Brian Chappell in his blog describes giving a paper at the retirement for Linda Hutcheon and makes an appeal on behalf of the Centre for Comparative Literature here.
Money quote:
I’m writing because the Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto, home to some of the biggest names and ideas in the field, but more importantly, as I hope my story’s shown, to genuinely nice people who study literature brilliantly and enthusiastically for its own sake, is on the verge of extinction due to the poor economy. I invite you, if the spirit or my story moves you, to sign this petition to help save a program whose closure would severely wound the important work we do in literary studies and set a dangerous precedent for the status of the humanities in the eyes of university administrations.
Thanks for posting this Michael — and thanks for writing it Brian. As one of the organisers of this conference, it is one of the sad realisations that without the Centre, these types of conferences simply will not happen. Last year’s conference, for instance, received nearly 250 abstracts and several complete panel proposals. This is yet another example of what the University will lose if the Centre is closed.