Researching the Reading Experience

11 - 12 June 2013
Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences (OAUC)
Oslo, Norway

During the last decades we have seen a change in the research on literacy, literature and reading towards issues relating to the experience of reading. The affective and performative, the bodily and sensual aspects of reading have gained importance along with the cognitive and social perspectives.

For this first conference on the reading experience, we invite submissions from researchers from a broad spectrum of disciplines. The main requirement is that the work focuses on the experience of real readers, past or present, and especially on reading that is done voluntarily for pleasure.

This conference puts the reader at the center, with the goal of investigating the relationship between readers and texts, between readers and the institutions of reading such as libraries, and between readers and the circumstances, contexts, and outcomes of reading. For this purpose, texts are defined broadly to include a wide variety of formats and genres that people chose to read, both fiction and non-fiction, printed and digital, including evolving forms such as graphic novels, videogame-associated text, wordless picture books, and fan fiction.