Work Groups

Our Work Groups emerged as an alternative to traditional academic panels, providing a critical space for interdisciplinary collaboration and in-depth exploration of a specific topic related to the Encuentro theme. Some work groups continue beyond the conference and become ongoing partnerships. Limited to no more than 20 participants, they meet several times during the Encuentro and are intended as sites to both share and produce new research and reflection. Instead of participating in a traditional panel and presenting individual papers, members of each Work Group communicate with each other before the event through our online Forums, post their papers online for their colleagues to read, comment on each other’s work, and use their time together at the Encuentro to approach the Group topic through discussions and/or alternative performative methods. Each Work Group then has the opportunity to present/perform their group's collaborative work during the Work Group Presentation sessions held at the end of the Encuentro.

Work groups were divided into the four umbrella topics for this year: