Displacement

The 2023–25 theme of the Center for Literary and Comparative Studies is Displacement.

Displacement speaks to the forced migration and movements of peoples across the globe over centuries. From slavery to the internal displacement of peoples and the contemporary refugee crisis, the term allows us to connect the literary with the cultural and the political in myriad ways.

On a different register, displacement allows us to engage productively with contemporary challenges facing the humanities.

It can help us think creatively about the public role of the humanities, the literary value of language and writing in the time of AI, the circulation of literature in translation, and the increased access to global circuits of traditional and non-traditional media.