The Humanities Studio's "Humanities Toolkit" series is a curated selection of panels, interviews, and practical workshops designed to help humanities scholars carry their work beyond campus. Most sessions are open to Claremont Colleges students, faculty and staff. See individual event listings below for more information.
Recent Workshops, Interviews, Panels & Classes
Writing for General Interest Magazines with Gal Beckerman
February 19, 2024
Faculty, staff, and students of the Claremont Colleges were invited to join the Humanities Studio to hear Gal Beckerman, senior editor for books at The Atlantic, share insider tips about publishing with public-facing outlets such as The Atlantic and The New Yorker.
Formerly an editor at The New York Times Book Review, Gal Beckerman is the author of The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas, which was a New York Times Notable Book in 2022. His previous book, When They Come for Us, We’ll Be Gone, won the National Jewish Book Award and the Sami Rohr Prize and was named a best book of the year by The New Yorker and The Washington Post. He has a PhD in media studies from Columbia University and lives in Brooklyn with his wife and their two daughters.
Past Workshops, Interviews, Panels & Classes
2024
Opinion Writing Workshop with Teresa Tritch
February 7, 2024
The Humanities Studio at Pomona College invited Pomona College faculty, staff and students to join us for an opinion writing workshop with editor and writer Teresa Tritch.
Drawing on 13 years of experience as a member of the Editorial Board of the New York Times, Tritch addressed how academics can write persuasively for a broad audience, what editors are looking for, how to gain an editor’s attention, and how to write an effective op-ed.
In preparation for the workshop, Tritch edited three participant-submitted opinion essays. During the workshop, these essays were shared among the participants, and Tritch guided the group through an analysis of what worked in each one — and how to correct for what didn’t work.
2023
Publishing with an Academic Press with Greg Britton
November 1, 2023
Claremont Colleges faculty and students met with Greg Britton, editorial director of Johns Hopkins University Press, to hear insider tips on publishing with an academic press. Britton oversees the publishing of 170 new books annually. He also acquires the Press’s list in Higher Education studies. Prior to his appointment at Hopkins, Britton directed Getty Publications at the J. Paul Getty Trust. He is active in both the Association of American Publishers and the Association of University Presses, which gave him their 2016 Constituency Award. In 2018, the Council of Independent Colleges presented him with their Academic Leadership Award. He wrote “Thinking Like a Scholarly Editor: The How and Why of Academic Publishing” a chapter in Peter Ginna’s What Editors Do: The Art, Craft, and Business of Book Editing (University of Chicago Press, 2017). Britton writes occasionally for the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Education.
Jia Tolentino on Writing
November 10, 2023
The Humanities Studio welcomed Jia Tolentino, New Yorker staff writer and author of the New York Times-bestselling book of essays Trick Mirror, for a conversation with Humanities Studio Undergraduate Fellow India Claudy ’24 on the craft of writing.
Applying to Graduate School in the Humanities
September 6, 2023
Claremont Colleges students were invited to a practical roundtable with UCLA graduate advisors dealing with such topics as making the decision to go to graduate school; selecting the right school; the importance of contact potential faculty advisors; crafting a personal statement, statement of purpose, and/or a diversity statement; selecting and polishing a writing sample; approaching letter writers; and funding your graduate education.
With UCLA graduate advisors Leisy Abrego, Chicana/o and Central American Studies; Christopher Mott, English; and Minayo Nasiali, History
The event was part of our Humanities Toolkit series of panels, interviews, and practical workshops designed to help humanities scholars carry their work beyond campus.
Publishing with an Academic Press with Larin McLaughlin
March 29, 2023
Claremont Colleges faculty, staff, and students were invited to hear practical advice from Larin McLaughlin, editorial director at University of Washington Press.
McLaughlin has been editorial director at the University of Washington Press since 2014. At the State University of New York Press, where she began her publishing career in 2005, she brought the foundational collection, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, back into print in a fourth edition, and worked with Combahee River Collective member Barbara Smith to develop Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith. At the University of Illinois Press and now the University of Washington Press, she has continued to support work in women of color and transnational feminist studies and critical ethnic studies. She also serves as the primary editor for books in Native and Indigenous studies, including books produced in close collaboration with regional Native nations. At the University of Washington Press, Larin acquires regional trade and art history and visual culture titles as well. In 2020, she was honored with the Association of University Presses Constituency Award for her leadership as the author and principal investigator of the Mellon University Press Diversity Fellowship Program.
Opinion Writing Workshop with Teresa Tritch
April 14, 2023
The Humanities Studio at Pomona College invited Claremont Colleges faculty, staff and students to join us for an opinion writing workshop with editor and writer Teresa Tritch.
Drawing on 13 years of experience as a member of the Editorial Board of the New York Times, Tritch addressed how academics can write persuasively for a broad audience, what editors are looking for, how to gain an editor’s attention and how to write an effective op-ed.
In preparation for the workshop, Tritch edited three participant-submitted opinion essays. During the workshop, these essays were shared among the participants, and Tritch guided the group through an analysis of what worked in each one — and how to correct for what didn’t work. This part of the workshop reinforced the steps involved in effective opinion writing.
Tritch also used current examples of opinion writing to amplify her points about structure, technique, clarity, newsworthiness and strength of argument.
Summon the Muse: Developing a Culture & History Podcast with Avery Trufelman
February 13, 2023
The Department of Anthropology and the Humanities Studio at Pomona College invited Claremont Colleges students, faculty, and staff to meet and hear from Avery Trufelman, host and producer of the Articles of Interest, The Cut, and 99% Invisible podcasts.
Trufelman’s Articles of Interest is a show about what we wear, telling stories about the cultural origins of everything from gendered pockets and the birth of plaid to selling knockoffs on the street and producing perfume. Named one of The New York Times' best podcasts of 2022, the series' third season, "American Ivy," traces the origins of preppy style back a half a century, from New England to Japan and back again. In "Summon the Muse," Trufelman breaks down how she makes the show and what questions go into seeking out the broader narratives behind how we look — and how we want to.
Avery Trufelman started her career as a producer on 99% Invisible, the crowd-favorite podcast on design and architecture, where she produced episodes on magazine covers, brutalism, trend forecasting and automat restaurants and created the series Articles of Interest. She hosted the Curbed and Vox Media podcast Nice Try!, which explores searches for utopia through idealized communities and domestic lifestyle products. In 2020, she joined New York magazine to host its relaunched The Cutpodcast. She continues to create Articles of Interest as an independent producer. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in literature and German studies.
2022
Joining a Broader Conversation: Writing for Popular Media with Daniel Pollack-Pelzner
November 7, 2022
The Claremont Colleges community was invited to join Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, visiting scholar at Portland State University and author of an upcoming biography of Lin-Manuel Miranda, for a presentation on and discussion of turning scholarly smarts into glossy-magazine and trade-press publications.
Pollack-Pelzner writes about Shakespeare, musicals, and contemporary culture; his articles have appeared recently in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. Daniel received his BA in History from Yale and his PhD in English from Harvard, where he helped to edit the Norton Edition of Shakespeare's complete works. For Simon & Schuster, he is writing the first biography of Lin-Manuel Miranda, and he is consulting on a feature film about the playwright and tribal sovereignty advocate Mary Kathryn Nagle, based on his profile of her in The New Yorker. His pandemic spoof, "What Shakespeare Actually Did During the Plague," was adapted into an Emmy-winning broadcast for PBS. Born and raised in Portland, Daniel teaches English and theater at Portland State University. He and his wife met in a fifth-grade production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Applying to Graduate Programs in the Humanities
October 3, 2022
Claremont Colleges students were invited to a practical roundtable with UCLA graduate advisors dealing with such topics as making the decision to go to graduate school; selecting the right school; the importance of contact potential faculty advisors; crafting a personal statement, statement of purpose, and/or a diversity statement; selecting and polishing a writing sample; approaching letter writers; and funding your graduate education.
With UCLA graduate advisors Leisy Abrego, Chicana/o and Central American Studies; Christopher Mott, English; and Minayo Nasiali, History
The event was part of our Humanities Toolkit series of panels, interviews, and practical workshops designed to help humanities scholars carry their work beyond campus.
Humanities Futures: An Alumni Panel
April 28, 2022
Humanities majors wondering what can be done with an English, literature, history, philosophy, music, theatre/dance, religious studies, language, classics, media studies, art, or art history degree after graduation joined us to hear from a panel of Pomona alums who are putting their degrees to work on a variety of paths, from grad school to enviro science, arts/museum executive work, and more.
Panelists:
Caress Reeves ’12, Media Studies Major, VFX Artist/Harmony Compositor, Titmouse
Catherine Arias ’93, American Studies Major, Director of Education & Visitor Engagement, MOCA
Michelle Schultz ’16, English Major, Comedy Development Coordinator, ABC Network
Natalie Slater ’19, Environmental Analysis Major, Mellon Community Engagement Fellow and Master's Student in Environmental Humanities, the University of Utah
Peter Brown ’19, Politics & English Major, PhD Student, Department of English, University of California, Berkeley
The event was organized with help from the Pomona College Career Development Office.
Podcasting the Humanities with Oliver Wang
March–April 2022
In this three-part workshop series, members of the Claremont Colleges community learned the practical details of developing a humanities-focused podcast—from conception to production and circulation—from podcaster (& DJ & pop music/culture writer) Oliver Wang. Participants who completed the first three workshops had the option to record, edit, & receive peer/professional feedback on their own 10-15 minute test episode.
Publishing with an Academic Press with Ken Wissoker
March 1, 2022
Pomona faculty and students interested in learning about the process of publishing a scholarly monograph with an academic press were invited to hear practical advice from Ken Wissoker, Senior Executive Editor at Duke University Press, who has published more than twelve hundred books which have won over one hundred and seventy prizes. Among the authors whose books he has published are Stuart Hall, Donna Haraway, Achille Mbembe, Lauren Berlant, Jack Halberstam, Sara Ahmed, Christina Sharpe, Fred Moten, Jose Munoz, and Lisa Lowe.
The event was part of the Humanities Studio's "Humanities Toolkit" series of interviews and workshops to help humanities scholars carry their work to audiences beyond campus.
2021
Writing for General-Interest Magazines with Lenika Cruz
November 30, 2021
Pomona College students and faculty were invited to join us as we welcome Lenika Cruz, senior editor covering culture at The Atlantic, to discuss writing, pitching a story, working with an editor, and other insider tips for publishing with public-facing outlets. The conversation, hosted by Humanities Studio Director Kevin Dettmar, will be followed by a Q&A.
Applying to Graduate Programs in the Humanities
September 14, 2021
Pomona College students were invited to a practical roundtable with UCLA graduate advisors dealing with such topics as making the decision to go to graduate school; selecting the right school; the importance of contact potential faculty advisors; crafting a personal statement, statement of purpose, and/or a diversity statement; selecting and polishing a writing sample; approaching letter writers; and funding your graduate education.
With UCLA graduate advisors Leisy Abrego, Chicana/o and Central American Studies; Christopher Mott, English; and Minayo Nasiali, History
2020
Working with Scholarly Publishers with Eric Zinner
February 27, 2020
Eric Zinner (editor-in-chief of American and cultural studies, media and communication, and literary studies at NYU Press) joined the Humanities Studio as part of our Humanities Toolkit series of interviews and practical workshops to help humanities scholars carry their work to a wider audience beyond campus. Come! Hear! Refreshments served.
The Op-Ed Project
February 28–29, 2020
Writing for Trade Publishers with Elise Capron
February 20–21, 2020
Elise Capron, agent, The Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency
Master Class with Nalo Hopkinson
January 30, 2020
Pomona College students joined novelist Nalo Hopkinson for a master class for aspiring writers. Hopkinson has published a dozen novels and short stories and is the recipient of writing honors including the Octavia Butler Memorial Award for contributions to science fiction. She writes a new DC monthly comic in Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" Universe and is currently at work on an alternate historical fantasy of the Caribbean.
Taking Scholarship Public: Writing for Magazines & Trade Publishers with Brian Goldstone
Postponed — watch this space for information about rescheduling
Brian Goldstone, Director of the Media & Journalism Initiative at the Franklin Humanities Institute; reporter and journalist for Harper's Magazine, The New Republic, and Guernica, among other publications
2019
Applying to Graduate Programs in the Humanities
September 9, 2019
UCLA graduate advisors Charlene Villaseñor Black, Art History; Muriel McClendon, History; and Louise Hornby, English
On Writing with Hua Hsu
April 4, 2019
Hua Hsu is an associate professor of American Studies at Vassar College. He’s also a critic at The New Yorker, where he writes most often about hip hop. How does one guy get to have two such cool jobs? Hsu sat for an on-stage interview in the Humanities Studio, discussing his writing practice and his career as an academic and a popular writer and sharing insights with students about the balancing act of working simultaneously in the academic and popular realms.
Writing for the Public: A Panel Discussion
March 25, 2019
Jon Baskin, founding editor of The Point; Evan Kindley, senior humanities editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB); Francesca Capossela ’18, contributor to LARB; and Casey Goodwin ’19, intern at The Point, joined us for a panel discussion of the ins and outs of writing for the public, and how to make the leap from narrowly academic to broadly public writing.
Raiders of the Lost Archives: A Workshop with Scott A. Sandage
March 8, 2019
American cultural historian Scott A. Sandage conducted a primary-source workshop exclusively for Pomona College students, focusing on some of the archival sources for his book Born Losers: A History of Failure in America. The discussion touched on matters of contextualizing and interpreting manuscript sources, in addition to where and how Sandage found his sources on failure. His methodology is derived from Clifford Geertz’s practice of “thick description,” in which context and layers of meaning are culled from ancillary sources that surround the primary source.
Writing for Trade Publishers & Careers in Publishing with Elise Capron
March 6, 2019
Students interested in careers in publishing gathered advice about next steps for making that dream a reality and learned how trade publishing differs from scholarly publishing from trade-press editor (and Pomona alum!) Stephanie Stein and literary agent Elise Capron.
Failure, Team-Based Problem Solving & the Imagination: A Workshop with Austin Walker
February 15, 2019
When “failure” exists at a societal level, there is no such thing as a quick fix. Every rusty gear interlocks with another, and soon, the entire machine shudders. How do we arrive at holistic solutions? Which problems are prioritized and which are left to the side? To explore this idea, Walker led Pomona College students in a simple, team-based roleplaying game set in the sci-fi future of our own solar system.
Working with Scholarly Publishers with Ray Ryan
February 13, 2019
Aspiring (published) writers learned how to work with a university press to find an appropriate home for their scholarly books. Dr. Ray Ryan, Senior Commissioning Editor at Cambridge University Press, addressed the process of querying editors, pitching your project, writing a proposal and cover letter—as well as responding to readers reports, and what to expect in a contract.
Exploring Strategies for Creative Thinking: A Workshop with Geeta Dayal
February 1, 2019
Music writer Geeta Dayal hosted a workshop on using creative systems like Brian Eno’s “Oblique Strategies” to stimulate students' own creativity.
2018
Popular Science Writing with Brian Keating
December 7, 2018
In a special session for aspiring writers at Pomona, astrophysicist and inventor Brian Keating shared his insights and tips about how (and why) one might engage in popular science writing.
Applying to Graduate Programs in the Humanities
November 26, 2018
Part of the Humanities Toolkit series, we welcomed three UCLA graduate advisors (Charlene Villaseñor Black, Art History; Muriel McClendon, History; and Christopher Mott, English) for a practical roundtable dealing with such topics as making the decision to go to graduate school; selecting the right graduate school; the importance of contacting potential faculty advisors; crafting a personal statement, statement of purpose and/or diversity statement; selecting and polishing a writing sample; approaching letter writers; and funding one's graduate education.
Writing & Pitching an Op-Ed with Bill Keller ’70
November 13, 2018
Bill Keller, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former executive editor of The New York Times, spoke with aspiring faculty, staff, and student editorial writers about what makes for a compelling and timely op-ed and how to get editors to read a pitch.
Keller, a Pomona alumnus from the class of 1970, is Editor-in-Chief at The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for his reporting from Moscow, Keller served as executive editor of The New York Times from 2003 to 2011, where he was an Op-Ed columnist from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2011 to 2014. He is an emeritus member of the Pomona College Board of Trustees.
Writing for Stage and Screen with Kenneth Lonergan
November 2, 2018
Student actors performed the opening of Lonergan's Lobby Hero, followed by a talkback with the director (Emma Silverman), actors, and playwright Kenneth Lonergan.
On Writing with Jennifer Fay
October 12, 2018
Natasha Anis ’19 spoke with film scholar Jennifer Fay about her creative process and tips for aspiring writers of all kinds.
On Writing with Greil Marcus
September 14, 2018
Ros Faulker ’19 spoke with noted music critic, author and editor Greil Marcus about his creative process and tips for aspiring writers of all kinds.