James Sargan, Julia Mattison, and Miriam Jacobson of the department of English – experts in pre-modern book and textual history – share scholarship on new ways to read medieval and Renaissance book bindings through Queer and Trans theory, attention to fragments, and historical fantasies about binding.

This panel is part of the Symposium on the Book: “Unbinding Book History," September 12 and 13 in the Special Collections Libraries Building. The Symposium's sponsors are the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, the departments of English and Romance languages, the Institute for African American Studies, the Lamar Dodd School of Art, the Institute for Women’s Studies, the UGA Libraries, the Office of Institutional Diversity, and the Bibliographical Society of America.

This two-day event unites talks from book historians and practicing book artists, featuring a plenary address by artist Suzanne Coley and a panel featuring special guest Jennifer Low, an early modern scholar and apprentice book artist. The symposium will demonstrate the diversity and range of contemporary book arts and book history. Coley’s work uses second-hand African, American, and African American textiles to explore gender, race, and memory through the creation of exquisitely sewn, embroidered, and printed books.