CFP MLA 2015: Bibliography for the twenty-first century

CFP sponsored by the Libraries and Research and the Bibliography and Textual Studies discussion groups.

Bibliography has long been integral to literary studies, textual studies, and book history. Not only does it serve an evidentiary purpose through documentation of the consulted literature, as in an enumerative bibliography, but it also reflects a rich scholarly enterprise in the form of analytical or critical bibliographies. How, then, are scholars adapting the study and documentation of material texts in the twenty-first century? What affordances, opportunities, challenges, or obstacles are offered to bibliography by digital transmission, transformation, and augmentation? From established databases like EEBO that provide access to facsimiles and their bibliographic metadata, to library and scholarly projects that document and annotate publishing and material histories — among the many, The Digital Walters, Dime Novels & Penny Dreadfuls, or the expansion of the digital ESTC  — a range of bibliographic projects are underway, and many more are being dreamed.

We are seeking discussions of projects, research, issues, controversies, trends, and other topics. Please send your 250 word abstracts by 3/15 to Dawn Childress (dawn@psu.edu).