Athens, Ga. – A symposium on “History of the Book: More than Words” is set for Dec. 1 at the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries.
Adam Smyth, a senior lecturer at Birkbeck College at the University of London, will deliver a plenary talk titled “Cutting and Remaking the Early Modern Book.” There also will be an interdisciplinary UGA faculty panel featuring Elizabeth Wright (Romance Languages), Sarah Spence (Classics), Akela Reason (History), Richard Friedman (Religion), and Casie Legette (English); an afternoon rare books workshop; and a presentation of an online book exhibit curated by English graduate students using selections from the Hargrett Rare Books collection.
This interdisciplinary seminar will explore the nature of the book in all its forms, across time and space. The goals are to pose fundamental questions such as: what makes a book a book, how have cultural attitudes toward books and book-making changed, are digital media recuperating or killing print media? The seminar also will investigate and analyze the various media that contribute to the production of books such as ink, e-ink, paper, screen, manuscript, print, pixels, binding, and book arts, as well as the production processes themselves.
The seminar is open free to the public. The schedule follows:
9-11 a.m.: Faculty panel discussion
11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: Plenary talk
2:30-3 p.m.: Presentation by graduate students about their online exhibition
3:15-4:45 p.m.: Hands-on workshop led by Smyth
This seminar is sponsored in part by the University of Georgia’s Willson Center for Humanities and Arts.
