SHARP Conferences

ach year SHARP holds an annual conference that brings many scholars together for stimulating discussion of an enormously wide range of issues. A complete list of our past conferences is seen at right.

The theme for next year's SHARP Conference will be "Geographies of the Book," to be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from July 18-21, 2013.  In addition to the University of Pennsylvania, a number of other Philadelphia Libraries and Archives are represented on the host committee. A conference website has been established which will give the latest news about local arrangements and programs. More information about the conference theme can be found on the Call for Papers, issued online.

This past year, SHARP's 20th Annual Conference was hosted by Trinity College, Dublin on June 26-29, 2012, with the theme "The Battle for Books."  The final program gives an idea of the variety of topics and wealth of activities available to attendees.

Loretta De Franceschi's review (in Italian) of the SHARP 2011 conference has been recently published in Bibliologia, 6 (2011), pp.135-66. This can be downloaded using the 'Scarica Copia Saggio / Download Sample Copy' from:
http://www.libraweb.net/articoli3.php?chiave=201108401&rivista=84&articolo=201108401007

Bibliologia: An International Journal of Bibliography, Library Science, History of Typography and the Book is published annually. More details can be found at http://www.libraweb.net/sommari.php?chiave=84.  SHARP is very grateful to both the author and publisher for providing a free version of this review.

Conferences devoted to special themes and regions are also held under the aegis of SHARP, most recently the I.D.E.A. (‘Théories et pratiques de l’Interdisciplinarité Dans les Etudes Anglophones’ / Interdisciplinarity in English Studies), the research group of the Nancy-Université English Department, will be hosting an international and SHARP-sponsored conference on the subject ‘From Text(s) to Book(s)’. This conference provided a forum to discuss the ways in which texts are materialized for consumption by the reading public, both historically and in the contemporary context. Dates for the conference were June 21-23, 2012.  More information is available at the conference website.

We are pleased to announce that two more focused conferences are on the horizon:  the first in Le Mans, France 23-24 May 2013; and our first such conference in South America, in Rio De Janiero in November 2013. More information will be coming soon!

James Kelly of the University of Massachusetts has compiled an illuminating checklist of papers delivered at SHARP conferences since 1993. Recently, he has taken this project further by compiling an even more informative bibliography of published work that has derived, in whole or in part, from SHARP conference papers. If you are the author of such a work, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .