CRiL sounds like krill. Its Chinese name holds two images at once: the mayfly, lodged a day between heaven and earth; and the plankton, drifting far on the currents. Krill are the least of the sea, yet the whale lives upon them. Their name is a promise of light—Euphausia, the well-shining—and in the dark they keep it.
****「蜉游」者，取蜉蝣寄天地之微，亦寓浮游沧海之远；磷虾至微，而巨鲸赖之以生；群而成势，游而成流；其名有磷，暗夜自明。蜉游亦然：同道相聚，学思相养，越洋相连，微光相照。
The China Reading & innovation Lab (CRiL) is a graduate student-led initiative based at Columbia University in the City of New York. We convene scholars studying contemporary China and its transnational connections, with particular attention to the actors operating at and across social boundaries.
CRiL cultivates a community where early-career scholars can refine their work, find collaborators and kindred spirits, and translate academic ideas into public value. We gather through paper workshops, reading groups, book conversations, methods exchanges, and community events.
Two currents run through our programming: (1) technoscience, knowledge, and health; and (2) immigration, race, and politics.
CRiL keeps one name while navigating through different institutional waters: a workshop in the Department of Sociology, a student group at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and the Center for Science and Society, and a student organization within the Arts and Sciences Graduate Council.
Looking ahead, CRiL grows towards THRiL—the “Transnational Heuristic Reading & innovation Lab”: a cross-border hub where scholars and practitioners read, share, learn, heal, and innovate together. THRiL aims to help emerging scholars find one another, seed new collaborations, and turn shared inquiry into enduring scholarly and public work.
CRiL gathers the world at Columbia, and sends THRiLers into the world.
Minimi movent mare.