Discussion-based learning

Attending the Institute for World Literature (IWL) was a very enriching experience for me as a PhD student. I was able to take interdisciplinary and innovative seminars that approached literature in conversation with libraries, archives, and cartography; the content of these classes was very different than any of the courses I had taken at UIUC. At the IWL I also enjoyed some of my best experiences as a graduate student with discussion-based learning, particularly in our seminar where every student came from a different country, thus offering a rich variety of perspectives. The IWL was also an excellent opportunity to meet outstanding scholars in one’s field—a scholar I met there, Julia Creet, gave a MillerComm lecture here at UIUC at my invitation.

Claire Baytas

2019 IWL alumna Harvard

ABD Comparative Literature

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign