A list of official reading groups that are (or were) currently meeting.
Other discussion groups have met on a short-term basis to discuss a text or an author. If you'd like to form a group to discuss something, get the word out. Chances are, other grads have been wanting to read it as well. If you'd like to form a more formal group, pitch it to the grads listserv. There's always room for more discussion.
Bad Movie Club
The Bad Movie Club meets once a month to watch terrible movies in enjoyable company.
Children's Culture Study Group
The Children's Culture Study Group (CCSG) is a graduate student-run organization at the University of Florida dedicated to the study of children's literature and culture. Consisting of both faculty and students, the CCSG provides the unique opportunity to examine the children's literature collection located in the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature in the Department of Special Collections at the University of Florida. The CCSG meets throughout the semester to discuss topics like Caldecott Medal winners or Little Golden Books as well as popular films or graphic novels.
Comics Reading Group
The Comics Reading Group generally meets bi-weekly to discuss readings chosen by the group. To hear about upcoming comics-related meetings, please email comics-coordinators@clas.ufl.edu to join the email listserve.
Composition Theory Reading Group
The Composition Theory Reading Group is open to students, faculty, and anyone else interested in theories of writing and discourse. Members of the CTRG choose and discuss theoretical readings in the field of composition studies, including topics such as writing and technology, negotiating writing spaces, ideology, philosophy, discourse theory, and rhetoric.
Digital Assembly
The Digital Assembly evolved from UF's Games Studies Group, the sponsor of three well-attended national conferences on gaming and gaming culture. We are expanding our emphases beyond video games, to include wider practices and phenomena of digital media and digital culture. Our new emphasis on media studies and theory reflects our ongoing interest in interdisciplinary topics and in opening lines of communication between our various departments at UF. Due to the diverse interests of the student body, we have broadened the scope but maintained our enthusiasm in theoretical approaches to under-represented media.
Early Modern Reading Group
The Early Modern Reading Group is an interdisciplinary reading group housed in the Department of English. Our readings and discussions tend to focus on primary texts from the late Middle Ages to the mid-Seventeenth Century. Although we read all of our texts in English, we do read translations of other European works. UF Undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty members are welcome to attend our monthly meetings.
Feminist Reading Group
The feminist reading group meets twice a month to discuss readings chosen by the group and generally deal with feminist theory. The FRG is currently looking for a group coordinator to take over the listserv and administration for the FRG. Please contact Melissa Mellon (mmellon@english.ufl.edu) to request info about the group.
Film Studies Group
FSG activities are open to anyone (grad students, faculty) interested in watching/reading & talking about/teaching film. Activities are not limited to film studies students. The Film Studies Group has workshops, a screening series, and chooses readings to help its members further their knowledge of Film Studies.
Jane Austen Society
The Jane Austen Society consists of department members as well as Janeites from all around north Florida. We meet several times each semester either on campus or at a local library to study and celebrate Jane Austen's works, life, and times. For more information, contact Kristen Smith at kdgs54@gmail.com .
Marxist Reading Group
The Marxist Reading Group was formed in 1994 to facilitate an engagement with Marxist theories at the University of Florida. We host monthly reading sessions and annual conferences dedicated to maintaining a Marxist critique within the academic community.
Postcolonial Reading Group
The Postcolonial Reading Group focuses on postcolonial theory and literatures and their intersections with race, class, gender, and sexuality studies. PRG also fosters discussion of feminist postcolonial theory and U.S. Multi-ethnic literatures and film.
Queer Theory Reading Group
The queer theory reading group is a collection of people from differing backgrounds and positions: graduate and undergraduate students, the academic and the non-academic, the disciplinary minded and those who work best outside of any formal boundaries, straights, gays, lesbians, transgendered, transsexual, bisexual and at times even queers.
Victorian Studies Forum
We currently meet on roughly a monthly basis to discuss Victorian poetry. The goal behind this is to familiarize ourselves with canonical and non-canonical works that are usually not covered in graduate courses (which tend to focus more on novels). This familiarity will both give us an edge professionally and help us in teaching survey courses on British literature. Contact Dan Brown (dsbrown@ufl.edu) to join the listserv.