Updated April 29, 2026
CENTRE FOR COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
LITERATURE AND CRITICAL THEORY PROGRAM AT VICTORIA COLLEGE
Teaching Assistant: one position
LCT 203H1F
Empires I
Course Description
This course will examine the role epic poetry has played in the literary representations that accompany imperial conquests and hegemony from pre-modern times to the emergence of the modern nation-state. Using Virgil’s Aeneid and its reception as our thematic framework, we will compare the establishment, interpretation and reinvention of cultural forms of empire at local, national, transnational and global levels. We will read a number of literary responses to the Aeneid to consider how these works have been used to celebrate, critique, or reimagine empires and imperialism. Theoretical texts, including the work of Bakhtin, Said, hooks, Gadamer, Latour and others will inform—but not determine—our exploration of Virgil’s reception.
Location: St. George campus
Estimated course enrolment: 45
Hours of work: 110 hours
Class schedule: LEC0101 Lecture Tuesday 11-1 , Tutorials: T0101 Tues 1-2, T0201 Tues 2-3
Dates of appointment: 1 September 2026 to 31 December 2026
Salary: $53.92 per hour
Preferred Qualifications: MA in Comparative Literature or a closely related discipline. Demonstrated knowledge of critical and literary theory relevant to the course. Scholarly expertise relevant to the course material (as shown, for example, by dissertation research).
Minimum Qualifications: At least two years of previous experience as a Teaching Assistant in position(s) involving tutorials or as a Course Instructor. Evidence of effective teaching and communication skills. Knowledge of some of the literature in the original language is a preferred qualification.
Note: Previous experience is the more relevant criterion than the need to acquire experience in respect of this position.
Duties: The TA will conduct two weekly tutorial sections, hold regular office hours, meet periodically with the instructor, and mark student essays. The TA will also keep a record of student progress, which will be used by the instructor to help determine final marks.
Application Procedure: Submit a letter of application, a brief Statement of Teaching Philosophy, and a current CV to Aphrodite Gardner, Centre for Comparative Literature aphrodite.gardner@utoronto.ca
If during the application and/or selection process you require accommodation due to a disability, please contact Ms. Aphrodite Gardner, Business Officer at the Centre for Comparative Literature aphrodite.gardner@utoronto.ca
Closing date for applications: June 20, 2026
This job is posted in accordance with the CUPE 3902 Unit 1 Collective Agreement. The position posted above is tentative, pending final course determinations and enrolments.
Duties of this position shall be performed at the campus on which the position is located. Where the duties are intended to be performed at another location, such other location will be specified in the posting
The University of Toronto is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from racialized persons / persons of colour, women, Indigenous / Aboriginal People of North America, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ persons, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas.
The University of Toronto invites all qualified applicants to make application.
The Centre’s Hiring policy is available in the Centre office and at the CUPE Local 3902 office.
Teaching Assistant: one position
LCT 205H1S
Empires II
Empires II – Conrad James
The principal focus of this course is the complex engagement of literature and the arts with both colonial and neo-colonial encounters between, Europe, Africa and the Americas over the last five hundred years. Exploring world cultures through the prism of colonial encounters facilitates discussions about the genesis of contemporary politics of globalisation as well as the accompanying dynamics of exploitation and resistance. This approach will also help to elucidate the ways in which contact between different world zones have been pivotal in the development of new national and regional cultures. In the process we engage with a wide range of questions including environmental precarity, food security, cultural violence, religious alterity, revolutions, and the coming of age of new subjectivities. The material to be discussed will be organized under four broad headings: The Columbian Exchange in Cinema and Art; Colonial Encounters and Latin American Politics of Identity; Fictions of Colonial Encounters in West Africa; Narratives of Colonial and Neo-Colonial Encounters in the Caribbean.
Primary texts may include works by
Miguel de Cervantes, Juan Rulfo, Octaivo Paz, Carlos Fuentes, William Shakespeare, Joseph Conrad, Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, Ama Ata Aidoo, Derek Walcott, Earl Lovelace, Olive Senior, Jaime Manrique and Anthony Winkler.
Location: St. George Campus
Estimated course enrolment: 45
Hours of work: 110 hours
Class schedule: LEC0101 Tuesdays 11-1 Tutorials: TUT0101 Tues T 1-2, TUT0201 Tues 2-3 pm
Dates of appointment: 1 January 2027 to 30 April 2027
Salary: $53.92
Preferred Qualifications: MA in Comparative Literature or a closely related discipline. Demonstrated knowledge of critical and literary theory relevant to the course. Scholarly expertise relevant to the course material (as shown, for example, by dissertation research).
Minimum Qualifications: At least two years of previous experience as a Teaching Assistant in position(s) involving tutorials or as a Course Instructor. Evidence of effective teaching and communication skills. Knowledge of some of the literature in the original language is a preferred qualification.
Note: Previous experience is the more relevant criterion than the need to acquire experience in respect of this position.
Duties: The TA will conduct two weekly tutorial sections, hold regular office hours, meet periodically with the instructor, and mark student essays. The TA will also keep a record of student progress, which will be used by the instructor to help determine final marks.
Application Procedure: Submit a letter of application, a brief Statement of Teaching Philosophy, and a current CV to Aphrodite Gardner, Centre for Comparative Literature (aphrodite.gardner@utoronto.ca).
Closing date for applications: June 20, 2026
This job is posted in accordance with the CUPE 3902 Unit 1 Collective Agreement. The position posted above is tentative, pending final course determinations and enrolments.
Duties of this position shall be performed at the campus on which the position is located. Where the duties are intended to be performed at another location, such other location will be specified in the posting
The University of Toronto is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from racialized persons / persons of colour, women, Indigenous / Aboriginal People of North America, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ persons, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas.
The University of Toronto invites all qualified applicants to make application.
The Centre’s Hiring policy is available in the Centre office and at the CUPE Local 3902 office.
JOB POSTING – Teaching Assistant: Two positions
LCT 202Y1Y
Forms of Representation
This course explores representation as a cultural and political problem. Representation is both a means of depicting or constructing reality and a means of constituting individual and collective subjectivities. We will consider literary and other modes of representation in their historical contexts.
Texts will span a broad historical range and may include: Homer’s The Odyssey, Aristotle’s Poetics, Sappho’s lyrics, excerpts from the Bible and the Qur’an, Shakespeare, Pushkin, Shevchenko, Eliot’s The Waste Land, Barthes’s Mythologies, Mahasweta Devi’s Imaginary Maps, and Foucault’s The History of Sexuality, vol 1.
Location: St. George Campus
Estimated course enrolment: 80
Hours of work: 190 hours
Class schedule: Lecture: Monday 11-1
Tutorials: T0101 M 1-2, T0201 M 2-3, T0301 M 3-4, T0401 M 4-5
Dates of appointment: 1 September 2026 to 30 April 2027
Salary: $53.92 per hour with new rate expected in the winter term
Preferred Qualifications: MA in Comparative Literature or a closely related discipline. Demonstrated knowledge of critical and literary theory relevant to the course. Scholarly expertise relevant to the course material (as shown, for example, by dissertation research).
Minimum Qualifications: At least two years of previous experience as a Teaching Assistant in position(s) involving tutorials or as a Course Instructor. Evidence of effective teaching and communication skills. Knowledge of some literature in the original language is a preferred qualification.
Note: Previous experience is the more relevant criterion than the need to acquire experience in respect of this position.
Duties: The TA will conduct two weekly tutorial sections, hold regular office hours, meet periodically with the instructor, and mark student essays and quizzes. The TA will also keep a record of student progress, which will be used by the instructor to help determine final marks.
Application Procedure: Submit a letter of application, a brief Statement of Teaching Philosophy, and a current CV to Aphrodite Gardner, Centre for Comparative Literature (Aphrodite.gardner@utoronto.ca).
Closing date for applications: June 20, 2026
This job is posted in accordance with the CUPE 3902 Unit 1 Collective Agreement. The position posted above is tentative, pending final course determinations and enrolments.
Duties of this position shall be performed at the campus on which the position is located. Where the duties are intended to be performed at another location, such other location will be specified in the posting
The University of Toronto is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from racialized persons / persons of colour, women, Indigenous / Aboriginal People of North America, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ persons, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas.
The University of Toronto invites all qualified applicants to make application.
The Centre’s Hiring policy is available in the Centre office and at the CUPE Local 3902 office.
