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Africana Studies Working Group
The Africana Studies Working Group includes those interested in the literature, film, history, and culture of Africa and its Diaspora. The group explores “black ways of knowing” as an attempt to recognize the spirit of Afrocentrism and seeks alternative methods of scholarly investigation to those of Western ontology and patriarchy.
Convenor: Dr. Kimberly N. Brown, Department of English

American Culture Studies Working Group
The American Culture Studies Working Group is a research-focused group of faculty members and graduate students who are actively involved in scholarship related to, or focused on, the study of American culture. The intentions of the group are to enrich the research of the participants by including a wide range of interdisciplinary perspectives in the discussion of American Culture. The preliminary focus of the group is on seminal works defining American Culture, drawn from a variety of different fields. This sampling will be paired with the specific research interests of the members, addressing a wide range of topics such as gender and sexuality, modern political rhetoric, literary eco-criticism, and myths of national identity, and antiquarianism.
Convenor:TBA

Brain, Language, and Animal Behavior (BLAB)
BLAB is an interdisciplinary group of faculty and graduate students that meets on a bi-weekly basis to discuss current and landmark studies of behavior, cognition, and consciousness in nonhuman animals. The group facilitates bridge-building between the Philosophy Department and scientific disciplines and widens the conceptual framework for all participants, particularly by bringing humanistic methods of reflection and analysis to bear on questions that are of broad interest to all.
Convenor: Dr. Gary Varner, Department of Philosophy

Cognoscenti
Cognoscenti is an interdisciplinary group of faculty and graduate students whose aim is to provide a forum for intellectual exchange on issues concerning mental functioning in humans or other species. Among the topics of interest are language and culture, figurative language processing, bilingualism, memory blocking, infant perception, reasoning, philosophy of mind, categorization, aesthetics, creative thought, and the mind-brain interface. The group holds weekly meetings on Mondays at noon.
Convenor: Dr. Jyotsna Vaid, Department of Psychology

Countercultural Movements
The Countercultural Movements Working Group is a research-focused group of faculty members and graduate students who are actively involved in scholarship related to, or focused on, the study of counterculture movements prevalent throughout contemporary society from the Beat Generation of Writers to the Hippie Movement of the 1960s and the Punk Movement of the 1970s to the Spoken Word Movement. The intentions of the group are to enrich the research of the participants by including a wide range of interdisciplinary perspectives in the discussion of countercultures and their role in society. We hope to facilitate discussion drawn from a variety of different fields such as decolonial studies, and queer studies, popular culture studies, multicultural and transnational studies, performance studies, Art, and religious studies.
Co-Convenors: Christopher Carmona and Chuck Taylor, Department of English

Creative Writing and Genre Theory Studies Working Group
The Creative Writing and Genre Theory Studies Working Group focuses on the various genres and subgenres within the area of creative writing, sharing works-in-progress, discussing definitions of and issues related to the genre under discussion, and looking at scholarship on genre theory that apply to writing.
Convenor: Dr. Janet McCann, Department of English

Critical Geography Working Group
The Critical Geography Working Group provides a forum to read and discuss classic and contemporary texts that engage with critical approaches to studying space, place, and the environment. The group addresses the philosophical underpinnings of recent scholarship in critical geography, drawing upon a broad range of theoretical perspectives and empirical content. More details can be found here.
Convenor: Dr. Kathleen O'Reilly, Department of Geography

Digital Humanities Working Group
The Digital Humanities Working Group provides a synergistic, interdisciplinary environment that develops new knowledge through informatics research and prepares the next generation of humanities scholars. It does so by developing innovative computing tools, digital library collections, and hypertextual archives of broad and significant academic and educational value to the humanities. The group sponsors a public lecture series and a seed grant program. The group plans on hosting best practices workshops, short courses, and symposia.
Convenor: Dr. Richard Furuta, Department of Computer Science.

Disability Studies Working Group
The Disability Studies Working Group cultivates and disseminates the new, theoretically informed understanding of disability developed in Disability Studies, conceiving of disability as a socially constructed feature of individuals facilitating the isolation and exclusion of the disabled. It develops, articulates, and critiques the new understanding of identity and its connection to the body already emerging from related work in Gender Studies, Race and Ethnic Studies, Queer Studies, and other contemporary approaches to the social constitution of identity and its cultural expression.
Convenor: Dr. Michael Hand, Department of Philosophy

Discourse Studies Working Group
The Discourse Studies Working Group is an organization of faculty and graduate students inteested in using ideas from discourse theory to address issues in rhetoric, composition, linguistics and cultural studies. Topics the group intends to explore include cross-cultural rhetorics, language among diasporic communities at home and abroad, environmental poetics, verbal art and cultural performance, interactional styles in the workplace, multi-cultural pedagogies, historical dialectology, and the role of gesture in communication.
Convenor: Dr. C. Jan Swearingen, Department of English

Early Modern Studies Working Group
The Early Modern Studies Working Group provides a forum for graduate students and faculty working with any aspect of the literature, culture, and/or history of Early Modern Europe from 1500-1800. The group was designed to provide a foundation for new graduate students who may be interested in pursuing Early Modern Studies as a primary field; establish a forum for the presentation and discussion of faculty and graduate student writing with the aim of helping participants revise works-in-progress; and to link interested graduate students with faculty in ways that promote academic mentorship and further the process of professionalization at the graduate level.
Convenors: Nandra Perry and Meghan Parker, Department of English

Film Studies Working Group
The Film Studies Working Group provides a forum for scholars in film and media studies to collaborate with others in their field. The group holds discussion events on works in progress and hopes to develop collaborative projects.
Convenor: Kimberly Cox, Department of English and Galen Wilson, Department of English

History of Art, Architecture, and Visual Culture Working Group
The History of Art, Architecture, and Visual Culture Working Group promotes collaboration and cooperation among faculty and students in fields such as anthropology, archaeology, architecture, arts education, gender studies, history, and visual studies. The working group will serve as a forum for the discussion of current research, as a means to share ideas and receive feedback from participants, and to develop opportunities to engage students.
Convenor: Nancy Klein, Department of Architecture

Indigenous Studies Working Group
The Indigenous Studies Working Group explores the challenges and rewards of engaging in Indigenous Studies, discovers and analyzes the similarities and differences between academic approaches to the study of Indigenous peoples, investigates trends and changes within the field of Indigenous Studies, and supports and assists one another in undertaking innovative research.
Convenors:Qwo-Li Driskill, Department of English and Angela Pulley Hudson, Department of History

Literacy Studies Group
The Literacy Studies Group is an interdisciplinary group of faculty, professionals, researchers and graduate students from diverse backgrounds (psychology, sociology, neuroscience, linguistics, and education). The group meets on a regular basis to break artificial disciplinary barriers and to facilitate the exchange of information on the issue of literacy, a major concern in our technological society.
Convenor: Dr. R. Malatesha Joshi, Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture

Medieval Studies Working Group
The Medieval Studies Working Group consists of faculty members who share an academic interest in the Middle Ages and supports specialized research on any topic within the period 500-1500. The group fosters learning and builds a sense of community by allowing individuals to share their expertise and benefit from the expertise of others.
Convener: Dr. Britt Mize, Department of English

New Modern British Studies Working Group
The New Modern British Studies Working Group is an informal group of faculty members and graduate students working in British, Irish, and Postcolonial literary, historical, and cultural studies from the eighteenth century to the present. The group's activities have included co-sponsoring two public symposia (Curious Things in 2002 and Citizens of the World in 2007), numerous lectures by visitors from other colleges and universities, works-in-progress colloquia featuring work by faculty at Texas A&M, discussions of readings in the field, and an annual graduate student colloquium.
Convenor: Dr. Mary Ann O'Farrell, Department of English

Queer Studies Reading Group
The Queer Studies Reading Group is a research community of faculty and graduate students interested in the emerging interdisciplinary field of Queer Studies, which questions the meaning of sexual identities, performances, discourses, practices, and representations. The group is particularly interested in engaging work that rejects and destabilizes essentialized ideas about sexuality, gender and race.
Convenors: Dr. Rebecca Hartkopf Schloss, Department of History and Dr. Krista May, Associate Editor of World Shakespeare Bibliography

Religion and Culture Working Group
The Religion and Culture Working Group promotes discussion among faculty and graduate students interested in interdisciplinary investigations of the subject of religion both past and present.  The group adopts broad-based theoretical approaches to the study of religion, understood in this context to include the material culture, modes of expression, philosophy, institutions, and experiences that are infused with spiritual or transcendent meaning.  Convenors:  Dr. Kate Carte Engel, Department of History and Dr. Heidi Campbell, Department of Communication

South Asia Studies Working Group
The South Asia Studies Working Group focuses on the interplay and confrontation between dynamics of liberalization, globalization and nationalism in the South Asian region. Precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial periods of South Asian history will be studied using area, cultural, and women's studies as well as other disciplinary perspectives on the politics and cultures of South Asia as a region.
Convenor: Dr. Nandini Bhattacharya, Department of English

Textual Studies Group
The Textual Studies Group promotes research and education in all aspects of communication through the printing and graphic arts, supporting work that focuses on written, printed, and graphic media. Areas of interest include the full range of printed and manuscript materials, from the earliest forms of writing instruments and surfaces, to the manuscript and printed book, to the latest forms of electronic publication.
Convenor: Dr. Larry Mitchell, Department of English

Women's and Gender Studies Working Group
The Women's and Gender Studies Working Group facilitates a spirit of intellectual community among faculty and students conducting research on various aspects of gender. Founding members consist of faculty and students connected with the Women's Studies Program, the Gender Studies group sponsored by the Department of English, and the other members of the university community who are interested in promoting this area of scholarship.
Convenor: Dr. Claudia Nelson, Department of English