bibliography and history of the book

Writing about a series of human-object relationships, Robin Bernstein employs the term “scriptive thing” to articulate how objects become things when they orient, choreograph, or compel human action. In one such case study, she analyzes a photograph of a woman posing with a racist caricature at the Hotel Exposition in New York’s Grand Central Palace, circa 1930. Using this photo, she further clarifies the nature of this particular subject-object relationship, stating that it is “neither an isolated woman and her ‘whys’ nor an isolated caricature and its textual ‘hows,’ but instead through a complex interaction between the two figures,” that the photo constructs race.

The Society for the Study of American Poetry invites proposals for a session to be held at the 37th annual American Literature Association conference in Chicago, IL, May 20-23, 2026. 

Panel: Mediating American Poetry

This panel invites papers that examine American poetry through the lens of media, broadly construed and across historical periods. We seek work that explores how poetic production, circulation, reception, and interpretation have been shaped by media forms—from print technologies and the history of the book to digital platforms, archives, and social media.

Williams and Little Magazines

In his Autobiography William Carlos Williams describes little magazines as having “saved [his] life as a writer” (135). Poetry and other small magazines (including The Dial, Others, and The Little Review) were vital in growing Williams’s audience and in hosting and shaping the conversation around his modernist poetics. In 1920, Williams even joined artists Marsden Hartley, Lola Ridge, and Robert McAlmon in founding their own, Contact.

We invite papers on Williams, print culture, and the little magazines. Possible subjects include:

Movements and MigrationsResearch Society for Victorian Periodicals, 2026 ConferenceTrinity College, Dublin, 23 - 25 July 2026

Irish-American(s and) Periodicals

Kirsten McLeod and Tim Lanzendörfer

Sponsored by the Research Society for American Periodicals

A Field Guide to Lost Modernisms

12–14 March 2026

Queer Bibliography in the South:

Space, Place, Community

Athens, GA and online

Queer Bibliography invites proposals for papers considering how gender, sexuality, and textuality intersect with place in the production of queer identity.

Digital Defoe: Studies in Defoe and His Contemporaries (https://cedar.wwu.edu/digitaldefoe/) is an open-access, mutually-anonymous peer-reviewed journal exploring the intersection of Defoe and/or his contemporaries and digital humanities.

We strongly encourage the submission of innovative digital and multimedia projects, as well as experimental essays and pedagogical approaches.

 Full submission guidelines and archived issues of the journal may be found on the website: https://cedar.wwu.edu/digitaldefoe/policies.html

Call for Applications

2026 Penn State Global Asias Summer Institute

VITALIZING GLOBAL ASIAS: ARTIFACTS & ARCHIVES

Penn State University and the Global Asias Initiative invites applicants for its annual Global Asias Summer Institute, to be held June 8012, 2026. SI2026, co-directed by Neelima Jeychandran (VCUarts Qatar), Monica Merlin (VCUarts Qatar), and Tina Chen (Penn State), will focus on the topic of “Vitalizing Global Asias: Artifacts & Archives.”

The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin invites applications for its 2026–2027 research fellowship program. Up to 50 fellowships will be awarded to support projects that require substantial on-site use of the Center’s internationally renowned collections in all areas of the humanities, including literature, photography, film, art, the performing arts, music, and cultural history.

Kalamazoo 2026, session #7559: Lists as Sources
Any list serves as a direct “source” for the information it contains. A grocery list tells a shopper what to buy. But it may also serve as a source in several other fields: the history of advertising, the history of culinary trends, or the history of an individual family. This panel seeks papers that consider medieval lists that serve as sources in similarly direct and tangential ways. Such lists might include inventories, mnemonics, itineraries, bede rolls, and word lists, as well as lists in literature. We especially welcome papers that take the properties of lists into account in their analyses.