The Comparative Methods Lab aims at moving humanity towards greater equity and attending to the global through the local. By bringing together a network of scholars engaged in locally targeted comparative research projects that share a methodological interest in the global, we test new configurations for theorizing and representing world literature, media, and culture.
“The epoch of world literature is at hand, and everyone must strive to hasten its approach” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1827)
Research Projects
- Comparative Methods Symposium: Worlds, Institutions, Disciplines, 25 June 2025 Northeastern University London / Online, 25 June 2025 The Comparative Methods Lab is excited to announce our inaugural symposium on the theme of “Worlds, Institutions, Disciplines,” taking place at Northeastern University…
- Comparative Methods Seminar — Spring 2025In Spring 2025, the Comparative Methods Labs hosted a seminar series on the theme of Comparative Methods, featuring the following sessions:…
- Lecture by Jacob McGuinn – Celan’s Worldlessness: World Literature and World Closure – National Taiwan University, December 2024
Jacob presented research on Paul Celan and world literature at the National Taiwan University Foreign Literatures lecture series in December 2024. Abstract The concept of ‘world’ in world literature has been… - Screening World Literature and Film: Reconstructing French Television’s “Cinéastes de notre temps” and “Un siècle d’écrivains”
This project explores the history and reception of two remarkable French television programmes, “Cinéastes de notre temps” and “Un siècle d’écrivains”… - Global Comparisons
This is the first project undertaken by the Global Comparative Methods Lab…
Publications
Explore recent work by our researchers.
Books
Reading at the Limits of Poetic Form: Dematerialization in Adorno, Blanchot, and Celan
Jacob McGuinn, Northwestern University Press, 2024
Georges Bataille, The Limit of the Useful
Cory Knudson and Tomas Elliott (Translation), MIT Press, 2023