Current Graduate Students

Rida Altaf 
Rida has a Fulbright Fellowship from Pakistan for the MA in Comparative Literature at Purdue University. 
Rida, from Karachi, Pakistan, likes books with speculative elements. Magic systems, djinn, and cults are welcome. One may argue that she has not ‘grown up’ yet but she firmly believes that speculative fiction tends to explore great, philosophical ideas that cannot be otherwise elucidated in ‘realistic’ terms. That’s why she wrote her undergraduate thesis on the Japanese grief-experience using only magical realist books for her arguments. Now, she is excited to delve further into this research interest. Her ambitions might take her into the more technical world of futuristic science fiction and its exploration of the occult. Some other facts: Rida also writes (mostly speculative fiction) and was part of the Salam Award Workshop in 2023. She teaches (sometimes, mostly middle- school kids) English. She’s also a slush reader for Diabolical Plots currently (which means she gets to read hundreds of spec-fic stories!). But don’t let that fool you: her interests are not that narrow. In truth, she will read almost anything if there’s a cup of tea next to her. In any case, she’s excited to geek out about books this year with the rest of CMPL batch!”

Marisa Bryans
Marisa earned a bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in Medieval Studies from Indiana University, and a Master’s degree in English with a focus on Medieval Literature from Purdue University. They have taught ENGL 10600 and worked in the OWL and are dedicated to student’s learning and ability to engage in language ad literature, They are mainly interested in queerness and gender fluidity in Medieval English and French texts and their research is also primarily focused on cross-dressing and medieval material culture. They came with a wonderful CLA Research Grant into the CMPL PhD program with a MA from the English Department at Purdue.

Anurati Dutta
Anurati joins us for the PhD in Comparative Literature at Purdue University. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University, India. Her research focuses on the intersections of food, gender, sexuality, culture, and politics. She is also a Citizen Historian with the 1947 Partition Archive. An advocate for women's and queer rights, Anurati has collaborated with multiple non-profits. Outside of academia and activism, she indulges her artistic passions through painting and photography, capturing moments that intrigue her. She will be a Teaching Assistant in the School of Languages and Cultures this coming year.

Xiaoyang Guo
Xiaoyang joins us for his studies towards the PhD in Comparative Literature in August 2024. He earned his B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature from Soochow University and his M.A. in Comparative Literature from Sichuan University. His research interests lie in Chinese and Japanese literature and intellectual history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with a primary focus on issues of identity. Beyond his main field of study, he is also passionate about the visual arts and mass communication.

Sarah Jaran
Sarah earned a bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature from Lycoming College and a Master’s in Medieval Studies from Western Michigan University. She spent two years teaching high-school level Latin and French in New haven, CT. These experiences have helped to shape her interest in cultural literary analysis, particularly focusing on connections across English, French, and Latin in the Medieval Period. Sarah also has a keen interest in food culture, specifically representations of food in texts.

Gwénaël Jouin
Monitored a session in April titled “Sense and Senses in Milton's Garden and Other Places” at the Renaissance Society of America. The session was sponsored by the Taiwan Association of Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Society. The presenters were Pr. Chia-Yin Huang from the Chinese Culture University in Taipei, Taiwan, William Chien-Wei Yang from the National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan, and Gwénaël Jouin. Gwénaël presented a paper titled “Milton and the Poetics of Flowers” and he is now working towards its publication.
Gwénaël also earned a Research Assistantship to work on Pr. Angelica Duran's and Pr. Islam Issa's Milton Across Borders and Media (Oxford UP, 2022/3). He makes sure the articles' footnotes and Works Cited lists match the Oxford University Press format.

Andrew Kroninger
Andrew is entering his first year as a Ph.D. student of Comparative Literature. After having spent the past six years at Middle Tennessee State University earning his B.A. (English), B.S. (German) and M.A.T. (also in German), Andrew is excited to be in West Lafayette and to be a part of Purdue.
Though he will read and study anything put in front of him, his long-term research involves the worldwide influence of Fyodor Dostoevsky on fiction writers and the factors enabling his works to transcend place and time as impactfully as they have. Being fluent in the German language and experienced with Russian, it is his hope that he will be able to combine his passions for language, literature, and history into unique and worthwhile contributions to the field of Comparative Literature.

Ching-Jen Sun
Born in Taiwan, Ching-Jen joined our Comparative Literature PhD program in August 2021 with a 2 year Fulbright Fellowship. He obtained a Master’s degree from the Institute of Foreign Languages and Literatures at National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan. Prior to coming to the US, he worked as an English tutor for eight years, and a translator for five. Ching-Jen is also a baseball player, and a guitarist who released two albums. He completed his Prelims in Comparative Literature with us in Spring 2023 and he successfully defended his prospectus for the dissertation on September 22, 2023 , now being an A.B.D. (all but dissertation) candidate for the Ph.D. His dissertation will be on processes of nation building considering crisis events since 1850, case studies from Germany, Japan, China, and Taiwan.

Diana Alejandra Torres Arias
Diana joins us with a Ross Fellowship for studies in Comparative Literature towards the PhD degree. She has her M.A. degree from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, and did her undergraduate studies in her home country, Ecuador. In addition to being a doctoral student, she is an editor and researcher. She is Managing Editor for Production for the academic journal, Spanish and Portuguese Review. Her work, both academic and literary, has been published in Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, and the United States. She taught in the Department of Languages, Linguistics, and Comparative Literature at Florida Atlantic, and was also a Librarian in the Boca Raton Public Library. Her research revolves around Disability Studies, posthumanism, ecocriticism, postmodernism, and film studies.