CFP: Backroom Business: The Production of Periodicals / Netherlands (October 1)

As posted on SHARP-L

Call for Papers

Backroom Business:
The Production of Periodicals

10-11 April 2014
Radboud University
Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Proposals deadline: October 1, 2013

This conference seeks to explore every aspect related to the production of European periodicals, from the early eighteenth century to the present day. Papers could address issues of financing, sponsoring, editing, designing, advertising, printing and digitization. We are for instance interested in what Barbara Onslow called the “back-room workers”: the printers, typesetters, engravers and illustrators who are often invisible in periodical histories. We invite scholars to send in proposals for 15 to 20 minute talks on the above themes, both dealing with individual magazines and discussing wider trends, such as the evolutions in the production of periodicals. We especially look for papers that reach beyond national borders and challenge traditional literary-historical boundaries. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Editors and editing
• Financing and sponsoring
• Printing and digitization practices
• Photography, illustrations, and advertising
• Periodicals as producers of culture

Please send a 250 word proposal for a 15 to 20 minute presentation by October 1 to the conference organizers at esprit@let.ru.nl. A selection of papers will be published in a special issue of the future ESPRit e-journal.