| RZ-51453-12 | Research Programs: Collaborative Research | Ball State University | Conference: Print Culture Histories Beyond the Metropolis | 10/1/2012 - 12/31/2013 | $64,622.00 | James | John | Connolly | | | | Ball State University | Muncie | IN | 47306-1022 | USA | 2012 | History, General | Collaborative Research | Research Programs | 64622 | 0 | 55942.87 | 0 | A conference, website, and volume of essays related to the history and development of print culture in smaller cities, towns, and rural areas worldwide. (15 months)
The Center for Middletown Studies, Ball State University, plans a conference to be held on March 15-16, 2013, in Muncie, Indiana. The title and theme for the conference is "Print Culture Histories Beyond the Metropolis," and its animating idea is to explore the ways that printed material was produced, consumed, circulated, and encountered in smaller cities, provincial districts, rural settings, colonial outposts, and comparable contexts. A considerable body of work explores print culture in metropolitan settings, and many of the theories about it derived from studies of such places. There is also a good deal of scholarship on print culture history outside major cities, but it is scattered and has not generated as much systematic analysis. Our conference begins to address that deficit by bringing a select group of scholars to explore how print culture took shape in nonmetropolitan contexts. The conference will generate a published volume and a free online video archive of all proceedings. |