Project Summary:
In this GLE project, students from DePaul University and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) worked together for eight weeks, meeting synchronously during class time. In addition to these live sessions, students collaborated in mixed DPU/TISS groups to create PowerPoint presentations, which they shared live during one week of the course. Professor Shanahan visited the TISS class in Mumbai for one week in August, while Professor Jayendran traveled to Chicago to join the DePaul class for one week in October. Throughout the project, students also engaged in discussions on a shared online forum, where they posted reflections on a film or short story.
The course explored the cultural and historical power of English as both a language and literature. Topics included the impact of machine-generated text on English, the role of social media platforms and international book prizes in shaping the language, and the concept of "world literature." By reading works from around the globe, the students engaged in conversations across time zones to examine how English, as well as other languages, is evolving in today’s interconnected world.
Project Length:
Technology Tools Use:
- Zoom
- Google Form
- Qualtrics
- WhatsApp
- Email
Interaction Mode:
- Asynchronous
- Synchronous
- Both
Learning Outcomes:
- Students engaged with English language and literature in light of its unequal role in academia and the culture(s) beyond campus.
- Students engaged with English language and literature with particular attention to differences in usage in the US and India.
Faculty Feedback:
"I was very excited to see the presentations from the combined TISS/DePaul groups. I was gratified to see that the groups improvised on their own how to work together. In addition, several of the readings seemed to be interesting to both classes and provoked a lot of discussion. The students seemed to especially like when the partner classmates or professor added to or challenged a claim made by their own classmates or professor." ~John Shanahan
John Shanahan
Institution: DePaul University
Discipline: English
Course name: Literature Across Cultures
Dr. Nishevita Jayendran
Institution: Tata Institute of Social Sciences - Mumbai
Discipline: English Pedagogy
Course name: Teaching of Literature