comparative analysis phd thesis

How to Write a Comparative Analysis Dissertation: Useful Guidelines

Writing a dissertation involves more than just demonstrating your expertise in your chosen field of study. It also requires using important skills, such as analytical thinking. Without it, developing sound theories, introducing arguments, or making conclusions would be impossible. And nowhere is this ability more prominently showcased than in writing comparative analysis dissertations.

Comparative analysis is a helpful method you can use to do research. Remember writing compare-and-contrast essays at school? It’s actually very similar to conducting this type of analysis. But it also has plenty of peculiarities that make it a unique approach. Keep reading to learn more about it!

What Is a Comparative Analysis Dissertation?

Comparative analysis types.

• Possible Difficulties
• Elements of Comparative Analysis
• How to Write a Comparative Analysis Dissertation

Comparative analysis boils down to studying similarities and differences between two or more things, be it theories, texts, processes, personalities, or time periods. This method is especially useful in conducting social sciences , humanities, history, and business research.

Conducting a comparative analysis helps you achieve multiple goals:

• It allows you to find parallels and dissimilaritie s between your subjects and use them to make broader conclusions.
• Putting two or more things against each other also helps to see them in a new light and notice the usually neglected aspects.
• In addition to similarities and differences, conducting a comparative analysis helps to determine causality —that is, the reason why these characteristics exist in the first place.

Depending on your research methods, your comparative analysis dissertation can be of two types:

• Qualitative comparative analysis revolves around individual examples. It uses words and concepts to describe the subjects of comparison and make conclusions from them. Essentially, it’s about studying a few examples closely to understand their specific details. This method will be especially helpful if you’re writing a comparative case study dissertation.
• Quantitative comparative dissertations will use numbers and statistics to explain things. It helps make general statements about big sample groups. You will usually need a lot of examples to gather plenty of reliable numerical data for this kind of research.

There are no strict rules regarding these types. You can use the features of both in your comparative dissertation if you want to.

Possible Difficulties of Writing a Comparative Analysis Dissertation

As you can see, comparison is an excellent research method that can be a great help in dissertation writing . But it also has its drawbacks and challenges. It’s essential to be aware of them and do your best to overcome them:

• Your chosen subjects of comparison may have very little in common . In that case, it might be tricky to come up with at least some similarities.
• Sometimes, there may not be enough information about the things you want to study. This will seriously limit your choices and may affect the accuracy of your research results. To avoid it, we recommend you choose subjects you’re already familiar with.
• Choosing a small number of cases or samples will make it much more challenging to generalize your findings . It may also cause you to overlook subtle ways in which the subjects influence each other. That’s why it’s best to choose a moderate number of items from which to draw comparisons, usually between 5 and 40.
• It’s also essential that your dissertation looks different from a s high school compare-and-contrast essay. Instead, your work should be appropriately structured. Read on to learn how to do it!

Elements of Dissertation Comparative Analysis

Do you want your dissertation comparative analysis to be successful? Then make sure it has the following key elements:

• Context Your comparative dissertation doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It has historical and theoretical contexts as well as previous research surrounding it. You can cover these aspects in your introduction and literature review .
• Goals It should be clear to the reader why you want to compare two particular things. That’s why, before you start making your dissertation comparative analysis, you’ll need to explain your goal. For example, the goal of a dissertation in human science can be to describe and classify something.
• Modes of Comparison This refers to the way you want to conduct your research. There are four modes of comparison to choose from: similarity-focused, difference-focused, genus-species relationship, and refocusing.

• Scale This is the degree to which your study will be zooming on the subjects of comparison. It’s similar to looking at maps. There are maps of the entire world, of separate countries, and of smaller locations. The scale of your research refers to how detailed the map is. You will need to use similar scale maps for each subject to conduct a good comparison.
• Scope This criterion refers to how far removed your subjects are in time and space. Depending on the scope, there are two types of comparisons:

• Research Question This is the key inquiry that guides your entire study. In a comparative analysis thesis, the research question usually addresses similarities and differences, but it can also focus on other patterns you’ll be exploring. It can belong to one of the following types, depending on the kind of analysis you want to apply:

Want to write your research question quickly and easily? Try our thesis statement generator ! It has four modes depending on your type of writing, which helps it produce customized results.

• Data Analysis Here, you analyze similarities, differences, and relationships you’ve identified between the subjects. Make sure to provide your argumentation and explain where your findings come from.
• Conclusions This element addresses the research question and answers it. It can also point out the significance of similarities and differences that you’ve found.

How to Write a Comparative Analysis Dissertation

Now that you know what your comparative analysis should include, it’s time to learn how to write it! Follow the steps, and you’ll be sure to succeed:

• Select the Subjects This is the most critical step on which your entire dissertation will depend. To choose things to compare, try to analyze several important factors, including your potential audience , the overall goal of the study, and your interests. It’s also essential to check whether the things you want to discuss are sufficiently studied. While you research possible topics, you may stumble upon untrustworthy AI-generated content. Unfortunately, it’s getting increasingly difficult to differentiate it from human-made writing. To avoid getting into this trap, consider using an AI detection tool . It provides 100% accurate results and is completely free.
• Describe Your Chosen Items Before you can start comparing the subjects, it’s necessary to describe them in their social and historical contexts. Without taking a long, hard look at your topic’s background, it would be impossible to determine what you should pay attention to during your research. To describe your subjects properly, you will need to study plenty of sources and convey their content in your dissertation. Want to simplify this task? Check out our excellent free summarizer tool !
• Juxtapose Now, it’s time to do the comparison by checking how similar and different your subjects are. Some may think focusing on the resemblances is more critical, while others find contrasts more exciting. Both these viewpoints are valid, but the best approach is to find the right balance depending on your study’s goal.
• Provide Redescription Unlike previous steps, this one is optional. It involves looking at something for the second time after conducting the comparison. The point is that you might learn new things about your subjects during your study. They may even help shed light on each other (it’s called “ reciprocal illumination .”) This knowledge will likely deepen your understanding or even change it altogether. It’s a good idea to point it out in your comparative case study dissertation.
• Consider Rectification and Theory Formation These two processes are also optional. They involve upgrading your writing and theories after conducting your research. This doesn’t mean changing the topic of you study. Instead, it refers to changing how you think about your subjects. For example, you may gain some new understanding and realize that you weren’t using the right words to properly describe your subjects. That’s when rectification comes into play. Essentially, you revise the language used in your discussion to make it more precise and appropriate. This new perspective may even inspire you to come up with a new theory about your topic! In that case, you may write about it, too. Usually, though, rectification is enough. If you decide to do it, feel free to use our paraphrasing tool to help you find the right words.
• Edit and Proofread After you’re done writing the bulk of your text, it’s essential to check it and ensure it passes the plagiarism check. After all, even if you haven’t directly copied other people’s texts, there may still be some percentage of accidental plagiarism that can get you in trouble. To ensure that it doesn’t happen, use our free plagiarism detector .

And this is how you write a comparative analysis dissertation! We hope our tips will be helpful to you. Read our next article if you need help with a  literature review in a dissertation . Good luck with your studies!

Related Posts

Dissertation en francais: a mere dissertation in french.

Thesis Committee Members: Choosing the Right People

A thesis acknowledgement page: i want to thank…, a dissertation cartoon or a dissertation on cartoons, market penetration strategy dissertations: free writing strategies for you.

• Utility Menu

GA4 Tracking Code

Gen ed writes, writing across the disciplines at harvard college.

• Comparative Analysis

What It Is and Why It's Useful

Comparative analysis asks writers to make an argument about the relationship between two or more texts. Beyond that, there's a lot of variation, but three overarching kinds of comparative analysis stand out:

• Coordinate (A ↔ B): In this kind of analysis, two (or more) texts are being read against each other in terms of a shared element, e.g., a memoir and a novel, both by Jesmyn Ward; two sets of data for the same experiment; a few op-ed responses to the same event; two YA books written in Chicago in the 2000s; a film adaption of a play; etc. 
• Subordinate (A  → B) or (B → A ): Using a theoretical text (as a "lens") to explain a case study or work of art (e.g., how Anthony Jack's The Privileged Poor can help explain divergent experiences among students at elite four-year private colleges who are coming from similar socio-economic backgrounds) or using a work of art or case study (i.e., as a "test" of) a theory's usefulness or limitations (e.g., using coverage of recent incidents of gun violence or legislation un the U.S. to confirm or question the currency of Carol Anderson's The Second ).
• Hybrid [A  → (B ↔ C)] or [(B ↔ C) → A] , i.e., using coordinate and subordinate analysis together. For example, using Jack to compare or contrast the experiences of students at elite four-year institutions with students at state universities and/or community colleges; or looking at gun culture in other countries and/or other timeframes to contextualize or generalize Anderson's main points about the role of the Second Amendment in U.S. history.

"In the wild," these three kinds of comparative analysis represent increasingly complex—and scholarly—modes of comparison. Students can of course compare two poems in terms of imagery or two data sets in terms of methods, but in each case the analysis will eventually be richer if the students have had a chance to encounter other people's ideas about how imagery or methods work. At that point, we're getting into a hybrid kind of reading (or even into research essays), especially if we start introducing different approaches to imagery or methods that are themselves being compared along with a couple (or few) poems or data sets.

Why It's Useful

In the context of a particular course, each kind of comparative analysis has its place and can be a useful step up from single-source analysis. Intellectually, comparative analysis helps overcome the "n of 1" problem that can face single-source analysis. That is, a writer drawing broad conclusions about the influence of the Iranian New Wave based on one film is relying entirely—and almost certainly too much—on that film to support those findings. In the context of even just one more film, though, the analysis is suddenly more likely to arrive at one of the best features of any comparative approach: both films will be more richly experienced than they would have been in isolation, and the themes or questions in terms of which they're being explored (here the general question of the influence of the Iranian New Wave) will arrive at conclusions that are less at-risk of oversimplification.

For scholars working in comparative fields or through comparative approaches, these features of comparative analysis animate their work. To borrow from a stock example in Western epistemology, our concept of "green" isn't based on a single encounter with something we intuit or are told is "green." Not at all. Our concept of "green" is derived from a complex set of experiences of what others say is green or what's labeled green or what seems to be something that's neither blue nor yellow but kind of both, etc. Comparative analysis essays offer us the chance to engage with that process—even if only enough to help us see where a more in-depth exploration with a higher and/or more diverse "n" might lead—and in that sense, from the standpoint of the subject matter students are exploring through writing as well the complexity of the genre of writing they're using to explore it—comparative analysis forms a bridge of sorts between single-source analysis and research essays.

Typical learning objectives for single-sources essays: formulate analytical questions and an arguable thesis, establish stakes of an argument, summarize sources accurately, choose evidence effectively, analyze evidence effectively, define key terms, organize argument logically, acknowledge and respond to counterargument, cite sources properly, and present ideas in clear prose.

Common types of comparative analysis essays and related types: two works in the same genre, two works from the same period (but in different places or in different cultures), a work adapted into a different genre or medium, two theories treating the same topic; a theory and a case study or other object, etc.

How to Teach It: Framing + Practice

Framing multi-source writing assignments (comparative analysis, research essays, multi-modal projects) is likely to overlap a great deal with "Why It's Useful" (see above), because the range of reasons why we might use these kinds of writing in academic or non-academic settings is itself the reason why they so often appear later in courses. In many courses, they're the best vehicles for exploring the complex questions that arise once we've been introduced to the course's main themes, core content, leading protagonists, and central debates.

For comparative analysis in particular, it's helpful to frame assignment's process and how it will help students successfully navigate the challenges and pitfalls presented by the genre. Ideally, this will mean students have time to identify what each text seems to be doing, take note of apparent points of connection between different texts, and start to imagine how those points of connection (or the absence thereof)

• complicates or upends their own expectations or assumptions about the texts
• complicates or refutes the expectations or assumptions about the texts presented by a scholar
• confirms and/or nuances expectations and assumptions they themselves hold or scholars have presented
• presents entirely unforeseen ways of understanding the texts

—and all with implications for the texts themselves or for the axes along which the comparative analysis took place. If students know that this is where their ideas will be heading, they'll be ready to develop those ideas and engage with the challenges that comparative analysis presents in terms of structure (See "Tips" and "Common Pitfalls" below for more on these elements of framing).

Like single-source analyses, comparative essays have several moving parts, and giving students practice here means adapting the sample sequence laid out at the " Formative Writing Assignments " page. Three areas that have already been mentioned above are worth noting:

• Gathering evidence : Depending on what your assignment is asking students to compare (or in terms of what), students will benefit greatly from structured opportunities to create inventories or data sets of the motifs, examples, trajectories, etc., shared (or not shared) by the texts they'll be comparing. See the sample exercises below for a basic example of what this might look like.
• Why it Matters: Moving beyond "x is like y but also different" or even "x is more like y than we might think at first" is what moves an essay from being "compare/contrast" to being a comparative analysis . It's also a move that can be hard to make and that will often evolve over the course of an assignment. A great way to get feedback from students about where they're at on this front? Ask them to start considering early on why their argument "matters" to different kinds of imagined audiences (while they're just gathering evidence) and again as they develop their thesis and again as they're drafting their essays. ( Cover letters , for example, are a great place to ask writers to imagine how a reader might be affected by reading an their argument.)
• Structure: Having two texts on stage at the same time can suddenly feel a lot more complicated for any writer who's used to having just one at a time. Giving students a sense of what the most common patterns (AAA / BBB, ABABAB, etc.) are likely to be can help them imagine, even if provisionally, how their argument might unfold over a series of pages. See "Tips" and "Common Pitfalls" below for more information on this front.

Sample Exercises and Links to Other Resources

• Common Pitfalls
• Advice on Timing
• Try to keep students from thinking of a proposed thesis as a commitment. Instead, help them see it as more of a hypothesis that has emerged out of readings and discussion and analytical questions and that they'll now test through an experiment, namely, writing their essay. When students see writing as part of the process of inquiry—rather than just the result—and when that process is committed to acknowledging and adapting itself to evidence, it makes writing assignments more scientific, more ethical, and more authentic. 
• Have students create an inventory of touch points between the two texts early in the process.
• Ask students to make the case—early on and at points throughout the process—for the significance of the claim they're making about the relationship between the texts they're comparing.
• For coordinate kinds of comparative analysis, a common pitfall is tied to thesis and evidence. Basically, it's a thesis that tells the reader that there are "similarities and differences" between two texts, without telling the reader why it matters that these two texts have or don't have these particular features in common. This kind of thesis is stuck at the level of description or positivism, and it's not uncommon when a writer is grappling with the complexity that can in fact accompany the "taking inventory" stage of comparative analysis. The solution is to make the "taking inventory" stage part of the process of the assignment. When this stage comes before students have formulated a thesis, that formulation is then able to emerge out of a comparative data set, rather than the data set emerging in terms of their thesis (which can lead to confirmation bias, or frequency illusion, or—just for the sake of streamlining the process of gathering evidence—cherry picking). 
• For subordinate kinds of comparative analysis , a common pitfall is tied to how much weight is given to each source. Having students apply a theory (in a "lens" essay) or weigh the pros and cons of a theory against case studies (in a "test a theory") essay can be a great way to help them explore the assumptions, implications, and real-world usefulness of theoretical approaches. The pitfall of these approaches is that they can quickly lead to the same biases we saw here above. Making sure that students know they should engage with counterevidence and counterargument, and that "lens" / "test a theory" approaches often balance each other out in any real-world application of theory is a good way to get out in front of this pitfall.
• For any kind of comparative analysis, a common pitfall is structure. Every comparative analysis asks writers to move back and forth between texts, and that can pose a number of challenges, including: what pattern the back and forth should follow and how to use transitions and other signposting to make sure readers can follow the overarching argument as the back and forth is taking place. Here's some advice from an experienced writing instructor to students about how to think about these considerations:

a quick note on STRUCTURE

     Most of us have encountered the question of whether to adopt what we might term the “A→A→A→B→B→B” structure or the “A→B→A→B→A→B” structure.  Do we make all of our points about text A before moving on to text B?  Or do we go back and forth between A and B as the essay proceeds?  As always, the answers to our questions about structure depend on our goals in the essay as a whole.  In a “similarities in spite of differences” essay, for instance, readers will need to encounter the differences between A and B before we offer them the similarities (A d →B d →A s →B s ).  If, rather than subordinating differences to similarities you are subordinating text A to text B (using A as a point of comparison that reveals B’s originality, say), you may be well served by the “A→A→A→B→B→B” structure.  

     Ultimately, you need to ask yourself how many “A→B” moves you have in you.  Is each one identical?  If so, you may wish to make the transition from A to B only once (“A→A→A→B→B→B”), because if each “A→B” move is identical, the “A→B→A→B→A→B” structure will appear to involve nothing more than directionless oscillation and repetition.  If each is increasingly complex, however—if each AB pair yields a new and progressively more complex idea about your subject—you may be well served by the “A→B→A→B→A→B” structure, because in this case it will be visible to readers as a progressively developing argument.

As we discussed in "Advice on Timing" at the page on single-source analysis, that timeline itself roughly follows the "Sample Sequence of Formative Assignments for a 'Typical' Essay" outlined under " Formative Writing Assignments, " and it spans about 5–6 steps or 2–4 weeks. 

Comparative analysis assignments have a lot of the same DNA as single-source essays, but they potentially bring more reading into play and ask students to engage in more complicated acts of analysis and synthesis during the drafting stages. With that in mind, closer to 4 weeks is probably a good baseline for many single-source analysis assignments. For sections that meet once per week, the timeline will either probably need to expand—ideally—a little past the 4-week side of things, or some of the steps will need to be combined or done asynchronously.

What It Can Build Up To

Comparative analyses can build up to other kinds of writing in a number of ways. For example:

• They can build toward other kinds of comparative analysis, e.g., student can be asked to choose an additional source to complicate their conclusions from a previous analysis, or they can be asked to revisit an analysis using a different axis of comparison, such as race instead of class. (These approaches are akin to moving from a coordinate or subordinate analysis to more of a hybrid approach.)
• They can scaffold up to research essays, which in many instances are an extension of a "hybrid comparative analysis."
• Like single-source analysis, in a course where students will take a "deep dive" into a source or topic for their capstone, they can allow students to "try on" a theoretical approach or genre or time period to see if it's indeed something they want to research more fully.
• DIY Guides for Analytical Writing Assignments

• Types of Assignments
• Unpacking the Elements of Writing Prompts
• Formative Writing Assignments
• Single-Source Analysis
• Research Essays
• Multi-Modal or Creative Projects
• Giving Feedback to Students

Assignment Decoder

Let your curiosity lead the way:

Apply Today

• Arts & Sciences
• Graduate Studies in A&S

Comparative Literature Ph.D. Dissertation Guidelines

Guide for Comparative Literature Ph.D. dissertation, defense, and electronic submission.

Overview (Ph.D.)

• Present completed Title, Scope, and Procedure (TSP) Ph.D. form^  to the faculty advisor and Research Advisory Commitee (RAC) for approval and signatures for submission to the Office of Graduate Studies (OGS) before beginning the fifth year of full-time enrollment in the Graduate School. 
• File the Intent to Graduate (ITG) for the Ph.D. 
• Create an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCiD).
• Form a Dissertation Defense Commitee and complete the Dissertation Defense Committee form.
• Confer with the Dissertation Director about procedures for submission of chapters and revisions during the dissertation writing process.
• Review the OGS Dissertation and Thesis Template and consult it for answers to all formatting questions.
• Consult with Dissertation Defense Committee and schedule the oral defense, and complete the Dissertation Defense Notification form.
• Submit complete dissertation manuscript upon approval by the Dissertation Director to the Dissertation Committee, no less than 4 weeks in advance of the scheduled defense.
• Pass the oral defense.
• Complete Survey of Earned Doctorates.
• Create ProQuest Online Account.
• Submit the dissertation to the OGS electronically via ProQuest.
• Forward email from OGS of approval of dissertation to Coordinator along with .pdf of dissertation to order copies from Thesis on Demand.
• Request Degree Certification (optional).
• RSVP to Ceremony

Reserve Regalia

The Student is responsible for punctually completing and providing all of the necessary materials(^) for submission to the OGS, and for formatting the dissertation in accordance with its guidelines. 

The Dissertation Director is responsible for assisting The Student in assembling the full five member Dissertation Defense Committee for the defense, for assisting in arranging a defense date and location, as well as submitting all required signed paperwork and forms(^) to the The Coordinator for submission to the OGS via Portal(*), including the Dissertation Defense Committee  and  Examination Approval forms . 

The OGS provides a comprehensive Doctoral Dissertation Guide for all Ph.D. candidates. 

Preliminary Paperwork

• Title, Scope, and Procedure (TSP)

Intent to Graduate (ITG)

Open researcher and contributor id (orcid), title, scope, and procedure (tsp) ph.d..

Completed by The Student, Submitted by The Coordinator

By the time of completion of the Comprehensive Exams, students should have formulated a dissertation topic and selected a Dissertation Director, as well as two additional readers. The Student submits a  Title, Scope and Procedure Ph.D. form^  (TSP) for approval; this form requires the signatures of the Dissertation Director and two additional readers (collectively known as the Research Advisory Committee or RAC), as well as the Program Director. The RAC normally consists of three tenured or tenur-track Washington University faculty members.

The TSP form includes and initial outline or model to research the dissertation topic, which must be comparative. TSP form outlines the preliminary dissertation title, a brief abstract, and methodology. 

• "Scope" defines the dissertation limits (what is intended to be covered and not covered), and
• "Procedure" describes the manner intended to conduct research. 

The Academic and Administrative Coordinator must receive the completed and signed TSP form to submit to the Office of Graduate Studies on behalf of the student.  The TSP form must be completed and submitted to the OGS before beginning the fifth year of full-time enrollment in the Office of Graduate Studies. The TSP may change in the course of research: contact the Academic and Administrative Coordinator with requirements for an amended form if this occurs.

Completed by The Student

The Student must file an Intent to Graduate (ITG) form for the semester in which they intend to graduate. Deadlines for filing the Intent to Graduate form for each semester are listed on the Office of Graduate Studies’s online calendar. Complete this form by logging onto  WebSTAC and clicking on “Intent to Graduate” from the menu . Take note of the diploma pick-up and mailing dates that are included in the form because the diploma will be mailed to the address entered.

If the graduation semester changes, a new form must be filed for the term the Student intends to graduate.

Ph.D. students are encouraged to establish an Open Researcher and contributor ID (ORCiD) , a free, personal digital identifier. Many scholars will want to establish their ORCiD profile and maintain it throughout their careers. For more information, visit https://libguides.wustl.edu/orcid.

Dissertation Defense

The Student should work with the Dissertation Director to establish an effective and efficient calendar for submission of work, allowing time for revisions. Once the Dissertation Director has approved a chapter, the student should submit it to the other two readers.  The Student is expected to respect the suggestions for revision from all three of their readers for each chapter as they go along. This process ensures that the dissertation is sound from their different perspectives before the Student submits the completed dissertation to the larger Dissertation Committee for the "defense."

Dissertation Defense Committee

Completed by The Student and The Dissertation Director, submitted by The Coordinator to OGS

The Defense Committee consists of at least five members, who normally meet two independent criteria:

• Four of the five must be tenured or tenure-track Washington University faculty; one of these four may be a member of the Emeritus faculty. The fifth member must have a doctoral degree and an active research program, whether at Washington University, at another university, in government, or in industry.
• Three of the five must come from the student's degree program; at least one of the five must not.

All Dissertation Committees must be approved by the Dean of the Graduate School or by their designee, regardless of whether they meet the normal criteria. Approval requires completion of the Dissertation Defense Committee form^ . The Coordinator must receive the completed and DGS signed Dissertation Defense Committeee form to submit to OGS on behalf of The Student via Portal.

This form and Defense Committee must be approved by the Graduate School before the scheduling of the dissertation defense can occur; this MUST be completed and approved at least 3 weeks ahead of your desired defense date. 

Dissertation Defense Notification

Completed by The Student, submitted by The Coordinator to OGS

Once the Defense Committee is approved via an email from the OGS, The Coordinator can help The Student in securing a time and location for the defense. After approval of the Defense Committee and at least 15 days before the defense, The Coordinator will submit a Defense Notification* to the OGS via Portal stating the time, date, and location of the defense, as well as attach an updated CV of The Student^. The Student is required to provide the Coordinator with the Dissertation Defense Information   (date and location of defense, title of dissertation) and a copy of the Student CV in a .pdf format for submission.

Distribution of Dissertation

Once the Dissertation Director has approved the content and the style of the entire dissertation, The Student must distribute copies of the full document to all members of the Defense Committee, including external readers, in preparation for the oral defense. The Student should allow a minimum of three (3) weeks for the Defense Committee members to read the thesis. The Student is responsible for giving copies of the dissertation to the Defense Committee. According to the OGS, the Defense Committee members may request rescheduling of the defense if the dissertation is not made available at least 1 week in advance.

While certain critiques and suggestions from the larger Defense Committee during the defense are to be expected, indeed encouraged, The Dissertation Director, by signaling approval of The Student's submission of the dissertation to the Defense Committee, is indicating the support of the Research Advisory Committee (RAC) members, i.e., that they stand by the work and are prepared to support its content and form at the defense.

OGS provides a Dissertation and Thesis Template for all Ph.D. candidates.

Defense of Dissertation

Completed by The Student and The Defense Committee, 

From Graduate School Information on Defense of the Dissertation :

"Attendance by a minimum of four members of the Dissertation Defense Committee, including the committee chair and an outside member, is required for the defense to take place. This provision is designed to permit your defense to proceed in case of a situation that unexpectedly prevents one of the five members from attending. Do not plan in advance to have only four members in attendance; if one of those four cannot attend, your defense must be rescheduled. Note that the absence of all outside members or of the committee chair would necessitate rescheduling the defense.

"Members of the Dissertation Defense Committee normally attend in person, but one of the five (or, in case of an emergency, one of the four) members may attend virtually instead.

“Faculty and graduate students who are interested in the subject of the dissertation are normally welcome to attend all or part of the defense but may ask questions only at the discretion of the committee members. Though there is some variation among degree programs, the defense ordinarily focuses on the dissertation itself and its relation to the student’s field of expertise.”

Examination Approval Form

Signed by The Defense Committee, delivered to The Coordinator by The Dissertation Director, submitted by The Coordinator to OGS

The Dissertation Director is responsible for gathering signatures of the committee on the Examination Approval Form ^*. The Coordinator will then submit it on behalf of The Student via Portal.

Preparing for Electronic Submission

Visit the OGS calendar for the Dissertation/Thesis Final Submission deadline. The following items must be completed by this deadline or Graduation and degree dates will need to be delayed. It is encouraged to submit the dissertation before the deadline in the event fomatting changes are needed.

Consult the Comparative Literature subject librarian regarding copyright permissions for any copyrighted work included in the dissertation. 

Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED)

Students are encouraged to complete their Survey of Earned Doctorates  prior to the dissertation deadline. Do this as soon as possible so that OGS has a record of its arrival in time for graduation requirements to be met. OGS will be notified automatically once the survey is complete. 

The electronic submission of the dissertation will not be processed or approved until this email arrives to OGS. 

Creating ProQuest Online Account

After successful defense of the dissertation and completion of any committee requested changes, OGS requires that The Student create an online account at ProQuest ( http://www.etdadmin.com/wustl ) to submit the final approved text. ProQuest is this country’s most widely used commercial archiving service for dissertations and theses.

Electronic Submission of Dissertation

Visit the OGS calendar for the Dissertation/Thesis Final Submission deadline. The following items must be completed by this deadline or Graduation and degree dates will need to be delayed. It is encouraged to submit the dissertation before the deadlin in the event fomatting changes are needed.

Checklist for Electronic Submission

The Student must have completed all items below before the electronic submission of the dissertation to ProQuest.

The OGS is notified when you submit your dissertation to ProQuest. When reviewing submission, they ensure that the Examination Approval Form and Survey of Earned Doctorates have been completed and check the submitted PDF to ensure that all formatting requirements have been followed. The amount of time needed to review the manuscript, and the number and nature of any changes that may be required to make, are generally determined by how carefully the work has been prepared. Do not wait until the deadline day to submit the dissertation! Work must be formatted correctly and approved by the OGS in order for graduation. Once the OGS review is complete, they will send you an email through ProQuest saying one of the following:

• Submission has no revisions and is being accepted.
• Submission has no revisions, but there is missing required paperwork.
• Submission has a few revisions that must be made before accepting.

Ordering Bound Copies and Degree Certification

After the dissertation has been approved by the OGS, The Student should forward The Coordinator the OGS dissertation approval email for ordering of bound copies from Thesis On Demand.

The Student may need to present proof of completion of degree to a prospective employer before receiving a diploma. In that case, only after notification that submission has been approved, The Student may request a Degree Certification on the Graduate School website , on the Forms page.

Commencement and Hooding

Once the dissertation has been approved, The Student should contact The Dissertation Director for confirmation of the Hooding Ceremony for Commencement. Traditionally, The Dissertation Director will be present to present The Student with the Ph.D. hood during the Ph.D. Hooding Ceremony. 

Reservation to Ceremony

Registration for the Commencement ceremony is required and is separate from the ITG and ordering of regalia. Please register by the deadline online via the Wash U Commencement site .

Please note that the deadline and process for ordering regalia will be announced on the Wash U Commencement regalia  site and is taken care of by the Wash U Bookstore and NOT the Comparative Literature program. 

Questions from students may be addressed to the current Comparative Literature Academic and Administrative Coordinator  (aka Graduate Program Assistant, or GPA) or the Comparative Literature program at:  [email protected] .

Department of Comparative Literature

You are here, recent dissertations in comparative literature.

Dissertations in Comparative Literature have taken on vast number of topics and ranged across various languages, literatures, historical periods and theoretical perspectives. The department seeks to help each student craft a unique project and find the resources across the university to support and enrich her chosen field of study. The excellence of student dissertations has been recognized by several prizes, both within Yale and by the American Comparative Literature Association.

2012 – Present

Recent PhD Dissertations

Postdramatic African Theater and Critique of Representation Oluwakanyinsola Ajayi

Troubling Diaspora: Literature Across the Arabic Atlantic Phoebe Carter

The Contrafacta of Thomas Watson and Simon Goulart: Resignifying the Polyphonic Song in 16th-century England and France Joseph Gauvreau

Of Unsound Mind: Madness and Mental Health in Asian American Literature Carrie Geng

Cultural Capitals: Postwar Yiddish between Warsaw and Buenos Aires Rachelle Grossman

Blindness, Deafness, and Cripping the Grounds of Comparison in Comparative Literature Kathleen Ong

Counter-Republics of Letters: Politics, Publishing, and the Global Novel Elisa Sotgiu

Red Feminism: The Politics and Poetics of Liberation Botagoz Ussen Correlative Object Ontology: Pragmatism and Objects of Literary Interpretation Mehmet Yildiz

‘Through the Looking Glass’: The Narrative Performance of Anarkali Aisha Dad

Indeterminate “Greekness”: A Diasporic and Transnational Poetics Ilana Freedman

Imagined Mothers: The Construction of Italy, Ancient Greece, and Anglo-American Hegemony Francesca Bellei

The Untimely Avant-Garde: Literature, Politics, and Transculturation in the Sinosphere (1909-2020) Fangdai Chen

Recovering the Language of Lament: Modernism, Catastrophe, and Exile Sarah Corrigan

Beyond Diaspora:The Off Home in Jewish Literature from Latin America and Israel Lana Jaffe Neufeld

Artificial Humanities: A Literary Perspective on Creating and Enhancing Humans from Pygmalion to Cyborgs Nina Begus

Music and Exile in Twentieth-Century German, Italian, and Polish Literature Cecily Cai

We Speak Violence: How Narrative Denies the Everyday Rachael Duarte Riascos

Anticlimax: The Multilingual Novel at the Turn of the 21st Century Matylda Figlerowicz

Forgetting to Remember: An Approach to Proust’s Recherche Lara Roizen

The Event of Literature:An Interval in a World of Violence Petra Taylor

The English Baroque:The Logic of Excess in Early Modern Literature Hudson Vincent

Porte Planète; Ville Canale –parisian knobs /visually/ turned to \textual\ currents Emma Zofia Zachurski

‘…not a poet but a poem’: A Lacanian study of the subject of the poem Marina Connelly The Tune That Can No Longer Be Recognized: Late Medieval Chinese Poetry and Its Affective Others Jasmine Hu The Invention of the Art Film: Authorship and French Cultural Policy Joseph Pomp Apocalypticism in the Arabic Novel William Tamplin The Sound of Prose: Rhythm, Translation, Orality Thomas Wisniewski

The New Austerity in Syrian Poetry Daniel Behar

Mourning the Living: Africa and the Elegy on Screen Molly Klaisner

Art Beyond the Norms: Art of the Insane, Art Brut, and the Avant-Garde from Prinzhorn to Dubuffet (1922-1949) Raphael Koenig

Words, Images and the Self: Iconoclasm in Late Medieval English Literature Yun Ni

Europe and the Cultural Politics of Mediterranean Migrations Argyro Nicolaou

Voice of Power, Voice of Terror: Lyric, Violence, and the Greek Revolution Simos Zenios

Every Step a New Movement: Anarchism in the Stalin-Era Literature of the Absurd and its Post-Soviet Adaptations Ania Aizman

Kino-Eye, Kino-Bayonet: Avant-Garde Documentary in Japan, France, and the USSR Julia Alekseyeva

Ambient Meaning: Mood, Vibe, System Peli Grietzer

Year of the Titan: Percy Bysshe Shelley and Ancient Poetry Benjamin Sudarsky

Metropolitan Morning: Loss, Affect, and Metaphysics in Buenos Aires, 1920-1940 Juan Torbidoni

Sophisticated Players: Adults Writing as Children in the Stalin Era and Beyond Luisa Zaitseva

Collecting as Cultural Technique: Materialistic Interventions into History in 20th Century China Guangchen Chen

Pathways of Transculturation: Chinese Cultural Encounters with Russia and Japan (1880-1930) Xiaolu Ma

Beyond the Formal Law: Making Cases in Roman Controversiae and Tang Literary Judgments Tony Qian

Alternative Diplomacies: Writing in Early Twentieth-Century Shanghai, Istanbul, and Beyond? Alice Xiang

The Literary Territorialization of Manchuria: Rethinking National and Transnational Literature in East Asia from the Frontier Miya Qiong Xie World Literature and the Chinese Compass, 1942-2012 Yanping Zhang

Anatomy of ‘Decadence’ Henry Bowles

Medicine As Storytelling: Emplotment Strategies in Doctor-Patient Encounters and Beyond (1870-1830) Elena Fratto

Platonic Footnotes: Figures of Asymmetry in Ancient Greek Thought Katie Deutsch

Children’s Literature Grows Up Christina Phillips Mattson

Humor as Epiphanic Awareness and Attempted Self-Transcendence Curtis Shonkwiler

Ethnicity, Ethnogenesis and Ancestry in the Early Iron Age Aegean as Background to and through the Lens of the Iliad Guy Smoot

The Modern Stage of Capitalism: The Drama of Markets and Money (1870-1930) Alisa Sniderman

Repenting Roguery: Penance in the Spanish Picaresque Novel and the Arabic and Hebrew Maqāma Emmanuel Ramírez Nieves

The “Poetics of Diagram” John Kim

Dreaming Empire: European Writers in the Fascist Era Robert Kohen

The Poetics of Love in Prosimetra across the Medieval Mediterranean Isabelle Levy

Renaissance Error: Digression from Ariosto to Milton Luke Taylor

The New Voyager: Theory and Practice of South Asian Literary Modernisms Rita Banerjee

Be an Outlaw, Be a Hero: Cinematic Figures of Urban Banditry and Transgression in Brazil, France, and the Maghreb Maryam Monalisa Gharavi

Bāgh-e Bi-Bargi: Aspects of Time and Presence in the Poetry of Mehdi Akhavān Sāles Marie Huber

Freund-schaft: Capturing Aura in an Unframed Literary Exchange Clara Masnatta

Class, Gender and Indigeneity as Counter-discourses in the African Novel: Achebe, Ngugi, Emecheta, Sow Fall and Ali Fatin Abbas

The Empire of Chance: War, Literature, and the Epistemic Order of Modernity Anders Engberg-Pedersen

Poetics of the unfinished: illuminating Paul Celan’s “Eingedunkelt” Thomas Connolly

Towards a Media History of Writing in Ancient Italy Stephanie Frampton Character Before the Novel: Representing Moral Identity in the Age of Shakespeare Jamey Graham

Transforming Trauma: Memory and Slavery in Black Atlantic Literature since 1830 Raquel Kennon

Renaissance Romance: Rewarding the Boundaries of Fiction Christine S. Lee

Psychomotor Aesthetics: Conceptions of Gesture and Affect in Russian and American Modernity, 1910s-1920s Ana Olenina

Melancholy, Ambivalence, Exhaustion: Responses to National Trauma in the Literature and Film of France and China Erin Schlumpf

The Poetics of Human-Computer Interaction Dennis Tenen

Novelizing the Muslim Wars of Conquest: The Christian Pioneers of the Arabic Historical Novel Luke Leafgren

Secret Lives of the City: Reimagining the Urban Margins in 20th-Century Literature and Theory, from Surrealism to Iain Sinclair Jennifer Hui Bon Hoa

Archaic Greek Memory and Its Role in Homer Anita Nikkanen

Deception Narratives and the (Dis)Pleasure of Being Cheated: The Cases of Gogol, Nabokov, Mamet, and Flannery O’Connor Svetlana Rukhelman

Aesthetic Constructs and the Work of Play in 20th Century Latin American and Russian Literature Natalya Sukhonos

Stone, Steel, Glass: Constructions of Time in European Modernity Christina Svendsen

See here for a full list of dissertations since 1904 .

Founded as a graduate program in 1904 and joining with the undergraduate Literature Concentration in 2007, Harvard’s Department of Comparative Literature operates at the crossroads of multilingualism, literary study, and media history.

© 2023 President and Fellows of Harvard College

Sign up to receive news and information about upcoming events, exhibitions, and more

In Memoriam: Donald L. Fanger, Harry Levin Professor of Literature (Emeritus)

Fas awards honor faculty achievements of two of our professors.

• Accessibility
• Digital Accessibility
• Report Copyright Infringement
• Institute for World Literature
• CompLit Intranet (Protected)
• Paraphrasis Podcast

Comparative Literature

Share this page.

Harvard’s Department of Comparative Literature is one of the most dynamic and diverse in the country. Its impressive faculty has included such scholars as Harry Levine, Claudio Guillén, and Barbara Johnson. You will study literatures from a wide range of historical periods and cultures while learning to conduct cutting-edge research through an exhilarating scope of methods and approaches.

Your dissertation research is well supported by Harvard’s unparalleled library system, the largest university collection in the world, comprising 70 libraries with combined holdings of over 16 million items.

Recent student dissertations include “Imagined Mothers: The Construction of Italy, Ancient Greece, and Anglo-American Hegemony,” “The Untimely Avant-Garde: Literature, Politics and Transculturation in the Sinosphere (1909-2020),” and “Artificial Humanities: A Literary Perspective on Creating and Enhancing Humans from Pygmalion to Cyborgs.”

In addition to securing faculty positions at academic institutions such as Princeton University, Emory University, and Tufts University, graduates have gone on to careers in contiguous fields including the visual arts, music, anthropology, philosophy, and medicine.  Others have chosen alternative careers in film production, administration, journalism, and law.

 Additional information on the graduate program is available from the Department of Comparative Literature and requirements for the degree are detailed in Policies .

Admissions Requirements

Please review the admissions requirements and other information before applying. You can find degree program-specific admissions requirements below and access additional guidance on applying from the Department of Comparative Literature .

Writing Sample

The writing sample is supposed to demonstrate your ability to engage in literary criticism and/or theory. It can be a paper written for a course or a section of a senior thesis or essay. It is usually between 10 and 20 pages. Do not send longer papers with instructions to read an excerpt; you should edit the sample so that it is not more than 20 pages. Writing samples should be in English, although candidates are permitted to submit an additional writing sample written in a different language.

Statement of Purpose

The statement of purpose should give the admissions committee a clear sense of your individual interests and strengths. Applicants are not required to indicate a precise field of specialization, but it is helpful to tell us about your aspirations and how the Department of Comparative Literature might help in attaining these goals. The statement of purpose should be one to four pages in length.

Personal Statement

Standardized tests.

GRE General: Optional GRE Subject: Optional

Theses and Dissertations

Theses & Dissertations for Comparative Literature

See list of Comparative Literature faculty

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Questions about the program.

ELT Theses and Dissertations

• Research Groups & Labs
• ELT Theses & Dissertations
• ELIT Theses & Dissertations
• Recent Publications
• Undergraduate Research

Last Updated:

  elt theses and dissertations.

Tweets by METUFLE

Follow @METUFLE

 © Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Education, Department of Foreign Language Education, Üniversiteler Mahallesi, Dumlupınar Bulvarı No:1, 06800 Çankaya/Ankara

Open Access Theses and Dissertations

Thursday, April 18, 8:20am (EDT): Searching is temporarily offline. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to bring searching back up as quickly as possible.

Advanced research and scholarship. Theses and dissertations, free to find, free to use.

Advanced search options

Browse by author name (“Author name starts with…”).

Find ETDs with:

Written in any language English Portuguese French German Spanish Swedish Lithuanian Dutch Italian Chinese Finnish Greek Published in any country US or Canada Argentina Australia Austria Belgium Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile China Colombia Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Ireland Italy Japan Latvia Lithuania Malaysia Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Peru Portugal Russia Singapore South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand UK US Earliest date Latest date

Sorted by Relevance Author University Date

Only ETDs with Creative Commons licenses

Results per page: 30 60 100

October 3, 2022. OATD is dealing with a number of misbehaved crawlers and robots, and is currently taking some steps to minimize their impact on the system. This may require you to click through some security screen. Our apologies for any inconvenience.

Recent Additions

See all of this week’s new additions.

About OATD.org

OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions . OATD currently indexes 7,221,548 theses and dissertations.

About OATD (our FAQ) .

Visual OATD.org

We’re happy to present several data visualizations to give an overall sense of the OATD.org collection by county of publication, language, and field of study.

You may also want to consult these sites to search for other theses:

• Google Scholar
• NDLTD , the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations. NDLTD provides information and a search engine for electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), whether they are open access or not.
• Proquest Theses and Dissertations (PQDT), a database of dissertations and theses, whether they were published electronically or in print, and mostly available for purchase. Access to PQDT may be limited; consult your local library for access information.

• [email protected]

Comparative Analysis

Paper instructions: Comparative Analysis Paper: The purpose of this paper is to learn how to use multiple sources analytically. Often students organize research papers source-by-source, discussing the research of one author followed by another. This paper asks you to move away from this method and instead organize your paper around a topic, discussing the contradictions, similarities, debates and points-of-view that scholars hold on this topic. Research: Choose two articles from the class readings that address a common theme or topic. You must choose a different article from the one you used in the first assignment. Also note, you cannot use Peggy McIntosh’s article for this assignment either. Before you begin your analysis, make sure you understand each author’s central research question and their thesis. Also make note of contradictions and debates within the articles themselves and between the authors.

Use the following questions to guide your research: • What research question guides each author? How are these the same or different? • What is the thesis or central argument of each author? Do they agree or disagree? • What is the scope or range of their discussion? Are they talking about the same historical time period? The same groups of women? The same issue or problem? • What might one author have to say to the other author? • Ultimately, what have you learned about the topic, our society and ourselves from this pair of readings?

What to Include in Your Comparative Analysis: •Your paper should attempt to compare the perspectives of the authors, acknowledging each throughout your discussion, but using your own voice to discuss the topic.

• Organize the paper around the themes and ideas that come up in each of the articles. As you discuss each of these sub-topics/themes/ideas, highlight the similarities and differences of the various points of view, arguments and/or research methodology.

• When you take each author’s position into consideration, what have you learned about the topic and/or issue? What is the significance of this learning experience in terms of your own intellectual development?

i will provide more info PLEASE READ MY ATTACHMENTS this is a undergraduate uni level course, please read directions carefully.

first article:

Melanie Beres, “It Just Happens’: Negotiating Casual Heterosexual Sex,” pp. 121-131

Second article:

C. J. Pascoe, “Compulsive Heterosexuality: Masculinity and Dominance

PLEASE SEE https://moodle.yorku.ca/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?id=492348

AND THIS IS AN ARTICLE REVIEW *EXAMPLE* https://moodle.yorku.ca/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?id=492545 PLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET AN AMAZING DISCOUNT 🙂