Penn Material Texts
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pennmaterialtexts.bsky.social
Penn Material Texts
@pennmaterialtexts.bsky.social
Workshop in the History of Material Texts @upenn.edu / founded by Peter Stallybrass in 1993, now directed by @zacharylesser.bsky.social, John Pollack, and Jerry Singerman / Mondays, 5:15pm / in person in the Kislak Center, and on Zoom / All welcome
Hope you can join us for this talk! Attend either in-person on the sixth floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library, or remotely on Zoom. (See pennmaterialtexts.org for details.)
November 10, 2025 at 4:50 AM
At our next meeting on Monday, November 10, at 5:15pm, we welcome Prof. Kate Meng Brassel to the workshop, for a talk titled “Binding and the Discipline: Some Paths around the Classics.”
In-person and on zoom! Full details at: pennmaterialtexts.org
November 6, 2025 at 4:27 AM
For our next talk, we are thrilled to welcome Sonja Drimmer (UMass Amherst) for a talk titled: “Optics: Heraldry and the Preprint History of Print.”

Monday, November 3 at 5:15 PM Eastern — 6th floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library (and on Zoom). As always, full details at: pennmaterialtexts.org
October 30, 2025 at 1:04 AM
This Monday, October 27 at 5:15 PM ET, we look forward to welcoming Josh Mugler to the History of Material Texts workshop for a talk titled “Manuscripts and Violence in Modern Mesopotamia”

At in person at Penn & on Zoom- hope to see you there! See pennmaterialtexts.org for details.
October 22, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Hope to see you at this event tomorrow at 5:15 PM EST - either in-person on the sixth floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library or remotely on Zoom! (See pennmaterialtexts.org for details.)
October 20, 2025 at 1:17 AM
This Monday, October 20 at 5:15 PM ET, we are thrilled to welcome Caroline Duroselle-Melish to the workshop for a talk titled “The Many Lives of Renaissance Woodblocks: The Case of Ulisse Aldrovandi's Collection.”

At Penn & on Zoom: See pennmaterialtexts.org for details.
October 16, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Monday, October 6 at 5:15PM ET, we welcome Dee E. Andrews & Christopher S. Parmenter to the workshop for a talk titled “Thomas Clarkson’s Latin Essay: Radical Antislavery, Classical Reception, and Abolitionist Print in the Age of Revolution."
At Penn & on Zoom! Full details at: pennmaterialtexts.org
October 1, 2025 at 4:53 PM
This event with Jean-Christophe Cloutier takes place tomorrow at 5:15 PM Eastern, on the 6th floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library (and on Zoom). Hope to see you there!
(Pics: The Maggie Cassidy notebooks. Source: Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature at the NYPL)
September 28, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Monday, September 29 at 5:15 PM ET, we will welcome Jean-Christophe Cloutier to the workshop for a talk titled “These thoughts were all in French, almost untranslatable”: The Bilingual Manuscript Notebooks of Kerouac’s Maggie Cassidy.

At Penn & on Zoom! Full details at: pennmaterialtexts.org
September 24, 2025 at 8:15 PM
This Monday, September 22, at 5:15pm, we welcome Megan Heffernan to the workshop, for a talk titled "Between Libraries: The Maintenance of Early Modernity”

In-person and on zoom! Full details at: pennmaterialtexts.org
September 17, 2025 at 11:38 AM
At our next meeting on Monday, September 15, at 5:15pm, we welcome Prof. Sophia Rosenfeld to the workshop, for a talk titled "The Age of Choice Technology.”

In-person and on zoom! Full details at: pennmaterialtexts.org
September 10, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Our Fall 2025 History of Material Texts seminar series kicks off this Monday, Sep. 8, at 5:15pm! We welcome Dr. Anne Tiballi, Penn Museum's Director of Academic Engagement. She will speak on "Text, Language, Object: The Utility of Textual Thinking in the Study of Archaeological Materials."
September 6, 2025 at 6:28 PM
For our next talk, we are thrilled to welcome Jana Dambrogio (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) for a talk titled: “Letterlocking: The Hidden History of the Letter.”

Monday, April 14 at 5:15 PM Eastern — 6th floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library (and on Zoom). As always, DM for details!
April 8, 2025 at 3:21 PM
At our next meeting, our brilliant and wonderful graduate fellow, Peter Diamond, will present his research: “‘Inscriptions of Sundry Sorts’: Literacy, Populism, and Early American Epigraphic Culture.”

Monday 3/31 at 5:15 PM, in-person (Penn's Van Pelt Library, 6th floor) & on Zoom — DM for details!
March 26, 2025 at 2:23 PM
This Monday at 5:15 PM ET, the founder of our workshop, Peter Stallybrass, returns to give his talk: “Printers’ Waste: Fanny Hill and Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.”

Please join us either in-person on the sixth floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library, or on Zoom (DM us for the link)!
March 15, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Monday, March 3 at 5:15 PM ET, we will welcome Marissa Nicosia (@nicosiamarissa.bsky.social) to the workshop for a talk called “Shakespeare in the Kitchen: Culinary Metaphor, Cookbooks, and Recipe Recreation.”

At Penn & on Zoom — DM for info!

(Strawberry photos courtesy of @gaypanek.bsky.social)
February 27, 2025 at 2:29 AM
Tonight @ 5:15 PM ET! Georgios Boudalis (Museum of Byzantine Culture) will present: “Books in Late Antiquity: Their Making, Depiction and Interpretation.”

He'll explore codex book formats from late antiquity & their depiction in the art of the time.

In-person at Penn, & on Zoom — DM for more info!
February 24, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Tomorrow, we will welcome James Wilson (University of Konstanz, Germany) for his talk, “Joseph Chahin: A Syrian Maronite Merchant and the 'Recueil des historiens des croisades.'”

Tomorrow (Monday 2/17) at 5:15 PM ET. Join us on the sixth floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library, or on Zoom (DM for link)!
February 16, 2025 at 8:45 PM