The events closest to home involved a series of lectures and celebrations to mark the department’s 75^th anniversary. High points included appearances by Princeton University’s Daniel Heller-Roazen, the University of California’s Catherine Malabou, and Stanford University’s Alex Woloch. The packed halls and lively discussion at these talks and receptions provided a bracing reminder of our legacy as one of the nation’s most storied departments of Comparative Literature—one of the places where the study of literature beyond the borders of a given national tradition took shape. Our students and faculty continue this tradition today in their study of translation and transmission, of the larger system of arts in which literature participates, and of the theoretical questions that allow us to recognize and interrogate artworks across cultural and historical contexts.

Before we go any further, I want to say a reassuring word to anyone who has encountered alarmist claims in the press that Comparative Literature at IU is to be discontinued. Although there have been adjustments in response to new state policies, the fact is that Comparative Literature at IU is not going anywhere. We have every expectation of remaining an independent unit, charged with curating a rigorous graduate and undergraduate curriculum. There will be adjustments to nomenclature and institutional context. Degrees in Comparative Literature (like those in French, Germanic, Italian, and Slavic) are to be reclassified as independent majors housed within a larger umbrella category called Language, Literature, and Culture. What matters is that the department will continue to welcome students at all levels who will go on to engage mightily with a scintillating range of texts and concepts, to take a major or a PhD in Comparative Literature, and to do amazing things within and without the academy, during their time at IU and in the years beyond.

I am particularly delighted to point you to the work some of our undergraduates have been doing through our recently launched Aleph Program. This program, currently directed by Professor Eyal Peretz, matches majors in Comparative Literature with faculty mentors who help them develop a course of study on a topic of particular interest. Beyond receiving a small scholarship to subsidize research costs, Aleph students meet regularly with their mentors as they develop and carry out their projects. This program is as gratifying for professors as it is for students, as I know from my recent experience mentoring a brilliant sophomore in a study of gothic fiction. Our first Aleph graduate received departmental honors in May 2025, with an undergraduate thesis on the films of Jacques Demy, written in a tutorial with Professor Eyal Peretz. For an overview of this program and a glimpse of the passions currently animating some of our undergraduates, see this profile article.

I want also to recognize the work done by our graduate students. Alan Reiser defended his dissertation this spring with a work on mythopoesis, and has now moved across campus to take a position in the East Asian Literatures and Cultures Department. Several other graduate students received fellowships intended to support dissertation-stage work—including Cynthia Shin (College Dissertation Fellowship), Meaghan Murphy (Sanders-Weber Fellowship), and Natasha Rubanova (Fogg-Hightower Fellowship)—so I anticipate that we will have several more newly minted PhDs to congratulate when the next issue of Encompass rolls around. We were especially delighted to award the newly endowed Keith E. Locke Fellowship to its inaugural recipient, Raquel Grove, who is currently in Paris carrying out preliminary dissertation research on French decadent writer Rachilde. 

Our professors have also been busy. The core faculty in Comparative Literature have been responsible between them for an astonishing seven books in 2025 so far. Professor Akin Adesokan has published the novel South Side; Professor Carlos Colmenares Gil has published the poetry collection Ver mi alma; Professor Bill Johnston has published two translations, of Jeanne Benameur’s a grammar of the world (from French) and Wieslaw Mysliwski’s Needle’s Eye (from Polish); Professor Herbert Marks has published a work of biblical criticism in French, Ouvertures bibliques; and Professor Eyal Peretz has published two distinct monographs, Messengers of Infinity: On the Pictorial Logic of Leonardo da Vinci and American Medium: A New Film Philosophy. This is not to mention the large number of articles and lectures and co-authored and co-translated volumes produced by our active and expert constellation of scholars—including important work done by our larger community of affiliate and emeriti faculty.

Speaking of emeriti, I have the bittersweet duty of announcing the retirement of two beloved colleagues of long standing. Professor Rosemarie McGerr’s illustrious career as a comparative medievalist started a new chapter this summer when she transitioned to emeritus status. Professor Bill Johnston plans to follow suit in December: after having shepherded so many novice translators through our translation certificate, he is currently teaching his final workshop, and will be succeeded as Michael Henry Heim Chair in Central and East European Letters by our affiliate faculty Professor Russell Valentino. The gift that has been their involvement in our program will continue, engrained in our departmental culture and profile, and we hope that they will remain a part of the department’s intellectual life in years to come—since both have active projects on the boil and show no signs of slowing down.  

It has been utterly delightful to take this time to relish the extraordinary community of students faculty, and alumni who are responsible for the many and various excellences of Comparative Literature at Indiana, and I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Should you feel moved to support the department as we look forward to new initiatives and achievements, you can donate to the Comparative Literature Development Fund here. I sign off now in anticipation of the next issue of Encompass—and of the department’s centenary, in 2049, when we will have a big party to which everyone is invited.

Yours truly, 

Dr. Jacob Emery
Professor and Chair
Department of Comparative Literature
Indiana University, Bloomington