Mission Statement
For centuries Americans have been informed by print; all people in America's multicultural and multi-class society have used or been influenced by print, sometimes for common purposes, sometimes for different purposes. The goal of the Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture is to help determine the historical sociology of print in all its culturally diverse manifestations.
As a joint program of the Wisconsin Historical Society, the School of Library and Information Studies, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, the mission of the Center is to:
• encourage the interdisciplinary study of print and digital culture history on campus and serve as an interdisciplinary focus for scholarly research by scholars from such diverse fields as literature, journalism, publishing, education, reading and library history, economics, sociology, the history of science, political science, and gender and ethnic studies;
• facilitate research into the valuable print and digital culture research collections owned by the University of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Historical Society systems which focus on newspapers, periodicals, advertising, printed ephemeral materials, digital collections, and books (including school and college texts, children's literature, trade and scholarly monographs, and mass market paperbacks)
• stimulate research in the print and digital culture history of groups whose gender, race, occupation, ethnicity and sexual preference (among other factors) have historically placed them on the periphery of power but who have used print and digital sources as one of the few means of expression available to them;
• work with the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress, state centers for the book, and appropriate professional organizations on joint programs, exhibits, colloquia, symposia, and publications;
• raise funds for scholarships, fellowships, and lecture series to assist the study of history of print and digital culture;
• aid in the development of an international perspective on print and digital culture, including the reception of American publishing abroad, and foreign publishing in the United States, both in English and other languages.
The Center’s functions include:
• Sponsoring a colloquium series during the school year;
• Mounting an annual lecture;
• Organizing a biennial conference on themes related to print and digital culture history;
• Offering an annual Danky Fellowship to support research in print and digital culture history using the collections of the Wisconsin Historical Society and the University of Wisconsin;
• Administering a Ph.D. Minor in the History of Print Culture;
• Editing a book series, Print Culture History in Modern America, published by the University of Wisconsin Press.