Workshop 3F
Book History and the Digital Humanities: how does where we work shape the way we work

University of Antwerp
Thu 18 Sep/K.203/14.15 > 15.45

With Padmini Ray Murray (University of Stirling)  

Using digital humanities methods to enhance and explore book historical research has been on the rise, as demonstrated by the digital showcases at previous SHARP conferences, and more recently by the panel held at MLA 2014. This is also increasingly the case in the global south, which, however, grapples with different challenges than their colleagues in the northern hemisphere, due to issues around infrastructure, languages and their rendering, accessibility and expense. The heterogeneous nature of DH scholarship has recently been captured by projects such as Around DH in 80 Days, which offers a snapshot of projects from all over the world. In addition to this, the formation of Global Outlook: DH, a special interest group affiliated with the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations, marks an awareness that more must be done to foster links and recognize work being done in languages other than English, or non-Western cultures. This workshop will provide a forum to share best practice for book history projects drawing on digital humanities methodologies, and by extension, encourage a conversation about how the contours of both digital humanities and book history shift in different local and cultural contexts. This is an especially timely and vital conversation given SHARP's latest mandate that seeks to enlarge the global scope of the organization as much as possible.    

Session 4H
Publishing Book History

University of Antwerp/K.001/Thu 18 Sept/16.15 > 17.45

Chair: Leslie Howsam (University of Windsor)

Scholarly journals continue to play a very important if not crucial role in the humanities and social sciences, and the history of the book is no exception. To have one’s articles accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal is more than ever key to the individual academic career. Scholarly journals remain committed to their mission – to foster innovation in research, to collect and disseminate knowledge and methods, and to build intellectual community. However, journals are increasingly facing issues that are forcing them to redefine the ways in which they operate. Centrally, the traditional financial model of printing a journal with revenues from subscribers has been destabilized by the culture of the Internet, in which readers expect immediate, global electronic access at little or no per-use cost. New conditions imposed by granting agencies (e.g., awarding funding in proportion to the number of articles published) are adding further pressures. How can journals devoted to book history, bibliography, and print culture best serve their mission under these evolving circumstances? The purpose of this special panel is to mount a discussion of contemporary problems and strategies among a variety of journal editors who in their various capacities serve the SHARP community. Panelists will be invited to make a brief (5-minute) presentation in response to several focused, pre-circulated questions and then to respond to queries from a chairperson and each other. Thereafter, questions and comments will be taken from the audience.

The following journal editors or co-editors, listed alphabetically, have confirmed their willingness to participate: Simon Eliot (Publishing History), David L. Gants (Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America), Eli MacLaren (Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada), Lisa Kuitert (Quaerendo), Sophie Montreuil (La revue de BanQ), Shef Rogers (Script & Print), Jonathan Rose (Book History), Josée Vincent (Mémoires du livre / Studies in Book Culture).

Session 8D
SHARP's translation project 

University of Antwerp/Sat 20 Sep/K.001/8.30 > 10.00

with Susan Pickford (Université Paris Sorbonne), Martyn Lyons (University of New South Wales) & Abhijit Gupta (Jadavpur University)

This panel will present the work of SHARP's translation committee to date and invites debate on the future direction the program should take. As such, it will take the form of a round table followed by an open floor for questions and suggestions. The three speakers, Susan Pickford, Martyn Lyons and Abhijit Gupta (respectively committee chair with responsibility for French and members with responsibility for Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan and Hindi and Bengali), will discuss why Translation Studies and Book History are natural bedfellows, the challenges faced by the committee so far, and what future shapes the project might take.