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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 novels, poems, plays, films, visual art, and other media make imaginative and critical sense of history and the present.

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RECENT NEWS

Lit Tea x Artfinity | Ekphrastic poetry prize winners and brilliant performances from the Literature student community

This project is presented as part of Artfinity, an Institute-sponsored event celebrating creativity and community at MIT. Artfinity is organized by the Office of the Arts. Lit Tea x Artfinity showcased MIT’s literary arts, hosted by MIT’s Literature Section. Expanding...

Top 200 Colleges for Indigenous Students: MIT featured with Prof Caitlyn Doyle’s subjects in Indigenous Film and Literature

The 2024-2025 Top 200 Colleges for Indigenous Students: Winds of Change 2024-2025 Special College Issue List of Top Schools is unlike any other college ranking Choosing a college may be daunting, but we can help. We have designed this compilation of schools to...

Feb 26 @ 5PM | Harvard English Department’s Renaissance Colloquium presents, Shankar Raman, “‘The Seeds of Time’: Infinitesimal Macbeth.”

Date: Wednesday, February 26, 2025 @ 5:00pm Location: Barker Center, Room 316, Harvard University, 12 Quincy St, Cambridge MA, 02138 Sponsor: Harvard English Department's Renaissance Colloquium More information

MIT Human Insight Collaborative launches SHASS Faculty Fellows program: Spring 2026 inaugural group includes Prof Jessica Ruffin

The new initiative will allow selected faculty to focus on their research, build community, and pursue mentorship opportunities. Benjamin Daniel | School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences A new initiative will offer faculty in the MIT School of Humanities,...

Feb 20 | Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard presents, Jessica Ruffin ‘“What can I hope?”: Race, Abyssal Aesthetics, and the Failure of Beauty

German Studies: New Perspectives Speaker Series “What can I hope?”: Race, Abyssal Aesthetics, and the Failure of Beauty Date and Time: February 20, 2025 05:00PM - 06:30PM Location: Barker Center, Room 133 Speaker: Jessica Ruffin Assistant Professor of Film and Media...

MIT Human Insight Collaborative announces funding awards for inaugural series of projects with one by Lit lecturer Prof Caitlyn Doyle

The selected projects feature “an incredible array of bold, creative proposals and ideas,” says MIT President Sally Kornbluth. Legacy: Understanding Residential Schools Through Indigenous Art with Literature Lecturer, Prof Caitlyn Doyle Legacy: Understanding...

21.01 Compass: A new undergraduate class that explores life’s big questions with Prof Arthur Bahr and other SHASS faculty

Compass is an initiative by MIT faculty across the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. In the Compass class, students and faculty explore fundamental questions and how such questions relate to the everyday decisions we make about what is important to us,...

Dec 5th @ 4PM – Triple Celebration: Peach Blossom Fan, translator Wai-Yee Li, and celebration of Prof Denecke’s The Hsu-Tang Library of Classical Chinese Literature at Harvard

We are delighted to invite you to a roundtable marking a triple celebration: Celebrating the greatest historical play in Chinese history, Kong Shangren’s Peach Blossom Fan Celebrating the poignant new translator by Wai-Yee Li (Harvard University)! Celebrating its...

Dec 4th @ Wellesley | A Special Panel Celebrating Han Kang’s Nobel Prize in Literature, with Prof. Wiebke Denecke

A Special Panel Celebrating Han Kang’s Nobel Prize in Literature, with Prof. Wiebke Denecke at Wellesley! Come celebrate Han Kang, Winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, with Prof. Wiebke Denecke at a panel at Wellesley hosted by the Consulate General of the...

Nov 11 | Princeton University: German Department presents, Prof Jessica Ruffin “‘What can I hope?’: Race, Abyssal Aesthetics, and the Failure of Beauty”

Princeton University: German Department, Fall 2024 Lecture Series “What can I hope?”: Race, Abyssal Aesthetics, and the Failure of Beauty November 11, 2024 Monday 4:30 – 6:00 pm 205 East Pyne This talk addresses the function of the beautiful in accounts of...

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EVENTS

March

Ancient & Medieval Studies Colloquium presents, Christopher Foster “Fall of the Scribes, and the Rise of Literati in Han China”

Ancient & Medieval Studies Colloquium presents, Christopher Foster "Fall of the Scribes, and the Rise of Literati in Han China"

Date March 18, 2025Time 5:15 pm - 6:30 pmVenue 14E-304

March

MIT GHI Panel: Humanisms & Renaissances Across World History—A Timely & Casual Conversation

Date March 21, 2025Time 4:00 pm - 5:30 pmVenue The Nexus, 14S-130

March

Lit Tea

Date March 24, 2025Time 4:15 pm - 5:45 pmVenue 14N-417Category Tea Time

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!

Frank Stella’s “Loohooloo” (1995) conference room located at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning references Herman Melville’s novel, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Sea.