Elmira Louie, a Ph.D. candidate and associate instructor in Comparative Literature, strives to build an interconnected world that bridges cultures. Her Ph.D. dissertation, tentatively titled “Resisting the Periphery: Global South Borderlands in Turkish and Persian Literature,” looks at cultures, languages and people on the periphery in Turkish and Persian novels. The global nature of Elmira’s research has enabled her to seek out global experiences and ethical sources for a well-rounded project.

Born in Iran, Elmira moved to the United States at the age of six. With the change in environment, she quickly picked up English through reading, which sparked her love for learning languages and literature. Elmira started her global journey at the Universidad de Oviedo in Spain for advanced language immersion. She then studied abroad at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and Oxford University in England for individual research projects. As a first-generation college student, she found study abroad experiences to be impactful and central to her foreign language research as she accessed archives and libraries and found cultural contexts for literary texts. 

Summer Fellowship: Istanbul

Awarded through academic merit, the Graduate Studies Support Committee awards students exhibiting financial need with the support needed for summer research. In summer 2023, Louie received the UC Humanities Consortium Support Awards to attend the Ottoman Summer School, a 3-month program in Istanbul, Turkey. The program started with a joint educational program taught by professors from the University of Chicago and Istanbul Bilgi University. Her main goal was to research and learn Ottoman Turkish,  one of the main languages used during the Ottoman Empire, which differs quite significantly from the Modern Turkish used today. Dedicated to her dissertation, Elmira traveled across Istanbul to perform archival research and access libraries both after classes and on the weekends.

Global Grad Grant: Mexico City

Elmira’s passion for unearthing how minority cultures present themselves within the dominant narrative set her on a journey to uncover ethical sources from the global south. Originally a student leader in the Global Impact Fellows Program, she learned about the different global opportunities available for graduate students, including the Global Grad Grant. Students applying for the grant choose between the Social Impact or Research Track and are funded to go abroad during the summer to fulfill their projects. In summer 2024, Elmira received the Global Grad Grant to support research abroad in Mexico City, Mexico. After completing Canvas modules for a Global Leadership certificate, she headed abroad for the research portion of the program. She wasted no time during her short stay in Mexico and immediately accessed the libraries and archives for her dissertation. She tracked down unique, interesting sources for the Spanish language framework of her project regarding borderlands.

Tying it Together

Elmira enjoyed the cultural immersion that elevated her classroom Spanish and Turkish. She said, “It’s one thing to read about a place and learn the language, but it’s another thing to use the language daily to buy bread or talk to your neighbors.” Her time in each country led to exciting conversations with locals, and she discovered novel sources and ideas relevant to her project. These surprises kept her open-minded to new experiences. She remarked, “I’m getting an education that you can never read about or learn about in a formal classroom setting.” She believes that global experiences will open new doors that can never be known until embarking on the journey itself. Alongside the advances in her dissertation, these global experiences shaped Elmira’s worldview. She shared, “I walked out of it with such an expanded knowledge base in academics, life experiences, language experiences, and everything as a whole.” Each experience benefitted Elmira professionally and academically, inspiring her to seek more travel opportunities.

When asked for advice, Elmira exclaimed, “My number one piece of advice is to go for it!” 

Despite knowing the hesitancy graduate students have in applying for these programs, she urged those with a strong interest to apply and see what happens. As a person fascinated with meeting new people and exploring different cultures, she believes that those interested in the program will be able to take the opportunity to its fullest regardless of their research focus. She concludes, “Getting out of our Davis bubble is really helpful for us to be more mindful of the world around us and the impact we can have.”

Following her PhD, Elmira plans to become a professor. With six years of teaching experience, she finds teaching and interacting with students rewarding. She incorporates long-lasting skills such as research, critical thinking, and writing. “I couldn’t imagine doing any other job because I get to combine my love of teaching and research in one.”