What is a Working Group?
The Humanities Institute invites your proposals for collaborative interdisciplinary working groups. Under the auspices of our Collaboratory, we offer some funding, meeting space, publicity, and organizational support. Past groups have designed one- or two-year interdisciplinary collaborative programs, and though they have taken distinctive shapes, programming should include at least three public presentations a year and aim to eventually find embodiment in a conference, publication, course, digital production, or appropriate other form.
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. We are eager to restart this engine of intellectual growth. If you are igniting an idea and want to stoke its potential, please consider submitting a proposal for a collaborative interdisciplinary working group.
Working Group proposals may be submitted at any time. But we are looking for groups eager to start soon. There is no more critical time for your work than now.
Below is additional information about how to create or join a Working Group. You can also find more information about current Working Groups and a list of our archived Working Groups through the menu on the right.
Looking for potential collaborators? Go to our research connector database tool through this link and start exploring potential connections with OSU faculty and graduate students.
Read some reviews from our colleagues about past working groups:
"The Humanities Institute was a welcome home for the Global Mediterranean Initiative that brought faculty together from across the Arts and Sciences for working group conversations, invited lectures, and symposia." - Dana Renga, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
"Looking back at my years at OSU from the vantage of my recent retirement, my scholarship certainly profited from the opportunities the Humanities Institute offered, especially through discussion groups on comparative religion, such as the one on Religion and Violence with which the Institute reacted to the events of September 11." - Fritz Graf, Distinguished University Professor, Department of Classics.
"The Americas before 1900 Workshop (2012-2017) was a forum for discussing the work-in-progress of faculty and graduate students across at least five departments: English, Spanish and Portuguese, French and Italian, History of Art, and History. We founded it when Molly and I were relatively recent arrivals at The Ohio State University and in the wake of departures of senior scholars in the field, allowing us to provide an intellectual home for graduate students who were continuing in the program. We welcomed the participation of visiting scholars and faculty at nearby universities in Ohio, workshopped chapters from our own books and our students’ dissertations that have since been finished or published, and formed and strengthened interdisciplinary ties that have since blossomed into new collaborative projects." - Lisa Voigt, Professor, Spanish and Portuguese.
"Being part of this working group was one of the best experiences I have had as faculty at Ohio State. I hope to be part of more such collaborations!" - Molly Ferrell, Associate Professor, Department of English.
For more information, please contact the Humanities Collaboratory Director, Barry Shank. If you have an idea and would like to submit an application to create a working group, Apply Here.
Information for working group leaders and members
Working group leaders may use this form in the initial stages of planning events (this form is accessible only to directors and leaders). Find the form here.