The Department of Literature at UCSD is a community of scholars, critics, and writers working with transnational, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary perspectives and creativity. Since its founding in the 1960s, our department has been known for its unique structure among similar departments and programs in the UC system and across the country.

Our faculty have accomplished innovative research and teaching in literatures and cultures in multiple languages including Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Russian, Spanish, and other world languages. We are dedicated to enhancing and exploring the communication and dialogue between diverse cultures and societies from antiquity to the present. We have built our strengths in both theoretical and historical thinking.