Since 2021, in my “Book History in Practice” class at the University of Toronto, I have given an assignment I call “material experiments.” The most basic articulation of the assignment (included below in full) is that students are asked to choose a material feature of books, manuscripts, or printed artifacts, and conduct an at-home experiment of their choice in making something using that material practice.
Speed dates and workshops with rare books at KU Leuven (Belgium)
KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections gives yearly library sessions on manuscripts and rare books to dozens of students of KU Leuven and – at a lesser degree – of UCLouvain. We decided to organize a speed date with rare books for students in their third year of history, art history or language and literature. This was realized in collaboration with the Flanders Heritage Library, who is responsible (among other things) for the Short Title Catalogue Vlaanderen (STCV).
Meeting the Gutenberg Bible in a Virtual Reading Room
Virtual reading rooms (VRRs) started to become more common during closures due to Covid-19, as institutions increasingly created set-ups to allow for interactions with librarians who can facilitate live, responsive research, in real time, with physical objects. Now, we hope they will become embedded in research, teaching, research-led teaching, and public engagement.
Stevie Marsden. Prizing Scottish Literature: A Cultural History of the Saltire Society Literary Awards.
Stevie Marsden’s Prizing Scottish Literature pieces together the history of one of Scotland’s oldest literary awards, which is granted by the Saltire Society. Despite the book’s emphasis on this little-known Scottish prize, Marsden’s case study serves as a useful point of comparison for scholars interested in how writers from peripheral and dominated nations achieve recognition.
Freya Johnston. Jane Austen, Early and Late.
Freya Johnston’s Jane Austen, Early and Late reframes Austen’s work by reading the author’s juvenilia, short texts, and other so-called minor writing in conversation with her six major novels. Instead of establishing a clear hierarchy that progresses from more ephemeral writing to the well-known novels, Johnston treats all of Austen’s writing as connected and essential to understanding this major figure of literary history.