Migrating Minds

Awarded the 2023 "René Wellek Prize for the Best Edited Essay Collection" by the American Comparative Literature Association, Migrating Minds contributes to the prominent interdisciplinary domain of Cosmopolitan Studies with 20 innovative essays by humanities scholars from all over the world that re-examine theories and practices of cosmopolitanism from a variety of perspectives. The volume satisfies the need for a stronger involvement of Comparative and World Literatures and Cultures, Translation, and Education Theories in this crucial debate, and also proposes an experimental way to explore in depth the necessity of a cosmopolitan method as well as the riches of cosmopolitan representations.The essays follow a logical progression from the situated philosophical and political foundations of the debate to interdisciplinary propositions for a pedagogy of cosmopolitanism through studies of modern and contemporary cosmopolitan cultural practices in literature and the arts and the concurrent analysis of prototypes of cosmopolitan identities. This trajectory allows readers to appreciate new historical, theoretical, aesthetic, and practical implications of cosmopolitanism that pertain to multiple genres and media, under different modes of production and reception. In the deterritorialized landscape of Migrating Minds, mental and sentimental mobility, rather than the legacy of place, is the key to an efficient, humanist response to deadening globalization.

"Migrating Minds offers a powerful new set of approaches to the cultures and experiences of cosmopolitanism. Its illuminating essays make it a major contribution to this important field." John Frow, Professor of English; ARC Professorial Fellow, University of Sydney, Australia "This book takes up the significant and urgent task of reimagining the categories used in literary studies by emphasising the ‘event’ character of literature over the limitations of place and substance. Its strength and importance lie in demonstrating that dynamic and plural categories are necessary to reach across difference and enter the literary cosmopolis." Ipshita Chanda, Professor of Comparative Literature, English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, India., It is with great pleasure that we unanimously award the ACLA René Wellek Prize to Didier Coste, Christina Kkona, and Nicoletta Pireddu for their edited collection Migrating Minds: Theories and Practices of Cultural Cosmopolitanism. Not only does the collection showcase omparative literature's openness to a wide gamut of traditions of scholarship in multiple languages, but it also insists on how the declension of cosmopolitanism must be seen as plural and at times displaying a dynamic tension among its diverse instantiations. The openness of the approach, the legibility of the style, and the strong pedagogical concern animating the volume make Migrating Minds an outstanding intervention that shows the way forward for comparative literature in the twenty-first century as a field that has the courage to rethink its concepts and methods and assume its responsibility as a crucial player in the ethical training of future generations of students, scholars, and world citizens--American Comparative Literature Association Committee for René Wellek Prize for the Best Edited Essay Collection"Migrating Minds offers a powerful new set of approaches to the cultures and experiences of cosmopolitanism. Its illuminating essays make it a major contribution to this important field." John Frow, Professor of English; ARC Professorial Fellow, University of Sydney, Australia "This book takes up the significant and urgent task of reimagining the categories used in literary studies by emphasising the ‘event’ character of literature over the limitations of place and substance. Its strength and importance lie in demonstrating that dynamic and plural categories are necessary to reach across difference and enter the literary cosmopolis." Ipshita Chanda, Professor of Comparative Literature, English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, India.

Didier Coste is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at Montaigne University, Bordeaux, France.Christina Kkona is currently a Marie Curie Fellow at Montaigne University, Bordeaux, France.Nicoletta Pireddu is Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature at Georgetown University, USA, and Inaugural Director of the Georgetown Humanities Initiative, and Director of the Global and Comparative Literature Program.