May 21 - 23, 2024

SoFCB Annual Meeting

You have arrived at the website for the annual meeting of the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB), hosted on campus at The University of Virginia in Charlottesville. This year’s meeting will occur from May 21-23, 2024.

Unfinished

This year’s annual meeting theme is “Unfinished.” The book is always in the process of being formed. Attention to those journeys of formation reveal not only the shape of material objects but also important patterns of social and cultural community formation. Of course, not only the objects of our research are unfinished; the field of Critical Bibliography itself is a project in formation. As Lisa Maruca and Kate Ozment recently have pointed out, critical bibliography draws from a number of fields to focus our attention not only on “structures of oppression upholding the circulation, preservation, and organization of material texts” but also “the possibilities of liberation therein.” Multiple commitments animate the always unfinished project of critical bibliography, and the tension between sometimes conflicting priorities contribute to its unfinished, generative quality. We invite contributions that pay attention to the book as an unfinished material and social object in any context. We welcome papers that comment on novel combinations of tradition and innovation that make and remake the texts, the communities that we study, and the disciplines that we inhabit as librarians, scholars, and curators.

An unfinished drawing of a man, his gaze facing to the upper right of the page.
Study for a Prometheus Bound (recto); slight sketch of head and shoulders of man in lead pencil (verso)

Keynote Speaker

Professor Alexandra Gillespie

Alexandra Gillespie—an internationally recognized researcher and teacher and a deep believer in the power of collaboration—is Vice-President of the University of Toronto and Principal of the University of Toronto Mississauga. The first woman appointed to this position, in July 2020, Alex works to promote inclusive excellence in a way that has defined her career for the past two decades.

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2024 SoFCB Annual Meeting

Register Now

Your membership in the Society of Fellows entitles you to free attendance at our annual gathering of leading critical bibliography scholars. Come join us for lively conversations about the history of the book, followed by great meals and evenings of convivial fun. Many fabulous academic collaborations have been forged within the four walls of our annual meeting –  join us!