Penn Material Texts

This coming Monday, March 2, at 5:15 pm EST, we are thrilled to welcome Simon Teuscher (University of Zurich) to the workshop, where he will speak on “Kinship Diagrams and the Quest to Dematerialize Relatedness.”

📍At Penn's Van Pelt Library & on Zoom 💻!
Full details at: pennmaterialtexts.org

We regret to announce that Prof. Blum’s presentation this Monday has been cancelled due to the major winter storm affecting Philadelphia. We look forward to welcoming her to the workshop in the coming academic year. Stay tuned for updates!

Did you know you don’t have to wait until every Monday to dive into material texts? 📚✨

Catch up on past talks (2020–present) anytime on our YouTube channel - revisit old favorites or catch up on what you missed!

Scholarship on demand, whenever curiosity strikes.

▶️ www.youtube.com/@pennsworksh...

Next week in our seminar series, Monday, February 23, at 5:15 pm EST, we are thrilled to welcome Hester Blum ((Washington Univ. in St. Louis) who will speak on “Polar Erratics."

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

✨John Garcia @jgarc.bsky.social speaks tomorrow at 5:15pm EST - hope that you can make it!
Attend in-person on the sixth floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library or remotely via Zoom.
Feb 16 • 🕔 5:15 PM EST
Full details at: pennmaterialtexts.org
(Pic: Indenture form, Historical Society of Pennsylvania)

This Monday, Feb 16, 5:15pm EST
📚 We welcome John Garcia (American Antiquarian Society) @jgarc.bsky.social for “Black Lives in the Early U.S. Book Trades.”

Join us for a rich conversation on race, labor, and the history of print.

Details: pennmaterialtexts.org
Hope to see you there!

Hope that you can join us this evening as we welcome John Bidwell for this special talk!

In person on the sixth floor of Penn's Van Pelt Library & on Zoom.
Feb 9 • 🕔 5:15 PM EST
See pennmaterialtexts.org for details.
(Pic: Engraving. Philadelphia: Joseph Leeds, 1873. The New York Public Library.)

📜 Join us this Monday as we mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with John Bidwell (Morgan Library & Museum), speaking on “Printed Declarations: Life, Liberty, Editions, Issues, and States.”

Feb 9 • 🕔 5:15 PM EST • In person @Penn + Zoom
📍 pennmaterialtexts.org

Today! Priya Nambrath (University of Pennsylvania), will present on “Scribal Worlds in Motion: Loss, Identity, Afterlives.”

🗓️ February 2 • 5:15 PM EST • Hybrid
🔗 pennmaterialtexts.org

Next up! This Monday, February 2, 5:15pm ✨
Priya Nambrath (Fellow in the History of Material Texts, University of Pennsylvania) will be talking about “Scribal Worlds in Motion: Loss, Identity, Afterlives.”

In person and on Zoom
Details: pennmaterialtexts.org
Would love to see you there!

Tomorrow! The Workshop in the History of Material Texts welcomes Adrian Johns for a talk on “Looking for Labels: The Science of Safety and the Defenders of Information.”
❄️ Zoom only due to the snow.
🔗 pennmaterialtexts.org
Stay warm, log in from your couch, and let the archives travel to you! ❄️📚

🚨 Spring seminar alert!
The History of Material Texts series at Penn launches this Monday as we welcome Adrian Johns (Univ. of Chicago) who will speak on “Looking for Labels: The Science of Safety and the Defenders of Information.”
📍 In person + Zoom | January 26, 5:15pm EST
🔗 pennmaterialtexts.org

Please send your email and I'll add you to the listserv! The zoom link for tomorrow is: upenn.zoom.us/j/9685565671...

🟡🎶 Tomorrow, 5:15 PM EST!
✨📜 Final Fall ’25 seminar with Emily Green on “Bad Candles, Glasses, Earthquakes & Headaches: Reasons for Musical Error c.1770.”
🌐 Hybrid event — details at pennmaterialtexts.org.

♫ Final seminar of the season!
This Mon, Dec 1 · 5:15 PM EST, we welcome Emily Green for
“Of Bad Candles and Glasses, Earthquakes, and Headaches: Reasons for Musical Error around 1770.” 🎶

🔥 Don’t miss this one — in person at Penn & on Zoom.
Details: pennmaterialtexts.org

🔔 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