Working Groups

The English Department is home to a number of working groups that bring graduate students and faculty together around a shared scholarly interest.

Marxist Theory Reading Group

Includes faculty, PhD students, and MA students, and meets 1-2 times per semester. Readings drawn from the work of Karl Marx and later Marxist thinkers in social, economic, and political theory.

Poetics Reading Group

Includes faculty, Ph.D. students, and M.A. students, and meets 1-2 times per semester. Readings drawn from recent theoretical and practical writing about poetry.

Environmental Reading Group

Includes faculty, Ph.D. students, and M.A. students, and meets 1-2 times per semester. Readings consider both the environment's depiction in literature and ecocritical theory.

American Studies Working Group

Includes faculty, Ph.D. students, and M.A. students, and meets 1-2 times per semester. Topics include guest speakers, how to turn a seminar paper into a conference presentation, and other areas of student interest.

Pedagogy Seminar

The Pedagogy Seminar is a student-run seminar where Ph.D. students in
ɬÀï·¬ÏÂÔØ's English Department meet to collaborate on best
pedagogical practices. Second and third-year students must attend, but
seminar offerings are open to all. The Pedagogy Seminar meets
approximately once a month during the academic year. We share our
times and locations using Google Calendar Event invitations. If you'd
like more information about our meetings, please email the 2023-2024
Directors,ÌýNoëlÌýIngram and Kelly Gray, to get connected.

Rhetoric and Writing Reading/Discussion Group

This Working Group will explore current trends in the field through readings and discussions, ranging from pedagogical practices for teaching writing as well theories and methodologies/methods for conducting research in Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies. Topics might include: designing activities for writing courses, developing strategies for facilitating peer review, writing and revising conference proposals or articles, creating job materials, developing a research project that engages in archival, interview, rhetorical, or ethnographic methods, and more. This group will include faculty, Ph.D. students, and M.A. students, and interested undergraduate students and will meet 1-2 times per semester.