August 6, 2010
Dear Dean Gertler,
I am writing to you to express my astonishment regarding your recommendation to "dis-establish" the Centre for Comparative Literature as of July 1, 2011. Since the recommended measures, and the circumstances surrounding their announcement in particular, became a topic of public debate, I have been puzzled by the seeming indifference of the Strategic Committee to the academic and intellectual fate of the incoming PhD students in the unit deemed to close.
The vague insurance in the memorandum from vice-dean Baker that was distributed to graduate students on July 15th makes sure only three things for me. First, come what it may, our course schedule remains as planned for 2010-11; second, the PhD funding package remains valid; third, when I receive my degree the word "comparative literature" will appear somewhere on the document. What it does not assure me of-- and most probably no other incoming PhD student in the Centre --is the curriculum/course offering in my second and third year (should I need it), and the decreasing level of disciplinary cohesiveness due to the loss of faculty and the weakening of the "comparative" student body. In my eyes, a collaborative program in comparative literature is only a cosmetic measure that masks its factual nonexistence.
While academic units such as the German department realized the necessity of teaching theory already (!) in the 400-level courses in their BA programs, the need for real comparativity, i.e. reaching beyond the range of national, cultural and temporal delimitations, is not necessarily at the heart of many disciplines. This may, of course, change with time due to the increasing cultural diversification and shifting of national communities, but so is changing and growing the task of comparative literature. Not only do we read literature and culture in multiple languages and across established canons, we also take the findings of more narrowly constituted scholarship and learn to see them in different contexts in order to see new patterns and tendencies. This is the true experimental nature of our discipline.
I chose University of Toronto for its diversity, its stimulating environment, and for its faculty-- the human face of the huge university enterprise -- many of whom excel not only academically, but also in their ability and willingness to act as mentors to aspiring scholars. With my background -- I studied literature and culture in four different languages, none of which is my mother tongue -- I was aware that I would not fit in any of the more or less self-contained national literature departments in Toronto or elsewhere, which resulted in the preference I gave to the offer from the Centre for Comparative Literature.
The official offer of admission, both from the Centre and the School of Graduate Studies, stressed the financial and academic commitment of the Centre to incoming students that would enable them to develop and pursue their research, as well as, primarily, to complete their degree. With good faith -- indeed nothing else would occur to me -- I signed and returned the offer. There was no small press at the bottom of the letterhead or on its backside saying "subject to changes or cancellation at any time"; it was a solid and upright offer to make the Centre with all its resources my academic and intellectual home for as long as I pursue my degree in comparative literature. Or at least, I considered it solid enough to move my family to Toronto.
The recommendation of the SPC all at once shattered the multiple affiliations on which I had started to build my academic future. I urge you, Dean Gertler, to review and reasonably amend the plans of the SPC so that they accommodate the promises made in the name of the University in their full extent. I would not be able to carry on my multilingual research project in any of the affiliated departments of the proposed new School of Languages and Literatures. With faculty support severely cut back and no new students admitted fully as "comparatists", I also fear that my graduate studies would rather dully proceed than intellectually thrive, as they may do now in the current atmosphere of trans-departmental exchange that the Centre is known for across the University.
I am convinced that the Centre's intensive training in critical thinking, as the former director of the Centre, Professor Le Huenen described the PhD program to me three years ago, is not possible without a clearly defined comparative program. In practical terms, I think that the decreased disciplinary rigor of the proposed collaborative program would soon be well known within the academic community, which would no doubt devalue both the degrees conferred and the future employment prospects of their holders. This unsure future weighs on all of the students in the Centre, but it is especially hard on the incoming ones since the recommended closure of the Centre as a degree-granting entity would cut through their entire graduate training.
Regarding the recent announcement that your "goal is nothing less than to ensure the most stimulating and supportive environment possible for our students and faculty as we focus on our core mission of undergraduate and graduate education and advanced research across a wide range of fields," I firmly believe that you will value the trust I put into the University as represented by the Centre of Comparative Literature, and that you will reward the decades of the excellent teaching and research work done in the Centre by endorsing its status as well as its intellectual and academic capacities.
Sincerely,
Marketa Russell Holtebrinck
Incoming PhD student
Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Toronto
Maclaren Gold Medal (awarded by Victoria College to a graduating student with highest standing in Modern Languages)
CC: President David Naylor, University of Toronto
Provost Cheryl Misak, University of Toronto
Save Comparative Literature Campaign
Paper letter to follow
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