Current Graduate Students
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.
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.
Rajaa Moini
Born in Karach Pakistan, Rajaa Mohini is currently pursuing her love of literature as a Fullbright Scholar at Purdue. A journalist by profession, her work lies at the intersection of literature, religion, and philosophy, exploring the process of living, grieving, and dying in a world tormented by apocalypses of too many different kinds. She is also completely obsessed with things monstrous, magical, and occult (in books and otherwise).
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.