Print Culture program

The aim of the Print Culture specialization is to provide graduate students with a focused MA degree in a growing theoretical and interdisciplinary research field. Students study and work alongside a group of faculty and other graduate students with shared critical and research interests. 

Why Print Culture?

In the Print Culture program, students study and work alongside a group of faculty and other graduate students with shared critical and research interests. Students also participate in a broader research community through visiting speakers, conferences and symposia organized around themes that develop out of the concerns of the program. The program will also introduce students to and encourage ties with other national and international societies, including SHARP (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing) and CASBC (Canadian Association for the Study of Book Culture) and cognate institutes and programs, such as the University of Toronto’s Book History Program, Carleton University’s Centre for the Study of Text, Culture and History, the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for the History of the Book, the University of London’s Centre for Manuscript and Print Studies, the Iowa Center for the History of the Book, and Penn State’s Center for the History of the Book.

Students with a Print Culture Designation also have an advantage in applying to do the Directed Study in Special Collections and Rare Books under the supervision of one faculty member and one Library Special Collections staff member.

The Print Culture specialization is designed to appeal both to students seeking to go on to doctoral studies and to those taking the MA as their final degree. Students graduating with a Print Culture specialization will have acquired a knowledge of related scholarly methods and pedagogical approaches, as well as instructional and research technologies, and will have developed proficiency in various modes of oral, written and digital communication. A number of our graduates with the Print Culture Specialization have gone on to doctoral programs at major Canadian and American universities, and many Print Culture students have been recipients of major SSHRC fellowships and other external awards.