AEIR hosts reading group meetings every full month of the academic year. Typically, they attract between ten and twenty participants. These gatherings may take different forms—reading discussions, writing workshops, and informational talks—with the constant being the dinner we provide.

For reading discussions, the Reading Group Coordinator facilitates a conversation about an article or manuscript—usually by a Penn State student or professor, who co-facilitates, or by a scholar who will be visiting soon—that has been distributed to participants beforehand.

At writing workshops, the Coordinator invites attendees to bring an abstract or section of a longer project to the meeting and arranges groups to review each other’s work.

At informational talks, the Coordinator invites a speaker to discuss a topic of interest to grad students, like scholarly publication or comprehensive exams.

To find out about upcoming reading group meetings, join our Facebook group or email us to be added to our listserv.

AEIR started hosting reading groups in Fall 2013 under the leadership of Laura Michael Brown. Here is an account of our meetings starting with April 2016:

April 2016: Discussion of English PhD student Sarah Adam’s comps list and CAS PhD student Cory Gerath’s co-authored article

September 2016: Discussion of CAS PhD candidate J. David Maxson’s dissertation chapter

October 2016: Discussion of CAS PhD student Scott Koslow’s work-in-progress

November 2016: Talk by English PhD candidates Kyle King and Sarah Adams about the “revise and resubmit” process

January 2017: Discussion of “Linking Transnational Logics” by Camp Rhetoric guest speaker Rebecca Dingo

February 2017: Discussion of English PhD student Greg Coles’ process of drafting a journal article

April 2017: Discussion of CAS PhD student Adam Cody’s co-authored published chapter

September 2017: Talk by CAS PhD student Kellie Marin on drafting and publishing scholarly book reviews

October 2017: Discussion led by English Professor Jack Selzer on Kenneth Burke’s War of Words

November 2017: Workshop of conference proposal abstracts

January 2018: Discussion of “Queer Critical Rhetoric Bites Back” by Camp Rhetoric guest speaker Erin J. Rand

February 2018: Talk by PhD candidates Shannon Stimpson (English) and Caroline Koons (CAS): “Let’s Talk Comps”

March 2018: Discussion of Occupying Our Space by Camp Rhetoric guest speaker Cristina Ramírez

April 2018: Workshop of seminar paper drafts