Call for Papers

Knowledge Networks: American Periodicals, Print Cultures, and Communities

One-day Symposium

School of American and Canadian Studies

University of Nottingham, UK

Friday May 27, 2011

Plenary speaker:

Leon Jackson, Associate Professor of English, University of South Carolina

Author of: The Business of Letters: Authorial Economies in Antebellum

America (2008)

The recent turn to the study of print culture in American literary and

cultural histories has increasingly focused scholarly attention on the

dynamic interaction between writing, reading, and publishing. This has

opened up a range of new perspectives on the networks of communication

that shape and define creative, political, and intellectual

communities. The “Knowledge Networks” symposium will explore these

perspectives through the particular example of the American periodical

as a public site of debate and exchange.

How have American periodicals made broader social, political, and

intellectual trends and patterns visible? What role has

professionalization played in the development of periodical

publication? In what ways have readers engaged with American print

culture through magazines? What communities have been created and

shaped by American periodicals at different moments in the country’s

history?

This one-day symposium seeks to address such questions through the

analysis and interpretation of periodical content, while also

exploring the status, influence, and interrelation of authors,

illustrators, publishers, printers, and editors. We welcome proposals

for individual papers and/or panels that engage with American

periodicals from a wide range of disciplinary angles, including

literary and intellectual history, literary studies, cultural history,

visual culture, the history of science, and Victorian studies. In

particular, we encourage papers looking at the nineteenth century,

although submissions on American print culture in all periods are

welcome.

We hope that this interdisciplinary conversation will also prompt some

reflection on the various methodological approaches to the study of

print culture currently in use, and suggest new ways of mapping and

visualising the social networks in which periodical literature is

embedded. For further details about the symposium and the larger

“Knowledge Networks” research project, please visit

http://knowledgenetworks.wordpress.com.

Proposals for papers (20 minutes), with a 300-word abstract and

one-page CV, should be submitted to Dr Matthew Pethers and Dr Robin

Vandome, School of American and Canadian Studies, University of

Nottingham, by Monday 31 January 2011 at the symposium email address:

knowledgenetworksproject@gmail.com. There will be no delegate fee and

limited funds are available to help some panellists with travel

expenses.

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