Marie Vautier, University of Victoria

Victoria, B.C.

July 25th, 2010


President David Naylor
University of Toronto
Simcoe Hall, Room 206
27, King’s College Circle
Toronto, Ontario
M5S 1A1

Dear President Naylor,

I am writing to encourage you to reverse the decision to close the Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto.

I am a professor of comparative Canadian Literature, working between the departments of French and English at the University of Victoria, B.C. I obtained my BA from the Université d’Ottawa, my MA from Université Laval, and my PhD from the Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto. I walked right out of the Centre into a tenure-track position here at UVic. I was hired to run a programme which is unique in the country, the “Combined Major in French and English (Canadian Literature).” I would not have been able to meet the requirements of this position had I not graduated from the Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto.

When I learned that the reasons given for closing the Centre included the fact that other literature departments “now teach theory,” I realized that you may not know enough about the Centre, the role the Centre has played in the discipline, and the many ways in which it serves the academic communities of the western world.

“Comparative literature” as a programme of study is in a class of its own. It is widely considered to be “la crème de la crème” of literary studies. There is no doubt that this Centre puts the University of Toronto at the level of the American Ivy League universities and major European universities within the discipline of literary studies. Last year, I was an invited scholar at the prestigious Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London, UK, and there is no doubt in my mind that my training in comparative literature at the University of Toronto, along with the door-opening name of my thesis supervisor, Dr. Linda Hutcheon, were among the primary reasons I was invited to pursue my research in this renowned interdisciplinary institute.

Interdisciplinary studies are necessary to today’s world; the Centre for Comparative Literature is at the very centre of interdisciplinary studies in Canada and beyond. When I was a student at the Centre, I met several of the best known theorists in the world on an almost weekly basis, as they were invited to give talks to our small international group of students in the Centre’s first year class. These students now work and publish in Canada, Australia, the UK, Sweden, and elsewhere, and their training at the Centre enhances its international reputation.

All across the country—indeed, all across the world, graduates of the Centre walk straight into tenure-track positions, and continue to highlight the advantages of having studied at the Centre as they become scholars with national and international reputations.

This Centre is crucial to the discipline of comparative literature in this country. It is important that it remain active, vibrant, and that it continue to bring credit to the University of Toronto.

Please reconsider your decision.

Respectfully yours,



Dr. Marie Vautier
Director, Combined Major in Canadian Literature
French and English Departments,
University of Victoria
P.O. Box 3045 STN CSC
Victoria, BC
V8W 3P4