Description
This workshop aims to help mid-career scholars make progress on a writing project (book chapter, article, research statement, fellowship application) through one-on-one coaching with workshop leaders and group work. Skills addressed include time management, defining a topic, gathering materials, concept mapping, developing an argument, making decisions about project parameters and scale, articulating method and/or theoretical framing, articulating stakes and exigence, identifying interlocutors, and identifying an audience.
The application requires a project description with explanation of stage of work and description of what each participant wants to gain from the workshop.
Instructors
Jean E. Howard, George Delacorte Professor Emerita in the Humanities at Columbia University, is a distinguished scholar, editor, teacher, and mentor. She has published widely in the fields of early modern drama, theater history, modern and contemporary drama, the literature of incarceration, and literary theory and criticism. Her work is informed by feminist, Marxist, and Premodern Critical Race paradigms. Recipient of the Columbia Graduate School’s Mentoring award, as well as Columbia’s Presidential Teaching Award, Howard has directed more than fifty dissertations, many of which have become prize-winning books. Howard’s own scholarship has been furthered by Guggenheim, ACLS, NEH, Folger Library, and Huntington Library fellowships, and she has published four singly authored books, two collaboratively written books, over fifty essays, and edited or co-edited six important essay collections. She is an editor of The Norton Shakespeare, now in its third edition. An experienced administrator, at Columbia Howard served as Chair and Graduate Chair of English; Chair of the Institute for Research on Woman and Gender; and as Columbia’s first Vice Provost for Diversity Initiatives. She has also held leadership positions in the Modern Language Association of America, the National Phi Beta Kappa Association, and the American Association of University Professors, as well as serving as President of the Shakespeare Association of America and as a Trustee of Brown University. She is currently completing a book on the AngloAmerican history play in the twentieth century.
Valerie Traub is the Adrienne Rich Distinguished University Professor Emerita of English and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan. An interdisciplinary scholar whose robust publishing career crosses literary study, the history of gender, sexuality, and race, the history of cartography, feminist theory and queer studies, she is the author of three monographs, four edited collections, and over forty essays. Many of her publications have won major awards. She has mentored 45 dissertation writers, many of whom have published award-winning first books. Collaborating over the course of her career with social scientists as well as humanists, she is a recipient of fellowships from Guggenheim, NEH/Newberry, ACLS, Huntington Library and Folger Library, has evaluated fellowship applications for many universities, archives, and foundations, written readers reports on countless books and essays, and regularly facilitates book manuscript workshops. While at the University of Michigan, she won the university’s Graduate Mentoring Award as well as awards for research excellence, culminating in her Collegiate and Distinguished University Professorships. At Michigan, she served several stints as Chair of Women’s and Gender Studies, as well as Graduate Director of English, and DGS and UGS for the Women’s and Gender Studies department. She has served on the LSA Divisional committee and the selection committee for Distinguished University Professorships. She was elected Trustee of the Shakespeare Association of America and chaired committees for the SAA, the Renaissance Society of America, and the Modern Language Association of America. She is currently working on a monograph on the concept of normality as well as an essay on trans and lesbian studies.
Meeting Schedule
This workshop will meet over two Fridays in the fall semester.
On October 2, 2026, the workshop will meet in-person at the Newberry from 9:30 am-4:30 pm).
On December 4, 2026, the workshop will meet on Zoom from 9:30-11:30 am.
In addition to these meetings, participants will meet in bi-weekly accountability group Zoom meetings from late October to late November.
Application Information
This workshop is free and open to all, but space is limited. Priority will be given to applicants from CRS Consortium institutions. Consortium members may also be eligible to receive Consortium Grants to help defray travel costs. For more details, consult your local consortium representative.
To apply, click below. The application deadline is Friday, May 15, 2026 at 11:59 pm Central Time.
Apply Here