With apologies for cross-posting.

The following conference announcement and CFP might be of interest to
list subscribers:

We invite submissions for the 21st annual conference of the Society
for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP), to be
held in Philadelphia from July 18-21, 2013. The program will take
place primarily on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania.
Sponsors include the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, the
Chemical Heritage Foundation, and the Library Company of Philadelphia,
among other local institutions.

The theme for the 21st annual SHARP conference is  Geographies of the
Book. It can be approached from at least three perspectives:

1. Recent developments that take particular texts and use them to
construct multiple histories including, but not limited to, the
circulation of books, the plurality of interpretations and uses of the
texts, and the forms of domination and resistance within the political
and social spheres made possible by the written word.

2. Case studies exploring geographies of books and geographies within
books. Geographies of books can refer to the role of the author, the
history of publishing (including pirated editions and false imprints),
the book trade (circulation of print, within cities, countries, and
across continents), and the translation/transformation of texts into
other languages, other forms (adaptations, abridgements, epitomes),
and other genres (histories into plays, poetry into prose). Or the
subject of the geography of reading might also be contemplated.

3. Geographies within books may invoke imaginative topographies or
journeys within fictional works, the place of maps and images in
travelogues and novels, or the circulation of type and ornament
between print shops and cities, and variations or similarities in the
regional or national habits of printers and compositors. Tensions
between the universal diffusion of printing and its local
instantiation might here be considered.

Some potential themes for paper topics might include, but will by no
means be limited to:

Book in Asia, Africa, Europe, Americas (geographies of publishing)
Printed book (geographies of the text)
Printing materials and practices (geographies of production)
Travel (movement through geographies)
Maps and cartography/GIS (geographies of space)
Histories of the book (geographies through time)
Transformations of the text (geographies of appropriation)
Authorship (geographies of writers)
Translations (geographies of language)
Reading (geographies of the reader)
Fiction (imaginative geographies)
Paper proposals should be no more than 400 words. Proposals on aspects
of book history and print culture in any place or period are welcome,
but priority will be given to papers that relate in some way to the
conference theme. Preference will also be given to proposals for fully
constituted panels. Cover letters for panels should indicate the theme
and the panel s participants. Audio-visual requirements must be
included in the proposal.

Criteria for Selection of Proposals
Papers presented at SHARP conferences are expected to offer original
scholarship and to go beyond a descriptive account of archival or
textual materials. Papers should outline the wider implications of
research presented. Both the thesis being tested and the conclusions
drawn should be clearly stated in the proposal. SHARP prides itself on
attracting members from a variety of disciplines, who communicate
using language that is accessible to diverse specialists. Proposals
should indicate how the paper (or panel) sheds light on some issue,
principle, or practice of book history that clearly addresses SHARP s
interests.

Deadline for Submission
The deadline for submissions is November 30, 2012. While membership in
SHARP is required of all conference participants, it is not required
to submit a proposal. However, all presenters must have current
membership before the registration deadline for the conference. The
SHARP membership form can be found here:
http://www.sharpweb.org/en/about-joomla/membership.html

Philadelphia
The venue of the conference , Philadelphia , embodies the theme
through its numerous and diverse libraries, which invite comparisons
between places, institutions, collectors, and collections. The
University of Pennsylvania has been home to a weekly interdisciplinary
history of material texts seminar for nearly twenty years; other area
institutions host numerous similar events. PACSCL (Philadelphia Area
Consortium of Special Collections Libraries) consists of thirty-six
libraries and archives and works collectively to enhance access to
collections and to provide members and the larger community with
ongoing programs and exhibitions. More recently, PACHS (The
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science) promotes scholarly
and public understanding of history of science, technology, and
medicine, encouraging the use of regional collections through
fellowships and programming.

Many Philadelphia and regional institutions will plan tours and other
special events before, during, and after the 2013 conference.
Attendees will have a wide choice of ways to investigate and explore
the resources of this book and manuscript-rich city.

A limited number of travel grants are available for students and
independent scholars.

Program decisions will be announced by late January/early February
2013. The program will be mounted on SHARP s website by early March
2013.

-- 
Dr Innes M. Keighren
Lecturer in Human Geography

Department of Geography
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham Hill
EGHAM
TW20 0EX

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