Serbian Learning Community and Resource

On the occasion of Erasmus Week, celebrated from the 13th to the 18th of October, I would like to share my own Erasmus experience with you—as your community manager and as someone who once embarked on this remarkable academic and cultural journey. The Erasmus Mundus CLE programme is an interdisciplinary two-year master’s degree focused on European literary cultures, languages, and thought. It is jointly offered by a consortium of leading European universities, promoting comparative study of literature, cultural studies, history, history of art, philosophy, and the arts across different linguistic and cultural traditions. The program emphasizes mobility and intercultural exchange—students study in at least two partner universities (in my case, the University of Strasbourg in France and the University of Bologna in Italy)—and complete a jointly supervised master’s thesis. Although the master’s program taught me a great deal in terms of content, what truly stood out was the approach to learning. In my home country, our studies followed a strictly historical progression—year by year, we covered entire literary works, often reading as many as eight to twelve novels, alongside poetry and drama per course. From today’s perspective, I understand how invaluable and formative that kind of comprehensive immersion was. However, the CLE program introduced a very different perspective. Courses were built around literary themes and motifs rather than chronology, encouraging close reading of excerpts and an appreciation for how a single passage can reveal the larger architecture of a work. The emphasis was on stylistic precision, interpretive depth, and analytical curiosity. Another key aspect was learning to write a dissertation à la française—structured around an introduction, a main body composed of three parts that each problematize a distinct aspect of the analysis, and a conclusion. This method profoundly reshaped how I organize my thoughts in writing and how I approach any topic—with a mindset that values questioning as much as conclusion. Equally formative, however, was the social and intercultural dimension of the experience. Within the CLE cohort, I met people from an extraordinary range of cultural and social backgrounds. My Colombian roommate, a French colleague, and a Puerto Rican classmate—who later became my bridesmaid—were among those who left a lasting mark on my life. Our group, composed largely of students from South America, the Balkans, and Asia, reflected a diversity that extended far beyond geography. We came from societies shaped by different histories, opportunities, and biases, yet we were united by a shared aspiration to study, to move, and to belong within a broader European context. Through countless conversations, shared challenges, and collective discoveries, we built more than friendships—we created a small, transnational community. It was within that microcosm that I learned one of the most enduring lessons of the Erasmus experience: that intellectual growth is inseparable from human connection, and that diversity, when approached with openness, becomes not a challenge but a source of strength and understanding. The Erasmus Mundus experience taught me that knowledge is not fixed within a single tradition or language but is continuously reshaped through encounter, dialogue, and exchange. The friendships, the intellectual challenges, and the cultural crossings all became part of a larger lesson about what it means to study—and to live—within a truly European and global context. As we celebrate Erasmus Week, I am reminded that the program’s greatest value lies not only in mobility or degrees, but in the capacity it fosters to think, question, and connect beyond borders.