#  IWL is a beautiful gateway to the world 

 



   ![Bergur](/sites/g/files/omnuum6391/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/iwl/files/bergur.jpeg?itok=kbj8zLNV) 

 

I participated twice in the IWL. My first time was at Harvard University, in 2013, and the second, at City University of Hong Kong in 2014. On these occasions I got to know David Damrosch, and he showed great interest in my work with Faroese literature and in similar tiny literary cultures. We agreed on doing a panel on very small literary cultures at the ACLA-conference at Harvard 2016 in order to gather people from across the world around the distinct qualities of very small literatures. We thought that ultraminor literatures deserve a more thoughtful attention as a different category than ‘minor literatures’ (Deleuze and Guattari, 1986). In 2017 Damrosch and I published an issue of *Journal of World Literature* on Ultraminor Literatures. And now, in September 2022, we published an extended version of this issue called “Ultraminor World Literatures”. The concept has gradually had a fairly large impact and it has resulted in many invitations to give lectures around the world and many quotations as well. IWL meant that I got much more appetite to think interdisciplinary and to work across cultures and continents. I can’t imagine a better forum to connect with exciting literary scholars from across the world. IWL is a beautiful gateway to the world. Just as beautiful as this door behind me of the Widener Library at Harvard. I cannot imagine my career as a literary scholar without IWL.

**Bergur Rønne Moberg**

**2013 & 2014 IWL alumnus, Harvard & CityU of Hong Kong**

**Associate Professor**

**Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics**

**University of Copenhagen**