Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing

Taking place:

Oxford Brookes University, UK

24-28 June 2008

The Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies at Oxford Brookes University hosted the sixteenth annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) in June 2008. Please see the online version of the programme for abstracts of the papers delivered at the conference. For details of future SHARP conferences, please go to the SHARP website.

The conference theme, Teaching and Text, reflected the historical and contemporary position of Oxford as a seat of learning and a centre of academic and professional publishing. It was developed through an opening plenary lecture by Professor Juliet Gardiner (author of Wartime Britain 1939-1945), by a panel on the History of Oxford University Press led by Professor Simon Eliot (Chair in the History of the Book at the School of Advanced Studies, University of London), and a final plenary panel chaired by Professor John Barnard (Emeritus Professor of English Literature, University of Leeds), and featuring as panellists Professor Ian Maclean (Professor of Renaissance Studies, All Souls College, Oxford); Professor David McKitterick (Librarian and Fellow, Trinity College, Cambridge); Dr. Peter McDonald (Rank Fellow and University Lecturer in English Language and Literature, St Hugh's College, Oxford); Dr. Sydney Shep (Senior Lecturer in Print & Book Culture and The Printer, Wai-te-ata Press, Victoria University of Wellington); and Professor Kathryn Sutherland (Professor of Bibliography and Textual Criticism, St Anne's College, Oxford).

There was also a plenary panel on the theme of Literary Prizes, in connection with the Booker Prize Archive, which is housed in the Library at Oxford Brookes.  The panellists were Wendy Cooling (children's book consultant, prize judge and founder of Bookstart programme), James Hawes (author and Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Oxford Brookes), Boyd Tonkin (Literary Editor of the Independent and judge of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize), and Ion Trewin (Administrator of the Man Booker Prizes).

The AGM was hosted by Oxford University Press, and followed by a reception.  Additional social events included a banquet at Magdalen College, which had Colin Dexter (writer and creator of Inspector Morse) as Guest of Honour, receptions at Blackwell's Bookshop and the Bodleian Library, and a Book History Pub Crawl to complete the conference.

The city of Oxford is home to many global publishing companies including Oxford University Press, Blackwell Publishing, Elsevier Science, Taylor & Francis, and Harcourt Education, and is a base for a number of independent publishing organizations such as the African Books Collective, Berg Publishing, How to Books, Infinite Ideas, Osprey Publishing, Oxfam Publishing, and the Voltaire Foundation.

Founded in 1991, the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing is a global network of literary scholars, historians, librarians, booksellers, and publishing professionals.  With more than 1,000 members in over 20 countries, SHARP works in concert with a number of affiliated scholarly organizations around the world to encourage the study of book history.

More details about the Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies can be found on our website.

Organising committee:

Claire Squires & Jane Potter (Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies), Ian Gadd (Bath Spa University) & Kate Longworth (Magdalen College, Oxford)

 

The SHARP 2008 logo was designed by Nathan Wiles.  You can contact him on .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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Conference/Event Programme is available here