Roundtable Announcement: “Book-Objects at the Crossroads of Bibliography and Philology” (19 January 2024)

 Happy to pass this along. The potential implications for semiotics, as well as the realization of knowledge, are interesting.

We are delighted to announce a virtual roundtable “Book-Objects at the Crossroads of Bibliography and Philology” that will take place on January 19, 2024 (9:00 PST / 12:00 EST / 17:00 GMT / 18:00 CET / 20:00 AST). This event is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography, Rare Book School, University of Virginia.

Our speakers will be Theodore S. Beers (Freie Universität Berlin), Andrew Hui (Yale-NUS College), Cat Lambert (Cornell University), and Nur Sobers-Khan (Saudi Museums Commission). Please register for the roundtable using the following link: http://tinyurl.com/bdfmdefs.

The roundtable will discuss how the “material turn” in the humanities has impacted the fields of bibliography and philology across the world. Insofar as bibliography and philology both exhibit deep-seated interests in the study of book-objects, how have these two disciplines been influenced by the “material turn”? By reappraising the philosophical outlook and transformative potential of the “material turn” in the humanities, we are keen to interrogate the political and ethical possibilities of critical inquiry in bibliography and philology.

Date: January 19, 2024
Time: 9:00 PST / 12:00 EST / 17:00 GMT / 18:00 CET / 20:00 AST
Registration Link: http://tinyurl.com/bdfmdefs.

The program follows below.

Book-objects at the Crossroads of Bibliography and Philology
Co-organized by:
Jeremiah Coogan and Pranav Prakash
Funded by:
Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography,
Rare Book School, University of Virginia

Abstract:
Our virtual roundtable will discuss how the “material turn” in the humanities has impacted the fields
of bibliography and philology across the world. Insofar as bibliography and philology both exhibit deep-seated interests in the study of book-objects, how have these two disciplines been influenced by the “material turn”? By reappraising the philosophical outlook and transformative potential of the “material turn” in the humanities, we are keen to interrogate the political and ethical possibilities of critical inquiry in bibliography and philology.

Although the disciplinary histories of bibliography and philology are deeply implicated in the
colonialist and capitalist expansion of Western imperial powers across Australasia, Africa, and the Americas; both disciplines have crafted their self-understandings and self-representations as if they are “objective” sciences, unaffected by the material, political, and ideological conditions of their production. Yet the two disciplines have often been practiced in divergent ways, with only limited exchange of critical ideas and philosophies. Given their connected histories and frequently divergent disciplinary perspectives, this roundtable will examine how bibliography and philology have attended to the ethical and political bases of their knowledge production in the wake of the “material turn.”

Participants:
Theodore S. Beers is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Seminar for Semitic and Arabic Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin.
Jeremiah Coogan is an Assistant Professor of New Testament at the Jesuit School of Theology, Santa Clara University, Berkeley, California.
Andrew Hui is an Associate Professor of Humanities at Yale-NUS College, Singapore.
Cat Lambert is an Assistant Professor of Classics at Cornell University.
Pranav Prakash is a Junior Research Fellow at Christ Church and Associate Faculty of Asian and Middle
Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford.
Nur Sobers-Khan is the Head of Curatorial Collections and Exhibitions at the Museums Commission, Ministry of Culture, Saudi Arabia.
 

Date: January 19, 2024
Time: 9:00 PST / 12:00 EST / 17:00 GMT / 18:00 CET / 20:00 AST
Registration Link: http://tinyurl.com/bdfmdefs.