Tagung: SHARP 2022

Power of the written world

Logo  SHARP

Date:

11.07.2022 bis 15.07.2022

Place:

SHARP 2022 will be a hybrid conference. Our goal is to host as many in-person events as we can, and to offer live-streamed sessions of parts of the program. However, if COVID-19 measures change and require us to organize an online program only, we will do so.

Organized by University of Amsterdam – UvA (Book Studies & University Library) and Vrije Universiteit – VU (University Library, Religious Heritage). Partners: KB, National library, The Hague, Rijksmuseum (Library), Jewish Museum.

Categories:

Conference
SHARP 2022 will be a hybrid conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing will take place in Amsterdam from 11 to 15 July 2022.

The written word has immense power. Manuscripts, books, newspapers, pamphlets, internet and even graffiti can define and spread knowledge as well as form tools for emancipation and liberation. Yet it can also break down communities and fuel discontent. Some argue that new technologies and strategies have enhanced the power of the written word in a negative sense. Others answer that fake news, manipulation and ever-changing technologies have always played a role in history. Moreover, the power of the written word seems threatened by the preponderance of visual technologies in the spread of information. The conference theme explores how and to what extent the power of the written word has manifested itself in past, present and future. Scholars from a range of disciplines are invited to elaborate on the subject – from text creation, illumination and editing to dissemination and distribution of written and printed documents. Big data, digital humanities, codicology, history – whatever the method, we invite you to examine the theme from its beginnings in Sumeria and far into the future. What is the power of the written word? What has it achieved?


Keywords: Dissemination and Community Building in the DH