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TITLE: Agent of Change: Print Culture Studies After Elizabeth Eisenstein - Presentation of Papers
SPEAKER: various speakers
EVENT DATE: 11/02/2007
RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes
DESCRIPTION:
The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and the University of Massachusetts Press has published "Agent of Change: Print Culture Studies After Elizabeth L. Eisenstein."
Inspiring debate since the early days of its publication, Elizabeth L. Eisenstein's "The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformation in Early-Modern Europe" (1979) has exercised its own force as an agent of change in the world of scholarship. Its path-breaking agenda has played a central role in shaping the study of print culture and "book history"--fields of inquiry that rank among the most exciting and vital areas of scholarly endeavor in recent years.
"Agent of Change" brings leading print culture scholars together to affirm the catalytic properties of Eisenstein's study as a stimulus to further interdisciplinary research and writing. From early modern Europe to the electronic age, the authors address the legacy of Eisenstein's work in print culture studies today as it suggests future directions for the field. Featuring 20 wide-ranging essays on print culture from Renaissance Europe to the contemporary digital world, "Agent of Change" is edited by Sabrina Alcorn Baron, Eric N. Lindquist and Eleanor F. Shevlin.
The symposium included three brief papers and a roundtable discussion about the current state of print studies.
Presenting papers in a session titled "Print in Early Modern Europe" were Ann Blair, professor of history at Harvard University; Arthur Williamson, professor of history at California State University in Sacramento; and Paula McDowell, associate professor of English at New York University.