[csaa-forum] CFP: Revealing the Reader

[Anna Poletti]

Apologies for x-posting.

REVEALING THE READER: Locating the history, present and future of reading.
A Symposium
28-30 June, 2012
Centre for the Book, Monash University
Melbourne.

Recent developments in the history of the book demonstrate that an
interest in the material history of print culture inevitably leads us
to the question of readers. How well can we understand the past,
present and future of print culture without examining the uses to
which it is put by its audience? This question serves not only to
remind us of the primacy of the economic relationship between readers,
writers and publishers, but draws our attention to the variety of
cultural, social, political, and interpersonal roles that reading has
played and continues to play.

Revealing The Reader aims to bring together scholars with a common
interest in contemporary and historical reading practices with the aim
of showcasing current research in this rapidly expanding field, and
providing a forum for discussion and debate on the state of reading
research.

Paper proposals may address topics such as:

•	Case studies of reading practices and reading communities
•	The diverse relationships between reading communities, publishers
and authors etc.
•	The relationships between reading communities and genre
•	Methodologies for researching readers and their practices
•	The material trace of reading
•	Historical and contemporary evidence of readerships and reading practices
•	Locations of reading
•	The relationship between individual readers and reading communities
(and vice versa)
•	Histories of reading
•	Technologies of reading
•	The role of existing and emerging technologies in revealing readers

This list is not exhaustive, and the conveners welcome submissions
from researchers whose work investigates reading practices and readers
from the perspective of the sociology of literature, book history,
literary studies, mixed methods research, reader response theory,
history, cultural studies, and the study of material culture.
Submissions from postgraduate and early career researchers are
particularly welcome.

Key note speakers:
•	Danielle Fuller (University of Birmingham): a chief investigator in
the Beyond The Book research project into mass reading events.
•	Susan Martin (La Trobe University): co-author of 'Sensational
Melbourne: Reading, Sensation Fiction and Lady Audley's Secret in the
Victorian Metropolis'.
•	Julie Rak (University of Alberta): author of a forthcoming study on
the memoir boom in North America.

Please email 300-word proposals for 20 minute papers, and 50-word
presenter bio-notes by Friday 27 April 2012 to conference organisers
at: Anna.Poletti at monash.edu and Patrick.Spedding at monash.edu.
Pre-constituted panel proposals welcome. Please include the conference
title in the subject heading of your email.

The symposium will follow a one day masterclass, led by Danielle
Fuller, on Thursday 28 June at the Wheeler Centre Melbourne as part of
the ‘Readers and Reception’ Masterclass series, presented by the
National Centre for the Australian Studies, School of Journalism,
Australian and Indigenous Studies. Information on the Masterclass
series is available from Jinna.Tay at monash.edu or
Louise.Poland at monash.edu.