The History of Reading Group (a Transliteracies research working group) is hosting a one-day, interdisciplinary conference that will provide a forum for sharing recent research findings in the history of reading, with an eye toward investigating the technologies that shape reading as a social experience. The keynote speakers will be Adrian Johns (University of Chicago) and Elaine Treharne (Florida State University).

Sponsored by the University of California’s Transliteracies Project and the IHC’s History of Material Texts RFG.

Conference Schedule

Reading as a Social Technology
Friday, March 13 / 9:00am-5:30pm
McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB

8:30-9:00
Coffee

9:00-9:15
Introductory remarks
Alan Liu
(Director of the University of California’s Transliteracies Project;
English, University of California, Santa Barbara)

9:15-10:45
Panel 1: The Social in the History of Reading
Moderator: Stefania Tutino
(History & Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara)

Bonnie Mak
(School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois)
“Reading Materials Medieval and Modern”

Paxton Hehmeyer
(English, University of California, Santa Barbara)
“The Rape of Lucrece and the Birth of the Literary Reader”

Laura Miller (English, University of California, Santa Barbara)
“Reading Newton’s Principia”

10:45-11:00
Break

11:00-12:15
Keynote address
Introduction: Carol Braun Pasternack
(English, University of California, Santa Barbara)

Elaine Treharne
(Professor of English and Co-Director of ‘The Production and Use of English Manuscripts, 1060 to 1220,’ Florida State University)
“Taking Ownership of the Book: Medieval Manuscript Readers Reading Manuscripts”

12:15-2:00
Lunch

2:00-3:15
Panel 2: Reading the Social in Ballads and Broadsides
Moderator: E. Heckendorn Cook
(English, University of California, Santa Barbara)

Michael Cohen
(English, Macalester College)
“Reading Ballads in Early America”

Eric Nebeker
(English, University of California, Santa Barbara)
”’Tis good to strike while the Irons hot’: The Social life of the Broadside Ballad”

3:15-3:30
Coffee

3:30-4:45
Keynote address
Introduction: Jim Kearney
(English, University of California, Santa Barbara)

Adrian Johns
(Professor of History and Chair of the Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science, University of Chicago)
“Reading, Listening, and Viewing: Social Practices and the Problem of Public Knowledge”

4:45-5:15
Response
William Warner
(English, University of California, Santa Barbara)

5:15-5:45
Reception

*Manicule image courtesy of Flickr user Adactio