The Department of Comparative Literatures begins seeking Teaching Assistants in spring to fill any vacancies for the following year. Please check Handshake for any open TA or Reader positions. https://ucdavis.joinhandshake.com/. For more information on student employment, please visit UCD's Internship and Career Center. Students are expected to apply through Handshake.
Pedagogy in Comparative Literature
Graduate Students in Comparative Literature typically serve as Teaching Assistants (TAs) for COM 5, 6, and/or 7 during their first two years teaching in Comparative Literature (or one year if they enter with a relevant Master’s degree). During fall quarter of the first year in which they TA, they are required to take the following pedagogy course:
- COM 392 - Required for first-time TAs in COM 5, 6, and/or 7, or 10. Offered annually in Fall only. This is a practicum in the teaching of writing in literature courses. It may be offered as UWP 392.
Upon obtaining sufficient experience and training in COM 5-7, graduate students are typically offered Associate Instructor (AI) positions, teaching COM 1, 2, 3, and/or 4 in their third year in the PhD program. Because COM 1-4 satisfies a portion of the University Writing Requirement, it is necessary for graduate student instructors to possess native or near-native fluency in English in order to teach COM 1, 2, 3, or 4. Typically students begin with COM 3. Students whose native language is not English usually will serve as TAs for COM 10 after one or two years in the PhD program.
The first year that students teach in COM 1-4, they are required to take a course in how to teach analytical writing; COM 390 (or equivalent UWP 390 or ENL 393, as judged by the COM Graduate Teaching Supervisor). This course, offered annually, focuses on the methodologies engaged in teaching the literary works required in COM 1-4, and on the practice of teaching analytical writing.
Each and every quarter that students are employed as TAs or AIs they are eligible to enroll in four units of COM 396. These units help students maintain full-time status, but do not require additional class time, and do not count towards degree-completion requirements.
All professional courses (300-level) do not count toward the required units for the Comparative Literature Ph.D.
Orientation
Each Fall the department of Comparative Literature holds a mandatory orientation for its graduate students, Teaching Assistants, and Associate Instructors. This orientation is separate from the Center for Educational Effectiveness (CEE) orientation (required for all graduate student instructors who are teaching for the first time at UC Davis).
TAing and Teaching in Comp Lit
Serving as a TA…
COM 005 — Fairy Tales, Fables, & Parables (4 units)
Course Description: Introduction to fairy tales, fables, and parables as recurrent forms in literature, with such readings as tales from Aesop & Grimm, Chaucer & Shakespeare, Kafka & Borges, Buddhist & Taoist parables, the Arabian Nights, and African American folklore.
COM 006 — Myths & Legends (4 units)
Course Description: Introduction to the comparative study of myths and legends, with readings selected from Near Eastern, Teutonic, Celtic, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, African and Native American literary sources.
COM 007 — Literature of Fantasy & the Supernatural (4 units)
Course Description: Role of fantasy and the supernatural in literature: tales of magic, hallucination, ghosts, and metamorphosis, including diverse authors such as Shakespeare, P'u Sung-Ling, Kafka, Kawabata, Fuentes, and Morrison.
Teaching (once you are more advanced)…
COM 001 — Major Works of the Ancient World (4 units)
Course Description: Introduction, through class discussion and frequent written assignments, to some of the major works of the ancient world (up to 5th century CE) such as The Odyssey, the Bible, Augustine's Confessions, and works by Plato and Confucius. Examined genres include religious texts, the epic, philosophy, drama, poetry.
COM 002 — Major Works of the Medieval & Early Modern World (4 units)
Course Description: Introduction, through class discussion and frequent written assignments, to some of the major works of the medieval and early modern worlds (6th century to the mid-17th century) such as Dante’s Comedy, 1001 Nights, The Tale of Genji, and Elizabethan/Jacobean plays. Examined genres include framed narratives, courtly literature, and early modern drama.
COM 003 — Major Works of the Modern World (4 units)
Course Description: Introduction, through class discussion and frequent written assignments, to some of the major works of the modern world (mid-17th to the mid-20th centuries) such as those by Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Flaubert, Woolf, Lu Xun, Borges and Yeats. Examined genres include realist fiction, modernist fiction, and modernist poetry.
COM 004 — Major Works of the Contemporary World (4 units)
Course Description: Comparative study of selected major Western and non-Western texts composed in the period from 1945 to the present. Intensive focus on writing about these texts, with frequent papers written about these works.