This fall Feng Luo and Saul Schleimer are running a graduate-level seminar on the topology and geometry of surfaces.

Possible topics include: the mapping class group, Teichmuller theory, coarse geometry, and the work of Masur and Minsky on the complex of curves. See below for a list of possible references. Please contact the organizers if you are interested in attending or speaking. Please do suggest topics which you would be interested in learning and/or speaking about.

• Dale Rolfsen, Knots and links
  A classic introduction to three-manifold topology. Contains a nice treatment (with pictures!) of curves on surfaces.

  John Stillwell, Classical topology and combinatorial group theory

  V. V. Prasolov, A. B. Sossinsky, Knots, links, braids and 3-manifolds.
  Contains a very readable proof of the Dehn-Lickorish theorem: the mapping class group is generated by Dehn twists.

  Benson Farb and Dan Margalit, A primer on mapping class groups

  Andrew Casson and Steve Bleiler, Automorphisms of surfaces after Nielsen and Thurston
  Very readable introduction. Many nice exercises.

  Peter Buser, Geometry and spectra of compact Riemann surfaces
  Textbook on the geometry of surfaces and Teichmuller theory.

  William Thurston, The geometry and topology of three-manifolds
  An electronic edition of Thurston's Princeton notes.

• Lipman Bers, Finite-dimensional Teichmuller spaces and generalizations
  Survey article on Teichmuller theory.

  Lipman Bers, Quasiconformal mappings and Teichmuller's theorem
  A clear introduction to the structure of Teichmuller space.

  Lipman Bers, An extremal problem for quasiconformal mappings and a theorem by Thurston
  Bers' proof of Thurston's trichotomy for mapping classes.

  Saul Schleimer, Notes on the complex of curves
  Elementary introduction to the complex of curves and to coarse geometry. Some exercises.

  Howard Masur and Yair Minsky, Geometry of the complex of curves. I. Hyperbolicity
  Proves that the curve complex is Gromov hyperbolic.

  Howard Masur and Yair Minsky, Geometry of the complex of curves. II. Hierarchical structure
  Defines the idea of a hierarchy in the curve complex, an important tool for studying the mapping class group and Teichmuller space.

  Brian Bowditch Intersection numbers and the hyperbolicity of the curve complex
  A more combinatorial proof of the main result of Masur-Minsky I.