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Regular Faculty

Professor Damian Stocking

Damian Stocking, Chair

Professor, Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture Department
B.A., UC Berkeley; M.A., Ph.D., UCLA
A recipient of the Linda and Tod White Teaching Prize, Damian Stocking teaches courses such as European Literary Tradition and Too Soon? A Comedic Apology.
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Stephen Klemm

Assistant Professor, Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture
B.A., University of Iowa; M.A., University of Chicago; M.A., Ph.D., Cornell University
Stephen Klemm specializes in German literature and philosophy from the 18th-20th century with particular interest in German Romanticism, Existentialism, and Critical Theory. His language and literature courses examine how language, literature, and philosophy interact and emerge from within concrete social and historical settings.
Professor Jacob Mackey

Jacob Mackey

Associate Professor, Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture
B.A., University of Texas at Austin; M.St., Christ Church, Oxford; Ph.D., Princeton University
Jacob L. Mackey specializes in Greek and Latin languages and literature, ancient religions, ancient childhood, and approaches to ancient cultures that are informed by the cognitive sciences.  

Non-Tenure Track Faculty

Alexander Gardner

Alexander Gardner

Visiting Assistant Professor, Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture
B.A., University of California, Irvine; M.A., Ph.D., Yale University
Alex Gardner specializes in 19 th and 20 th century German literature. He is particularly interested in aesthetic responses to modernity, experimental poetry, fairy tales, collectors, and quotation as a literary device. He currently teaches courses on Grimms’ Fairy Tales and the history of German film at Occidental. His language classes emphasize interactive exercises, performance, and critical engagement with German literature. When he is not teaching, he writes and performs music.
Syndey Mitsunaga-Whitten

Sydney K. Mitsunaga-Whitten

Resident Instructor, Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture
A.B., º£½ÇÉçÇø; M.A., Yale University
Sydney Mitsunaga-Whitten specializes in modern Irish literature, with a particular focus on the works of James Joyce and Oscar Wilde. She also teaches courses in Greek and Latin language and…
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Julia Sushytska

Resident Assistant Professor, Comparative Studies in Literature and Cultures/Russian
B.A., John Carroll University; M.A., Ph.D., Stony Brook University
Julia Sushytska specializes in 20th century European and Eastern European philosophy, and teaches courses that bring into focus Eastern Europe as the in-between of the Western European and…

Madeline Thayer

Visiting Assistant Professor, Comparative Studies in Literature & Culture
B.A., Wellesley College; M.A., Ph.D., University of Southern California

Advisory Committee

Susan Grayson

Professor, Spanish and French Studies
A.B., M.A., Ph.D., UCLA; Ph.D., Wright Institute Los Angeles Attestation d’études, Université de Bordeaux
Grayson has taught the 18th- and 19th-century French novel, French feminism, women's studies, literary criticism, and French grammar and composition at all levels.

Affiliated Faculty

Professor Lisa Sousa

Lisa Sousa

Norman Bridge Professor, History
B.A., M.A., Ph.D., UCLA
Sousa specializes in the histories of colonial Latin America, indigenous peoples and languages of Mexico, and women, gender and sexuality.
Professor Meimei Zhang

Meimei Zhang

Assistant Professor, Asian Studies
B.A., Beijing Foreign Studies University; M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Contact Comparative Studies in Literature & Culture
Johnson Hall 407