Material Texts: Histories and Futures

The proposed “Material Texts: Histories and Futures” research cluster aims to unite scholars interested in the study of material texts, broadly defined. This important transdisciplinary field of inquiry encompasses a range of methods and practices that includes (but is by no means limited to) paleography, codicology, manuscript studies, analytical and descriptive bibliography, media and communication studies, textual criticism, and digital humanities. Together, we will attempt to answer the following questions: Is the study of material texts only, or even most, relevant to the study of the humanities? How might textual criticism serve as an interpretive or explanatory tool across the humanities and social sciences and in the world at large? What, if anything, can material texts tell us, and what are their limitations? How might the processes of producing, preserving, and transmitting texts shape their meaning and reception? How reliably do artistic and textual artifacts help us answer questions about “culture,” and what factors might influence their reliability?