When, how, and what?

‘Manuscript and Text Cultures’ describes a phenomenon that begins when written documents start to circulate more widely and knowledge transmission becomes increasingly text-centred and no longer a predominantly oral exercise. CMTC offers a platform for established scholars and research students engaged in the recovery, decipherment and interpretation of texts from a broad range of pre-modern cultures in which this phenomenon can be observed, including ancient China, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and medieval Europe. Its activities are designed to enable scholars to share their experiences and develop new, collaborative research topics across disciplinary boundaries. CMTC combines traditional approaches, such as philology, epigraphy and papyrology, with new methodologies inspired by communication theory, information science, philosophy, and other disciplines, in order to generate a common language for the study of the material conditions of meaning production and memory across time and space. Its interdisciplinary research sets out to drive our understanding of the processes underlying human creation of knowledge and meaning in methodologically novel ways with clarity and rigour. In this way the Centre hopes to enable informed debate across subject boundaries and to contribute to shaping an emerging field of enquiry into the material factors of knowledge production across societies.

The Centre has a regular programme of research seminars and lunchtime colloquia, with three meetings each term held in the Magrath Room of The Queen’s College.

Research Workshop (5 - 7 pm)

·      Wednesday, week 6

The Workshop takes the format of a one-hour presentation, followed by one hour of discussion.

Lunchtime Colloquia (12.30 - 2pm)

·      Tuesday, week 2:

Two members of faculty discuss work in progress

·      Tuesday, week 4:

Two doctoral students discuss work in progress

Please email us if you wish to receive further information or if you would like to suggest a speaker for our events.