Reading & Working Groups

Reading & Working Groups

CWS graduate students currently host and facilitate four working / reading groups:

Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) Chat

CHAT Chats began informally in Summer 2016 and grew into a formal reading group in Fall 2016. The group meets every couple of weeks to discuss texts related to CHAT. For more information and/or for access to the readings, contact Bruce Kovanen.

Social Justice Praxis

This working group began in Fall 2016. It seeks to build teaching practices that engage our students, and ourselves, in the transformative work of developing personal awareness, understanding structural inequality, embracing difference, and committing to action in pursuit of a more just world. The group meets once a month and works to create change within and outside CWS. CWS's Social Justice Education Symposium, held in Fall 2017, is an example of the programming that is central to this group. For more information, contact Finola McMahon. 

Writing Bodies

"Writing Bodies" was founded in the Fall of 2022. We are an interdisciplinary collection of scholars interested in better understanding how bodies write and are written. In our monthly meetings, we read and discuss work on embodiment, drawing from numerous fields, including: rhetoric and writing studies, disability studies, trans* and gender studies, critical race theory, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and education. Though led by graduate students in Writing Studies, Writing Bodies welcomes undergraduates, faculty, and staff to be regular or drop-in members of the reading group. For meeting times and locations, email the current group coordinator, Yvaine Neyhard or the Assistant Directors of the Center for Writing Studies, Finola McMahon and/or Alexis Kapczynski.

Data Workshop Group

This workshop is designed to offer a constructive and generative space for advanced CWS graduate students to work through their dissertation research data. During each meeting, two grads present their data- or methods-in-progress to other graduate student attendees, who provide feedback and supportive suggestions for continued research. The group meets a handful of times throughout the semester. For more information, contact Alexis Kapczynski.

 

Group Creation Guidelines

In Fall 2022, CWS created the following guidelines for the creation and management of CWS Reading Groups: 

  • To first propose a reading or working group, organizers should submit a 75 word description of the group, intended for public consumption (in email messages to the CWS community and for posting on the CWS website). (The CWS admin team will reserve the right to edit—collaboratively with the proposer—for clarity, inclusiveness, etc.)
  • Reading groups must be open to all in the university community who wish to participate. 
    • This means choosing to meet in accessible spaces and in accessible ways. 
    • Reading groups must submit their meeting times and locations to be added to the CWS calendar.  
  • Reading and working groups must be "renewed" each fall.  Organizers should inform CWS ADs if there is interest in continuing the groups, which will not renew automatically.

In addition to the above required guidelines, we would like to promote the HRI Reading Groups and remind CWS community members that HRI accepts reading group applications on an annual basis.