Bowdoin & The Book seeks to elevate conversations about the “book,” broadly defined to extend from oral traditions to manuscripts, printed books, and digital media, to serve as the conduit for an exploration of the intersections of history, technology, culture, language, literature, economics, art, representation, and more. By positioning Bowdoin College Library’s George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives as a site of encounter and to situate collections-based study and research within the rich landscape of Maine-based book artists, craftspeople, and booksellers–we hope this series and related efforts will provide research and pedagogical support to effectively engage in high-impact learning across disciplines and co-curricular programs, promote discursive and creative thinking, confront a diversity of perspectives, and acquire hands-on and field work experience.
Spring 2022 Lecture
In this talk, Dr Werner considered the implications of the standards of bibliographic analysis for what sort of materials are collected, described, and studied, arguing that current practices not only are the result of a blinkered sense of what textual objects are important but that they discourage newcomers to the field of bibliography. By thinking through a feminist framework, we can not only expand the objects that we study but the community of scholars who do study books. Watch the talk!