Critical Cultural Studies
In several graduate programs in the social sciences and humanities, cultural studies has been the main form of methodology since around 1980. This is largely due to the impact that British Cultural Studies has had in the American academy.
The Critical Cultural Studies (CCS) Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) is comprised of graduate students explicitly interested in both theoretical research and methodological practice, whose members consider interdisciplinarity as integral to understanding cultural production. Members wish to provide equal access to graduate students in any program and organize in an informal setting to explore critical theory and develop our professional competencies via a practicum. The research group seeks to provide ample room for discussion of a variety of critical cultural theory, including critical race theory, ethnic studies, gender and sexuality studies, and studies of capital, labor, and profit. Specific goals include drafting papers together, critiquing each other's work and research, inviting junior faculty to discuss both their research and their experience in the transition from graduate student to faculty position, and hosting guest speakers. The group has been supported by the Department of English and the Center for the Humanities and has been able to host speaking events featuring faculty from a variety of disciplines.
For more information on the group and how to join, please contact the IRG Convener, Preston Taylor Stone, PhD candidate with the Department of English.
Fall 2021 Meeting Schedule Coming Soon
Fieldwork in the Humanities
This IRG is focused on fieldwork in the humanities and is designed to provide additional resources to humanities scholars at the university. Since there are no formal courses offered in fieldwork methodology for humanists, and because methodology courses in social science disciplines such as anthropology or sociology may not be easily accessible to humanities scholars or tailored to their specific needs, this group provides a valuable venue for discussion, sharing of resources, and an opportunity to address the intersection of humanistic scholarship and fieldwork, which is clearly an emerging critical tool.
The group gathers professors and graduate students across humanities disciplines invested in field-research. Members meet three to four times during a semester to discuss what it means to theorize and practice fieldwork in the humanities, how to face the challenges that come with such interdisciplinary methodology, and to explore how research conducted in the field might expand the scope of humanities work, open up opportunities for community collaborations, and forge connections between academia and the world outside of it. Meetings integrate text discussions with guest talks by scholars already deeply immersed in fieldwork. Topics may include the iRB process, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation.
For more information on the group and how to join, please contact the IRG Convener, Tarika Sankar, PhD candidate with the Department of English.
The Fieldwork in the Humanities IRG is on hiatus for Fall 2022.
