Dan Ben-Amos, University of Pennsylvania

Alarmed by the news about the impending demise of the University of Toronto Comparative Literature, I am writing to you with an urgent appeal to stop such plans on their track, reverse any action already taken, and continue your support for Comparative Literature.

I am writing to you not only as a member of the Comparative Literature Program at the University of Pennsylvania, but also as a faculty member who was himself subject for such an administrative action that terminated a distinguished scholarly program with global reputation, as a cost saving strategy, and without any consideration for the intellectual, scholarly and educational goals of the academia.
For thirty years I was a member of the Department of Folklore and Folklife of the University of Pennsylvania. The department was founded in 1967 by the distinguished ballad scholar Professor MacEdward Leach, and for the next thirty years achieved world-wide reputation. Our students became leading folklore and related disciplines scholars, assumed leading national positions in American Folklore Society and headed major national scholarly funds like the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

The distinction of our faculty did not go unnoticed. Other universities raided us, and without sufficient administrative support we were defenseless. Faculty attrition due to retirements also contributed to an admitted decline.

The administration considered this temporary situation as an money saving opportunity, and instead of supporting us decided to terminate the program. No faculty member was fired. We were dispersed into other departments, but the Graduate Program in Folklore and Folklife no longer exists.

Ten years after this decision was made, I am still getting inquiries from potential students from all over the world who wish to study folklore at the University of Pennsylvania. In the long run, the termination of our program did not save the University of Pennsylvania much money either.

We all are urged and would like to learn from experience. It behooves us also to learn from experience of other people and apply their lessons to our own situation. The University of Toronto has been a leading center for comparative literary studies. The faculty does not rest on the laurels of the great literary Northrop Frye. They have developed and maintained a dynamic interdisciplinary hub in which ideas are exchanged and shared by students and faculty alike. In today’s world, with the rise of new literatures in societies that have previously had only oral cultures, comparative literature offers the frameworks, theories and methods for rigorous critical studies in the humanities. Terminating such a program is a short term solution that has long terms terminal effects, from which a university as whole would not recover. I urge you to avoid the trap of short-sightedness, and take a leadership role in supporting the humanities in general and comparative literature in particular.

Sincerely,
Dan Ben-Amos, Professor
Program in Folklore and
Folklife, Chair
Comparative Literature
Program, Undergraduate Chair