The Department of World Languages and Literatures offers undergraduate major programs in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish; minor programs in the above languages and in American Sign Language, Italian, Persian, and Classical Studies; and instruction in the above languages, as well as in Modern Hebrew, Italian, Korean, Latin, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish, and Vietnamese. Other languages may be offered from time to time.
Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies Undergraduate Certificate
The Certificate in Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies is a multidisciplinary program that offers students the opportunity to study literature across linguistic and national borders as well as explore the intersections of literature with other forms of creative expression such as comics, film, the visual arts, and new media. The certificate also encourages students to contextualize literary study by investigating connections with other humanities and social science disciplines.
It is designed to fit into WLL and English major and minor programs as well as other fields, including History, Anthropology, and International Studies, and is especially suitable for students who have begun to achieve proficiency in a world language.
In addition to having completed the complete second-year cycle of their foreign language, students will take two required courses and two electives. Required courses include a core theory class on how to conduct comparative literary and cultural studies; for the second required course, students choose a topics course on either translation studies or comparative media/arts (film, literature, comic books). The two electives for the certificate consist of other Eng, WLL, Hst, Intl, Phl, Anth options and more. Candidates may enroll as undergraduate or post-baccalaureate students. Students will have an adviser for the certificate who will guide them through the coursework.
Students are required to take a total of 16 credits including two required WLL/Eng Comparative Studies courses and two electives from the list below. Students are expected to have an intermediate language proficiency, demonstrated by completing the second-year language sequence at PSU (201-202-203) or its equivalent or one language course at the 301 level or higher.
Prerequisites (World Language)
A complete 201-202-203 sequence in a foreign language (Arabic, French, Japanese, etc.) either as 12 or 15 credits (depending upon the language); alternatively, students with at least one foreign language course at 301 or above (minimum 4 credits) can satisfy this requirement. Students can complete the language requirement while taking courses towards the certificate.
Core (8 credits)
Electives (8 credits)
Two courses from the following list:
WLL 381/
Eng 381 and/or
WLL 383U /
Eng 383U can be chosen if not being applied to one of the two core classes.
| Anth 300U | The Modern World in Anthropological Perspective | 4 |
| Anth 330U | Anthropology of Folklore | 4 |
| Anth 357U | Archaeology in Popular Culture | 4 |
| Anth 435 | Visual Anthropology | 4 |
| Eng 318U | The Bible as Literature | 4 |
| Eng 325U | Postcolonial Literature | 4 |
| Eng 330U | Jewish and Israeli Literature | 4 |
| Eng 332U | History of Cinema and Narrative Media I | 4 |
| Eng 333U | History of Cinema and Narrative Media II | 4 |
| Eng 335U/NAS 335U | Topics in Literature and Film | 4 |
| Eng 368U | Literature and Ecology | 4 |
| Eng 372U/WS 372U | Topics in Literature, Gender, and Sexuality | 4 |
| Eng 373U | Topics in Literature, Race, and Ethnicity | 4 |
| Eng 420 | Caribbean Literature | 4 |
| Eng 422 | African Fiction | 4 |
| Eng 449 | Advanced Topics in Cultural Studies | 4 |
| Eng 491 | History of Literary Criticism and Theory I | 4 |
| Eng 492 | History of Literary Criticism and Theory II | 4 |
| FILM 487 | Topics in International Film and the Moving Image | 4 |
| Hst 322U | Modern East Asia | 4 |
| Hst 354U | Early Medieval Europe: 300-1100 | 4 |
| Hst 355U | Late Medieval Europe, 1100-1450 | 4 |
| Hst 356U | Renaissance and Reformation Europe, 1400-1600 | 4 |
| Hst 382U | Palestine and Israel | 4 |
| Hst 384U | Ottoman World | 4 |
| Hst 385U | Late Imperial Middle East, 1700-1914 | 4 |
| Hst 386U | Middle East in the Twentieth Century | 4 |
| Hst 390U | China, Japan, and Korean Relations in Global Context | 4 |
| Hst 390U | Comp Social Revolutions | 4 |
| Hst 390U | Global History of Warfare | 4 |
| Hst 390U | World Religions | 4 |
| Hst 422 | Topics in Postwar Japanese History, 1945-present | 4 |
| Hst 490 | Comparative World History | 4 |
| Intl 314U/USP 314U | The Global City in Film | 4 |
| Intl 350U | The City in Europe | 4 |
| Intl 360U | Bollywood: Communicating Contemporary South Asia through Cinema | 4 |
| Intl 380U | Globalization, Representation and Difference in Media and Film | 4 |
| Intl 391U | Media and International Relations | 4 |
| NAS 351 | Indigenous Philosophy | 4 |
| Phl 319U | Introduction to Asian Philosophy | 4 |
| Wr 431 | Adv. Topics in Tech Writing Technologies: Tools for Translation and Localization | 4 |
Total Credit Hours: 16
The 16 credits towards the certificate must be taken from the above lists.
All courses used to satisfy certificate requirements must be passed with a grade of C or higher. (C- and P are not acceptable.)