Dear colleagues,

I would like to extend an invitation to participate in "Reading Early Material Texts: a Paleography and Codicology Workshop," to be held at the University of Chicago Center in New Delhi on May 20-22. In particular, I would like to encourage postgraduate students in Indian universities and institutions to apply since the University of Chicago will cover travel to Delhi, accommodation, and meals for the duration of the workshop for a select number of students. (See details on applying below.)

This three-day workshop will provide graduate students and early career scholars an opportunity to receive basic training in the paleography and codicology of South Asian material texts—including manuscript books, scrolls, notebooks, and other handwritten documents—and provide more advanced scholars an opportunity to share approaches, receive feedback on current research, and reflect critically on traditions and trends of textual criticism, scholarly editing, book history, and the digital humanities. The workshop will consist of eight presentations by scholars in which they will guide participants through the process of working with manuscripts in a ‘hands on’ fashion, introducing them to techniques not only for reading textual artifacts, but also for understanding those artifacts in their historical, social, and material totality using both traditional and emerging methods (e.g. text criticism and techniques from the digital humanities). Documents in Sanskrit, Persian, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, and other languages, and in multiple scripts, will be addressed. Session leaders include Sweta Prajapati (Oriental Institute, MSU Baroda), Prachi Deshpande (CSSSC, Kolkata), Chander Shekhar (Delhi University), Thibaut d'Hubert (University of Chicago), Achintya Biswas (Jadavpur University), and Tyler Williams (University of Chicago). (Additional session leaders are TBA). 

The workshop will feature a keynote address by the prominent art historian, art critic, and scholar of manuscript culture B.N. Goswamy on May 20th at 6:00pm.

Student participants:

Post graduate (MA/MPhil/PhD) students from all South Asian countries (including India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) are encouraged to participate in the workshop. Seats in the venue are limited, so we request interested students to complete the Student Participant Application Form. The Center will inform students by the end of April whether they have been selected to participate in the workshop. The University of Chicago is also able to offer free travel to and accommodation in Delhi for a limited number of student participants. Students who would like to participate in the workshop but find it financially difficult to do so are encouraged to apply for this bursary/scholarship by filling in the relevant parts of the Student Participant Application Form. The Center will inform students by the end of April whether they have been selected to receive the travel and accommodation bursary.

Faculty/researcher participants:

University faculty and researchers (including independent researchers) that are working with material texts or who would like to begin working with material texts are encouraged to participate in the workshop. Seats in the venue are limited, so we kindly request interested scholars to register via the Participant Registration Form.

Regards,

Tyler Williams

Assistant Professor

South Asian Languages and Civilizations

University of Chicago