On July 27, 2016, at the closing ceremony of the 21st World Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association, Professor Zhang Longxi, Distinguished Professor at Yenching Academy, was named the President of the International Comparative Literature Association. Professor Zhang was nominated in 2015 and elected during this year’s Congress after three days of voting. More than 1,500 scholars from around the world attended the Congress this year.
“The fact that I was elected to lead this global academic organization subtly reflectsthe change and transition our society is going through,” Professor Zhang said. He also dedicated an article on the history and development of contemporarycomparative literature for this special occasion.
Professor Zhang was invited by the Yenching Academy to give the inaugural lecture of the China Studies Lecture Series in April 2016. Yenching Scholars, students and professors of Peking University warmly welcomed his thought-provoking lecture, “The Relevance of Marco Polo.”
Professor Zhang Longxi is a Distinguished Professor at Yenching Academy of Peking University, and Chair Professor of Comparative Literature and Translation at City University of Hong Kong. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities in 2009 and a foreign member of Academia Europaea in 2013. Professor Zhang is a prominent figure in academia and his publications on cultural studies have made great contributions to China's academic circle. He also serves as an Advisory Editor of New Literary History, and asEditor-in-Chief of the Journal of World Literature. He has published more than 20 books and numerous articles in both English and Chinese on East-West comparative studies.
The International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA) was established in 1956 in Paris, France, and this year marks the 60th anniversary of the Association. As its mission statement says, the Association “sponsors research in comparative literature with the goal of furthering inter-national exchange and cooperation among comparatists…(It) promotes the crossing of borders, not only among national literatures and languages, but also between cultures and world regions, disciplines and theoretical approaches, and genres, historical periods, and media.” The World Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association is held by the ICLA every three or four years. This year, the Congress was held at the University of Vienna, Austria, from July 21 to 27 with the theme of “The many languages of comparative literature.” ICLA has an annual publication, Recherche littéraire/Literary Research, which provides information and resources pertaining to the field of comparative literature.
