The AILC-ICLA’s research committees are groups of researchers that explore particular research questions around a theme, an issue or a subject area.

There are Standing Research Committees, which concern themselves with substantial research areas of ongoing importance; and Short-Term Research Committees, which address research questions that can be effectively treated in a 3-year period.

Short-term research committees may be renewed for a second term of three years, and then (exceptionally) for a third and final three-year term. Once the nine-year limit has been reached, a short-term research committee ceases its work and is archived, or it may apply to be reconstituted as a standing research committee.

A standing committee may be formed ex nihilo, or by conversion from a short-term research committee.

Once established, research committees report annually to the Executive Council.

It is expected that research committees welcome early-career academics, including postgraduate students, and that they make it clear how ICLA members can apply to join.

The ICLA especially encourages applications that address key research questions in comparative literature today and/or help fill gaps in the areas covered by existing committees, such as: digital humanities, race and ethnicity studies, cultural and social studies, geocriticism and ecocriticism, postcolonial and world literature studies ….

The page of Research Development Committee gives more details about these two types of committees, and explains how to apply to form a new committee.

Currently, the ICLA has the following Research Committees (click on the names for more information):

Standing Research Committees:

The Coordinating Committee for the Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages Series (CHLEL)
The ICLA Standing Research Committee on South Asian Literatures and Cultures
Comics Studies and Graphic Narrative
The Comparative Gender Studies Research Committee
Comparative History of East Asian Literatures
The Research Committee on Literary Theory
Scriptural Reasoning and Comparative Studies
Translation Studies

Short-Term Research Committees:

Committee on Literature, Arts & Media (CLAM)
Comparative African Literatures
Literary History (not yet active)
Religion, Ethics and Literature

Archived Short-Term Research Committee:

Dream Cultures: Cultural and Literary History of the Dream (2013–2019)
Literature and Neuroscience (2012-2021)