Call for Papers

Newspapers and Periodicals in Britain & Ireland, 1641–1800

7–9 September 2016
University College Dublin, Ireland

Areas of interest

Proposals are welcomed for 20 minute papers which address any of the following areas in Britain and/or Ireland between 1641 and 1800:

•  Individual publications of note; important/significant editors/owners/journalists.
•  Thematic overviews, particularly ones that examine concepts such as the public sphere, definitions of the press, or the political economy of the press.
• Assessments of regional and national identity, including the role of publications in articulating ethnic and gendered identities.
• The movement of print information across space and time
• Print and media networks and communication structures
• Digital futures and possibilities
• Contextualisations of print media as shaped by technological, political and cultural forces
• Readers and readership
• Patterns of migration and national, regional, global communication exchanges
• Analyses of newspaper and periodical publishing in specific cities or regions
• The newspaper and periodical press as a physical artifact
• Aspects of visual culture, including graphic design, illustration and technological developments
• The commodification and professionalisation of journalism and the periodical press
• Advertising and commercialisation
• Collectors and collections

How to submit a proposal

Proposals of 300 words (maximum) for 20-minute presentations are invited which engage with the themes of the conference. Please also include a short biography of a maximum of 70 to 100 words. Both proposal and biography should be combined in one document and attached to your email submission as either a Word document or PDF file.
Proposals should be emailed to <keeper@marshlibrary.ie> by close of business on Monday, 29 February 2016.
Successful applicants will be notified by email on Monday, 14 March 2016.

Background

This conference is the last in a series of three events which are intended to map current research in British and Irish press history. The first event, on the twentieth century, was hosted by Sheffield University’s Centre for Journalism Studies in September 2014. The second conference, on the nineteenth century, was held in the University of Edinburgh in September 2015.
Like its predecessors, this conference in UCD will contribute to the commissioning of a three-volume overview of British and Irish newspaper and periodical history. The work, commissioned by Edinburgh University Press, will be under the general editorship of Professor Martin Conboy (Sheffield), Professor David Finkelstein (Edinburgh), Dr Geoff Kemp (Auckland) and Professor Jason McElligott (Dublin).