*Centre for Printing History & Culture*
*Print Networks*
*Call for papers*
*Print, politics and publishing: the role of the provincial press *
*21 July 2017 | Birmingham City University*
*Deadline for papers 1 March 2017*
John Freeth was landlord of a celebrated Birmingham tavern and it was
his custom to write songs about the news of the day, setting his words
to popular tunes, which he sang nightly to patrons. This made Freeth’s
Coffee-House one of the most successful in England. Freeth published
nearly 400 of his songs, which offer a novel insight into the radical
and nonconformist politics of late eighteenth-century Birmingham.
In 1783 Josiah Wedgwood printed a series of political leaflets in
Newcastle-under-Lyme. An address on the late riots was occasioned by
corn uprisings at his factory, when Wedgwood summoned militia to
disperse the mobs. Following arrests and one execution, Wedgwood’s
leaflet warned against the folly of violence to redress social evils
and recommended ‘peaceable’ alternatives, stressing the temporary
nature of economic recession.
On 27 October 1857, John Bright MP addressed a crowded Birmingham Town
Hall. Already a famous politician and orator, expectations were he
would deliver a news-worth speech. So much so, /The Times/ chartered a
special night train to deliver his text in time for the morning
editions. His speech in the provinces, a call for universal suffrage,
marked a turning-point in nineteenth-century electoral reform.
This one-day conference invites papers, which consider politics (of
all flavours) and the provincial press from the early modern to
present day.
Papers of twenty-minutes duration are invited for this
interdisciplinary conference from postgraduates, independent
researchers and established scholars. Topics might include but are not
limited to:
•Regional political texts: their origination, design, production,
distribution, consumption and reception;
•Reflections of provincial political identities in the design and
production of ephemera, pamphlets, newspapers and books;
•How the look and content of regional publishing has contributed to,
or been shaped by local politics;
•Popular print and ‘street literature’ (ballads, chapbooks, broadsides
etc.);
•How provincial publications disseminated local, national and
international politics;
•Understanding the politics of regional towns through their ephemera,
pamphlets, newspapers and books.
All papers are considered for publication in Print Networks’ journal,
/Publishing History/.
We offer a postgraduate conference fellowship, sponsored by the
Bibliographical Society, for which provide a reference is required
from an academic supervisor.
*HOW TO APPLY* Please send a suggested title, synopsis (200 words) and
biography (100 words) via a Word attachment to David Osbaldestin
((David.Osbaldestin /at/ bcu.ac.uk) <mailto:(David.Osbaldestin /at/ bcu.ac.uk)>)
*DEADLINE *1 March 2017
*COMMITTEE* Dr Catherine Armstrong (University of Loughborough); Prof
Caroline Archer-Parre (Birmingham City University); Dr Maureen Bell
(University of Birmingham); Dr Giles Bergel (University of Oxford);
Julia Cunningham (Independent scholar); Dr John Hinks (University of
Birmingham); Barry McKay (Independent scholar); David Osbaldestin
(University of Birmingham); Dr Lisa Peters (University of Chester).
