Current Working Groups
Working groups have a long history in the Humanities Institute. Over the past two decades, they have provided a forum within which emergent and potentially exciting interdisciplinary research might find its initial hearing. This listing of current working groups does much of the same work to foster collaborative engagement with people across the university, addressing pressing questions, concerns, and themes in the Humanities today.
The Unite to Read Project (URP) is a three-year initiative at The Ohio State University funded by a grant from the Mellon Foundation. URP seeks to combat book bans, engage the public in defending and reading banned books, and unite diverse stakeholders in amplifying access to literature and ideas.
Co-hosted and cross-promoted virtual events in two programming streams support connections and resource sharing between OSU and our many URP organizations. “Beat the Ban” public programming connects advocates to success stories, strategies, and pro-reader opportunities, including workshops to use and create materials on banned books. “Beyond the Ban” programming highlights the craft and expertise of banned or targeted authors and illustrators (not just their experiences with censorship), restoring recognition of the vital contributions these creators make to American culture.
These events raise awareness, awaken new advocates, and lay the foundation for engagement in a multi-week virtual URP Institute. Institute participants receive stipends and may apply to receive funding for proposed advocacy projects related to URP goals. Support continues through monthly follow-up meetings, project implementation guidance, and opportunities to serve as leaders and facilitators in URP virtual events. A final three-day URP Invitational Summit brings together advocates from the URP Institute cohort and project to work with representatives from partner organizations on future project possibilities.
We seek to anchor all URP efforts in a culture of care and creativity through practices that focus on supporting sustainable, joyful advocacy.
At OSU, URP includes the regular offering of CS 4021: Banned Books and the Cost of Censorship, which offers students the option of designing funded public-facing projects.
Ashley Hope Pérez (Associate Professor of Comparative Studies) is directing this project in partnership with Pat Enciso (Professor of Teaching and Learning) and Barry Shank (Professor of Comparative Studies). Our partners and collaborators include:
Banner image for Unite to Read project provided by PEN America.
The Ethnic Studies Graduate Student Working Group is organized with the goal of bringing together Ohio State graduate students across disciplines and departments interested in research, writing, education, and outreach in the field of Ethnic Studies. Rather than functioning as a Department, the Center for Ethnic Studies is a collaborative center with connections across the humanities. This working group hopes to highlight and strengthen these connections. The group’s organizers hope to highlight for CES-affiliated (and other) graduate students the diverse body of scholars and broad range of research that exists in Ethnic
Studies spaces and to emphasize ways that their work can gain from knowledge and methods originating in the field. The working group will meet this goal by providing graduate students the opportunity to collaborate on research and writing projects in the form of writing workshops each semester. The ultimate aim of these workshops will be to facilitate the process for students to present work at Ethnic Studies conferences or publish in Ethnic Studies journals.
The Ethnic Studies Graduate Student Working Group plans to meet three times per academic year and will host networking and guest speaker events in addition to writing workshops. To learn more about the group, please contact Asia Adomanis (adomanis.1@osu.edu).
Ethnic Studies Graduate Student Working Group leaders:
Asia Adomanis (PhD Candidate, History of Art)
Leticia Wiggins (Librarian and Assistant Professor, Center for Ethnic Studies)
Sam Aranke (Associate Professor, History of Art and Comparative Studies)
Metaphors of Reception, Reception as Metaphor (MoRRaM) will explore the importance of metaphor in relation to classical reception studies, an interdisciplinary field that tracks the interpretation and use of ancient Greek and Roman sources in wide-ranging geographical and historical contexts. The diverse metaphors used to figure the relationship between texts have not yet been the topic of sustained, thematic scholarly research, and the metaphor of reception itself has received little attention, either within Classics or in other literary fields which engage with Greek and Roman texts and cultures.
Participants in the group will explore metaphors of reception from key moments which set the intellectual and terminological agenda for the “Western tradition,” broadly defined, from ancient Greek and Roman texts to Renaissance Italian, nineteenth-century German, and postcolonial literatures. We will also investigate the genealogy of the term “reception” and its metaphysical and epistemological presuppositions and implications. Who, or what, is the point of reception? Should this be a subsequent text, which “receives” an earlier text? Or is this the reader of the subsequent text, who themselves constitutes an essential horizon of meaning? Does the term “reception,” which ultimately comes from the Latin root capio, capere (to capture, catch, seize) commit us to a theory of knowledge based on definitive possession?
Public programs will include a workshop series with invited speakers (Autumn 24, Spring 25, and Autumn 25) and a major conference (Spring 26). To learn more about this group, please contact Harriet Fertik (fertik.1@osu.edu) and Ben Folit-Weinberg (folit-weinberg.1@osu.edu).
Metaphors of Reception, Reception as Metaphor Working Group Leaders
Harriet Fertik, Assistant Professor, Department of Classics
Ben Folit-Weinberg, Assistant Professor, Department of Classics
Jonathan Combs-Schilling, Associate Professor, Department of French and Italian
Paul Reitter, Professor, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
The South Asian Studies Initiative at Ohio State is a vibrant and growing program, connecting students and faculty across departments who are interested in the study of South Asian languages, history, art, culture, society and politics.
An undergraduate minor in South Asian Studies and a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in South Asian Studies is currently offered by Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures.
In addition, the South Asian Studies Initiative faculty, along with graduate students, plan events with guest speakers, Brown Bag lunches, and conferences in order to bring greater visibility to South Asian Studies and build community.
If you are interested in learning more, please contact director of the South Asian Studies Initiative Dr. Madhumita Dutta, or visit the South Asian Studies Facebook Page.
South Asian Studies Initiative Working Group Leaders
Amrita Dhar, Assistant Professor, English
Madhumita Dutta, Assistant Professor, Geography
Pranav Jani, Associate Professor, English
Brian Joseph, Professor, Linguistics & Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures
Ila Nagar, Associate Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Literature
Binaya Subedi, Assistant Dean, & Associate Professor, Education (Newark)
Hugh Urban, Professor, Comparative Studies
Scott Levi, Professor, History
Mytheli Sreenivas, Professor, History and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Rasel Ahmed, Assistant Professor, Theater, Film and Media Studies
Lydia Walker, Assistant Professor, History