Meeting regularly throughout the academic year, RITM working groups advance interdisciplinary scholarship. Many of these groups have also organized lecture series and small conferences.
Explore the current Working Groups below.
Working Groups
Asian American Studies Working Group
The Asian American Studies Working Group is a space for graduate students to workshop their works-in-progress with peers and faculty members.
Faculty Advisor: Mary Lui, Professor of American Studies and History
Graduate Student Contact: Adi Kumar
Diversity in Italian Studies Working Group
The Diversity in Italian Studies Working Group is a collaborative and interdisciplinary group that meets twice per month to discuss representations of cultural, racial, and sexual diversity in Italian literature, Italian culture, Italian history, and Italian Studies as an academic discipline. Beginning the Fall 2021 semester, the Yale Diversity in Italian Studies Working Group is collaborating with the UC Berkeley Italian Migration Studies Working Group to co-host invited speaker events. Meetings are open to all students and faculty interested in issues related to Italy.
Faculty Advisor: Jane Tylus, Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Italian and Professor of Comparative Literature
Graduate Student Contact: Federica Parodi
Latinx Studies Working Group
The Latinx Studies Working Group offers a weekly gathering for graduate students and faculty members to discuss research methodologies, current scholarship, and works-in-progress.
Faculty Advisors: Stephen Pitti, Professor of History, American Studies, and Ethnicity, Race, & Migration
Graduate Student Contact: Aron Ramirez
Racial Capitalism and Carceral State Working Group
For its fifth year, the Racial Capitalism and the Carceral State colloquium will bring together graduate students and faculty committed to researching the regimes of mass incarceration, immigration detention, policing, border security, and surveillance, in relation to the long histories of transatlantic slavery, settler colonialism, and overseas empire. The group is committed to research building towards abolitionist futures, including work on prison education, re-entry, restorative justice, and social movements, and aims to support the scholarship of currently and formerly incarcerated people. Each semester will be dedicated to close reading foundational and emerging new works in the field, having working group members leading discussions, and welcoming invited scholars to discuss their works with us.
Graduate Student Contacts: Conor Hodges and Andrea Ho
Black Sound and the Archive Working Group
The Black Sound & the Archive Working Group (BSAW) aims to explore the untapped variety of black sound archives—moving beyond the records, musical recordings, and oral histories traditionally showcased. We aim to broaden the very notion of a black sound archive by considering the relationship between the history and significance of African-American sonic practices in tandem with critical examination of the nature of archives.
Graduate Student Contact: Jake Gagne