Graduate Diversity Pilot Program

This new one-unit course for graduate students is meant to serve a number of purposes. It will support the formation of graduate communities across cohorts; create a forum for the exchange of intellectual work and enable students to improve their writing in a collaborative setting; seek to connect students with the professional development resources and support they might need; and offer an opportunity to address questions of what we do and could do in Comparative Literature today. This first instantiation of the course offers an opportunity to collaboratively develop a syllabus that entails all these aspects and that could become an important intellectual forum for graduate students in the program.

With this course, we hope to achieve several goals: support community-formation across the wide range of cohorts and diverse students in the program; work towards the development of formats that will support the improvement of writing skills for people who have diverse research interests; and work towards a broader conversation about new intellectual paths. This first instantiation of what will hopefully turn into a regularly offered course should be seen as experimental and as a place where graduate students can discuss their ideas about innovation in  learning and teaching in our department.

This semester, Matt Gonzalez will be the person in charge. I hope many of you will make use of this opportunity and I am looking forward to what these discussions can contribute to the overall shape and culture of our department.