*apologies for cross-posting*

Dear all,

You're warmly invited to a conference on paper that will take place in 
September at the University of Cambridge. Thanks to the event's 
sponsors, registration fees will be waived for AMARC members and 
students. Please see below for more details.



PAPER-STUFF: MATERIALITY, TECHNOLOGY AND INVENTION

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, FACULTY OF ENGLISH

10-11 SEPTEMBER 2018

UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE CENTRE FOR MATERIAL TEXTS AND THE WRITING 
BRITAIN CONFERENCE SERIES

The introduction of paper to the West was a major technological 
innovation that transformed the ways in which texts of all kinds were 
transmitted. Having proved itself over many centuries as the 
intellectual fabric of Asian and Middle Eastern societies, the medium 
continued to demonstrate an extraordinary capacity for adaptation and
diversification when it arrived in Europe. The stuff of playing cards, 
votive offerings and amulets, packaging and toilet tissue, 
wall-coverings and quilt-linings, paper was also crucial to the 
development of quotidian, democratized literacies and to the unfurling 
of national bureaucracies and capitalist economies. Light (in a single
sheet) yet heavy (in a massive folio), durable yet fragile and 
throwaway, paper’s ability to combine contrary qualities and its 
willingness to enter into alliance with other substances and 
technologies helped it seep into every sphere of daily life. Paper’s 
smooth surface masked fundamental changes in substance — in particular 
the move from the rag-paper of the late medieval and early modern 
periods to the wood-pulp paper of modernity. Its protean surface 
facilitated deep continuities and extraordinary ruptures in European 
cultural history.

A spate of recent publications has demonstrated the urgency of getting 
to grips with paper, at a turning-point in our relations with it. The 
aim of "Paper-stuff" is to meet this urgency. It will bring together 
experts in the field, theorists of material culture and representatives 
of a variety of disciplines with a stake in the subject, so as to 
understand paper’s empire in the West. "Paper-stuff" will also take 
stock of rapidly evolving technologies available for the analysis of 
paper.

Plenary speakers:
Professor Pádraig Ó Macháin (University College Cork)
Linda Toigo (paper artist)

For the draft programme, see
https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/events/paper/programme.html

To register, visit
https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/events/paper/registration.html

For further information please contact one of the organisers:
Dr Orietta Da Rold ([log in to unmask])
Dr Jason Scott-Warren ([log in to unmask])
Sponsor: The British Academy

-- 
Carlotta Barranu
Newnham Scholar
PhD candidate, Faculty of English, University of Cambridge
Email: [log in to unmask]

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