Each year SHARP holds an annual conference that brings scholars together for stimulating discussions of an enormously wide range of issues related to the history of authorship, reading and publishing. Panels allow scholars to learn about the newest research in their fields, while keynotes bring the SHARP community together across interests and periods.
SHARP conferences are run locally, making each one unique not only in location but also in thematic content. Questions about individual conferences should be addressed to the organizers identified here or on that conference’s website.
Interested in hosting a future conference? Contact Director of Conferences (conferences@ sharpweb.org)
SHARP 2024, July 1–5
The SHARP 2024 conference, “Global Book Cultures: Materialities, Collaborations, Access,” will be held July 1–5 at the University of Reading (Berkshire, UK). Registration is now open! Book before May 24 for early bird rates. Registration link and program information is available on Reading’s SHARP24 website.
Travel Grants
Limited travel grants are available for students, independent scholars or other researchers lacking the necessary funding to travel to the conference location. Travel grants are awarded by the organizers of the individual conferences in collaboration with the treasurer.
Past Conferences
Do you have any old SHARP programs? We’re missing ones for the years 2002, 2018, and 2019. If you have one, we’d love a copy! Email webmaster@sharpweb.org.
- 2023: “Affordances and Interfaces: Textual Interaction Past, Present and Future” (online; hosted by the Centre of the Book at the University of Otago)
- 2022: “The Power of the Written Word” (Amsterdam)
- 2021: “Moving Texts: From Discovery to Delivery” (online; hosted by the Chair of Book studies at the University of Münster)
- 2020: “The Power of the Written Word” was postponed due to COVID-19 and was held in 2022. In lieu of an annual conference, SHARP held “SHARP in Focus,” a week of virtual events.
- 2019: “Indigeneity, Nationhood, and Migrations of the Book” (Amherst, Massachusetts)
- 2018: “From First to Last: Texts, Creators, Readers, Agents” (Sydney)
- 2017: “Technologies of the Book” (Victoria, British Columbia)
- 2016: “Les langues du livre / Languages of the Book” (Paris)
- 2015: “The Generation and Regeneration of Books” (Montreal)
- 2014: “Religions of the Book” (Antwerp)
- 2013: “Geographies of the Book” (Philadelphia)
- 2012: “The Battle for Books” (Dublin)
- 2011: “The Book in Art & Science” (Washington, DC)
- 2010: “Book Culture from Below” (Helsinki)
- 2009: “Tradition & Innovation” (Toronto)
- 2008: [program] (Oxford)
- 2007: “Open the Book, Open the Mind” (Minneapolis)
- 2006: “Trading Books–Trading Ideas” (The Hague and Leiden)
- 2005: “Navigating Texts and Contexts” (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
- 2004: [program] (Lyon)
- 2003: [program] (Claremont, California)
- 2002: (London)
- 2001: [program] (Richmond and Williamsburg, Virginia)
- 2000: “International Gutenberg Conference” (Mainz)
- 1999: “SHARP 99” (Madison, Wisconsin)
- 1998: “SHARP 98“ (Vancouver)
- 1997: [program] (Cambridge, England)
- 1996: [program] (Worcester, Massachusetts)
- 1995: [program] (Edinburgh)
- 1994: [program] (Washington, DC)
- 1993: [program] (New York City)