Working Groups

The Consortium invites scholars to join our topical working groups for challenging and collegial discussion of interesting publications in their fields and of each others’ works-in-progress.

Each group meets monthly. All interested scholars are welcome to participate via online video conferencing.

To join a group:

  1. Log in, or create an account
  2. Click on a group below
  3. Click on the "Request Membership" link
Submit a discussion paper for one of the working groups.

Upcoming Meetings

Please set your timezone.

Wednesday, January 14, 2026, 9:30 - 11:00 am EST

Daniela Monaldi - "The Statistical Style of Reasoning and the Invention of Bose-Einstein Statistics"

Primary Source: "Quantentheorie des einatomigen idealen Gases. Zweite Mitteilung" (1925) by Albert Einstein

Guest: Daniela Monaldi

Wednesday, January 14, 2026, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EST

Approaches to Color (continued).  A Nuance, then Two Presentations and Group Discussion.

Nuance: Viveca Mellegard, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (London), on natural indigo dyeing in West Bengal.

The Main Event

The statements  that sparked these talks were:

Thursday, January 15, 2026, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm EST

Prof. Anna Akasoy (CUNY Graduate Center) 

Friday, January 16, 2026, 10:00 - 11:30 am EST

New book preview - Public Health in the Premodern World: Dynamic Balances, edited by Guy Geltner,  Janna Coomans and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim (Oxford, February 2026)

Speakers: Janna Coomans (Utrecht), Edmund Hayes (Leiden), Asaf Goldschmidt (Tel Aviv), Léa Hermenault (Antwerp) and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim (Independent). 

Friday, January 16, 2026, 2:00 - 3:30 pm EST

This week, we will be reading selections from Catherine Denial's A Pedagogy of Kindness. The file includes two chapters as well as the introduction and brief conclusion. 

Monday, January 19, 2026, 8:00 - 9:30 pm EST

Our main readings will be the first two articles in the PDF below ("Janauary readings"):

Tuesday, January 20, 2026, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm EST

Early Color Processes in Chilean Photography: Archives and Foreign Photographers (1890–1920) 
with Samuel Salgado Tello

Tuesday, January 20, 2026, 2:00 - 3:30 pm EST

Karen Pinto, University of Colorado-Boulder, “All the World’s an Island: A Taussigian Reading of Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern Maps with an Islamicate Twist”

Wednesday, January 21, 2026, 10:00 - 11:00 am EST

In this session, we will read and discuss Aswin Punathambekar's working paper, “Televisual Drag: Reimagining South Asian Film and Media Studies.”

Wednesday, January 21, 2026, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EST

Spring Semester Welcome Back Event: A critical reading of Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls

Host: Kelly O'Donnell,  Towson University

Friday, January 23, 2026, 10:00 am - 1:00 pm EST

Lightning talks: part 2 of a 3-hour INES workshop. All working group members are invited to the other events, but INES membership is required to attend the 10am or 12pm sessions. Please register for the event here. Full workshop details are below:

Monday, January 26, 2026, 10:30 am - 12:00 pm EST

Satyanad Kichenassamy Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, LMR (CNRS, UMR9008) and
GREI (EPHE-PSL and Sorbonne-Université),

Mathematical reasoning as an outgrowth of Vedic ritual.

Tuesday, January 27, 2026, 1:00 - 2:30 pm EST

"An Inside View of Technology and Culture," with Ruth Oldenziel, Editor-in-Chief. Join us for a conversation about the field's flagship journal, what it's publishing and what it looks for in submissions, and its visions and plans for the future. Ruth has just started a second term as chief editor. 

Wednesday, January 28, 2026, 10:00 - 11:30 am EST

Frieda Beauregard and Mallory Novicoff (McGill)

Monday, February 2, 2026, 2:00 - 3:30 pm EST

Current research: Seminar with Laurence Totelin (Cardiff University): Recreating ancient cosmetics: joys, pitfalls and engagement opportunities

 

Tuesday, February 3, 2026, 10:00 - 11:30 am EST

Topic: Cosmology

Led by Connemara Doran

Wednesday, February 4, 2026, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EST

Rosanna Dent (Cambridge)

Thursday, February 5, 2026, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm EST

Speaker: Nicky Reeves 

Curator of scientific & medical history collections, Hunterian Museum & Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, Scotland
https://www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/staff/nicky-reeves/

Session Title: Literal transparency, immediacy and access

Thursday, February 5, 2026, 2:00 - 3:30 pm EST

Maggie McNulty, "Denver’s Platte Farm Open Space: From Superfund Site to Community Park"

Friday, February 6, 2026, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm EST

Anna Grasskamp & Anne Gerritsen, eds. Transformative Jars: Asian Ceramic Vessels as Transcultural Enclosures (London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2022), Chs 4 & 7.  

Anne Gerritsen, The City of Blue and White: Chinese Porcelain an the Early Modern World (Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 2020), Chs. 1, 11, and 12.