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:

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""

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”"

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.

Scholarly reading and writing in the age of AI and the need for visibility and impact: issues and challenges is the title of a workshop (mostly in English language) funded by the Franco-German University (UFA / DFH), to which Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (D) and Claude Bernard University Lyon I (F) invited young researchers.
The workshop featured the people behind the first AI-written scholarly books took place on March, 23 and 24, 2023 at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz (Germany).

Detailed Program (latest update: March 22, 2023)

More information you will find on this page.

On Tuesday, Dec. 6,2022, at 04:00 p.m., the literary scholar Michele K. Troy (University of Hartford, Connecticut/USA) will be a guest in Mainz and give a workshop report on her publication about "Albatross Verlag" in the seminar of Ute Schneider and Katharina Knorr.
Link to the portrait of the publication on DEUTSCHLANDFUNK

Please feel free to join us!
The event will take place at 4:00 p.m. in the Faculty Hall, so it is worth being on time.