The Society for Textual Scholarship

Routledge Companion to Textual Scholarship: Call for Chapter Proposals

Abstracts due: September 8, 2025
Edited by Gabrielle Dean and John K. Young

The editors of a collected volume under contract with Routledge request chapter proposals on a
wide array of topics on contemporary issues in textual scholarship (including bibliography, book
history, codicology, philology, and other related disciplines) as well as in the history of the field.
For details about this forthcoming publication, please see below.

Textual scholarship is a capacious field. It encompasses bibliography of various types—
enumerative, descriptive, analytical, and now critical—and such related disciplines as
paleography and typography, all often directed toward the practice of scholarly editing and the various branches of editorial theory that have emerged in response to various editorial
dilemmas. But while the bibliographer and scholarly editor have historically been at home in
textual scholarship, its house has expanded in recent years to make room for those focusing on bibliographic codes, material texts, the readerly experience of textual variants—in short, textual scholars. Textual scholarship asks where texts have come from, starting with authors’ practices of composition and revision, almost inevitably in concert and/or in conflict with editors, publishers, spouses, partners, collaborators, friends, patrons, and others, and proceeding through often tangled histories of publication, republication, circulation, and adaptation and other kinds of transformation. Tracing these histories also involves locating the many forms of a text within its social and cultural contexts, and exploring their impacts on how texts are made and received. Because those strata are now so often digital, whether as born-digital texts or analog documents remediated in digital editions, textual scholarship also intersects with digital humanities (DH) and its own related subdisciplines.

Indeed, textual scholarship is now more than ever defined by its productive exchanges with
other fields: not only DH, but the feminist, Black, queer, post-colonial, and trans bibliographies that have become known as critical bibliography, or the intersection of genetic criticism (in its Continental and Anglo-American versions) and narratology that has produced genetic narratology. There is a growing body of textual scholarship addressing textuality in East Asia, South Asia, Latin America, the Arab world, and indigenous and diasporic communities. The extent to which textual scholarship and book history are distinct or overlapping disciplines is its own story, but their practices clearly inform each other, not to mention editorial forays into periodical studies and other areas concerned with non-book forms of texts. Because all forms of art exist in multiple and almost always in revised forms, textual scholarship extends to the studies of music, architecture, visual art, film and television, social media, and more. And because textual scholars tend to haunt literary and other archives, their work is inevitably in conversation with archival studies.

In short, this is an exciting time for textual scholarship. The redefinitions of disciplinary
boundaries and the new debates and questions they have sparked make this an apt moment for considering where the field is now, and where it is going.

We invite proposals for 4000-word chapters in the following areas, as well as proposals on
current issues in the field that may not be specifically represented in this list:

Origins and methodologies. Paleography, codicology, philology, Anglo-American editorial theory and practice, Continental editorial theory and practice, non-Western editorial theory and practice, genetic criticism, material textuality and material culture studies, intersections of textual scholarship and book history

Material texts and archives. Supports and marks, visual media, musical and other audio texts, moving-image texts, born-digital texts, analog archives, digital archives

Processes of textual production, distribution, reception, and remediation. Authorship studies, attribution studies, editorship studies, history of reading, distant reading, libraries and publishers, author’s libraries, reprints and periodicals, paratexts and bibliographic codes, problems of archival preservation

Digital and critical bibliography. Digital forensics, digital editions, feminist bibliography, Black bibliography, queer and trans bibliographies, diasporic bibliographies, Indigenous bibliographies, Latine bibliography

Pedagogy and practice. Affordances of different types of editions and textual apparatuses (critical, documentary, clear-text, eclectic). Teaching textual scholarship, book history, and/or related disciplines (at all levels of instruction and in multiple learning environments)

Chapters may address more than one of these issues. We welcome chapters on single authors or texts where investigation illuminates key questions, e.g., the history of textual scholarship about that author or text, and also encourage chapters with a broader scope. The Companion aims to cover fundamental debates and core topics, while also pointing to new directions in the field. We imagine that the readership will include graduate students, early career scholars, librarians, established textual scholars, and scholars in related fields developing editorial or textual studies projects.

Expected Timeline

• Abstracts due: September 8, 2025
• Notification: October 15, 2025
• Essays due: August 1, 2026
• Publication anticipated in 2028

We invite proposals from scholars (including professors, librarians, archivists, independent
scholars, and graduate students) who come to textual scholarship from the study of literature, music, film/TV, art, dance, architecture, sound studies, video games, or other media, as well as from the study of libraries and archives. To be considered for inclusion in the volume, please email a 500-word abstract and brief CV to Gabrielle Dean (gnodean@jhu.edu) and John Young (youngj@marshall.edu) by Sept. 8, 2025. Please contact us in advance with any
questions.

We are committed to producing a volume whose contents reflect a diverse, equitable, and
inclusive range of contributors and topics.

Call for Editor or Co-Editors – The Emily Dickinson Journal

The Emily Dickinson Journal (EDJ) showcases the poet at the center of current critical practices and perspectives. Published twice annually and sponsored by the Emily Dickinson International Society (EDIS), EDJ features writing by talented young scholars as well as work by those established in the field. No other journal provides this quality or quantity of scholarship on Dickinson.

The journal is seeking a new editor or co-editors to lead its next phase beginning January 2026. The incoming editor(s) will succeed the current editor, Ryan Cull, and guide the journal in shaping its scholarly direction and intellectual vision.

Responsibilities of the Editorship Include:

• Shaping the strategic development and editorial vision of the journal in collaboration with the journal’s editorial and advisory board
• Managing submissions and the peer review process in coordination with reviewers and the editorial board
• Soliciting high-quality contributions and identifying potential topics for special issues
• Overseeing the revision, acceptance, and preparation of articles for publication
• Collaborating with the publisher to meet production schedules and review proofs
• Engaging with the Emily Dickinson International Society and contributing to the broader scholarly community; the editor will also serve as one of the officers of the Society.

Terms and Support:

The new editor(s) will begin a training and transition period in fall 2025, assuming full responsibility in January 2026. Some modest support for editorial activities may be available from EDIS. Applicants should include a statement of their editorial support needs in their application. An initial term of one to two years is expected, with the possibility of renewal upon mutual agreement.

Essential Requirements:

• A PhD in literature or a closely related field
• A strong record of publication and scholarly engagement with Dickinson and/or 19th-century American literature
• Editorial experience or evidence of strong organizational and leadership skills
• A demonstrated commitment to equity, inclusion, and the growth of Dickinson studies
• Institutional support is encouraged but not required

 Applications are welcome from individuals or editorial teams. In the case of co-editors, the application should include a brief statement describing the proposed division of labor.

 Application Process:

Those interested in applying should submit the following materials to Ryan Cull, ryancull@nmsu.edu:

• A cover letter addressing qualifications, editorial vision, editorial support needs, and (if applicable) institutional support.
• A current CV (for each applicant). For joint applications, a statement of how editorial responsibilities will be shared.

Ryan Cull and the Journal’s Editorial and Advisory Board will oversee the review and selection of candidates. Deadline for applications: 15 September 2025.