Why Books?” will bring together speakers from a variety of disciplines—from literature and history to sociology and computer science—to probe the form and function of the book in a rapidly changing media ecology. Although cultural commentators today speak of “the book” as if it were a well-defined term, its boundaries have been and remain shifting and porous; therefore, one aim of this conference is to expose the complexities and internal contradictions of the “before” against which the digital-era “after” is defined.
In order to look forward to the future(s) of the book, the conference will open with a dialogue on the public-policy implications of new media forms, looking in particular at Harvard’s own response to current technological, legal, and commercial developments. The three panels that follow will explore some of the major functions that we identify with books today: production and diffusion (of texts and images, of knowledge and information); storage and retrieval (of widely varying content in different media and genres); and reception and use (including, but by no means limited to, reading).
The Friday conference, which will take place in the Radcliffe Gymnasium, will be preceded by a series of Thursday afternoon workshops which will take speakers and preregistered participants on “site visits” to various local institutions, including a printing press, a conservation lab, a digital humanities center, and special collections of books and manuscripts. Several exhibitions will coincide with the conference, as well.
For a conference schedule, please visit http://www.radcliffe.edu/events/calendar_2010books.aspx.
