Welcome to Book and Reading Studies at Mainz University

Book and reading studies at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz offer the entire range of the subject in research and teaching, from the early history of printing with hand presses to Bookstagram. Only in Mainz, book and reading studies involve both the theory and practice of the book, its readers, their stories and their hunger for reading. We do this in close cooperation with the book industry. The Mainz Publishers' Archive and a teaching print shop are part of Mainz Book Studies. In short, we research and teach the history of printing just as we conduct data analyses on contemporary reading worlds, discuss the aesthetics of bookmaking as well as practice it. Here you can find out more about everything that is going on in book and reading studies in Mainz:

Postponed to April 26: Mainz Colloquium 2024

The colloquium had to be postponed due to the strike of Deutsche Bahn to a new date in April!

"Auctioned, sold off, disposed of? Analyses of the market for used books"

The XXIX. Mainz Colloquium discusses developments with experts from the book industry.

Friday, April 26, 2024
Atrium maximum, Johann-Joachim-Becher-Weg 5, 55128 Mainz, Germany

Excursion to Munich "Forbidden Books"

On 19 and 20 January 2024, we went on an excursion to Munich to explore the topic  'Literature under the conditions of censorship and dictatorship' - a topic that is especially significant in our time, in which a strengthening of illiberal tendencies can be observed and in which books are increasingly being banned, prohibited and burned again in more than a few countries and authors are being ostracised and persecuted for political, moral or religious reasons. Continue reading "Excursion to Munich "Forbidden Books""

Summer School: New Approaches and Methods for Research in Children’s Media

The summer school is jointly organized by Goethe University Frankfurt
and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

and will be held at the Academy of Sciences and Literature (Mainz).

The Summer School: New Approaches and Methods for Research in Children’s Media aims at students interested in Children’s and YA-media in Germany and abroad. Numerous lectures and workshops taught by international experts will provide new cultural studies’ perspectives on Children’s Media (e.g. Disability Studies and New Environmental Studies) with methods from the digital humanities.

Further details on the program can be found on the Summer School website and on this fact sheet.

The registration deadline is Feb. 15, 2024.

New Lecture Series: "Of Diversity And Bans – Children’s Literature Under Pressure"

The lecture series takes up a highly topical and increasingly explosive subject:
It is not only in the U.S. that book bans and challenges are increasing, which, with reference to the danger to child development, want to suppress children's and young people's books in which diversity is depicted; the wind is also getting tougher in other parts of the world.

Continue reading "New Lecture Series: "Of Diversity And Bans – Children’s Literature Under Pressure""

Master’s students prove their research talent with the conference "Young People, Young Mainz".

As a result of the Master's seminar "Presentation of ongoing research projects", the students proved their professional and organisational skills and their ability to work in a team on 14 July . At the self-planned symposium under the motto "Young People, Young Mainz", the students presented in-depth and relevant topics in each of ten lectures in the three sections Internationalisation, Diversity and Awareness, and Mediality. ...read more

Coming Soon: "Fandomverse 2023 – The Science Behind Fan Culture"

Are you interested in fan culture or are you a fan yourself? You want to know if fandom can be researched scientifically and how to do it? Or you've never heard of  anything like a "fandomverse"?

"Fandomverse - The Science Behind Fan Culture" is coming soon!

On November 7, 2023, we will meet with speakers from the book industry and the "fandomverse".

Info page and registration

The Gutenberg Yearbook 2023 is here!

The  Gutenberg year book 2023 has been published!

Traditionally, the Yearbook is published on St. John's Eve (24 June) - and this year is no exception. It features contributions on the history of printing, edited by Philip Ajouri, Julia Bangert, Gerhard Lauer and Nikolaus Weichselbaumer. Continue reading "The Gutenberg Yearbook 2023 is here!"

Talk and Reading with Witi Ihimaera “The Whale Rider”

Witi Ihimaera – Maori Novelist and Indigenous Envoy: Writing to the World

Witi Ihimaera was our guest this week at the Johannes Gutenberg-University!
On Monday, July 3, 2023, he had been festively welcomed at 01:00 p.m. in the courtyard of our conservatoire (music department) by the vice-president Prof. Dr. Stephan Jolie.

The radio programme „Journal am Mittag“ on SWR2 (04.07.23, 12.33-13.00) has published a podcast on July 4, 2023 featuring this event.

Continue reading "Talk and Reading with Witi Ihimaera “The Whale Rider”"

Fellows of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation visit the Department of Book Studies

On  April 19-21, 2023  fellows of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation will visit our department as part of a network conference at the Johannes Gutenberg University.

On April 20, 2023, the Department of Book and Reading Studies will host the section "German Studies, Linguistics, Literary Studies, Foreign Languages and Culture" and welcome 19 guests from 10 different nations in the Faculty Hall of Faculty 05.
In addition to the presentation of our field of work and the current research projects in book and reading studies, four scholarship holders of the AvH Foundation will give short lectures to present their research projects.