Pogranichnye fenomeny kul’tury: Perevod. Dialog. Semiosfera: Materialy Pervykh Lotmanovskikh dnei v Tallinnskom universitete  [The Borderline Phenomena in Culture: Translation. Dialogue. Semiosphere: The Materials of the First Annual Juri Lotman Days at Tallinn University]. Tallinn: TLU Press, 2011, 314 pp.
• Metodologiia tochnogo literaturovedeniia: Izbrannye trudy po teorii literatury  [Exact Methods of Literary Scholarship: Selected Works on the Theory of Literature], by Boris Yarkho. Ed., with notes (pp. 611–807), by Marina Akimova, Igor Pilshchikov, and Maksim Shapir. Moscow: “Iazyki slavianskikh kul’tur”, 2006, 960 pp.
• K 200-letiiu Boratynskogo: Sbornik materialov mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii, sostoiavsheisia 21–23 fevralia 2000 g. (Moskva — Muranovo)  [To Commemorate Boratynsky’s Bicentenary: Proceedings and materials of the International Conference held in Moscow and Muranovo, February 21–23, 2000]. Moscow: IMLI RAN, 2002, 367 pp.
• Aleksandr Pushkin.   Ten’ Barkova: Teksty. Kommentarii. Ekskursy  [Alexander Pushkin. “The Shade of Barkov”: Texts. Commentaries. Excursus]. Moscow: “Iazyki slavianskoi kul’tury”, 2002, 497 pp. (“Philologica russica et speculativa”, II). Co-edited with Maksim Shapir.
• Volume One of  Polnoe sobranie sochinenii i pisem  [Complete Works and Letters] of Evgenii Boratynsky. Ed., , with a commentary (pp. 303–455), by Aleksei Peskov, Igor Pilshchikov, and Andrei Zaretsky. Moscow: “Iazyki slavianskoi kul’tury”, 2002, 512 pp.

Presence in Databases

• http://www.ResearcherID.com/rid/J-6993-2013
• http://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=24336483800
• http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cyG_-R4AAAAJ
• https://tallinn.academia.edu/IgorPilshchikov

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Graduate Writing Center: Strategic Reading

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Presenter: Drew Fleshman, Comparative Literature, Graduate Writing Center ConsultantDescription: Feeling overwhelmed by your reading lists? Concerned that you are missing the point of what you have just read? Are you taking pages of notes for every article you read? This workshop will cover effective reading and note-taking strategies so that you read more efficiently, assess your reading with a critical eye, and annotate each work so that important concepts are easily accessible. Note: This workshop does not teach speed-reading techniques.

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The Department of Comparative Literature

• Majors and Minors

Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Faculty expert, Stephanie Bosch Santana.

PREPARATION FOR A MAJOR IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:

• *Department credit will not be given if students repeat lettered courses (e.g., 1A and 2AW, 1AW and 4AW, or 2AW and 4AW)
• Completion of the College Writing I requirement
• Literary proficiency in at least one language other than English, to be demonstrated by successful completion of coursework equivalent to two years of UCLA foreign language study , AP/IB exam scores awarding credit equivalent to two years of UCLA foreign language study, or a UCLA foreign language placement or proficiency exam

More information about satisfying the foreign language requirement for the Comparative Literature major is available  here

TRANSFER STUDENTS:

Transfer applicants to the Comparative Literature major with 90 or more units must complete as many of the following introductory courses as possible prior to admission to UCLA: one English composition course, two literature survey courses, at least one of which is world literature, and the equivalent of at least one year of foreign language.

REQUIREMENTS FOR A MAJOR IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:  

• Comparative Literature 100
• Four upper division courses in Comparative Literature selected from M101 through 197
• Three upper division literature courses using original language texts in the primary language area (such as Spanish, English, Chinese, Korean, Armenian, Classics, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, Polish, or Greek)
• Two upper division literature courses using original language texts in the secondary language area (students may petition the Director of Undergraduate Studies to take two upper division literature courses in translation if their primary literature area is in a language area other than English)

NOTE: Courses for the primary and secondary language area requirements must be applied to students’ Degree Audit Reports (DARS) or Degree Progress Reports (DPRs) manually. Please contact the Student Services Advisor to update the degree audit. The department maintains a list of pre-approved courses for the primary and secondary language area requirements that students can use to plan their study lists each quarter. Courses not listed there must be approved by the Student Services Advisor and/or Director of Undergraduate Studies in order for credit to apply toward the major.

Download:  Comparative Literature Major Worksheet Complete online: Course Substitution Petition

The Comparative Literature minor offers students interested in literature and the humanities the opportunity to gain insight into the critical problems and theories addressed by comparative literature and to apply that knowledge in literature and comparative literature courses.

PREPARATION FOR A MINOR IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:

• Overall GPA of 2.0 or better
• Completion of at least one year (or equivalent) of a language other than English.

More information about satisfying the foreign language requirement for the Comparative Literature minor is available  here

REQUIREMENTS FOR A MINOR IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE: 

• Four upper division comparative literature courses (one course from Comparative Literature 1A through 4DW may be substituted)
• Two upper division courses in one literature (e.g., Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Korean, Russian, Spanish) in the original language
• One upper division course in a second literature in the original language (one level six foreign language course may be substituted). If students complete two upper division courses in a language other than English, they may petition to take one upper division course taught in English translation to fulfill the third requirement

NOTE: Courses for the language area requirements must be applied to students’ Degree Audit Reports (DARS) or Degree Progress Reports (DPRs) manually. Please contact the Student Services Advisor regularly to update the degree audit. The Department maintains a list of pre-approved courses for the primary and secondary language area requirements that students can use to plan their study lists each quarter. Courses not listed there must be approved by the Student Services Advisor and/or Director of Undergraduate Studies in order for credit to apply toward the minor.

Download:   Comparative Literature Minor Worksheet Complete online: Course Substitution Petition

Please note that a minimum of 20 units applied toward the minor requirements must be in addition to units applied toward the major requirements or another minor.

Each minor course must be taken for a letter grade, and students must have an overall grade-point average of 2.0 or better. Successful completion of the minor is indicated on the transcript and diploma.

Students interested in declaring the major or minor are strongly encouraged to contact the Student Services Advisor. Please see the Advising page for contact information.

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