Find fellow scholars who share your research interests among the reading and writing groups funded by the Center the Humanities. Each group listed below is welcoming new members. Reach out to the contact listed and join in.

And for those thinking ahead to next year, the humanities center makes grants for reading and writing groups during our spring funding cycle. Learn more at this link.

African Literature Reading Group 

The group aims to bring together students and faculty across fields to read old and new African works as sparring partners rather than sacred relics. This group turns literary study into a living argument about identity, power, and what counts as “tradition” in a globalizing age.
Faculty, Grad Students

Tolu Daniel, toludaniel@wustl.edu

Complicating Childhood: Interdisciplinary Readings and Pedagogy in Children's Studies

This group will focus on the ways that conceptions of childhood differ and overlap across disciplines and eras, observing how areas of study are transformed when childhood is made central to research, teaching, and other kinds of scholarly and creative investigations.
Faculty, Grad Students 

Amy Pawl, ajpawl@wustl.edu

Digital Humanities Reading Group

The Digital Humanities Reading Group is an interdisciplinary group of faculty and graduate students who meet monthly to discuss recent scholarship in the digital humanities. 
Faculty, Grad Students

Rebecca Weingart, r.l.weingart@wustl.edu

Disability and Embodied Difference Reading Group

We are a highly interdisciplinary group that meets monthly to read a chapter of recent works that critically engage with topics of disability experience, theory, and justice.
Faculty, Grad Students

AJ Jones, jadurey@wustl.edu

Environmental Humanities Reading Group

Our group serves as meeting grounds for the many faculty and grads at WashU covering environmental topics from across the humanistic disciplines.
Faculty, Grad Students

Rachael DeWitt, dewitt@wustl.edu and Daisy Reid, d.reid@wustl.edu

Finnegans Wake Reading Group

In this reading group, we read excerpts from James Joyce's notoriously difficult novel, Finnegans Wake, and pair them with critical texts to help guide us through the labyrinth that is Joyce’s final work.
Faculty, Grad Students

Max Carol, carol.m.g@wustl.edu

Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Latin American Literature

Our interdisciplinary, grad student-led group reads 21st-century literature by women and gender non-conforming writers, discussing gender, sexuality, and intersecting topics in a bilingual space (Spanish reading proficiency recommended).
Faculty, Grad Students
If you’d like to join the group, please fill out this quick form by September 4th.   

Katherine Tilghman, k.a.tilghman@wustl.edu and Michelle Monter Arauz, michellemonter@wustl.edu

George Eliot Reading Group

For the inaugural year of the George Eliot Reading Group, we will make our way through Middlemarch, with twice-monthly meetings to discuss it in sections, as well as themes and historical context of the novel overall. 
Faculty, Grad Students

Sarah Mayo, mayos@wustl.edu

Jewish Studies Working Group

The Jewish Studies Working Group brings together graduate students, postdoctoral research fellows and faculty members across departments to discuss works in progress and recent scholarship in Jewish studies. 
Faculty, Grad Students 

Ben Wexler, b.wexler@wustl.edu and Rebecca Weingart, r.l.weingart@wustl.edu

Language Pedagogy Reading Group

This community brings together faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and staff who share an interest in exploring current trends, research and best practices in second language teaching and learning. We’re meeting the 2nd Friday of each month at 2 pm in Ridgley 310.
Faculty, postdocs, grad students

Erika Conti, econti22@wustl.edu

The Marxism and Literature Reading Group

This group seeks to read both current and foundational texts in the Marxist canon to help familiarize students with Marx’s long impact on the humanities.
This group is open to all!

Varun Chandrasekhar, c.varun@wustl.edu and JP Cupps, jacobpcupps@wustl.edu

Medical Anthropology Reading Group 

An interdisciplinary group to read/discuss emerging ethnographies in the field of medical anthropology and chat with authors about their work. 
Faculty, Grad Students 

Gloria Fall, fall@wustl.edu

Medieval Studies Writing Group

We gather 3-4 times per semester to workshop chapter and article drafts from our members, in addition to occasionally hosting guests from outside WashU and St. Louis. Open to faculty and graduate students from any department with an interest in medieval studies. 

Sarah Sherratt, sarah.sherratt@wustl.edu

Poetry and Poetics Reading Group

We meet three or four times a semester to discuss poetry and poetic theory, usually dedicating the fall semester to theory and the spring semester to the works of one or two poets.
Faculty, Grad Students

Trevin Corsiglia, c.trevin@wustl.edu

Psychoanalysis Reading Group 

We are an interdisciplinary group that meets once a month to read works in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic theory. 
We are open to faculty and graduate students from WashU and SLU, as well as practicing clinicians and those in training. 

Matthew Moore, m.s.moore@wustl.edu.

Religion and Literature Writing Group 

We gather monthly to read new publications on religion and literature as well as workshop article and chapter drafts from our members. 
Open to faculty and graduate students from any department. 

Sarah Sherratt, sarah.sherratt@wustl.edu

St. Louis Reads Dante

“St. Louis Reads Dante” invites readers of all backgrounds — curious newcomers and seasoned Dante enthusiasts alike — to join a monthly journey through Dante’s Comedy, one canto at a time. Whether you're discovering Dante’s epic poem for the first time or returning to it with fresh questions, this is a chance to engage deeply with a work that continues to inspire, provoke and challenge across time.
Open to all

Paolo Scartoni, paolo@wustl.edu and Lino Mioni, lino@wustl.edu

Sports and Society: Culture, Power, and Identity  

This reading group and scholarly community aims to generate scholarship, pedagogical tools, and activities focused on the intersections of athletics, identity, and social power (website).
Open to all

Noah Cohan, ncohan@wustl.edu and Zach Bowersox, bowersox@wustl.edu

Yiddish Reading Group

The Yiddish Reading Group meets monthly to read short stories in Yiddish. 
Faculty, Grad Students

Rebecca Weingart, r.l.weingart@wustl.edu