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The research Master's programme Comparative Literary Studies is a two-year programme (120 EC). Each year is divided into two semesters, running from September until January and from February until June. A semester is divided into two study periods. 

Curriculum

The programme consists of core courses, electives (including a possible internship or semester abroad), and a Master's thesis.

This is a demanding, reading-intensive programme. You should expect to be reading several hundred pages of primary (literary) and secondary (theoretical) materials per week. You should also expect to be doing quite a lot of writing, both in the form of short assignments and responses, as well as substantial research essays.

Core courses

All core courses are designed to develop an awareness of current debates within literary studies and knowledge of the most important theories and methodologies. You will practice formulating research questions and conducting original research. Through these activities, you will develop skills in the collection, selection and interpretation of sources, as well as writing, presenting and editing results to a professional academic standard. 

Electives

Electives allow you to specialise in particular topics and develop an individual profile. You may also choose to concentrate on the literature of a specific language area (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish).

Below, you can find an overview of courses from the current academic year of this Master's. Please note: The course offer is reviewed yearly. This overview is therefore subject to change.

Thesis (30 EC)

All research Master's students complete their programme with a substantial (30,000-word) thesis written over a six-month period. Here you work one-on-one with a faculty supervisor on an independent research project of your own design. Recent topics include: 

Awards and recognition

Our programme attracts ambitious and dedicated students, and we take pride in giving them the support and push they need to excel. The high quality of the work our students produce is evident from their impressive track record when it comes to winning national and university-wide thesis prizes:

• In 2025, CLS students won both the first and second prize at the for best rMA thesis. The first prize went to Imogen Grigorovich for her thesis A Portrait with No Face: Trans Autofiction in a Time of Trans Visibility. The second prize went to Tom van Bunnik for his thesis Poetry and the Manifold Commons: Towards a Poetics of the Commons from John Clare to Juliana Spahr.
• In 2024, CLS student Bilyana Manolova won the Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ Award for best Master's thesis with her thesis 
• In 2023, Mara van Herpen was first runner up the for her thesis Geologic Testimony: The Fossil as Climate Witness in Contemporary Culture.
• In 2022, the OSL Award went to Pascale Feldkamp Moreira, for her thesis 
• In 2022, the Herman Servotte Prize of the KU Leuven was awarded to CLS student Anneloek Scholten for her thesis The Periodical as a Playhouse: Modernist Drama in the Little Magazines.
• In 2022, Pauw Vos won the second prize for the UU Humanities Faculty Thesis Prize.

Going abroad

Students are highly encouraged to spend a semester abroad in their second year of study. Going abroad is a valuable way to experience the research field from an international perspective, make contact with scholars and graduate students at other universities, and help you to develop your academic profile. Comparative Literary Studies has exchange agreements with comparable literature programmes at the , , , , as well as , the , and the . In the past, students also have gone to Lund, Sydney, Paris, Lyon, Boston, Los Angeles, Binghamton, Naples and Madrid, among other places.

Teaching methods

• lectures (5%)
• seminars (45%)
• independent study (including thesis, 50%)
• internship: optional
• group work: integrated into the seminars

Group size

Core seminars and elective seminars usually have between 15 and 25 participants, which allows for a strong group dynamic. Tutorials are often taught one-to-one, though they may go up to five students (and often do so in cases of tutorials based on a pre-given topic offered by a senior researcher).

Interactive sessions

Given the relatively small number of students per cohort, teaching is interactive and intensive. Students are encouraged to participate actively in seminars in the form of discussion papers and presentations as well as in the chairing of discussions. Breakout discussions within the framework of classes also occur regularly. Peer review is a structural feature of the core seminars that helps to enhance students' critical editorial skills as well as their professional skill in giving and receiving criticism from colleagues.

Assessment

• shorter written pieces
• research assignment combined with a longer final essay
• active participation in the seminars

The core Masterclasses feature a host of creative and interdisciplinary approaches and assignments, including excursions, making short films, , collaborative essays, making an online exhibition, organizing a public literary event, making podcasts or academic blogs, interviews, etc. With the tutorials, the tutor and student agree on an appropriate mode of assessment and on appropriate deadlines. 

Training in academic writing and editing

It has become common practice for students to write their final essays in phases (i.e. a first version, peer review, and rewriting). This means that you will be trained in academic editing and can bring your own writing skills up to a high level.