Graduate Activities

English Department Roundtable

The English Department Roundtable is a forum for graduate students in the English Department to share ideas across a wide variety of fields, time periods, and methodologies. Open to students at all stages of the program, the EDR gives graduate students an opportunity to present work in an informal setting to a group of peers, to get feedback about a current project, and to learn about the work being done by colleagues. At a time in which the tremendous diversity of literary study has made it increasingly difficult to grasp the discipline as a whole on one’s own, the purpose of the EDR is to foster a greater sense of intellectual community and cohesion within Cornell’s English Department, and to strengthen graduate work through increased collaboration.

The EDR meets semi-monthly in the English Department Lounge. In order to facilitate discussion by members of the audience (including a large number of graduate students as well as faculty), papers being presented at the EDR are made available one week prior to each meeting; meetings themselves will focus primarily on discussion between the audience and the presenter.

» Schedule » For further information contact Giffen Maupin.

The Lounge Hour Reading Series

The Lounge Hour Reading Series is a bi-weekly reading event run by Cornell English graduate students. The reading series showcases the literary stylings of Cornell’s first-year MFA students, and is held in the English lounge, in Goldwin Smith Hall. All reading events are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For the location, date, time, and featured readers of the next event, please check the schedule on the events page (the schedule will be updated periodically.)

» Schedule » For further information contact Zach Harris or Anne Marie Rooney.

The Victorian Reading Group

The Victorian Reading Group is a reading group for members of the Department of English at Cornell who are interested in Victorian literature and culture generally and in the novel as a genre in particular.

» For further information visit The Victorian Reading Group site.

The Theory Reading Group

The Theory Reading Group at Cornell University is a group of graduate students and faculty from the departments of English, Comparative Literature, German Studies, and Romance Studies. We have a strong sense of community and a commitment to theoretical inquiry outside the classroom. The Theory Reading Group organizes an annual spring conference around contemporary issues in philosophy, aesthetics, literary theory, and political thought.

» For further information visit The Theory Reading Group site.

Gender & Sexuality Reading Group

The Gender & Sexuality Reading Group seeks to foster lively discussion and shared knowledge among graduate students and faculty whose work intersects with any aspect of gender and sexuality. The group’s areas of inquiry will include recent and foundational criticism and theory in (and around) feminist, gay and lesbian, and queer studies juxtaposed with readings in 20th century literature and cinema.

For further information visit The Gender & Sexuality Reading Group site or contact Jessica Metzler.

The American Reading Group

The Nineteenth Century American Reading Group provides graduate students in the humanities at Cornell with the opportunity to discuss both canonical and lesser-known nineteenth-century texts in a casual scholarly setting. Founded both because of the presence of a growing number of students working on the literary, cultural, and material history of the long American nineteenth century at Cornell and, even more significantly, in order to encourage work in this field, the group meets monthly to discuss a text or set of readings. The group also collaborates with the Victorian Reading Group to host an annual colloquium in the Spring.

For further information visit The American Reading Group site.