This seminar returns to a foundational question of our discipline: Why compare, today?  In an era defined by rapid technological shifts, ecological crises, and rising political divergences, the ethical and methodological imperatives of comparison require urgent revisiting. While the roots of Comparative Literature were grounded in a strict focus on Western European and Classical canons, the field has since expanded across regional, genre, temporal, and theoretical boundaries. This seminar seeks to evaluate how these shifts have fundamentally altered the mechanics and the "why" of our comparative work in the contemporary moment. 

We suggest we are in a unique opportunity now to reconsider what is at stake when we place cultural objects in conversation across disparate contexts. We are particularly interested in the "unlikely comparison" and the epistemological limits of the comparative gesture. By exploring the friction between seemingly incommensurate objects, we can better understand the boundaries of what comparison can—and should—achieve today.

At its most vibrant, Comparative Literature is a space of radical experimentation. The goal of this seminar is to rediscover the intellectual excitement of forging entirely new connections across the humanities as Comparatists. We invite scholars to submit abstracts that not only "do" comparison but also reflect on the theoretical conditions that make such work possible in our current historical juncture. We welcome papers that take bold risks and prioritize discovery over traditional justification. We are less interested in why you have permission to compare your chosen subjects, and more interested in what happens when you do.

Topics and approaches may include, but are entirely not limited to:

• Geographical and Linguistic Leaps: Non-intuitive pairings across distant regions and languages.
• Trans-historical Collisions: Comparisons that leap across centuries or millennia to find unexpected resonances.
• Genre and Disciplinary Clashes: Placing disparate texts/films/artifacts side by side.
• Theoretical Friction: Applying frameworks to texts, regions, or eras that actively resist them.
• State of the Discipline: Meta-reflections on how the "unjustifiable" comparison might be exactly what the humanities need to survive and thrive today.
• The Limits of Comparison: Papers that theorize when and why objects resist comparative frameworks.
• Comparative Ethics in Crisis: How our current moment in time necessitates—with its web of emergencies and chaos—new comparative strategies.
• Genealogies of the Field: Reflections on how the shift away from Eurocentrism has redefined the "comparative" in Comparative Literature.