iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Dr Sam Bailey

Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Extremely excited to share the CFP for the ✨fifth✨ annual #QueerBibliography conference! bit.ly/QB2027CfP When? 2-4 September 2027 Where? Manchester, UK & online Theme: TAKING STOCK Deadline for abstracts: 29 January 2027 Decisions: by 12 March 2027 Submit here: forms.gle/WGjXKA1d6gWm...

Queer Bibliography
Taking Stock
Manchester, UK and online
2-4 September 2027

Call for Proposals

Since the inaugural 2023 conference, queer bibliography has grown from an interesting concept to a burgeoning field. Our 2027 theme, Taking Stock, marks the fifth annual conference and is a chance to pause and reflect on genealogies of the field, the present state of queer bibliographical enquiry, and our senses of the future. How might we trace queer histories of queer bibliography? How can we imagine critical futures for bibliographical enquiry within and beyond its traditional academic locations? Where do we find ourselves and our work?

Stock also has meaning in bibliography. While “stock” originally referred to a tree trunk or plant stem, and figuratively to the source of a line of descent or even a human torso, it later began to connote an aggregate of goods—in the context of bookmaking, one might own a stock of paper or pasteboard. Towards the mid-nineteenth century, “paper stock” began to connote the raw material of paper itself. “Stock” might refer to the inventories of booksellers, the process of beginning and curating an institutional or personal collection, and the supply and material characteristics of paper. From the raw materials of books to the origins and shapes of personal, commercial, and institutional collections, how does "stock" participate in the production, articulation, and study of queer textuality and textual communities? What is queer about materiality, the ecology of books, and the processes of making and engaging with (collections of) physical textual objects?

We invite participants to engage in stock-taking or reflect on
bibliographical stock, broadly defined. We welcome meta, theoretical, and historiographical work that takes stock of queer bibliography, and we
welcome proposals that relate to “stock” in bibliography, book history, and reception studies.

This three-day hybrid conference will be hosted at the John Rylands
Library, part of the University of Manchester, and online on 2–4 September 2027. The conference will feature two days of panels, conversation, and discussion on 2 and 3 September and will be followed by an optional workshop on 4 September. Conference programming may also include evening receptions, tours of Manchester libraries (including Chetham’s Library, the oldest public library in England), and collection viewings at the Rylands.

The conference welcomes participants from a diverse range of fields and
career stages, including: book arts practitioners, activists, postgraduates,
early career researchers, independent scholars, librarians, archivists, and
booksellers, both in person and via video conference. As in past years, the goal of the broadly articulated theme of “taking stock” is to bring people in and to shape conversation, not to exclude or limit. All submissions that engage with the intertwined relationship between queerness and bibliography are encouraged.

Participants will be invited to submit a 2000-word pre-circulated paper,
before presenting in panels of 10-minute papers. We also welcome
alternative contributions, such as workshops, roundtables, or self-organised seminars and creative presentations, with a pre-circulated submission that provides a grounding for the conference contribution.

Contributors should submit an abstract of 200–300 words, along with a
short bio, by 29 January 2027:

https:/ /forms.gle/WGjXKA1d6gWmtfjZ8

Prospective speakers will be informed of the outcome by 12th March. Pre-circulated papers will be collected and shared in mid-July.

Any questions should be directed to: queerbibliography@gmail.com

http://queerbibliography.org

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Had the classic 18thc book historian experience of thinking I'd made a new inference and then realised it's just buried somewhere in the Treadwell notes.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

There's a really interesting PhD advertised here on the history of the BL's erotic collections - now is an exciting time to be rooting through smut in libraries! www.bl.uk/services/res...

bl.uk

Collaborative Doctoral Landscape Awards

Fully-funded and jointly supervised studentships across four developing research areas.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Someone told me recently be a historian were it not for the need to work on climate crisis - I don't know how to navigate the optimistic view that academic papers should change the world, or the self-effacing one that apologises for not obviously and immediately addressing the omnicrisis

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I feel like in my own case its almost an apology for having done the work, rather than directly fighting climate change/fascism/AI etc. I wonder who my justification is for - surely anyone reading the work is at least somewhat on-board, and most pursuits do little to resolbe *the times*

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Finally met the frontispiece of the Dunciad.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Horrifying realisation once I sit down and do it that I actually like writing academic prose about Alexander Pope.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

'I Pray God Preserve Good Old England and Divert his Judgement from us'. Houghton P (EB65 A100 B675b v.4).

Broadside entitled 'The True Figure of the Great Eclipse of the SUN'. Depicts the Sun (with a face) in the process of being covered by the moon, with lines showing where the eclipse is visible on earth.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Rotating the idea of 'Cleveland's Fanny Hill' in my mind.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

The implication seems to be that I ought to massively change my relationship to public life but also according to the guidance I should've been doing that anyway so it doesn't matter and I should be thankful.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I've been reading thids (admittedly quite massive) book on the history of reprographics on my commute. It's one of those fantastic works of bibliography that forces you to confront so many assumptions about how to look at documents. Like what do you mean there were pantographs in the 17thc!

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Unfortunate place to use a capital depicting Judith & Holofernes...

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

My sensw is that lots of the books being sent to the scanner/book-killer have the appearance of rarity bc they're not commonly sold and are only in copyright libraries. I know any destruction affects the bibliographic record but most obscure books with ISBNs haven't exactly got a bright future...

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

This has me thinking about the microfilm projects and attempt to create universal libraries a century ago, how books become visible to these large scale projects, and what gets left behind...

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

I've been trying to get my head around precisely how these companies find books. Is it ISBN data alone? We sell some of the sorts of books AI companies want and haven't had any interaction, and I wonder of its because we never list ISBNs... www.404media.co/ai-companies...

404media.co

AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They're Free of AI Slop

ISBNdb, a company that sources printed books for AI companies to turn into training data, tells clients “the optics problem is real.”

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

I was not expecting it to be Bossa Nova.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Saw this in a shop in Valencia and decided I had to own it.

Duo-tone printed cover of a man watching his own skeleton smoke in an armchair.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Read this in one sitting in the local queer café today. V worthwhile read that I have already passed on to a fellow bibliographer. If someone asks me what they should read to learn desc bib I will now always say this!

Carlo Dumontet's 'Collation Reference Notation & Statement of Signing'

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Nice to see how scholars from other disciplines talk about handpress era books lol.

Quote reads: 'nothing is less becoming to the history of British printmaking than its belated and uncouth beginnings. The earliest woodcuts, published by William Caxton and his successors Wynkyn de Worde and Richard Pynson, provide a certain dry sustenance for bibliophiles but they have little artistic value. Indeed, the term 'hack-work' has special aptness in the context of the early English woodcut.'

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

My partner and I watched all the (good) Pixar films in order, and now we're embarking on the natural follow-on to that: all the films of Philip Seymour Hoffman in no particular order.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

My favourite thing in the world is talking about weird/beautiful/old books while in the proximity of wine. If you're in the NE and share this feeling then you should sign up for an event that is just that. Link: www.tixtree.com/e/keel-row-l...

Poster reads: Keel Row Lates. Understand collectible books, one evening at a time. Illustratee books from woodcut to inkjet. Thursday 3 September 2026, 1800-2000. Booking appreciated.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I talked to a Dean about what's next, and like so many administrators directly responsible for this, he could only talk in terms of a learned helplessness. I wish I could purely celebrate but frankly I'm angry that our universities are being killed by people who think they're just adult babies.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I've spent half my life in a department I may not be able to meaningfully return to. I was one of the lucky ones, in a cohort of almost a dozen PhDs in English with funding packages who were given a meagre wage and funding to travel. But the ladder has been almost completely pulled out behind us.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

On the other hand, I'm sharply aware of the fact that the funding scheme that enabled my PhD was cut two years ago and will not be restored. Newcastle (and so many universities) will not sponsor postdoctoral projects that require internal funding.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

My graduation on Friday was a wonderful but bittersweet experience. I have long called the English department at Newcastle my home, and my fellow scholars there are so dear to my heart. Seeing the culmination of three degrees over nine years has felt like a homecoming...

Me (non-binary femme) in floral blouse with black, white and red academic gown smiling next to Kate (my supervisor) in scarlet and navy gown.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

My challenge today has been collating a poorly attested 18thc locally printed Bible which ESTC states is 'eratically signed' in lieu of any attempt at a pagination statement. There is a logic, but not one that is apparent to me.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

A love poem for printers, in a Regency era guide to courtship.

Poem reads 'From a Printer These lines I compose, Valentine, To press you with love I declare, Don't think to impose my design, For you are my printer I swear. Oh! Print on my heart you approve, That capital letter I'll prize, well, I'll give you a proof of my love, corrected in every revisal'

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

'An admirable attempt at repair' on a 1600 Bible, BCP, and Psalms.

A full calf book with concave spine, amateurishly repaired with Frankenstein-esque rows of thread to upper board and spine.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Terrifying drawing in a 1589 Geneva Bible.

Double column printed Bible leaf with marginal drawing of disembodied(?) Stick figure.

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Reposted by Dr Sam Bailey

Beth DeBold @elizaaudacis.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Very proud of @18thcenturysam.bsky.social, who has been awarded a prize from @hassfacultyncl.bsky.social for her smashing thesis on erotic books!

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Pleased to say that as of September I'll be Visiting Fellow of Bibliography and Book History at Newcastle University. It's a largely honorary position but it's nice to have institutional recognition!

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Filthy book hedgehog would be a great name for a small countercultural press.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Finally, children can feel how I do when I look at binder's waste and realise it's literally anything more interesting than a leaf of psalms. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

theguardian.com

Parents shocked after children’s paper hedgehogs found to contain pages from explicit novel

Handmade creations distributed to raise funds for charity prompt complaints to police

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I have a worst of all possible worlds position which is using Zotero and then ignoring it and doing it all manually regardless

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Oh fascinating, a page of footnotes only?

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Right! I've written a lot about the design of title-pages and don't know if an example that looks like this...

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

You could do a whole list of meta-bibliographies. Besterman's 'World Bibliography of Bibliographies' is the classic (although Besterman was not a very good bibliographer). I like Deakin's 'Critical Bibliography of Erotic Bibliographies and Book-Catalogues'. The genre seems to have died off, sadly.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Writing about the dildo-poem 'Monsieur Thing's Origin' today - which might be one of the gappiest title-pages of the hand-press era. A 'thing' made present by this absence perhaps?

T.p. reads 'Monsieur Thing's ORIGIN. [Large space] This thing can boast it's of no Party Cause Whether it meets, or meets not with Applause.'

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Obviously niche bibliographies have radically different conceptions of what information a bibliography ought to include. Bowers might call many of these a 'book list' but perhaps that can be forgiven...

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Chris Philip's Bibliography of Firework Books is my go-to for this. I'll check the bibliography room in the office tomorrow bc I know we have bibliographies of 'bizarre titles', tram literature, patisserie, caving, etc etc.

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Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Finally, a beach bar for literary critics

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