CLIFF 2026 - 30th Anniversary Event

Comparative Literature Intra-student and Faculty Forum (CLIFF) has been a cornerstone of the Department of Comparative Literature since 1996. Dedicated to interdisciplinarity and intellectual vigor, our graduate student-organized conference embodies the values that form the basis of Comparative Literature. In previous years, CLIFF’s conference-wide themes have inspired graduate students from disciplines across the University—as well as scholars from universities across the country and independent scholars—to share and discuss their work. For the 30th anniversary of CLIFF, we are dedicated to honoring this long history of the conference while opening possibilities for its future. Our event will feature an opening speech by Comparative Literature Professor Will Stroebel; three panels organized and presented by graduate students; and a closing roundtable from organizers and alumni reflecting on CLIFF's past, present, and future.

CLIFF 2026 Program

Friday, February 13, 2026
Location: Rackham Assembly Hall, 4th floor

8:30 am - 9:00 am Breakfast

9:00 am - 10:00 am Opening speech by Dr. Will Stroebel (Modern Greek & Comparative Literature)
“Comparative Literature at the Borderscape”

10:00 am - 10:15 am Coffee Break

10:15 am - 11:45 am Panel 1: Historicism, New and Used
Organizers: James Kiselik & Srimati Ghosal
Respondent: Dr. Will Stroebel
Presenters:
Oğuz Kayır (Film, Television, and Media), “Historicizing Otherwise: A Feminist Archive in Contemporary Turkish Art”
Dibyangee Saha (English), “The Spatial Turn in Print Archives: Reading IPTA’s Unity from a Distance”
Srimati Ghosal (Comparative Literature), “Aesthetics of Audacity, Aesthetics of Advertisement: Encountering the Tricontinental in American Archives”
James Kiselik (English), “Usufructuary Historicism”

11:45 am - 12:45 pm Lunch

12:45 pm - 2:15 pm Panel 2: Media as Mediation
Organizers: Nathan Omprasadham & Sanjana Ramanathan
Respondent: Dr. Toni Bushner (Digital Studies Institute)
Presenters:
Alexa Kelly (English), “‘Are We All In Your Story, Alan?’: Fictionality, Ludic Form, and Alan Wake II”
Dora Gao (History), “‘Tomorrow Comes’: Learning to Grieve through Clair Obscur: Expedition 33”
Maryam Khan (English), “‘Rot as Memory’: Obsolescence and the Afterlives of Early Net Art”
Nathan Omprasadham (English) & Sanjana Ramanathan (Comparative Literature), “‘Tasting Fragments’: the Materiality of Language Loss in Venba”

2:15 pm - 2:30 pm Coffee Break

2:30 pm - 4:00 pm Panel 3: Within/Beyond the Boundaries of Caribbean Studies
Organizers: Jeremy M. Santiago-Rojas & Amanda M. La O Cartaya
Respondent: Dr. Supriya Nair (English)
Presenters:
Amanda M. La O Cartaya (Comparative Literature), “Beneath Structures of Power: Analyzing Jose Marti’s Work Through the Social Suffering Framework”
Jeremy M. Santiago-Rojas (Comparative Literature), “Tracing Filipino-Boricua Relations in the Archive”
Jodi Berry (English & Education), “Managing Imaginations: Female Castaway Narratives and Educational Exports”
Anaridia Molina (English), “Digital Imaginaries Within and Beyond the Boundaries of Caribbean Literature: In the Same Boats & Visualizing Caribbean Literature”

4:00 pm - 4:15 pm Coffee Break

4:15 pm to 5:45 pm Roundtable with former CLIFF organizers

6:00 pm to 7:30 pm Reception dinner