Keynote speakers: Sarah Werner, independent book historian; Renske Hoff, University of Utrecht; Aditi Nafde, Newcastle University
Description: Re-mediating the Early Book: Pasts and Futures (REBPAF) is a Marie Curie Doctoral Training Network coordinated by the University of Galway, which focuses on the ways in which 15th- and 16th-century book producers (scribes, printers, entrepreneurs) negotiated the dynamic relations between the manuscript and the printed book and adapted to the evolving challenges of the market. It also explores the continuing relevance of these cultural and economic negotiations to the modern world.
The network will be hosting an international conference at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin from 23-25 June 2026. We invite papers or posters on late medieval and early modern book culture, broadly conceived. Although we warmly welcome contributions focusing on any linguistic or national context, the working language of the conference will be English.
Topics:
1. Selection. What shapes a book producer’s choices in form or language? How do physical features reflect meaning or ideology? How do design and content choices reveal cultural values—and how are these reimagined in modern editions?
2. Value. What determines the cultural or monetary value of certain texts over others? How do producers, sellers, and collectors influence these shifting values? How can citation, adaptation, or performance reshape a book’s worth? What is the role of canonicity, and how has it changed? Why and how do we reevaluate texts over time?
3. Accessibility. How does changing a text’s medium—manuscript, print, or digital—affect its reading? How do material or linguistic changes interact with content? How does greater access reshape how readers interpret texts? What are the ethical issues around accessibility and cultural ownership? Can re-mediation serve as critique or recovery? How can we open historical texts to new audiences?
4. Survival. Why do some texts survive while others do not? How do past choices shape their transmission today? What meanings are tied to survival, loss, or rediscovery? How do texts respond to fragility? What roles do preservation or adaptation play in ensuring their future?
How to submit an application: send us an abstract of up to 300 words, along with a short CV, should be sent to rebpaf@universityofgalway.ie by 15 December 2025.
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