Reading: A Conversation

Reading is one of the foundational practices at the heart of human culture. We read for the sake of knowledge and for aesthetic pleasure, but reading is also at the heart of political institutions, religious traditions, and scientific endeavors. Reading: A Conversation will be a major workshop on the concept of reading as understood in pluralistic cultural and global contexts, and will bring together scholars, scientists, and artists working on concepts and practices of reading. This will be the first step in a multi-year project that will result in (1) a new global history of reading; (2) a research lab based at UVA on cognitive, philosophical, and aesthetic conceptions of reading; and (3) the development of curricula at the undergraduate and graduate levels.