Center for American Literary Studies

Penn State is the historic home of American Literary Studies. Established in 2006, CALS honors and extends this proud tradition.

CALS is setting the national reseach agenda in American literary studies with initiatives like the founding of C19: the Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists.

CALS faculty engage in far-reaching works of scholarship, such as James L. W. West III's Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

CALS events and research support encourage top-ranked faculty and graduate students to pursue innovation in the field.

CALS “community read” programs engage readers, draw them together, and position American literature as an important public space.