Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation is a research centre based jointly in The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities and St. Anne’s College. We run seminars, a postgraduate-led discussion group, workshops and conferences. We stage public events, such as Oxford Translation Day, and support a book series, Transcript. We exist to nurture all kinds of research across language difference at Oxford, and to generate innovation in the fields of comparative and world literature and translation studies.

Comparative Literature is changing. Its Eurocentric heritage has been dislodged by various formulations of World Literature, while new media and new forms of artistic production bring urgency to comparative thinking across literature, film, the visual arts and music. The resulting questions of method are both intellectually compelling and central to the future of the humanities. To confront them, our research centre brings together experts from the disciplines of English, Medieval and Modern Languages, Oriental Studies, and Classics, and draws in collaborators from Music, Visual Art, Film, Philosophy and History. We prefer the phrase ‘Comparative Criticism’ to ‘Comparative Literature’ or ‘World Literature’ because it draws attention to the role of the critic in determining the corpus to be explored and the manner of its exploration; and we flag ‘translation’ as a process fundamental to our work, and indeed to all communication.

OCCT is grateful for the generous support it has received from Jane and Peter Aitken, Maria Ferreras Willetts, Celia Atkin, Fiona Lindblom and Arabella van Niekerk, and the John Fell OUP Research Fund.