The Institute held its fifth summer school session from June 22 through July 16, 2015, at the University of Lisbon. Our four-week program offered twelve seminars taught by leading names in world literature today, together with outstanding guest lectures and opportunities for participants to share their work in affinity groups, as well as panels on pedagogy, program development, publishing, and the job market. The program was supplemented by outings and cultural events to build community beyond the boundaries of the formal sessions. Our seminars were taught by a mix of distinguished senior faculty and innovative younger scholars of world literature:
- Jonathan Arac, University of Pittsburgh
- Helena Buescu, University of Lisbon
- Thomas Claviez, University of Bern
- David Damrosch, Harvard University
- Debjani Ganguly, Australian National University
- José Luis Jobim, Universidade Federal Fluminense
- Djelal Kadir, Pennsylvania State University
- Franco Moretti, Stanford University
- Jale Parla, Istanbul Bilgi University
- Gisèle Sapiro, CNRS and EHESS, Paris
- Galin Tihanov, Queen Mary, University of London
- Lawrence Venuti, Temple University
Our 2015 guest lecturers were Ana Luisa Amaral (University of Porto), Zhang Longxi (City University of Hong Kong), the Cape Verdean writer Filinto Elisio, and Jérôme David (University of Grenoble). Special panels composed of IWL faculty and participants discussed professional issues of building syllabi, designing and redesigning world literature courses and programs, and strategies for publishing.
In addition, our participants had the opportunity to share their current work together within our eight affinity groups organized around broad themes: World Literature and Production, World Literature and Circulation, World Literature and Translation, Postcolonialism and World Literature, World Cinema and World Literature, Premodern Literature and World Literature; Politics, Poetics and World Literature. Meeting once or twice each week with their peers, our participants discussed and refined current dissertation or book projects.
To feel the pulse of the city and its surroundings, we organized casual outings (free or at minimal cost): a trip to Cascais, a Tagus river boat cruise, and a visit to Fernando Pessoa's house.