Embrace an ExpansIve Vision of Literary Study

With a faculty composed of renowned scholars and dedicated teachers, the MIT Literature section offers a wide range of courses across time periods, international cultures, and languages. Literature courses at MIT examine how multiple expressive forms, such as novels, poems, plays, films, and visual art, not only make imaginative and critical sense of history and the present but also project us into a range of possible futures.

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RECENT NEWS

March 18 @ 7PM | Grolier Books Poetry Bookshop presents, Joshua Bennett

Joshua Bennett reading in-person sign up Please join Grolier Books Poetry Bookshop for a poetry reading by Joshua Bennett with an introduction by Jesse McCarthy ** This event will take place synchronously in-store at 6 Plympton Street and on Zoom ** ** Please sign up...

La Découverte: March 2026 re-publication of Prof. Bruno Perreau’s French edition of Sphères d’injustice: Pour un universalisme minoritaire

Prof. Bruno Perreau's most recent book has been republished in French, in an updated version. This small paperback format is made only for a handful of titles. Sphères d’injustice: Pour un universalisme minoritaire was re-published on March 5th. More...

2026 SHASS Senior Profiles: Literature Major & Student Worker, Kelly Kim!

Literature major Management major What’ve you enjoyed most about your area of study? Was there a particular discovery, new skill or way of thinking, or insight that you found especially valuable? Please share an example from your favorite class or experience. The...

Boston Globe | Book Column: Joshua Bennett’s new book sings an ode to the America that was, is, and will be

The Boston Globe reviews Literature's Prof. Joshua Bennett’s book of poetry, We (The People of the United States). “In some ways, it feels like the kind of thing I’ve been working on forever,” Bennett says. “I wanted to tell the truth about who and what constitutes my...

March 5 @ 6:00 PM | MIT LIST Arts Center: Katie Kitamura presenting Flare-Up in conversation with David Levine

MIT List Visual Arts Center, in partnership with Triple Canopy, presents a reading of Flare-Up, a novel in progress by Katie Kitamura with Goldin+Senneby. The duo’s work, on view at the List Center’s exhibition of the same name, examines the language of autoimmunity...

2026 SHASS Senior Profiles: Literature Major, Sabine Chu!

Literature Major & Mathematics Major What have you most enjoyed about studying literature? Was there a particular discovery, new skill or way of thinking, or insight that you found especially valuable? Please share an example from your favorite class or...

NPR | The People Can Fly by Joshua Bennett examines the challenges African-American prodigies have faced

MIT professor and author Joshua Bennett speaks with NPR's Michel Martin about his new memoir and cultural history book, The People Can Fly: American Promise, Black Prodigies, and the Greatest Miracle of All Time. Learn more here...

Prof. Arthur Bahr on 21.01 Compass: Questions of value, incommensurability, and Winter Olympic Skating

In honor of the Winter Olympics (Men’s Short later today!), and since we’re thinking about questions of value and incommensurability in the Compass class right now, Prof. Arthur Bahr made a brief video that explains the current scoring system of figure skating and...

Prof. Stephanie Ann Frampton receives prestigious Scholar-in-Residence fellowship at the Humanities Center at Texas Tech University!

The Humanities Center welcomes Dr. Stephanie Ann Frampton (MIT) as Texas Tech University's Spring 2026 Scholar-in-Residence! Stephanie Ann Frampton is a writer and scholar based at MIT in Cambridge, MA. She has published widely in on the history of books and...

Feb 26 | WGS Luncheon presents, “The Pulse of Ethical Machine Learning in Health” (with Dr. Marzyeh Ghassemi) & “AI and Human Rights in Technofascist Times” (with Prof. Catherine D’Ignazio)

Join us in exploring the intersections and impact of AI, Health, and Gender! The Pulse of Ethical Machine Learning in Health (Dr. Marzyeh Ghassemi ) Machine learning in health has made impressive progress in recent years, powered by an increasing availability of...

EVENTS

18

March

WGS presents, “Gender, Empire, and AI: Symposium and Design Workshop”

WGS presents, "Gender, Empire, and AI: Symposium and Design Workshop"

Date March 18, 2026Time 9:00 am - 5:00 pmVenue MIT Schwarzman College of Computing

30

March

Lit Tea

Date March 30, 2026Time 4:15 pm - 5:45 pmVenue MIT Building 14N-417Category Tea Time

30

March

Ancient & Medieval Studies Colloquium presents, Dan Small “Practices of Slavery in Mediterranean Europe, 1250-1500”

Ancient & Medieval Studies Colloquium presents, Dan Small "Practices of Slavery in Mediterranean Europe, 1250-1500"

Date March 30, 2026Time 5:15 pm - 7:00 pmVenue MIT Building 14E-304

FUN FACTS

The Literature concentration takes about three approved subjects to complete. Lit concentrators often go on to minoring or majoring in Literature!

During a 1998 talk at MIT titled, “Devil Girl From Mars’: Why I Write Science Fiction” Octavia Butler explained how media inspired her to start writing.

Literature minors can choose to focus their studies on specific literary complexes as well as film, ancient & medieval studies, and more!

William Carlos Williams was an American poet, writer, and physician of pediatrics and general medicine.