Jonathan Senchyne
Historian of books, printing, and reading in America, from handmade paper and early Black authorship to how libraries and information access shape public life now.
Professor, Information School; Director, Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture College of Computing & Artificial Intelligence College of Letters and Science Work: 716-491-2160 senchyne@wisc.edu Home page
Topics
- How to read a book as a physical object: what paper, type, binding, and printing errors reveal about who made it and why.
- Paper and papermaking in America: what a sheet of paper reveals about the past, and what paper still offers readers and writers today.
- Digital approaches to the cultural record, including the Wheatley Census, a database tracking and detailing every surviving copy of Phillis Wheatley's 1773 Poems.
- Books as public goods: how libraries, collectors, and reading clubs have contributed to democratic culture and society.
Achievements
- Editor of The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, a leading journal of book history and bibliography
- Elected member of the American Antiquarian Society
- National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow