Print Culture Society
April 1, 2008 meeting.
Attended by 8 members. (Welcome, Simone!)
Blog
There is now a print culture blog at: http://uwmadisonpcs.blogspot.com/. There are links on it to the Print Culture Society website, as well as to the Center for Print Culture in Modern America website.
Meeting minutes will be posted there, as well as discussion. Anyone interested in writing articles in it with print culture themes, please email uwprintculture@gmail.com
Religious Text Exhibits
Anna and Dave M met with Jill Rosenshield to discuss display opportunities. Anna has prepared a Proposal Outline, which will be summarized.
The dates of the exhibit are still To Be Determined and space needs to be reserved with Robin Rider in Special Collections.
The categories listed are ideas for displays. We have approximately 12+ displays to fill. Each category/research topic would ideally fill one case. Anna, Jill and Dave came up with topics, which we discussed at the meeting and a few people expressed interest in doing the research for that topic, these are tentative, working ideas:
1. Print Culture and Literacy in Religion
2. Textual Criticisms of Religious Works (Simone)
3. Alternative Uses of Religious Texts
4. Pamphlets and Politics in Print Culture
5. Wisconsin Religion
6. Religious Themes in Icelandic Sagas
7. Women in Religions
8. Print Culture and Education in Eastern Religions (Gabe)
9. Religious Publication Practices (Anna)
10. Book Burials (Anna)
11. (suggested at meeting) Cult, 1960s-1970s literature
Each person would be responsible for researching the subject area, writing short pieces for the display case and selecting examples from the holdings in Special Collections. Information that would need to be included: Bibliographic information (publication and distribution), relevance to religion, relevance to print culture and any other interesting facts.
For these 12 cases, we would need about 3-4 people to help, students may be able to do this as an Independent Study .
Research issues/suggestions: There is a huge Western bias in the Special collection holdings, ideas on doing inter-library loan for the exhibit came up, as well as an opportunity for a research project (ie “Challenging the Dominant Paradigm”). The Chicago Art Institute has a good Eastern collection and that would be a good place to go for researching. Jim Danky has a collection at WHS which includes information on feminism and Paganism, which would be good to look at. The Odd Wisconsin blog also has some information on early printed material (Native American prayer book).
It has also been requested that we fill the Memorial Library cases in the entrance lobby. Less rare materials (Cult literature) would preferably go there.
An exhibition booklet/catalog should be prepared with summaries of the cases and the overall scope of the exhibit.
Funding from UW Friends should be looked into, as well as matching funds from the University.
Religious Studies Speakers
Dave is still trying to contact professors, and is also trying to get a grasp on a succinct, articulate scope for the lecture series. It was also suggested that after our displays are created, we could give presentations on our research.
Secret History of the Mongols
Book that Gabe is currently reading, it was brought up that he could give a presentation on this, as well.
STEM conference
Science, Technology Engineering and Medicine, interdisciplinary conference. Christine Pawley will be asking Print Culture Society for volunteers, please consider.
Chicago Caxton trip
Please check the Facebook group “Print Culture Club”
If you are going for sure, PLEASE email Gabe ASAP. He will be coordinating transportation. The workshop is from 9am-4pm. Do you have a car to carpool? Will you be spending the night?
Gabe (gossett@wisc.edu)
Website
Lisa has all content and all control of the website. Here it is: http://slisweb.lis.wisc.edu/~print/
Bake Sale
We will be having a Bake Sale, Tuesday April 29, 2008 in the SLIS commons. Hopefully members can contribute about 2 batches of goodies to help start our organization’s finances. Please come and enjoy the goods!
Our next meeting (and last of the 2007-2008 year) will be Tuesday, May 6, 2008 in the SLIS commons at 11:45 am.
1 comment:
Religious Texts Exhibits
**The following is notes from the meeting with Jill, Anna and Dave.
"Hi everyone!
Here is the product of our meeting with Jill yesterday. Todd, I included you in case you wanted to get involved in the Scandinavian Sagas section. The following proposal is very temporary, but it gives us something to start with. We should discuss it at next Tuesday's meeting.
PROPOSAL OUTLINE FOR PRINT CULTURE AND RELIGION EXHIBIT
I.OVERVIEW
This proposal is for reference purposes only. The contents were established in the meeting between Jill Rosenshield, Dave Mindel and Anna Cianciara-Labourel March 28, 2008 for an exhibit to take place spring semester 2009.
The three major aspects of our planning process (what we need to determine before the exhibition can take place) are as follows:
• The Space – Talk to Robin Rider
• The Books – Talk to Jill Rosenshield
• The Research – Divide headings research topics, write captions for display cases, choose examples from among SC holdings
II. THE SPACE
Jill mentioned that she would like us to fill the exhibit cases in the Memorial Library Lobby as well as those in Special Collections, so we should plan with those cases in mind.
We need to determine a time frame for the exhibit as soon as possible and get the actual dates confirmed by Robin Rider, the curator of Special Collections. We are tentatively discussing spring semester of 2009, but this needs to be discussed in the next PCS meeting on April 1. After the dates have been determined, we will start establishing the physical arrangement of the exhibit.
III. THE BOOKS
In our meeting, Jill mentioned a number of different books in the collection that fall into the following broad categories:
1. Print Culture and Literacy in Religion: Texts that are read but not understood, implications of education for religion and vice versa. In Judaism, Islam and Christianity, many religious practices involve the reading of texts in languages not understood by the reader. The importance is placed not on the comprehension of words, but rather on their pronunciation in the correct language.
2. Textual Criticism of Religious Works: The evolution of texts over the passage of time and through different types of media. One example is that of the Coverdale Bible, passages of which were used for the Book of Common Prayer and finally the 39 Treatises (I don’t know what these are, if you want to know, ask Jill). Martin Luther’s studies of the Talmud might also be interesting for this section.
3. Alternative Uses of Religious Texts: Religious texts used for research on subjects other than religion. Examples include memoirs of missionaries that include travel accounts, where researchers are interested in the geographical/sociological evidence provided by the texts and not their religious subject matter.
4. Pamphlets and Politics in Print Culture: The part played by printed pamphlets in religious controversies. Examples may include Luther’s anti-Semitic pamphlets, Huguenot pamphlets and Mexican Revolution pamphlets.
5. A Wisconsin Religion: Texts relating to Chwalibuch’s (sp?) establishment of a new church in Wisconsin, which eventually became the Unitarian church.
6. Religious Themes in Icelandic Sagas: Someone with subject area knowledge should look into refining this topic and finding examples.
7. Women in Religions: Texts written by women, about and religions. Examples include establishing Mary Baker Eddie & Scientology, the “Women’s Bible” (Yiddish), religious education as the impetus for literacy, “My Life as a Nun.”
8. Print Culture and Education in Eastern Religions: Religious views on literacy and how they impact importance of education in the east. Someone with subject area knowledge should look into refining this topic and finding examples.
9. Religious Publication Practices: Books that involve intricate religious practices in their production. Examples include “Torah validation” by rabbis to ensure there are no more than X number of errors, ceremonies for writing the name of God, copying books backwards to ensure accuracy, etc.
10. Book Burials: Religions that insist that books not be destroyed but buried, including Judaism and some Eastern religions – we need to find out which.
III. RESEARCH
The above sections will be divided among the PCS Exhibit Committee for research and writing. Committee members will be responsible for researching the subject area, writing short pieces for the display case, and selecting examples from the holdings in Special Collections. Each member will be responsible for establishing the following for their section(s):
o Bibliographic information: Information pertaining to the publication and distribution of the text
o Relevance to religion: Why is the text important to religion? How is it used? Etc.
o Relevance to print culture: How does the text illustrate concepts in the study of print culture?
o Any interesting side notes
Anna Cianciara-Labourel
Master's Student
School of Library and Information Studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison"
Post a Comment