reading group advice?

[Baudrillardist]

Hi all,

I am starting a reading group next semester and, having never done it before, was wondering if anyone had any general advice on the process. For example, whether or not 8:00pm on a Friday is a good or bad time =P

[rising_star]

You want to establish some ground rules about when, where, and how often you're going to meet, what people are expected to do before getting there, what kinds of things are appropriate for discussion once you're there, etc. You have to decide in advance how serious it's going to be, if it's okay for people to miss a meeting, etc.

[apop]

Baudrillardist; love the name!

[Eigen]

I tried for two semesters to get one going in my department (journal club), and it never really got off the ground. Lots of people said they would do it, but then just wouldn't show up.

Depending on how you want to go about it, make sure you have enough people within the same subfield that the readings selected are pertinent to multiple people.

Also, I highly recommend food as a motivator.

Good luck!

[eco_env]

whether or not 8:00pm on a Friday is a good or bad time =P

with grad students, it's hard to know if that's a joke or not.

[timuralp]

Pick publications that are conducive to discussion (which implies you know something about the students' interests). An approach to ensure attendance is to provide food, however, at that point watch out for people showing up just for food and not contributing to the conversation. Anyway, it's hard but could be rewarding. Good luck!

[rising_star]

Eigen and timuralp have great suggestions as well. The last reading group I participated in was focused on using a methodology in research that spanned across a few subdisciplines, which was cool because it brought people together. One great way to start is by reading a seminal book or paper that covers whatever topic the group is focused on. (For the social and environmental sciences, you can just find a paper in Annual Reviews about the topic.) Ideally, this is a text that a few people have read but that everyone else will have on their comps/quals list or should have read but hasn't found the time to yet. Sometimes just knowing that it's something that foundational will get people to come and participate.

[Baudrillardist]

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

How do you pick a location? Where have some of you ended up hosting the readings?

The best thing I've come up with is hosting each reading at a pub/coffee house in the city, with a different location each week. :/ (As there are a great deal of tourists, this won't actually be possible.)

Right now I've got the book selected with 4 people from my discipline ready to read it, but I am going to enlist the department secretary to send out an email blast for others who may be interested in the particular text.

Have others invited professors or is that considered untoward?

Again, thanks for all the help!

[Baudrillardist]

with grad students, it's hard to know if that's a joke or not.

haha, it was both earnest and jest!

[Eigen]

I actually had several faculty ask me if they could come once I'd been doing mine for a bit. They said they'd appreciate the drive to keep up with literature, as well as being exposed to things they might not otherwise find.

I ended up doing mine in a conference room in our department- it was the easiest place to get everyone together. I asked our department if I could have a key, and signed up for times on the shared calender. I've found doing things off campus can be more dicey- everyone can get to campus, obviously- but we have enough bike-only or walking-only people that everywhere else I ended up picking invariably left someone out because they couldn't get there. Of course, I'm in a strongly experimental discipline, so it was also a boon for us to hold it in the department so if someone had a reaction going they could leave to check on it and come back as needed. But then, it also worked for us to hold it at 8pm on a Friday night or 11 am on Saturday/1pm Sunday because of that, so ymmv.

What you might do if you aren't sure about inviting faculty (but wouldn't mind them coming) is get the department secretary to send it out to the whole department including faculty, but not targeting them specifically. Then it doesn't seem untoward (you're targeting mostly grad students) but if some are interested they can get in touch with you.

If you've got 4 people ready to read and pretty committed, I think you'll have a much easier time than I did- having a small core group that will consistently attend really makes all the difference. If you have fringe people that come less consistently, then it doesn't make as big of a deal if you have several people that are nearly always there.

[InquilineKea]

Has anyone tried setting up a forum for a reading group?

I know that the Astronomy PhD students from astrobites have set up an online reading group for anyone in the nation.