by Aline Stehrenberger
Inspiration comes in many forms, but few things are as motivating and heartening as taking time to discuss a text with colleagues. In academic life, where we often find ourselves working alone, reading groups are an easy way to join a community.
After moving to Bristol as a visitor of the Centre for Sociodigital Futures, I participated in two reading groups. One was on “Time, Temporalities and Sociodigital Futures”, co-hosted by Dale Southerton and Keri Facer, and the other one was on “Sociodigital Theories and Concepts”, organised and facilitated by Susan Halford and David Evans.
On the days when reading groups took place, the Centre was busier than usual; the smell of coffee was already in the stairwell, and gathering for informal meetings before and after was lovely. These groups gave me an excellent reason to meet others and explore new texts.
Here are some of the ways reading groups have benefitted me and shaped my reading.
Reading groups keep you accountable
While in Switzerland, I use my train commute to read, a small ritual that helps me stay on top of my reading list. During my visit to Bristol, with the Centre only being a walking distance away, I needed to dedicate specific time slots to my reading. With other deadlines dictating my daily rhythms, it would have been easy to neglect this. Knowing that other scholars have kept their valuable time free for the reading group and are hoping for a lively discussion put reading articles higher on my to-do list.
Discover hidden gems or explore literature with fellow readers
You can pursue different goals by participating in a reading group. Suppose you are already familiar with a text, as I was when reading Karen Barad’s text on “Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter”. In that case, it can be nice to see what people more distant from the text take away from it, prompting you to think differently. On the other hand, with the reading group on time and temporalities, it was practical for me to get an initial overview of a literature stream with which I was not yet familiar and to know what a possible entry point for me would be. Both approaches proved helpful while looking at the perishability of food, as I do for my ongoing PhD project.
Stay connected with your research community
Following my time at Bristol, I can still participate in the reading groups in a hybrid format. This allows me to stay in contact with all the inspiring people I have met in Bristol with a shallow barrier. Thanks to digital communication platforms, we can get together with researchers worldwide to talk about texts and how they relate to our work. This also allows for relevant dialogue when the local research community is relatively small. Inviting authors to the session is also an excellent way to connect with inspiring researchers.
Find inspiration and creativity through discussion
For me, it is a privilege to take a break from the to-dos of everyday life, have brilliant minds in a room to discuss a text, and learn from each other. The spark we create is always a reminder of why I am doing what I am doing. I usually leave the reading groups with pages of messy notes and hints of how I could use the text to look at my data.
Getting started
The hardest part of starting a reading group can be choosing to make it happen, but with a new year beginning when could be a better time? Choose inspiring colleagues, discuss which texts you want to read and who else might be interested in joining. I can also recommend this for leisure reading: A good book, a bottle of wine and nothing stands in the way of a cosy book evening.
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