Click here to book your place
The Future of the Book debate will take place in the Great Hall of the University of Leeds on Thursday 8 October at 6pm.
For centuries, the bound volume held an esteemed and seemingly invincible place in our culture. In the digital age, however, nothing about the status of books, or even their survival as physical objects, is certain. How should we understand the present moment, suspended between the print culture of old and the digital future? What lessons might the past hold for thinking about current concerns and options? Does digitization herald the end of the book or a new beginning (or neither)?
In October 2015, the Debating the Book programme will connect the large public in and around Leeds, Sheffield and York interested in these questions with the outstanding scholars and innovators best placed to shape informed, imaginative discussion. The ‘Future of the Book’ debate will be the centrepiece of that programme.
We are delighted to welcome our speakers:
Lord Melvyn Bragg (chair): Leeds Chancellor, renowned arts broadcaster, author of Twelve Books that Changed the World.
James Daunt: Managing Director of Waterstones.
Linda Grant: Orange Prize-winning author of I Murdered My Library; a graduate of York, which recently awarded her an honorary doctorate.
Dr Bridgette Wessels (Sheffield): a leading expert in the sociology of digital communication in the arts and the public sphere.
Prof. Brian Cummings (York): early modernist historian of the book, whose 2012 Clarendon Lectures were on “bibliophobia.”
Dr James Mussell (Leeds): Associate Professor in Victorian Literature and expert in nineteenth-century print culture and digital humanities
Tickets are free but booking is required. You can book your place here
Doors open 5pm