SHARP News Volume 23 | Number 4 Article 1 Fall 2014 Volume 23, Number 4 Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/sharp_news Recommended Citation (2014) "Volume 23, Number 4," SHARP News: Vol. 23: No. 4. Available at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/sharp_news/vol23/iss4/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in SHARP News by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. et al.: Volume 23, Number 4 SHARP NEWS Volume 23, Number 4 Autumn 2014 ogy for occluding everything from material Social Sciences. No concurrent panels were CONFERENCE REVIEWS constraints to political objectives. run, ensuring that delegates could trace the- Conference panels showcased initiatives matics from one panel to the next. Sessions across Canada working towards the preserva- were well attended, and emerging scholars Current Directions in Book tion of cultural identity and knowledge. While had the pleasure of receiving questions from the conference sub-theme championed “bor- some of the most estimable colleagues in History: ders without boundaries,” Amy Hildreth Chen the profession. The BSC/SbC highlighted Borders without Boundaries and Kendall Roark reminded their audience its commitment to early career scholars in 2014 Annual Meeting of the Bibliographi- that restrictions on archival holdings, which awarding its first Emerging Scholar Prize to cal Society of Canada/La Société biblio- scholars often find irksome, are in place to Rachel Bryant for her paper “Towards the graphique du Canada (BSC/SbC) protect families and donors. In fact, the idea (In)digitization of the Archive: Preserving, Brock University, St. Catherine’s, Ontario of “boundaries” emerged as an important Sharing, and Protecting Indigenous Knowl- 26–27 May 2014 thematic throughout the conference, from edge in New Brunswick.” the exclusion of immigrant languages from Like many good conferences, conversa- In his keynote address, “The Bibliographic early twentieth-century Ontario libraries tions spilled over into the wine and cheese Study of Born-Digital Texts,” Alan Galey (Elizabeth Hanson) to the underground trans- reception. In a long corridor of a modern of the University of Toronto challenged national publishing practices of Bolsheviks glass building on Brock’s campus, the del- conference attendees with three assertions: (Andrea Hasenbank). Notably, Pierre Hébert egates of the BSC/SbC conference discussed first, book history is defined by its method- coyly engaged with the conference sub-theme, new directions for the community. The ologies, not its objects; second, texts are not delivering a paper entitled “‘Censure sans modern architecture fit the conversation, as born, they are made; and third, the print vs. frontières…’: L’ècrivain le plus censuré du many delegates expressed an interest in digital digital binary rarely leads anywhere interest- Québec, Louis Dantin, a passé toute sa ‘vie humanities training to address the growing ing. He concluded with a provocation about littéraire’…à Boston.” need of bibliographers to study e-books. As moving bibliography beyond books. Using In recognition of Dr. Hébert’s outstand- the conference drew to a close, this scholarly video games as an example, he asked how ing service to Canadian bibliography, the conversation became peppered with the chat- the bibliographical method might be useful BSC/SbC awarded him the Marie Tremaine ter of friendships forged by years of meet- for understanding new territories of cultural Medal. An expert on the history of censorship ing to discuss common interests. The next production. in Québec, Hébert has published five books meeting of the BSC/SbC will take place the These assertions, offered in the final ses- on the subject. He has published another day before the commencement of SHARP sion of the conference, epitomize a range of fourteen on topics ranging from narratology 2015 (7–10 July), in Montréal-Sherbrooke, collective concerns tabled over the two-day to book history. Hébert serves as co-direc- Québec. annual meeting. During the question period tor of the Groupe de recherches et d’études Kristine Smitka of a panel entitled “Digital Curation: Are We sur le livre au Québec (GRÉLQ) and the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada Fulfilling our Obligations to Future Genera- president of the Association québécoise pour tions? How Does ‘Digital Curation’ Relate to l’étude de l’imprimé (AQÉI). His acceptance the Curatorial Practices Employed by Special speech eloquently moved between French Collections Libraries?,” BSC/SbC President and English, demonstrating his talent for Linda Quirk pointed out that discussions community-building. Cradling the Tremaine CONTENTS about digitization all too quickly rely on the Medal medallion in the palm of his hand, this buzz-word “access.” However, “preserva- year’s winner posed with past winners Sandra CONFERENCE REVIEWS 1 tion,” she argued, “is always the first step Alston (1988), Patricia Fleming (1992), and ANNUAL REPORT 3 in the archival process. What is the point of Carl Spadoni (1999) for a commemorative EXHIBITION REVIEWS 5 access, if there is nothing there?” In warning photo. For many in attendance at the AGM, BOOK REVIEWS 8 us to address the mantra of “access” with this photo honoured the impressive achieve- DHSI REPORTS 21 caution, Quirk foreshadowed Galey’s call to ments of BSC/SbC’s members. EDITORS IN REVIEW 23 dispense with the term “born-digital,” which To the BSC/SbC’s credit, the conference CALL FOR NOMINATIONS 23 effaces the labour of the coders who build managed to offer the intimacy of a special- BIBLIOGRAPHY 23 digital texts. Throughout the conference, ized conversation amidst the bustle of the delegates decried the pied piper of terminol- Canadian Congress of the Humanities and THE LAST POST 24 Published by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst, 2014 1 SHARP News, Vol. 23, No. 4 [2014], Art. 1 2 c AUTUMN 2014 SHARP NEWS VOL. 23, NO. 4 Language Speaks Us: in the forms in which activism and critical SHARP NEWS College English Association- thinking have been criminalized by state in- stitutions, and posed some captivating ideas EDITOR Caribbean Chapter Annual about the use of texts to mobilize social ac- Sydney Shep, Wai-te-ata Press Conference tion. Melissa Saywell’s paper was a provocative Victoria University of Wellington University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez take on use of language in the construction PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand 6140 14–15 March 2014 of gender and alternative masculinities in [email protected] “Drag Comedies.” EDITORIAL ASSISTANT – 23.4 The Caribbean Chapter of the College Many panels opened intriguing sets of Sara Bryan English Association (CEA-CC), primarily research questions about the utilitarian and Publication Assistant, Wai-te-ata Press based on the island of Puerto Rico, has been aesthetic role of print and e-media in colonial REVIEW EDITORS devoted to the study of the diverse cul- discourses. A panel with German Vargas, hari Joanna Howe, Books – Europe tural materials that fall under the umbrella of stephen kumar, and Amine Zidouh inter- Bath Spa University, UK “English” for over forty years. In March the preted how the emergence of literature, criti- [email protected] association’s annual meeting brought academ- cism, and institutionalized uses of language Clayton McCarl, Books – Latin America ics from the Caribbean and throughout the often hinge upon epistemic questions that can University of North Florida, FL, USA world to the University of Puerto Rico-May- provoke political discord. The multilingual [email protected] agüez for the Language Speaks Us conference. discourses in literary texts can function as a Jeffrey Makala, Books - North America The attendees were a combination of senior counterbalance, democratizing these means University of South Carolina, SC, USA faculty and graduate students, and the panels of communication by infiltrating them with Erin A. Smith, Books - North America spanned a diverse range of themes includ- more organic forms of cultural material. University of Texas at Dallas, TX, USA ing political propaganda, performance art, A session with Astrid Sambolin, Jennifer reviews_usa@sharpweborg pedagogical approaches, cultural migration, Moore, and Marta Viada Bellido de Luna Susann Liebich, Books –Australasia/Pacific Puerto Rican publications and those of the examined the role of language in the forma- James Cook University, QLD, AUS diasporas, and the links between e-media and tion of collective identity, remapping the con- [email protected] traditional print, among other topics. ventional uses of second-language pedagogy Abhijit Gupta, Books – South Asia Scholarly meetings in the Caribbean often away from a discourse of dominance (and Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India have a diverse range of languages, critical therefore subject-formation) and toward a [email protected] approaches, and historical themes, which poetics of inclusive and more participatory Lisa Pon, Exhibitions combine for a unique intellectual experience. uses of conversation in second-language Southern Methodist University, TX, USA While the language of our conference is Eng- teaching models. [email protected] lish, there are usually panels on multilingual James Penner, Rubén Mendoza, and Rick Molly Hardy, E-Resources texts, patois, and publishing in the region (and Mitchell collaborated on an examination of American