Welcome to ESPRit

Welcome to the European Society for Periodical Research. Since its inception in 2009, ESPRit has proven its value as an international network for periodical researchers. We are proud of our inspiring annual conferences which bring together scholars from inside and outside of Europe and of the peer-reviewed Open Access Journal of European Periodical Studies (JEPS) which has entered its fifth year. 

Until recently, ESPRit membership has been informal, consisting mainly of a subscription to our mailing list. As from July 2019, a paid membership system is being put into place. Periodical scholars who wish to support the Society, participate in its annual meetings, and benefit from discounts at future events, are kindly invited to register their membership by clicking on the button below.

 

JOIN ESPRIT

 

ESPRit online seminars on Popular Magazines

In order to build our online ESPRit community, we are starting a series of monthly one-hour online seminars. The first series will be programmed on Friday afternoons in March, April and May 2021. It takes as its focus popular Magazines, and is co-hosted by the ETMIET/KENI team from Panteion University (Athens). 

General title: ‘Crossover influences and local identities of the popular illustrated periodicals of the 19th and twentieth centuries’

26 March, 12-1PM CET (chair: Peter Buse, Liverpool University)
Keynote lecture by Victoria Kuttainen (James Cook University, Autralia): “Portholes, Channels, and Seductions: The Messy Affordances of Antipodean Periodical Scholarship”


16 April, 3-4PM CET (chair: Sophie Oliver, Liverpool University)

- Júlia Fazekas (ELTE University, Budapest), “Popularity of Hungarian and European fashion magazines in the 1840s”

 

- Charlotte Lauder (University of Strathclyde and National Library of Scotland), “Pithy people: the People’s Friend, a national magazine for Scotland”


14 May, 3-4PM CET (chair: Andrés Mario Zervigón, Rutgers University)

- Patrick Rössler (University of Erfurt), “From Simplicissimus to Simplicus and Der Simpl. Satire magazines between Nazi gleichschaltung and exile, 1934-35”

- Mary Ikoniadou (University of Central Lancashire), “Refugee publishing. The case study of the Greek political refugees in East Germany. Imaginings and aesthetics of repatriation amidst Cold War borders”

> Click here for more information and registration

The seminars are held online via Zoom. All are welcome to attend; registration via this website is required for receiving the meeting link. Any questions or suggestions regarding the ESPRit online seminars may be directed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 

9th International ESPRit Conference, 7–17 June 2021

Periodical Formats in the Market: Economies of Space and Time, Competition and Transfer / Periodische Formate auf dem Markt: Ökonomien von Raum und Zeit, Konkurrenz und Transfer

Organised by the DFG Research Unit 2288 Journal Literature, Ruhr University Bochum

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 9th conference of the European Society for Periodical Research at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, will be held online. The virtual event aims to bring scholars together, to present and discuss recent work on periodicals, to meet in virtual coffee breaks, to get in touch, and to keep in touch. We welcome proposals from researchers at all stages of their careers from various disciplines.

Week 1 (7–11 June 2021):

Live kick-off session with keynote lecture on Monday, 7 June 2021
Launch of pre-recorded presentations and panels at the conference website
Postgraduate Workshop

Week 2 (14–17 June 2021)

Keynote, Plenary Panels, Roundtable
ESPRit Business Meeting
Live Q&A-sessions in the afternoon (CET) to discuss the papers of the first week
Social time and virtual coffee breaks

The conference seeks to examine journals from the 18th to the 21th century within the market and its sociocultural, economic, and legal frameworks, exploring two main areas:

  • economies of time and space, e. spatiotemporal aspects of the production, distribution, and reception of periodicals and similar serialized formats, and
  • facets of competition and transfer between periodicals within localised and regional as well as international

For this purpose, the conference looks at periodicals as agents that react to sociocultural space configurations while simultaneously participating in their nascency, formation, appearance, and perpetual transformation. The conference seeks to advance theoretical approaches, established analytical methods, and analysis oriented towards the spatiotemporal dimensions of periodical culture. To achieve this goal, the 9th ESPRit conference invites theoretical input, case studies, and comparative analysis from philological, philosophical, as well as sociological perspectives from all disciplines (such as philology, media history, history of publishing and printing, comparative literature, cultural studies, gender studies, visual studies, postcolonial studies).

Further information, including details regarding registration, will be published on the conference website: www.rub.de/esprit2020. Contact:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.