The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on all aspects of lives, but nowhere has this been more visible than in the conflation of public and private workspace. As we work from home and attend endless online meetings, our bookshelves are suddenly on public display. This conference will ask speakers to critically examine this particular cultural phenomenon, brought to public attention by the pandemic. This online only conference is organised by the History of Books and Reading (HOBAR) research collaboration based in the Department of English & Creative Writing, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), The Open University and supported by SHARP (The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing), the world’s largest scholarly organisation in this research field.

Prof. Claire Battershill presenting!

Proposals are invited from researchers in all relevant disciplines (book history, literary studies, publishing studies, cultural studies, anthropology, visual and material culture, librarianship, digital cultures etc) and at all stages of research careers (PhD students and early career researchers are welcome). Please send an abstract of no more than 250 words, a brief biography of 50 words and your contact details to the organisers by 1 September 2020.