On 30 September 2021, The Open University’s funded period on the project READ-IT comes to an end. While the project team Dr. Shafquat Towheed (UK Lead), Dr. Alessio Antonini, Dr. Francesca Benatti, and Dr. Maya Parmar move to new projects, the project resources remain free and available for public use. The website will also remain…

The OU READ-IT team are pleased to present their new reading questions on the project Contribution Portal. The ten new postcard questions are available in Czech, English, German, French, Italian, and Dutch. Take a look, and see which question you get! The READ-IT team are interested in all types of reading experiences, habits and memories,…

The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) will meet virtually in Münster, Germany, from July 26 to 30, 2021. Over 400 delegates will be attending to discuss research in the field of book history, broadly understood. The theme of this year’s annual conference “Moving Texts: From Discovery to Delivery” has inspired…

The OU READ-IT team are pleased to be joining Imagine! The Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics again this year, on 23rd March, 5pm, for a talk and interactive workshop entitled ‘Reading in the Pandemic’. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything. Confined to our homes, we have turned to books and reading for reassurance, contemplation…

The Reader in the Book: Books, Reading and Libraries in Fiction, a conference hosted by the Institute of English Studies, will take place on 18, 19, 25 and 26 March 2021. It is not hard to find fiction within fiction. Don Quixote modelled himself on chivalric romances, and became in turn a model for other…

The READ-IT team were pleased to host the event ‘Reading in the Pandemic’, on 18 November, for the Being Human Festival. We enjoyed a great turnout for the online event, which took the form of three distinct parts. The recordings for each part are now available to view on the SAS Youtube channel, simply click…

The Open University were pleased to host the most recent consortium meeting on the 20-21 October 2020. On 20 October, we focussed on individual reports from all colleagues on different work packages, presentation and discussion around technical developments, annotation campaigns, and public engagement. On 21 October, we had an exciting research day, where members of the consortium and…

The READ-IT team are pleased to host the event Reading in the Pandemic (18 November, 5-6pm, online) for the Being Human Festival. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything. Confined to our homes, many of us have turned to books and reading for reassurance, contemplation or escape. At this free, online and interactive event you will…

Dr Maya Parmar (The Open University) has returned from maternity leave to resume her work supporting dissemination for public engagement and impact on the READ-IT project. She will be working part-time (1 day per week until 31.05.2020; 1.5 days per week from 01.06.2020). Dr Parmar has widespread experience of supporting public engagement in previous projects…

An important new article on questionnaires and interviews as sources of evidence in the history of reading, co-written by READ-IT UK PI, Dr Shafquat Towheed and his colleagues Dr Edmund King and Dr Maya Parmar (all at The Open University, UK) has just been published in the journal Participations (16.1, May 2019). You can read the…