“Eyes on Work,” is an interdisciplinary arts workshop for sharing and critiquing humanities scholarship at the UO.

Format. All faculty members (TTF, NTTF, Visiting Instructors) and ABD graduate students working on the history and theory of the arts, literature, and media are welcome to circulate substantial written work-in-progress in order to receive constructive critique from colleagues and students at workshop meetings.

• The workshop will meet three (3) times per academic term. The duration of each meeting will be 90 minutes, followed by refreshments.
• To give workshop attendees ample time for reading, each presenter will circulate work two (2) weeks in advance of the meeting, with the option of a short paragraph contextualizing the work for readers.
• The presenter may begin each meeting with brief remarks contextualizing the pre-circulated work (no more than 15 minutes). In the remaining time, attendees will share comments, enabling the presenter to reassess contents, organization, framework, argumentation, and other relevant aspects of the work.

Pre-circulated work. To ensure high-quality engagement and feedback from participants, pre-circulated work should be substantial scholarship in progress between 15 to 40 pages. Examples are dissertation and book chapters, drafts of articles or full-length lectures. (Documents pertaining to professional developments such as job applications, grant proposals, and dissertation prospectuses are not appropriate for this venue.)

Workshop meeting. The purpose of the workshop is to share and critique written work-in-progress by faculty members and ABD graduate students. To allow optimal time for discussion of the pre-circulated work, there will be no formal presentations at the meetings, and contextualizing remarks by the presenter will be kept at a minimum. Workshop attendees are expected to demonstrate respect for the presenter’s scholarship by reading the pre-circulated work in advance, and by offering comments and suggestions at the meeting.

Scholarship before professional status. We believe that 1) respectful challenges produce excellent scholarship and that 2) excellent scholarship comes before institutional hierarchy. Regardless of professional status within the university, we ask that workshop participants treat each other as scholarly equals by respectfully challenging each other’s work, with the goal of strengthening and refining it for eventual publication.

Organization. Following the University of Chicago’s model, “Eyes on Work” will be organized by two graduate coordinators, responsible for programming, circulating work, and organizing snacks and drinks. In addition, two faculty sponsors will volunteer to commit to attending all meetings of a given quarter (3 total). The faculty sponsorships can rotate on a quarterly basis; the graduate coordinators can rotate on an annual basis to allow for disbursement of stipends.

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