Professor and Chair of Comparative Literature Sandra L. Bermann makes you wonder why anyone ever majors in anything but comp lit. “It’s the most international and interdisciplinary study of literature—any literature—possible,” she says. “It’s also analytical. When you put disciplines and cultures together, you have to reflect on why you are bringing them together. Comp lit really makes you think outside your own cultural bubble, which is increasingly important in today’s world.”

The department welcomes all students and courses are taught in English, with readings in English translation (as well as the original language in upper level courses). The approximately 60 majors are proficient in at least one language other than English, and gain a good reading knowledge of a second by graduation.

The department, established in 1975, boasts a faculty with expertise in the languages and literatures of Europe, East Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Near East, the Far East, and South Asia. It attracts students who are equally internationally minded.

Bermann, who is currently president of the American Comparative Literature Association, knows Italian, French, Latin, Spanish, and German. She majored in Italian at Smith College—but only “at the last minute.” A lyric soprano, she had been a music major; the study of opera introduced her to Italian as well as other languages. An ever-deepening love of languages and literatures, especially poetry, drew her to graduate study in comparative literature at Columbia, where she earned her PhD. “Something special is communicated in poetry, in whatever language,” she says, “as the creativity of the reader combines with that of the writer.”

Her own interests include lyric poetry, literary theory, and issues of translation. “I just kept on doing what I loved,” she says, “and this is where it led. I feel very lucky.”

Bermann also spent many years as comp lit’s director of undergraduate studies, served as master of Stevenson Hall, and continues to serve as a University marshal, leading academic processions at Opening Exercises, Baccalaureate, and Commencement. Now associate chief marshal, she has no intention of laying down her mace anytime soon. “I enjoy being with the students for these significant ceremonies,” she says, “I like saying hello to them and, when the time comes, goodbye.” She has shared some special hellos and goodbyes as the mother of three Princetonians—Sloan D. Bermann ’02, Suzanne E. Bermann ’04, and Grant A. Bermann ’09.

Teaching and research flourish together at Princeton, she believes, partly because the University encourages faculty to create new items in the curriculum. She points to a new certificate program, originating in her department, in Translation and Intercultural Communication. This September the department will offer a new core course called “Thinking Translation: Language Transfer and Cultural Communication,” the result of collaboration by faculty members from some 14 departments. Bermann points out that translation is cultural as well as linguistic: “ Words like ‘democracy’ or ‘constitution’ mean different things in different parts of the world.”

Princeton and its faculty, she says, “make interdisciplinary and collaborative work easy. I think there will be a lot of innovation in the humanities in the years to come, and Princeton is poised to be a leader in the field.”