VIRTUAL CONFERENCE: American Contact: Intercultural Encounter and the History of the Book
Organizers: Rhae Lynn Barnes, History; Glenda Goodman, University of Pennsylvania
April 24, 2020—April 25, 2020 · via Zoom
Humanities Council; University of Pennsylvania
“AMERICAN CONTACT: lntercultural Encounter and the History of Objects” focuses on the use of material texts and objects in cross-cultural encounters in the Americas. This conference will explore how texts—broadly defined to include not only books but visual art, musical scores, and various kinds of handwork—have facilitated communication across cultural divides, the creation and transmission of knowledge, the performance of both colonization and resistance, and the creation of alphabetic and alternative literacies from the eras of contact, conquest, and colonization through the twentieth century in both North and South America.
American Contact proceeds from the fact that “text” was put under particular pressure in the Americas, where we find rich histories of negotiation between cultures defined by widely divergent textual, linguistic, and notational traditions. Far from marginal to studies of “the book,” which historically have predominately focused on Europe, texts from the Americas emerge, in this volume, as central to their material, geographic, and conceptual reorientation.
Those who are interested in attending need to register at:https://americancontact.princeton.edu/registration/
Video presentations for each panel will be made available on April 17. The live virtual conference on April 24-25 will entail panel discussions. Those who register will receive links to the videos and the ZOOM meeting information.
Organized by: Rhae Lynn Barnes (History) and Glenda Goodman (University of Pennsylvania).
This conference, A Humanities Council Global Initiative, is made possible through the generous financial support of the David A. Gardner ’69 Magic Fund in the Humanities Council, and with the help of additional cosponsors.
