The conference hopes to welcome many longstanding SHARP members but also aims to attract new members. The conference’s address of art and science in its title invites those working on the illustrated book, book arts, the history of science, technology, knowledge production, or the scientific book, to join us. Similarly, it is hoped that the stellar holdings in Russian, Eastern European, Iberian, Latin American, Caribbean, Middle-Eastern and Asian written and visual texts held in Washington libraries and museums will encourage both scholars from these parts of the world and those who are working in the media histories of these cultures to attend. As always, proposals dealing with any aspect of book history are welcome.

Evoking Washington’s status as an artistic and scientific center, “The Book in Art & Science” is a theme open to multiple interpretations. Besides prompting considerations of the book as a force in either art or science or the two fields working in tandem, it also encourages examinations of the scientific text; the book as a work of art; the art and science of manuscript, print, or digital textual production; the role of censorship and politics in the creation, production, distribution, or reception of particular scientific or artistic texts; the relationship between the verbal and the visual in works of art or science; art and science titles from the standpoint of publishing history or the histories of specific publishers; and much more. Such topics raise a host of possible questions:

§ What tensions exist between the book in art and the book in science?

§ What collaborations emerge? How do these tensions or collaborations differ according to time or place?

§ What roles have material forms—manuscript, print or digital embodiments or books, periodicals, journals, editions—played in the histories of artistic and scientific works?

§ How does the lens of art or science inform histories of reading and readers?

§ What does this lens reveal about histories of authorship?

§ How have commercial factors or economics influenced the production or distribution of scientific or artistic works?

§ What roles have states or institutions played in the history of the book in art and science?

Sessions will be 90 minutes in length, including three twenty-minute papers and a discussion period. In addition, the program committee will consider proposals for sessions using other formats—for example, roundtables or demonstrations of resources and methods. We encourage proposals for fully constituted panels but also welcome proposals for individual papers. While SHARP membership is not required to submit a proposal, all presenters must be members of SHARP before the registration deadline for the conference.

The deadline for both panels and individual proposals is 30 November 2010. Proposals for panels should list the session chair and names of participants along with abstracts for each talk. All abstracts should be no more than 400 words. The program committee will determine which proposals to accept and will notify proposers about its decision.

SHARP has allotted $5,000 to fund 7 to 10 travel grants to help scholars with limited funds attend the conference. Grants typically will not exceed $500, although one or two awards may be slightly higher if circumstances warrant. Scholars interested in being considered for such grants should complete the appropriate section of the proposal form.

For proposal questions, please email SHARP2011proposal@gmail.com (program committee). For all other questions, email SHARP2011@gmail.com.

The link to the electronic form for both session and individual-paper proposals is available now at www.sharpweb.org and will be posted on the conference website.

If you want to propose a session with an alternative format, please email the program committee at the address above to obtain a special form for such submissions.