Penn Material Texts

🔔 Hey everyone! Tomorrow, Monday at 5:15 PM EST we’re diving into “To Dye a Page, to Weave a Book: Cloth Materials and Texts in South Asia” with Sylvia Houghteling (Bryn Mawr College).
🧵 Hybrid event - details at pennmaterialtexts.org.
Come explore the vibrant worlds of cloth, color, and text!

✨ Join us this Monday as we dive into the vibrant world of cloth, color, and text!
We’re welcoming Sylvia Houghteling (Bryn Mawr College) for a talk titled “To Dye a Page, to Weave a Book: Cloth Materials and Texts in South Asia.”
🗓️ Nov 24 • 5:15 PM EST • Hybrid
🔗 pennmaterialtexts.org

We welcome Prof. Francesco Marco Aresu, as he takes us on a deep dive into Scribe 106's elusive body of work - tomorrow at 5:15pm EST. We hope you can join us!
In person and on zoom - details at pennmaterialtexts.org

Next up in our seminar series, this Monday, November 17, at 5:15 pm EST, we are thrilled to welcome Francesco Marco Aresu who will speak on "Scribe 106: The Portfolio of a Florentine Humanistic Scribe."

At Penn & on Zoom! Full details at: pennmaterialtexts.org

Hope you can join us for this talk! Attend either in-person on the sixth floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library, or remotely on Zoom. (See pennmaterialtexts.org for details.)

At our next meeting on Monday, November 10, at 5:15pm, we welcome Prof. Kate Meng Brassel to the workshop, for a talk titled “Binding and the Discipline: Some Paths around the Classics.”
In-person and on zoom! Full details at: pennmaterialtexts.org

This is tomorrow at 5:15pm EST - hoping to see many of you! Attend in-person on the sixth floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library or remotely via Zoom. The details are here: pennmaterialtexts.org.

For our next talk, we are thrilled to welcome Sonja Drimmer (UMass Amherst) for a talk titled: “Optics: Heraldry and the Preprint History of Print.”

Monday, November 3 at 5:15 PM Eastern — 6th floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library (and on Zoom). As always, full details at: pennmaterialtexts.org

Tomorrow's History of Material Texts presentation is at 5:15 pm EST! In person at Van Pelt Library on the 6th floor, and on Zoom. You can find the details on our website: pennmaterialtexts.org

This Monday, October 27 at 5:15 PM ET, we look forward to welcoming Josh Mugler to the History of Material Texts workshop for a talk titled “Manuscripts and Violence in Modern Mesopotamia”

At in person at Penn & on Zoom- hope to see you there! See pennmaterialtexts.org for details.

Hope to see you at this event tomorrow at 5:15 PM EST - either in-person on the sixth floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library or remotely on Zoom! (See pennmaterialtexts.org for details.)

This Monday, October 20 at 5:15 PM ET, we are thrilled to welcome Caroline Duroselle-Melish to the workshop for a talk titled “The Many Lives of Renaissance Woodblocks: The Case of Ulisse Aldrovandi's Collection.”

At Penn & on Zoom: See pennmaterialtexts.org for details.

Penn's Workshop in the History of Material Texts Founded by Peter Stallybrass in 1993, the Workshop in the History of Material Texts has been influential in its broad approach to the topic. We are interested in all aspects of how texts take material...

Previous talks from this semester and earlier can be accessed on our Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/@pennsworksh...

Happening tomorrow at 5:15 pm EST! The event takes place in person on the 6th floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library, and on Zoom. Full details for this talk, and upcoming talks this semester, are on our website: pennmaterialtexts.org

On Monday, October 13, we are thrilled to welcome Dr. Tajah Ebram to our weekly workshop, where she will deliver a talk titled “Black Print as Prison Praxis.”

Attend in person at Van Pelt Library or on Zoom! Full details at pennmaterialtexts.org

This is today at 5:15 PM EST! You are invited to attend, either in-person on the sixth floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library or remotely on Zoom (See pennmaterialtexts.org for details.) Hope to see you there!

Monday, October 6 at 5:15PM ET, we welcome Dee E. Andrews & Christopher S. Parmenter to the workshop for a talk titled “Thomas Clarkson’s Latin Essay: Radical Antislavery, Classical Reception, and Abolitionist Print in the Age of Revolution."
At Penn & on Zoom! Full details at: pennmaterialtexts.org

This event with Jean-Christophe Cloutier takes place tomorrow at 5:15 PM Eastern, on the 6th floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library (and on Zoom). Hope to see you there!
(Pics: The Maggie Cassidy notebooks. Source: Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature at the NYPL)

Monday, September 29 at 5:15 PM ET, we will welcome Jean-Christophe Cloutier to the workshop for a talk titled “These thoughts were all in French, almost untranslatable”: The Bilingual Manuscript Notebooks of Kerouac’s Maggie Cassidy.

At Penn & on Zoom! Full details at: pennmaterialtexts.org

Happening today at 5:15 PM EST! Please join us, either in-person on the sixth floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library or remotely on Zoom. Hope to see you there!

This Monday, September 22, at 5:15pm, we welcome Megan Heffernan to the workshop, for a talk titled "Between Libraries: The Maintenance of Early Modernity”

In-person and on zoom! Full details at: pennmaterialtexts.org

This is today at 5:15 PM EST! Please join us, either in-person on the sixth floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library or remotely on Zoom (See pennmaterialtexts.org for details.) Hope to see you there!

At our next meeting on Monday, September 15, at 5:15pm, we welcome Prof. Sophia Rosenfeld to the workshop, for a talk titled "The Age of Choice Technology.”

In-person and on zoom! Full details at: pennmaterialtexts.org

The event takes place in person on the 6th floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library, and on Zoom. Full details for this talk, and upcoming talks this semester, are on our website: pennmaterialtexts.org

Our Fall 2025 History of Material Texts seminar series kicks off this Monday, Sep. 8, at 5:15pm! We welcome Dr. Anne Tiballi, Penn Museum's Director of Academic Engagement. She will speak on "Text, Language, Object: The Utility of Textual Thinking in the Study of Archaeological Materials."

This event with Jana Dambrogio takes place today at 5:15 PM Eastern, on the 6th floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library (and on Zoom). As always, feel free to DM for details, including the Zoom link if desired!

For our next talk, we are thrilled to welcome Jana Dambrogio (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) for a talk titled: “Letterlocking: The Hidden History of the Letter.”

Monday, April 14 at 5:15 PM Eastern — 6th floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library (and on Zoom). As always, DM for details!

Next up, Geoffrey Turnovsky (University of Washington) will present his talk: “Characters, Epistolary Novels, and the Analog History of A.I.”

This talk is tomorrow (Monday, April 7) at 5:15 PM ET, on the sixth floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library and on Zoom — DM us for more information!

At our next meeting, our brilliant and wonderful graduate fellow, Peter Diamond, will present his research: “‘Inscriptions of Sundry Sorts’: Literacy, Populism, and Early American Epigraphic Culture.”

Monday 3/31 at 5:15 PM, in-person (Penn's Van Pelt Library, 6th floor) & on Zoom — DM for details!

We admire your commitment!