Reading and Writing Groups

Our graduate program fosters a supportive environment where students collaborate more than they compete. In addition to participating in department-sponsored and University-wide interdisciplinary workshops alongside faculty members, graduate students also take it upon themselves to organize and lead a variety of informal, collaborative reading and writing groups. In each cohort, graduate students usually form dissertation groups to provide mutual support and constructive criticism for each other during the writing and revising process.  In addition, students at all stages often coalesce around shared interests, forming reading groups geared toward discussing specific thematic areas, testing new theoretical approaches, or honing language skills.

For example, the Theory Reading Group offers a space where graduate students can share and wrestle with the critical theories which frame and organize their work. At any given time there are five or six such informal groups, which complement the more formal centers and workshops by providing graduate students with peer support and allowing them to establish their own intellectual spaces.