Research and Work Groups

The mission of the Anthropocene working group is to provide a venue for faculty, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and undergraduates from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities to develop a cross-disciplinary understanding of the Anthropocene. Through organizing a variety of learning and research opportunities this Working Group aims to support the sharing of theoretical and empirical knowledge of the global environmental impact of human activity. This group meets twice per quarter to discuss books or article-length texts of shared critical interest across the environmental humanities and the environmental sciences.  Please contact Matteo Gilebbi for additional information regarding the Anthropocene working group.

The mission of the Environmental Humanities working group is to provide a venue for faculty, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and undergraduates from the social sciences and humanities to foster intellectual collaboration and develop a network of scholars interested in the multiple points of intersection between the environment and culture, society, art, history, technology, and politics. The Environmental Humanities is a thriving field that seeks to resituate humanistic questions and approaches at the center of scientific work on the major environmental problems of our age:  climate change, pollution, clean water and other primary resources depletion, and the degradation of Indigenous lands.

For additional information regarding the Environmental Humanities Working and Research Group, please contact Laura Ogden or Matteo Gilebbi.

The Indigenous Siberia Working and Research Group brings together faculty, staff and members of the college community to foster the building of knowledge about Russia's indigenous peoples in Siberia. The aims of the group are to study the history of Siberia's indigenous groups, including Russia's colonization of Siberia (both the Russian and the Western scholarly narratives). The group will also examine the current state of affairs of indigenous Siberia, examining the political rights for self-determination and self-governance, indigenous rights over territories and natural resources. The group also examines indigenous Siberian cultures, including literature and languages of the various indigenous communities. The group aims to study the application of international standards for indigenous rights as they apply to Russia (including both legislation and case-studies). Ultimately, we aim to contextualize the knowledge about indigenous Siberia through a global framework, providing a comparative analysis with indigenous populations of the Americas, and interactions with international organizations like the United Nations and the Arctic Council. The group will organize 1-2 guided discussions of scholarly readings each quarter, and feature talks by indigenous rights activists.

Please contact Ainsley Morse for additional information about the Indigenous Siberia working and research group.

The Italian Studies Working Group brings together regular and associated faculty/researchers, COLT graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows interested in Italian interdiscplinary studies, pedagogy, and language teaching. The mission is to create a space in which–through presentation, and the sharing of written work in various phases of elaboration, and discussion–members envison the future of Italian Studies at Dartmouth and beyond. The group holds monthly meetings and hosts contributions by local and invited scholars as well as visual and performing artists.

Please contact Graziella Parati for additional information regarding the Italian Studies Working Group or to join.

Founding members: Giorgio Alberti, Damiano Benvegnu, Danielle Callegari, Nancy Canepa, Tania Convertini, Matteo Gilebbi, Graziella Parati, Diego Pirillo, Andrea Tarnowksi, Michael Wyatt. 

The Language Pedagogy Research and Working Group will discuss current topics, trends, research and successful practice in foreign language teaching and learning. It is open to everyone interested in the teaching and learning of languages at Dartmouth and beyond.

The Language Pedagogy Research and Working Group is a self-directed effort to respond to major questions in language pedagogy. Meetings will take a variety of forms ranging from group readings to lectures and workshops led by invited speakers, as well as curriculum discussions.  Organizers of the Foreign Languages Pedagogy Group are Roberto Rey Agudo (Fall 2020), Nick Ostrau (Winter 2021), and Tania Convertini (Spring 2021).

The Latinx Working Group is a collective of faculty and postdoctoral scholars researching Latinx and Latin American communities and culture. The Latinx Working Group seeks to bridge thought from/on the Americas through the study of society, aesthetics, history, and politics on the racially and linguistically diverse peoples who originate from, live in, or pass through Latin America, the Caribbean, and its diasporic nodes. LWG is invested in nurturing and engaging interdisciplinary scholarship that builds on the preexisting synergies between Latinx, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies as discrete though interlocking fields of scholarly inquiry.

The group convenes twice a term around emerging and groundbreaking scholarship in Latinx, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies, which also include texts such as films, poetry, novels, and other expressive forms. We host speakers and authors that are leading this conversation and are actively redefining and connecting scholarly fields in a transnational, hemispheric and archipelagic frame. Additionally, the Latinx Working Group is designed as a space to workshop ideas, develop new scholarly itineraries, and share works-in-progress among its members. For more information regarding the LWG, please contact Marcela DiBlasi or Jorge Cuéllar.

This workshop brings together faculty whose expertise and interests fall into the long nineteenth century, regardless of geographical area of specialization. The group is open to tenure and tenure-track faculty, lecturers and post-docs, convenes twice per quarter, and discusses members’ work-in-progress as well as scholarship currently emerging in the wider discipline(s). For more information regarding the Long Nineteenth Century Working Group, please contact Petra McGillen or Rob St. Clair.

Participation is open to faculty members of Dartmouth’s Arts & Sciences division and Geisel Medical School, as well as interested practitioners from DHMC.

The emerging field of medical humanities offers opportunities for scholars in the humanities and humanities-oriented social sciences to be in dialogue with physicians and scholars in medicine and healthcare delivery science. The group meets to discuss a series of topics of relevance to both the humanities and the study and practice of medicine, including such questions as:

• In what ways can we understand the experience of aging using the lenses of both medicine and the humanities? How do these lenses help us in the consideration of individuals' capacities to make decisions in the setting of illness?
• Are there ways of knowing that emerge through the study of the humanities and humanistic inquiry that are — or could be — of value to the practicing physician? What do you wish your own doctor had learned?
• How should the humanities influence the design of healthcare delivery? Are there ways in which the practice of medicine might inform those who study and teach in the humanities?
• How should the medical humanities inform approaches in medical education, particularly in the education of the next generation of physicians, currently in their 20s and 30s?

The Medieval Seminar meets approximately twice per term.

The Medieval Colloquium meets biennially. At each colloquium, two scholars discuss pre-circulated texts with a group of invited participants. The format has proved over the years to be both exciting and fruitful.

The Psychoanalysis Study Group is an interdisciplinary seminar for academics and clinicians who are interested in psychoanalytic theory. Through close reading of texts and presentations by psychoanalysts and academics, we consider the application of psychoanalytic ideas to patients, texts, film, art, culture, and ideas, leaving room to elaborate points of common interest and points of difference.  Please contact Sally Ackerman if you're interesting in learning more about this working group.

The South-South Forum is an interdisciplinary group that seeks to bring scholars, artists, and activists from Africa, Asia, and Latin America into direct conversation with each other. Our objective is to promote conversations across disciplines that would prioritize theoretical frameworks from the "South." We do not refer to the "South" solely in terms of geography, but also in terms of subject positionality vis-a-vis a hegemonic "North," broadly defined. In doing so, we endeavor to center the scholarly contributions of the world's majorities within the American academy and to encourage a more egalitarian exchange of ideas. The Forum is committed to cultivating intellectual alliances and political solidarities across regions and continents, as well as to advancing comparative and transnational methodologies through a praxis that is feminist, collaborative, and anti-hierarchical.

The working group meets quarterly to discuss readings and to host speakers. For more details please contact Preeti Singh or visit the group's site at: https://sites.dartmouth.edu/laaa/.

The mission of the Ukraine Working Group is to provide a venue for faculty, graduate students, pre- or post-doctoral researchers, and undergraduates from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities to develop a substantive cross-disciplinary understanding of Ukraine as a society and a culture with a focus on the causes and consequences of Russia's ongoing neo-colonial war.

The Working Group's main goals are to support Ukraine in its fight for sovereignty and to participate in the global discussion of its post-war reconstruction. In close collaboration with Ukrainian scholars, policymakers, etc., who will inform and guide the Working Group's activities, we will advance the initiative, already underway in Ukraine and elsewhere, to create meaningful action plans for restoring Ukraine's economy and cultural networks. We also hope that our Working Group's activities and projects will result in a variety of teaching initiatives aimed at educating Dartmouth students about Ukraine's history and culture while maintaining their awareness of the ongoing war and engaging them in efforts to rebuild Ukraine.

Meetings will take a variety of forms ranging from group readings to lectures and workshops led by guest speakers. Additionally, the group will offer support to the Dartmouth Student Alliance for Ukraine and form partnerships with academic and other institutions in Ukraine. Please contact Victoria Somoff (Eastern European, Eurasian, and Russian Studies) or Elisabeth Curtis (Economics) for additional information regarding the Ukraine Working Group