The following is a list of student-run Reading Groups organized around particular scholarly subjects or fields. These Groups host regular meetings to discuss prominent texts and developments in their fields and may also plan events (e.g., research panels and roundtables) for the academic enrichment and advancement of both their members and the Department overall. For more information or if you are interested in becoming a member of a Reading Group, please contact the convenor(s).
Interested in forming a new Reading Group? Contact the GEA Secretary to provide the name and description of your new group and they’ll make sure to add it to the list.
Affect Theory Reading Group
Affect Theory—particularly when used as a lens in conjunction with psychoanalytic, queer, or feminist theories—has gained tremendous traction in the humanities and cognitive sciences as an approach to examining emotions and one’s capacity to act or be acted upon. The Affect Theory Reading Group meets monthly to unpack interdisciplinary readings related to this critical study of feeling and to explore its abundant applications in literary studies. Our discussions will focus on texts by prominent theorists Lauren Berlant, Sianne Ngai, Ann Cvetkovich, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Heather Love, and many others. Beginners and specialists alike are welcome to these meetings; the group is intended as a low-stakes space to expand our knowledge in this field, to try on new ideas, and to wrestle with complicated concepts and affects! Please reach out with any questions or concerns.
Contact:
Abby Lacelle | abby.lacelle@mail.utoronto.ca
American Literature Research Collaborative
The American Literature Research Collaborative is a forum for scholars of American literatures and cultures to share resources, research, and conversation. We seek to facilitate innovative, inclusive, and interdisciplinary research through collective engagement.
We are committed to promoting collegiality, highlighting new research, and offering professional support to junior scholars. Each year, our topics and approaches emerge from our membership.
Contact:
Sarah Howden | sarah.howden@mail.utoronto.ca
Connor Bennett | connor.bennett@mail.utoronto.ca
Gabriel Briex | gabriel.briex@mail.utoronto.ca
Bible and Posthumanism Reading Group
The Bible and Posthumanism Reading Group welcomes students from all backgrounds interested in the treatment of the nonhuman in the Bible, from the natural environment, animals, machines, angels, monsters, and others. No knowledge of the Bible is necessary whatsoever—this is simply a reading group that aims to use lesser-known parts of the Bible to investigate the place of the nonhuman in literature.
Contact:
Marissa Herzig | marissa.herzig@mail.utoronto.ca
Canadian Literature Group
The Canadian literature group was established in 1999. The group aims to foster conversations among students at different stages of study (and interested faculty) who specialize in Canadian literature. It offers a forum in which to discuss literary and theoretical works, to share research resources and pedagogical approaches, and to workshop conference papers, dissertation chapters, publications and job talks. We will meet monthly (or every five weeks) throughout the term.
Contact:
Kelly Whitehead | k.whitehead@mail.utoronto.ca
Walter Villanueva | walter.villanueva@mail.utoronto.ca
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/656877651474208/
Creative Writing Working Group
This group works just like it sounds. Once a month, students and faculty from our department meet up and workshop one another’s creative writing in a collegial and determined way. No prior experience in workshops is required, and all are welcome. The Creative Writing Working Group also hosts guest writers of all types from Canada and abroad, publishing professionals and more! The group also stays on top of local writing events and readings, writing journal submissions, prizes, and general literary-community involvement.
Contact:
Kornelia Drianovski | kornelia.drianovski@mail.utoronto.ca
Ali Pinkney | alexandra.pinkney@mail.utoronto.ca
Critiquing Capitalism Reading Group
The Critiquing Capitalism Reading Group is for anyone who finds themselves scouring the Antiwork subreddit on Reddit, thinking about the roots of inequality, or wanting to learn more about how capitalism actually works as an economic system. We’ll begin with some short selections of Karl Marx’s writing and then consider how capitalism intersects with questions of race (racial capitalism), gender roles (social reproduction), and colonialism. We will also consider how this theory can be applied to literary analysis, and read some selections from Fredric Jameson’s seminal work, The Political Unconscious. This is a low stakes environment to chat and learn more about capitalism and the recommended readings. Everyone is welcome (including those who are unfamiliar with Marxist theory) and we will begin the year by reviewing key terms to establish a helpful foundation.
Contact:
Erin Baldwin | erine.baldwin@mail.utoronto.ca
Disability Studies Reading Group
The Disability Studies Reading Group will meet once a month to engage students of any disciplinary background in a discussion of texts that address the topic of disability in a variety of contexts and mediums. Where appropriate, we will also read material from related fields, such as mad studies, the health and medical humanities, critical mental health, and critical theory. If so desired, there is the possibility we may workshop in-progress projects (papers, articles, dissertation chapters, etc.) from our members. This reading group is low-key and welcoming, and thus no prior knowledge of disability studies is required.
Contact:
Walter Villanueva | walter.villanueva@mail.utoronto.ca
Adrianna Michell | adrianna.michell@mail.utoronto.ca
Eighteenth-Century Reading Group
New students are welcome to join the eighteenth-century reading group! A few times each semester, we meet to discuss short readings from the long eighteenth century. Last year we read Francis Coventry’s Pompey the Little, a hilarious biography of a lapdog, and selections from Samuel Johnson’s Rambler, among other things. We also eat delicious snacks and talk about our own work. Please come out to our first meeting in September, when we’ll plan for the year ahead.
Contact:
Kate Frank | kate.frank@mail.utoronto.ca
Michael Reid | mgb.reid@utoronto.ca
Feminist Theory Reading Group
The Feminist Theory Reading Group welcomes students of all backgrounds who work with some aspect of women’s studies, gender studies, or feminist theory in their research, or who would just like to learn more about the above topics in an inclusive and welcoming environment! Though we aim to engage primarily with both classic and emerging critical theory, we are also open to using memoir, fiction, poetry, film, and various other media as theory. As such, we invite students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to share their insights.
Contact:
Tia Glista | tia.glista@mail.utoronto.ca
Medieval Revival Reading and Research Group
Medieval stories have been continuously told and retold throughout the centuries since the Middle Ages, often with drastically different political agendas. This group will meet once a month to discuss such revivals, and while it will focus primarily on literary medieval revival, it will also consider art and other media from the Renaissance to the present day. Whenever possible, we will partner with other reading groups to bring together scholars from a range of different academic specialisms to draw on our many knowledge bases from which to understand this retelling and repurposing of medieval stories and symbols.
If you would like to join, or if your reading group would like to collaborate on a literary period or genre, please get in touch!
Contact:
Iona Lister | iona.lister@mail.utoronto.ca
Middle English Working Group
The Middle English Working Group aims to facilitate conversations about later medieval England and its literatures, primarily those in Middle English while also remembering England’s multilingualism. In monthly meetings, we offer a chance for graduate students to discuss texts, present various aspects of their research, and workshop their writings on related topics.
Contact:
Sarah Carruthers | sarah.carruthers@mail.utoronto.ca
Modernist Reading and Research Group (MRRG)
Pronounced “merge,” MRRG is the graduate modernist reading and research group. A venue for the discussion of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century British, American and Irish material, it remains open to other literatures of the same period, with room for cross-period investigation of relevant issues, as well as discussions of film, theatre, photography and visual art. Our monthly meetings feature discussions of texts chosen by MRRG members, discussions of relevant issues in the field, and presentations of research by group members.
Contact:
James Dunnigan | james.dunnigan@mail.utoronto.ca
Music and Sound Research Collective
This group seeks to foster a community of scholars, creatives, and listeners who share an interest in the literary, material, and cultural impacts of musical and sonic phenomena across temporal, geographical, theoretical, and disciplinary planes. Monthly activities may include soundwalks, listening parties, guest talks, workshopping research, or casually reading and discussing articles pertaining to music or sound in relation to literary and cultural studies. No prior experience in these fields is required, and all are encouraged to tune in if any of the above resonates with you.
Contact:
Cameron MacDonald | cameronjames.macdonald@mail.utoronto.ca
Neo-Latin Reading Group
In conjunction with CRRS
Contact:
Lucas Simpson | lucas.simpson@mail.utoronto.ca
Nineteenth-Century Reading Group
As eclectic a group as the century it explores, the Nineteenth-Century Reading Group (NRG) welcomes students both new and returning. Meeting about once a month, NRG gives junior scholars – C19 Americanists, Victorianists, Romanticists, and beyond – a chance to connect, share research ideas, and develop professionally.
Events include discussions on relevant texts and articles (of short length), often meeting before Work in Nineteenth-Century Studies (WINCS) sessions; peer-editing workshops for conference and grant proposals; research roundtables; and collaborations with other reading groups. As important as the group’s scholarly activities are social events such as pub nights, historic walks, and film screenings. We warmly welcome new members!
Contact:
Andy Chang | aw.chang@mail.utoronto.ca
Samuel McIntyre | samuel.mcintyre@mail.utoronto.ca
Robbie Steele | r.steele@mail.utoronto.ca
Website: https://uoftnrg.wordpress.com/about/
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nineteenthcenturyuoft
Postcolonial Theory Reading Group
The Postcolonial Theory and Literature Reading Group aims to close-read the “canonical” texts of Postcolonial Theory and reassess their significance in contemporary practices of literary criticism. We also aim to situate Postcolonial Studies within a broad range of interrelated disciplinary approaches including aesthetics and poetics, theories of immigration and diaspora, cultural studies, Marxist studies and global modernist studies. We will read a variety of texts and we welcome students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and interests such as media studies, visual arts, comparative literature, and area studies to join us in our productive and enriching discussions.
Contact
Sylvanna Baugh | s.baugh@mail.utoronto.ca
Thuyen Viet Truong | thuyen.truong@mail.utoronto.ca
Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Group
The Science-Fiction and Fantasy reading group is a place for anyone to be able to explore their favourite works of speculative fiction in a more academic setting. This group will meet monthly to read speculative works from the late 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, as well as the theories surrounding them, in order to gain an understanding of where our modern conceptions of the genres have come from, and where they may be going in the future. Everything from well-known authors such as Isaac Asimov and Ursula K. Le Guin, to newer authors such as Becky Chambers and Nnedi Okorafor will be covered, and suggestions from group members are highly encouraged.
Magdalena Nitchi | magdalena.nitchi@mail.utoronto.ca
Shakespeare Reading and Research Group
The Shakespeare Reading and Research Group welcomes students of all disciplines to join us once a month to discuss Shakespeare’s plays in an inclusive and welcoming environment! Through pairing Shakespeare’s plays with essays on emerging critical theory, cool podcasts, and Shakespearean adaptations, we will discuss the ever-changing position of Shakespeare and his place in literature today.
Contact:
Laina Southgate | laina.southgate@mail.utoronto.ca
Sim Ong | sim.ong@mail.utoronto.ca
Queer and Trans* Cinema Reading Group
The Queer and Trans* Cinema Reading Group aims to create community and further the study of 2SLGBTQ+ history in the English Department. We welcome students of all backgrounds and disciplines. Each meeting, we come together to screen a film, or a series of short films, paired with an (optional) piece of critical theory to facilitate a discussion about gender and sexuality studies and queer history. Popcorn included!
Contact:
Joe McLaughlin | joe.mclaughlin@mail.utoronto.ca
Trans Theory Reading Group
The trans theory reading group welcomes all students interested in studying and contributing to this emergent branch of intersectional and interdisciplinary discourse. Our objects of analysis will take different forms—from academic criticism to lyric poetry to popular film to the visual arts—and will take up different historical periods—from antiquity to post-post modernity. Our transhistorical and transmedial collaboration will foreground the insights of foundational trans theorists like Hortense Spillers, Susan Stryker, and Julian Gill-Peterson, and it will move us toward the new generation of trans scholars, including Colby Gordon, C. Riley Snorton, Cameron Awkward-Rich, and others. How is trans related to queer? How is it related to feminism? How do the oppressions of race and gender collude with each other? What might a trans method look like? What do we want trans to do for us? These are the kinds of questions we will take up.
Contact:
Theo Northcraft | theo.northcraft@mail.utoronto.ca
Currently Inactive Groups
The following Reading Groups were previously active in the department, but the convenors have graduated or otherwise stepped away from leading the group. If you are interested in reviving any of these groups, please contact a member of the GEA Executive.
Digital Literature Reading Group
The Digital Literature Reading Group provides an open, collaborative forum for the discussion and analysis of the digital literary objects (including but not limited to hypertexts, “digital-like” print works, games, and multimedia works), as well as the incorporation thereof into research and pedagogy. We discuss recent critical and creative developments in the field while also enabling conversations around participants’ own scholarship, and meet monthly during the academic year.
Early Modern Research & Reading Group
The Early Modern Research & Reading Group meets once a month to discuss English literature and culture as it was from approximately 1400-1700AD. Our activities include reading and talking about critical essays and primary texts, peer-review workshops ahead of conference or paper submissions, “hands-on” practice with physical or digitized primary texts (so much fun – all the fun!), and a Snapshot Symposium where members are invited to share a brief summary of their complete or ongoing or just-started work in a welcoming environment. In short, we offer a casual time and place to test out new ideas and ask those questions you think everyone else already knows the answers to (pssssst… they don’t).
Our focus varies year-to-year, chosen via group discussion in the late spring.
We welcome new members at any stage of their academic career and from a variety of disciplines.
English Paleography Reading Group
This collaborative reading group is dedicated to the study of medieval and early modern handwriting in English. It is geared towards anyone who wants to practice reading manuscripts in a fun and informal setting. Everyone is welcome, especially beginners!
Environmental Humanities Reading Group
The Environmental Humanities Reading Group aims to foster an interdisciplinary and collaborative discussion space for reimagining our social and environmental ecologies. Each month we will read a variety of texts concerned with the environment from critical theory, to literary and digital texts, film, and multimedia. While group participants will collectively decide on the readings and discussions, topics of interest include: transcultural negotiations of the environment and climate change, non-human animals, dystopia and utopia, disability (eco-crip theory), and environmental impacts of settler-colonialism and capitalism.
Food Memoir Reading Group
Do you like food? Do you enjoy reading? Then this group is for you.
Food Memoirs (or foodoirs) are texts that describe a writer’s life through food. These authors might be chefs, restaurant workers, food scientists, reviewers, editors, or simply someone who enjoys food. Examples include Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl or Eat a Peach by David Chang.
The group will meet once a month. We’ll discuss these food memoirs and their themes, recipes, and food experiences.
Latin Reading Group
This group was formed to support students whose research involves reading and translating Latin literature. We meet once a month to practice our translation skills in an informal setting and welcome medievalists, early-modernists, and classical-reception scholars alike! Students who are working with texts that stump them can bring specific passages to our sessions and we will tackle them together. If no particular help is needed, we have some fun selections of Latin poetry and prose — such as chapters from Lucius Apuleius’ picaresque novel The Golden Ass, mythic tales from Walter Map’s De Nugis Curialium, and excerpts from Horace’s Satires — with which to keep ourselves entertained.
Poststructuralist Theory Reading Group
This group aims to bring together researchers in any historical period whose work and interest also include aspects of poststructuralist theory. We will hold monthly meetings to discuss together dimensions of poststructuralist thought, its development, and its applicability to contemporary concerns of literature and society. This will also be a workshopping space for your works in progress. Instead of going over the commonly known “canonical” texts of various theoretical approaches, we will aim at covering less widely read pieces that will help to create a more nuanced and expansive understanding of poststructuralist theory.
Please feel free to get in touch if you have suggestions for texts to discuss in upcoming meetings or if you have material you would like to workshop.