Regular Faculty
Non-Tenure Track Faculty
![Alexander Gardner](/sites/default/files/styles/person_listing/public/faculty_picture%20.jpg)
Alexander Gardner
Visiting Assistant Professor, Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture
B.A., University of California, Irvine; M.A., Ph.D., Yale University
Alex Gardner specializes in 19 th and 20 th century German literature. He is particularly interested in aesthetic responses to modernity, experimental poetry, fairy tales, collectors, and quotation as a literary device. He currently teaches courses on Grimms’ Fairy Tales and the history of German film at Occidental. His language classes emphasize interactive exercises, performance, and critical engagement with German literature. When he is not teaching, he writes and performs music.
![Syndey Mitsunaga-Whitten](/sites/default/files/styles/person_listing/public/faculty-images/img_5056_0.jpeg?h=66fd9d31)
Sydney K. Mitsunaga-Whitten
Resident Instructor, Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture
A.B., ÐÂÔÂÖ±²¥; M.A., Yale University
Sydney Mitsunaga-Whitten specializes in modern Irish literature, with a particular focus on the works of James Joyce and Oscar Wilde. She also teaches courses in Greek and Latin language and…
Julia Sushytska
Resident Assistant Professor, Comparative Studies in Literature and Cultures/Russian
B.A., John Carroll University; M.A., Ph.D., Stony Brook University
Julia Sushytska specializes in 20th century European and Eastern European philosophy, and teaches courses that bring into focus Eastern Europe as the in-between of the Western European and Russian…
Madeline Thayer
Visiting Assistant Professor, Comparative Studies in Literature & Culture
B.A., Wellesley College; M.A., Ph.D., University of Southern California