"Textual Culture" Symposium
Now Open for Registration

Textual Culture investigates the production, circulation, regulation and use of material texts in multiple contexts. It brings together several strands of existing research interests, principally book history, discourse analysis, publishing studies, textual scholarship, and reader/audience study. This symposium aims to promote research in this fast-developing field, combining interdisciplinary discussion with student training.

The first keynote paper, to be given by Professor Ron Scollon, will problematise the geographical context of discourse and the discursive creation of geographical context, while the second, to be given by Dr Peter D. McDonald, will explore the relationship between literature and the state. The remaining sessions, all of which are cross-period, discuss theories and methodologies for the investigation of textual cultures, focusing variously on text, context, and readership.

A workshop, limited to twenty participants (with priority given to UK-registered research students), will be run by Dr McDonald in parallel with the third panel session. This will focus on the necessity to look at texts in terms of their materiality as documents, and on the practical consequences of taking this step. Examples will be drawn from world literatures in English, but participants are invited to bring any primary texts that they are currently working on (or reproductions thereof, if this is impractical) for group discussion and analysis.

The AHRC National Research Training Scheme in English Language and Literature, Palaeography, and the History of the Book will fund a significantly reduced regsitration fee for up to 20 UK-registered research postgraduate students. These subsidised places are offered on a first-come-first-served basis.

Additionally, the University of Stirling is offering bursaries of up to £100 to cover the travel costs of 14 students (undergraduate or postgraduate), in addition to those to whom bursaries have already been granted. These will be assigned on the basis of a short (max. 250 word) statement from each applicant explaining his or her area of interest within the field of Textual Culture. Fees include lunch, wine, and refreshments.

More information here