Liz Cullen '99
"When people ask me about my major I say that comparative literature study prepares you for nothing…and everything."
[more]"When people ask me about my major I say that comparative literature study prepares you for nothing…and everything."
[more]I have to say that the year of the Masters was a wonderful time. I've met so many great people and I am still stunned by the amazing academic environment that surrounded the program. Dartmouth itself is a wonderful place but the Comp Lit people were just unbelievable. The administrators were always there for us, the professors were also always available and you never got the feeling that there would be no one to ask for advice. I also loved to get the chance to meet Judith Butler, Homi Bhabha and Anne McClintock - something I never thought possible!
[more]I'm currently pursuing my PhD in Comparative Literature at UC Santa Barbara. It was Dartmouth's program that first sparked my interest in the field, and provided me with the resources and support necessary to pursue it further. The Comparative Literature program at Dartmouth provided me with the flexibility to create my own project and to think outside of the box. My graduate studies have benefitted greatly from the solid base that I developed there. Stay warm! I miss you all very much but definitely not the Hanover winter.
[more]After Dartmouth I obtained a masters degree in creative arts therapy at NYU and worked as a child therapist at a domestic violence agency. Currently, I'm a Temple University Fellow in Philadelphia working towards a school psychology PhD. I'm pleased to say that everything I studied as a COLT major on language, postcolonial theory, ethnic identities in migration, canonical/marginal texts, psychoanalytic theory, etc. etc. directly informs my psychological and educational work with youth, and especially minority youth.
[more]After graduating from Dartmouth in 2003, I entered the Ph. D. program in comparative literature at UC Berkeley. Majoring in comparative literature under wonderful mentors (Lawrence Kritzman, Laurence Davies, Amy Hollywood, Irene Kacandes, John Kopper) gave me a firm foundation to pursue graduate study. The rigorous linguistic training promoted by the comparative literature program lent me the confidence necessary to learn three new languages - Japanese, Portuguese, and Chinese - and also prepared me for several years of study, research and travel in East Asia and Latin America.
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