The Atlantic World of Print
in the Age of Franklin

In 2006, to celebrate the tercentenary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin, APHA will join the Library Company of Philadelphia and the McNeil Center of the University of Pennsylvania for a conference to be called "The Atlantic World of Print in the Age of Franklin." The conference, which is being sponsored by McNeil Center and the Library Company, will be held in September 2006 at the University of Pennsylvania. A call for conference papers (now past) appears below.

This conference will represent a departure for APHA conferences since papers will not be read. Instead, papers will be available for download before the conference and conference goers will hear summaries and responses so participants can engage in more questions and answers. The conference will be entirely free, with all costs covered by the McNeil Center.

A description of the conference, the sessions and speakers is in preparation. It is anticipated that the text of the papers will be posted on the McNeil Center website approximately one month before the conference to permit time for discussion.

Call for Papers (Old)

The Atlantic World of Print in the Age of Franklin
Philadelphia, PA
29-30 September 2006

The Library Company of Philadelphia, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences will sponsor a major academic conference on “The Atlantic World of Print in the Age of Franklin,” to be held in Philadelphia on Friday-Saturday, 29-30 September 2006, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Printing History Association.

The tercentenary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin ­who, as reader, writer, printer, and publisher epitomized the cultural world that print created in the eighteenth century­ provides an ideal opportunity to examine a wide range of topics relating to the production, circulation and consumption of texts in the early modern Atlantic world.

 Papers of approximately thirty pages in length will be pre-circulated for discussion by those in attendance. The program will include papers or commentary by Roger Chartier, Robert Darnton, Ellen Cohn, David Hall, Kevin Hayes, James Raven, Peter Stallybrass, and David Waldstreicher.

Proposals for additional papers are welcome from scholars in all disciplines and at all stages in their careers. Among the topics the conference organizers hope such proposals will address are:

• technologies of printing
• the transatlantic trade in books
• professional networks of print
• images and texts
• relations between manuscripts and print
• circulations of knowledge
• cultures of reading
• reading, writing, and identities
• print and nation-building
• literacy, class, and gender

Paper proposals must be postmarked by 4 February 2005 and should include a two-page prospectus and a brief c.v. (This deadline has been extended from 1 February for APHA members attending the annual meeting.)

Please address all correspondence to:

Atlantic World of Print
McNeil Center for Early American Studies
3619 Locust Walk, 3d Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6213
or mceas@ccat.sas.upenn.edu

A PDF version of this CFP can be downloaded from here.

More information about the McNeil Center.

More information about past APHA Conferences.

A list of past conferences is here.