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Blue Jordan on Digitizing Historical Materials from UW Special Collections

Over the fall quarter, UW Textual Studies student Blue Jordan completed their Capstone project, a digital edition of a 1901 volume of The Strand Magazine held in the UW Special Collections. In their own words, Blue describes the inspiration behind the project, working with rare materials in Special Collections, and the process of digitization. Read on to find out more about this fascinating project!

Digital Project Documents Rare Materials in UW Libraries

My Capstone Project centered around creating a digital edition of an article from the UW Special Collections 1901 volume of The Strand Magazine. 

Sir Robert Stawell Ball was an Irish astronomer and held the titles of Andrews Professor at Trinity College, Dublin, Royal Astronomer of Ireland, and Director of the Dunsink Observatory. He became famous for his work as a popular astronomical interpreter, and had a massive outreach as a lecturer and writer.

I found “Comets” working on the group digitization project for TXTDS 404: Texts, Publics, and Publications during Spring Quarter 2025. My group worked with the first installment of the Sherlock Holmes story “The Hound of Baskervilles,” which is in the next volume of The Strand. For our first Special Collections visit, my group requested the volumes around the one we actually needed, just in case. We stumbled upon “Comets” while we were perusing, and I was immediately struck by the beauty and whimsy in the first few paragraphs. It stood out in a magazine that we had mostly assessed as quippy nonfiction and short fiction stories.

The Comet Rordame, July 13, 1893, featured in The Strand Magazine.

The article (and Ball’s work in general as a Royal Astronomer, professor, public lecturer, and writer) resonates with the ways I think about public-facing scholarship. The way my childhood curiosities were fed and expanded by kids’ books, PBS shows, documentaries, and museums like the Children’s Museum and the Pacific Science Center made me the learner, student, and person I am today.  

Making a Digital Edition using Text Encoding

The first thought I had about my capstone had to do with the net.art movement of the 90s, which I was exposed to at the first museum lecture I ever attended (at the Living Computers Museum). I got sidetracked during TXTDS 404 because I was so enamored by “Comets” and enjoyed the digitizing assignment so much. That being said, I think that something of the net.art ethos stayed with me during this project and will likely continue to haunt me throughout any future digital work. We focused mainly on the Text Encoding Initiative/XML side of the digital edition process in 404, but I was more excited about the HTML and CSS side. I came into this project with my biggest goal being “make a pretty website.” 

Designing in a Digital Environment using HTML and CSS

One thing we learn in TXTDS that I was certainly reminded of while working on this project is that the work is never really finished. There are still questions I haven’t been able to answer (if anyone knows what typeface The Strand used please tell me I’d do anything). There is a lot of background information about the article, the author, and The Strand that I’d love to include. I came into this project as a novice coder, pretty convinced I remembered how to do the things I had done in the spring (I was wrong), and I learned a lot. 

Not all of it I ended up using, and I brushed against other tools and languages, which I had to persuade myself I didn’t have time for, that I’d love to go back and explore. I really think that everyone should get a chance to learn HTML, CSS, and other web development languages. They feel like colored pencils to me now: it’s a tool I can grab and use for expression. I might not be great at it, but I know enough to have fun. It also demystifies the commodified, black-box world of products we use online. If you can convince yourself you could probably also piece together a word processor, you are no longer at the whim of big businesses you don’t understand.  

The Capstone Project and the Textual Studies Minor

The Capstone is a culminating project, undertaken during any quarter of the academic year, that brings together the students’ larger learning goals with the skills gained during the course of the TXTDS program. 

The Minor in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities focuses on the interdisciplinary study of the history, present, and future of texts. Instruction ranges widely, covering a broad array of subjects, periods, and objects in the long history of writing and communication. From scrolls to manuscripts, and printed books to eBooks, undergraduates can explore how texts have been written, published, read, circulated, and archived from antiquity to the present day. 

Congratulations to Blue on completing this exciting Capstone project!

You can access Blue’s digization project here. And you can can explore our website or email text@uw.edu to find out more about the Minor in Textual Study and Digital Humanities, Capstone requirements, and upcoming TXTDS courses.

You can also sign up for our mailing list and follow us on Instagram and X.

TXTDS Fall Quarter Event Recap | Printmaking Social: Holiday Edition

To ring in the end of the fall quarter and the start of winter break, UW Textual Studies hosted a Printmaking Social: Holiday Edition. Themed around card making, this session offered students in the Textual Studies Minor and Graduate Certificate program the chance to print their own letterpress holiday cards and adorn them with personalized linocut-printed decorations. Plus, students got to test out wood type printing while they socialized with fellow TXTDS students and faculty.

Holiday-Themed Letterpress Printing with UW Textual Studies

UW Textual Studies hosts quarterly, student-centered events and has run our popular Printmaking Socials in conjunction with Global Literary Studies in the past. For this iteration of our printing social hour, we themed the session in line with the upcoming holiday season, making letterpress-printed cards with our recently acquired Vandercook Proofing Press.

During the event, we encouraged participants to decorate these pre-printed cards or run their own letterpress card through our Provisional Presses. We had linocut supplies on hand and some wooden type that students were able to experiment with as both a creative activity and a preview of printing methods they could further explore in the TXTDS classroom.

The Provisional Presses we had on hand are small, portable proofing presses, capable of engaging a variety of printing techniques, including linocut and other relief printing, letterpress printing, and wood type printing.

UW Textual Studies Printmaking Equipment

These are part of Textual Studies’ growing collection of printing equipment, which includes metal letterpress type, a platen press, wooden type, and our most recent acquisition of a Vandercook Proofing Press.

Thank you to all the students and faculty who came to celebrate the end of the quarter with us at our Printmaking Social: Holiday Edition!

If you’d like to find out more about upcoming events and opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students in UW Textual Studies, sign up for the Textual Studies listserv and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and X.

Plus, explore upcoming TXTDS courses, the Textual Studies undergraduate minor and graduate certificate programs, and TXTDS-related news on our website.

Riley Hull on Helping UW Libraries Build English Studies Reference Holdings

During this past academic year, UW Textual Studies alum and current MA student in the history of the book at the University of London, Riley Hull, completed a Capstone project in conjunction with UW Libraries on collection development in the subject of English Studies. Working under the direction of Elliot Stevens (Research Commons and English Studies Librarian, UW Libraries), Riley researched and compiled recommendations for library purchasing that covered key topics of interest to UW faculty and students.

For my capstone, I worked with Elliot Stevens, the UW English Department Librarian, on a collection development project aimed at purchasing new books that would be relevant and useful additions to the UW libraries. I first performed a ‘scan’ of both the UW English department and various other academic departments across the country, researching which topics and themes were commonly studied and comparing how the UW fits into the larger academic network.

Then, I began to search for books to purchase that would both support the key topics of interest to UW faculty and students, such as books about environmental and Indigenous studies, and further the development of underrepresented research areas without an established collection, such as books about the craft of creative writing. Ultimately, I was able to create a list of 72 books that were purchased and added to the UW library collections. 

– Riley Hull

Scanning Orbis Cascade Alliance and Big 10 Academic Alliance

To begin the acquisitions research process, Riley surveyed both the interests of faculty and students in the UW Department of English and the Orbis Cascade Alliance, as well as the Big 10 Academic Alliance. This gave Riley a wide representation of interests both for academic institutions within UW’s geographic region and for those within the BTAA consortium of research institutions.

Among the Orbis Cascade Alliance member institutions, I noticed a strong interest in environmental humanities and ecocriticism, as well as a heavy American literature emphasis (with particular emphasis on rural America and Pacific Northwest Indigenous studies). For the BTAA institutions, I noticed a more significant presence of creative writing programs than among the Orbis Cascade Alliance members. Similarly, there was less of a focus on rhetoric, composition, and pedagogical studies, and more of a focus on literary studies and creative writing.

– Riley Hull

Armed with these statistics, Riley then made recommendations based on these findings to build out the UW Library’s collections, listing purchase suggestions for titles both from larger academic presses as well as from smaller presses, like the Kegedonce Press.

Minor in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities Capstone

The Capstone project is an independent, quarter-long research project designed to combine the interests of students’ major course of study with their work in the Textual Studies Minor. These projects take many forms, such as research papers, digital projects, and more. There are even possibilities for internships with local professional organizations, as well as opportunities to work on faculty-led research, or to participate in summer programs, like the Humanities Data Science Summer Institute.

You can read more about the Capstone requirement and see some examples of prior student projects here.

Many congratulations to Riley on completing this Capstone and the Minor in Textual Studies and the Digital Humanities. And, an additional congratulations for Riley’s acceptance to the Master’s program in the History of the Book at the University of London!

You can read more about Riley’s project here. And you can check out our website or email text@uw.edu to find out more about the Minor in Textual Study and Digital Humanities, Capstone requirements, and upcoming TXTDS courses.

You can also sign up for our mailing list and follow us on Instagram and X.

Aries Chen on Building a Digital Exhibition of Citation in Early Modern French Texts

During this past academic year, UW Textual Studies alum and current iSchool MLIS student, Aries Chen, completed a Capstone project that explored citation methods in French texts of the early modern period. Researching rare artifacts in UW Special Collections, Aries scanned, digitized, and compiled an exhibition tracking citation from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Read on to find out more about this exciting project, hear about Aries work with rare materials, and how this project brought together the skills of the TXTDS minor with Aries’ major area of study in the French language.

Researching Early Modern Works in UW Special Collections

To research for the project, Aries went to UW Special Collections, and worked with a number of artifacts, including historical works of botany, Les Essais by Michel de Montaigne, Les Provinciales by Blaise Pascale, and other selections spanning the histories of science and medicine, specimens from the libraries’ rare book holdings, and a few titles from its book arts collection.

“This project traces the reuse of pieces of information, examining how cited material is treated and how references to cited works are constructed. The majority of the research was conducted by looking at a source, finding a citation, and following that citation to the source.”

– Aries Chen

To record this trail of citation use, Aries utilized a KIC Click Mini overhead scanner in the UW Special Collections reading room, taking images of the works and processing them for display on the project website where the trail of cited material could be visualized.

Building a Digital Exhibition of Citation Practices

To explore these historical citation practices, Aries completed a digital exhibition. This combines an overview of early modern citation with an information timeline that allows visitors to the site to track the appearance of cited texts and concepts across the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries.

“My capstone looked at citation in printed texts, mostly from early modern France, to describe citation forms, the information that citation contains, and how citation evolved. The work I did for my capstone tied together concepts from courses I’d taken across Textual Studies, from website-building skills to utilizing the resources in Special Collections, and even beyond that to work I’d done for my major in French.”

– Aries Chen

Aries Chen Pursues MLIS at UW iSchool

Building upon this project utilizing library resources and developing digital tools to showcase materials in library collections, Aries has continued on to the UW iSchool to complete a Master’s of Library and Information Science.

Minor in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities Capstone

Like Aries’ work bringing the interests of the French major and the skills of the Textual Studies minor together, the Capstone project is designed to combine the scholarly interests of students in the program over a quarter-long independent research project under the advisement of a faculty member.

These projects can take many forms and there are even possibilities for internships with local professional organizations, as well as opportunities to work on faculty-led research, or to participate in summer programs, like the Humanities Data Science Summer Institute.

You can read more about the Capstone requirement and see some examples of prior student projects here.

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Many congratulations to Aries on completing this fascinating Capstone project and, with it, the Minor in Textual Studies and the Digital Humanities. And, an additional congratulations to Aries for being accepted to the Masters in Library and Information Science program at the UW iSchool!

You can explore Aries project here. And you can check out our website or email text@uw.edu to find out more about the Minor in Textual Study and Digital Humanities, Capstone requirements, and upcoming TXTDS courses.

You can also sign up for our mailing list and follow us on Instagram and X.

Emily Backstrom on Applying Textual Transcription Methods to Interactive Media

Over this past academic year, UW Textual Studies student Emily Backstrom completed a Capstone project that experimented with text encoding to transcribe interactive media. Using XML and the Text Encoding Initiative guidelines, Emily transcribed video game scripts from Deltarune, a an episodic role-playing video game. Read on to find out more about this fascinating project!

Digital Project Uses XML to Encode Video Game Script

“My capstone is a TEI project dedicated to testing the limits of TEI and adapting it to a broader range of content— specifically a video game script. Using TEI to account for player input and choices while adding in notes that took on the role of stage directions shows how much supplementary text is needed to convey even a dialogue-heavy video game narrative and how much of the medium is based on experience. The portion of the game script encoded (excerpts from Deltarune) allows for an imagined full project where different aspects of the script, such as specific routes or character dialogue, can be queried using XPATH. This game in particular also has a distinction between the player and the player-controlled character, which added another layer to account for within the TEI.”

– Emily Backstrom

What is XML and TEI?

XML, or eXtensible Markup Language, is a markup language for storing and transporting data, and the Text Encoding Initiative is a set of standards for using this language to encode texts. Usually, XML and TEI are used in humanities contexts to digitize textual materials and visual elements. It serves an important preservation function, translating physical textual resources into digital forms that can be shared. However, Emily’s project explores its applications for an interactive medium:

“Archiving and encoding media is a method of preserving it, and games are often shockingly ephemeral despite their popularity. This project highlights the need for accessible emulation and availability of legacy software for out-of-circulation games.”

– Emily Backstrom

Text Encoding Interactive Media

Translating texts and other media into TEI always involves editorial considerations, like choosing what information to include and how to encode it. These decisions influence the way people eventually read and interact with texts once they’re digitized. Moving TEI into the space of interactive media highlighted this editorial practice and the considerations to be made when translating complicated media forms into storable data:

“The amount of supplemental text needed to make sense of a video game outside of its plain text has illuminated how the medium is only able to be experience directly with visuals and how diffcult it is to translate without inadvertently giving it some influence of my own.

Digital media at large comes with many challenges for retaining them in their intended form of experience, as well as translating them into machine readable text. As someone interested in archives, this is of importance to me and something I had in mind while creating this project.”

– Emily Backstrom

Congratulations to Emily on completing this exciting Capstone project, as well as the Textual Studies minor!

You can access Emily’s TEI project here. And you can can explore our website or email text@uw.edu to find out more about the Minor in Textual Study and Digital Humanities, Capstone requirements, and upcoming TXTDS courses.

You can also sign up for our mailing list and follow us on Instagram and X.

UW Textual Studies Alums Continue to MLIS Programs and MA in the History of the Book

Join us in congratulating recent UW Textual Studies alums, Aries Chen, Jules Lockett, Steven Haker, Emily Backstrom, Malika Brown, and Riley Hull who have been accepted to Master’s programs in Library and Information Sciences and the History of the Book. In this blog, we celebrate the achievement of these former TXTDS students, dig into the basics of an MLIS program, and cover Textual Studies courses that focus on libraries, archives, and their resources.

What is a Master’s of Library and Information Science?

The MLIS is an advanced program of study that is designed to prepare students for careers in a variety of organizations and fields. It focuses on an interdisciplinary approach to the collection, organization, storage, and dissemination of information in a variety of forms, including physical collections management, such as in libraries’ rare book holdings, and digital management, such as in data-driven information systems and the collection and preservation of digital materials. These are just a few examples of the wide range of fields and industries for which the MLIS is designed to prepare students. The degree path focuses on a broad approach to the information lifecycle, helping its students learn how information is gathered, organized, stored, searched and accessed across formats and within a range of institutional and communal settings.  

Did you know that the MLIS program at the UW iSchool was recently ranked #1 by the U.S. News & World Report? It has been accredited by the American Library Association, and is nationally recognized as a premiere institution for those interested in careers in libraries and archives, records and data management, digital librarianship, and more.

TXTDS Minors Continue to Master’s Program at University of Washington and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Aries Chen, Emily Backstrom, and Steven Haker Begin MLIS at UW iSchool

TXTDS alums, Aries Chen, Emily Backstrom, and Steven Haker have begun their inaugural year in the MLIS program at the UW iSchool. Building upon their foundations in Textual Studies, which brings students in contact with library resources, humanities data science courses, and digitally-focused coursework, this program helps train students to pursue careers in librarianship, archives, data and information management, and more.  

Malika Brown Accepted to Maters in LIS at Simmons University

Another TXTDS alum, Malika Brown, has also begun advanced study in Library and Information Science in the MS program at Simmons University. During her time in the TXTDS minor, Malika undertook a digitally-focused Capstone project that gathered and presented information on the development of fiction written for girls from the 18th century to the present in UW Special Collections. Building upon this experience, Malika’s work in the MS program will further develop her experience and expertise in managing, preserving, and sharing cultural artifacts.

Jules Lockett Accepted to MS in Library Science at UNC-Chapel Hill

Jules Lockett, who is currently enrolled at a Master’s program in the History of the Book at the University of London, has been accepted to the MS in Library Science program at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Riley Hull Enrolled in MA Program in the History of the Book at the University of London

While TXTDS courses prepare students for advanced study in the field of library and information science, it also prepares students for the pursuit of advanced study in other fields, such as the history of the book and print. Riley Hull, TXTDS ’25, just started her own academic journey in advanced book studies at the University of London. Like fellow TXTDS alum, Jules Lockett, Riley was inspired to apply to this graduate program after undertaking Textual Studies coursework which brought her in direct contact with the rare books and manuscripts collections of the UW libraries. Her time in TXTDS 402: Book Arts: Proseminar in Special Collections, Bibliography, and Letterpress Printing sparked her interest in the history of the book and the industrialization of print, which she will continue to explore in the MA before going on to future studies either in an MLIS or PhD program.

UW Textual Studies Courses in Libraries and Archives

The Textual Studies Program’s focus on hands-on and experiential learning translate to its course offerings, which include classes focused on library collections and archival studies, such as TXTDS 403: Archives, Data and Databases. A recent session of the course, “The Records Lifecycle and Archival Operations,” taught by TXTDS alum and archivist at Seattle’s National Archives, Eric Flores, concentrated on the archival process from the fundamentals of planning and organizing the preservation of historical documents to archives’ functions, constitution, and continued preservation in physical and digital environments. Another session, “Digital Methods for East Asian Studies,” taught by Professor Gian Rominger of the Department of Asian Languages & Literature, took a cross-disciplinary approach to archival science, applying its methodologies to research in East Asian studies. This course focused on the integration of digital methods in the analysis of textual sources written in Classical and Modern Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, offering students experience with digital tools and projects, such as corpus creation, OCR, text mining, and network analysis.

The program also houses core courses which facilitate students’ interaction with library collections and rare historical materials. TXTDS 402 Book Arts: Proseminar in Printing, Bibliography and Special Collections is a small seminar held in UW Libraries’ Special Collections, which gives TXTDS minors the chance to work hands-on with manuscripts, early print specimens, and other documents held in the collections.

If you’d like to find out more about opportunities for undergraduate students in UW Textual Studies, our upcoming courses, or the undergraduate minor program and its requirements, you can explore our website or email text@uw.edu.

For UW Textual Studies news, upcoming events, and updates on faculty and student research, sign up for the Textual Studies listserv and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and X.

TXTDS Graduate Students Present at the Textual and Digital Studies Capstone Colloquium

We’re extending a huge congratulations to the TDS Certificate students who presented this past week at the annual Textual Studies Capstone Colloquium! On Tuesday, June 10th, students completing the Graduate Certificate in Textual and Digital Studies presented their Capstone work at the UW Libraries Open Scholarship Commons. The Capstone is a culmination of the TXTDS grad certificate program that brings together the student’s primary research interests with their work in Textual Studies courses. Every year during spring quarter, the Textual Studies Program hosts a Capstone Colloquium that allows certificate students to showcase their work and celebrate their achievements. Join us in celebrating this year’s Textual and Digital Studies Graduate Certificate recipients and read on to find out about their research.

Computing with Classics by Suh Young Choi

The first presenter was Suh Young Choi, a Masters student in Classics, whose work focused on designing instruction in computer science and programming for those working in humanities fields. Presenting on their “Computing with Classics” workshop series, Choi’s talk centered around the promotion of interdisciplinarity, digital literacy, and computational thinking for those working in Classics and other humanistic fields that incorporate digital methods or use digital tools in their research.

The Impacts of Gender on Language and Vocabulary in Tang Dynasty Poetry by Stephanie Liu

Stephanie Liu, a PhD Student in Chinese, presented on the influence gender has on the use of metaphorical language and emotional vocabulary in poetry of the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) in China. Using a computational method to explore this question, Liu compared two sets of data that included over 650 poems from both female and male poets as they sought to uncover the influence of gender on distinct stylistic patterns. Ultimately, their research presented a challenge to male-centric literary narratives and argued for the value of integrating sociolinguistic methods into the study of classical Chinese literature.

Indigenizing Research Guides: A Toolkit by Ian Diedrich

Next, we heard from Ian Diedrich, a Master of Library and Information Sciences student, whose presentation showcased a collaboratively-made research guide and digital toolkit designed to highlight the importance of integrating Indigenous perspectives into contemporary information resources. Walking listeners through the basics of a research guide, its significance, and the process undertaken to develop their toolkit, Diedrich’s work explored effective ways to incorporate Indigenous knowledge systems and perspectives into library and information sciences scholarship through the adaptation of established library tools.

Profiling Poets from Spanish Sonnets by Alysa Meng

The next presenter was Alysa Meng, an Masters Student in Computer Science and Engineering, who spoke about how machine learning techniques (SVM, Bi-LSTM, BERT) can capture authorial metadata from Spanish sonnets. Their research analyzed specific poetic features and word embeddings in order to explore how computational models can reveal information about authorship, including the time period of their writing, their gender, and their region. They wrapped up their discussion with an examination of the biases within poetic data and AI models, reflecting both on cultural representations in Spanish literature and the limits of AI in textual studies.

Making Connections: How Textual Studies and the MA in French Studies Come Together by Madeleine Poole

Madeleine Poole, a Masters student in French Studies, presented on the connections between the research they’ve undertaken in their primary graduate program and their coursework in the Graduate Certificate in Textual and Digital Studies. Ending with a reflection on the way in which the skills and learning goals of the TDS certificate translated into their French Studies Master’s Project, this student showcased how Textual Studies classes prepared them to work with primary and archival evidence and complimented their degree through its attention to hands-on coursework and interdisciplinary methodologies.

“Day In, Day Out: The First Five Years of On Kawara’s Today Series” by Nicolas Staley

Nicolas Staley, a PhD Student in Art History, presented on the Today series or Date Paintings from artist, On Kawara. As the name suggests, these paintings (which range in size from 8×10 inches to 61×89 inches) are a series of canvases, monochromatic in color, that depict a date inscribed in white. The works were produced in over 130 countries and span nearly five decades of the painter’s life. In their research, Staley approached these paintings from a data-analytical standpoint, presenting a new approach to the artist and his works. Uncovering hidden habits and patterns buried within this series, Staley analyzed the first 821 paintings completed from 1966 to 1970, and introduced new methodologies to studies of On Kawara and his work.

The Evergreen Radio Reading Service Archives: Periodicals and Literary Culture for the Blind and Print-Disabled by Alina Weseloh

Alina Weseloh, an Masters of Library and Information Sciences student, presented on their efforts to digitize the Evergreen Radio Reading Service (ERRS), which operated out of the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library (WTBBL) from 1973 to 2011. For 24 hours a day, this service read newspapers, ads, stories, and other resources to the blind and print-disabled community. Weseloh, alongside a team of other MLIS students, has worked to launch a digitization of the program’s records, which have been stored in WTBBL’s audio archive since the program’s end. In their presentation, they discussed accessibility in the context of periodical studies, the technology and copyright exemptions that made the ERRS possible, and their group’s initiative to preserve the program records as digital media.

The Jacob Lawrence Mapping Project by Kailani Wright

Next, we heard from Kailani Wright whose research focused on tracing the presence and legacy of American Artist, Jacob Lawrence across the University of Washington campus and the broader Seattle community. During the course of the presentation, Wright talked about how this project catalogs Lawrence’s public artworks at UW and collects oral histories from individuals who knew the artist, addressing interpretive and historical gaps in the scholarly record of Lawrence’s time and work in the Pacific Northwest.

Textual and Narrative Constructions in Campaign Modules for Dungeons & Dragons by Megan Piccirillo

Megan Piccirillo, a Masters of Library and Information Sciences student, presented on the narrative elements of the improvised story-telling game, Dungeons & Dragons. Exploring the intermodal textual construction of a third-party campaign module, Historica Arcanum: The City of Crescent, Piccirillo discussed its combination of ludic and narrative elements, arguing that it functions as a crafted text, containing space for player ownership and authorship.

Genji Mihara’s Diaries by Karino Wada

Karino Wada, a Museology Masters student in the UW iSchool, presented on a textual translation of Genji Mihara’s diaries, which Wada has been using to assist and provide quotes and context to a virtual exhibition video their undertaking during their internship at the Japanese Community and Cultural Center. Specifically, Wada discusses their examination of Genji Mihara diaries from his time at the Manzanar Internment camp and their process of finding and digitizing the materials.

Please join us in congratulating these students on their presentations and achievements! You can find out more about the Graduate Certificate in Textual and Digital Studies by exploring our programs page. Questions about the TXTDS program, upcoming courses for the AY25-26, and all other inquiries can be directed to text@uw.edu.

For UW Textual Studies news, upcoming events, and updates on faculty and student research, sign up for the Textual Studies listserv and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and X.

Professor Geoffrey Turnovsky on his Interview with The History of Literature Podcast

This week on the blog, we’re highlighting a recent interview of UW Textual Studies Co-Director, Geoffrey Turnovksy. Featured on The History of Literature Podcast, Dr. Turnovsky and the show’s host, Jacke Wilson, discussed his latest book publication from Stanford University Press: Reading Typographically: Immersed in Print in Early Modern France. The book questions the notion of immersion that accompanies the activity of reading in print and interrogates modern anxieties over the “disordered” and  “distracted” conceptions of reading in the digital age. In the episode, Dr. Turnovsky and Jacke Wilson dive into the historical roots of “losing oneself in a book” and explore the way in which print-based reading became associated with particular psychological, moral, and educational benefits against the backdrop of modern day digital media consumption.

Read on to find out more about Dr. Turnovsky’s work, his experience recording the podcast, and his plans for future research, and listen to the episode, no. 639 “Immersed in Print (with Geoffrey Turnovsky) | My Last Book with Liz Rosenberg.”

Getting Lost in Books: Print Immersion, Digital Distraction, and Histories of Reading

Throughout the podcast episode, Dr. Turnovsky and Jacke Wilson discuss Reading Typographically, which examines the modern day assumptions that accompany print-based reading—namely, the immersive feeling of being “lost in a book.”  Going back to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France, Dr. Turnovsky explores how we came to see the printed book as the special vehicle through which this kind of experience is made possible. What he finds is that the technological evolution of the book and the development of fictional genres during the period, such as the novel, actually facilitated this kind of reading style. During its emergence over these two centuries, print-based reading became strongly associated with this immersive-style reading, despite encompassing a far more diverse set of practices in actuality. 

Discussing this with Jacke Wilson, Dr. Turnovsky recounts how he uncovered a variety of historical reading practices that involved a wider range of modalities, some of which include the same kind of scanning and discontinuity that have come to define contemporary perceptions of reading digitally. For example, as the codex supplanted the scroll as the technological format of reading, its system of bound pages made random-access content available. The adoption of a paginated system versus a single long sheet meant that flipping through a book was now possible, facilitating a discontinuous style of reading. 

“By book, I mean what we call a codex, which is the form of the book as we understand it today—a series of pages that are bound together and enclosed in a cover. We tend to think of it as something that you read linearly, page by page. But, historically, it was primarily read discontinuously. The codex was introduced in late antiquity, supplanting the scroll that was, at that time, the dominant reading technology. What it permitted to readers, which the scroll did not, was easily jumping back and forth within a text. So, really not a very immersive way to interact with a text at all. In fact, most representations of reading up through the seventeenth or eighteenth century show people surrounded by stacks of books, particularly with bookmarks in them. This suggests that these people were not “losing themselves in a book,” but were jumping from one book to another and jumping from one part of a book to another. In other words, they were reading very discontinuously. So, part of the story of Reading Typographically is the replacement of that model of reading with a very different model of reading, which is to say the model of reading we would now think of as associated with the printed book—linear reading.”

A Digital Moral Panic

In the centuries since immersive reading’s development, the idea of losing oneself in a book has continued to hold strong cultural associations with printed texts, especially (and more-often-than-not implicitly) with fictional texts. Today, this kind of reading is often connected to certain psychological and moral benefits that, in recent years with the advent of immersive digital environments like Tiktok and other social media platforms, has come to be seen as a positive pastime in contrast to those which take place on screens and which are viewed as overwhelmingly negative. 

However, as Dr. Turnovsky and Jacke Wilson discuss, when immersive print reading emerged in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it entailed a similar moral panic: 

“Today, you get almost entirely positive representations of “losing yourself” in a novel and connecting emotionally with characters, but that was not the case in the eighteenth century when there was much more suspicion about it. It was seen to lead to immorality, to distract people from more worthwhile activities. The moral consensus we have today around immersive reading was not at all clear in the eighteenth century. It evolved over time.”

As Dr. Turnovsky explains during the course of the podcast episode, Reading Typographically, tries to explore this history in tandem with the developing material format of the book. As he sees it, the standardization and mass production of the book as a physical object during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was essential in creating the conditions for this immersive reading experience. Connecting commentary on typeface design from the printing industry and readers’ first-hand accounts, Dr. Turnovsky shows how typographical trends in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—intended to make reading easier and the text less noticeable—link up with new conceptualizations of the printed book as readers shifted to view texts less as physical objects and more as windows onto fictional worlds. 

Historical Perspectives on Digital Technologies

Ultimately, Reading Typographically is a historical exploration of this long-standing idea about print-based reading that has, in today’s world, been put in contrast to digital reading. As Dr. Turnovsky’s interview touches upon, historical analogues abound for our modern digital technologies and their public perception. This is something that Dr. Turnovsky’s scholarship explores and it is something he’s bringing to his work with the UW Textual Studies Program. 

In fall 2024, Dr. Turnovsky along with Dr. Richard Watts, taught the inaugural session of their course, TXTDS 221 – Artificial Intelligence and Human Creativity in Historical Perspective. The course considered the implications of new generative AI tools on notions of human creativity, originality, and authorship—concepts that have always been shaped by the evolution of text technologies, including print. Like Dr. Turnovsky’s work in Reading Typographically, the course situated its questions surrounding AI in broad historical perspective, looking at writing tools, such as the printing press and keyboards, and technologies of automation, like spell-checkers, as it considered the ways AI and the conversations surrounding it both represent something new and simultaneously grow out of certain historical continuities.

This course is part of Dr. Turnovsky’s interest in the rhetoric surrounding modern technologies. Often, as he says, digitization rhetoric is invested in narratives of discontinuity, or breaks from the past. However, what his research and teaching investigate is the legitimacy of this perspective. Putting technologies like AI in historical perspective, Dr. Turnovsky considers their continuities with past technologies of reading and writing in order to explore how such prehistories shape our perception of emerging technologies and influence what they eventually become. 

During Autumn 2025, students interested in the prehistory of artificial intelligence and other digital technologies can sign up for the second session of TXTDS 221 – Artificial Intelligence and Human Creativity in Historical Perspective, and can check out other TXTDS courses on offer for the AY2025-26 which explore the history, present, and future of texts. Don’t forget to explore our Textual Studies and Digital Humanities undergraduate minor, as well as the Graduate Certificate in Textual and Digital Studies. Questions about the TXTDS program, upcoming courses, and all other inquiries can be directed to text@uw.edu.

For UW Textual Studies news, upcoming events, and updates on faculty and student research, sign up for the Textual Studies listserv and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and X.

TXTDS and GLITS Spring Quarter Event Recap | Printmaking Social Hour: Bookplates and Bookmarks

For our final event of the academic year, UW Textual Studies and UW Global Literary Studies partnered up again to host our second Printmaking Social Hour. Themed around bookplates and bookmarks, this session offered students enrolled or interested in the Textual Studies minor and the Global Literary Studies major the chance to make their own linocut ex libris while they socialized with fellow students and learned more about the TXTDS and GLITS undergraduate programs.

Linocut Ex Libris with UW Textual Studies and UW Global Literary Studies

Inspired by the ingenuity of the students at our inaugural Printmaking Social Hour, who decided to print their linocuts directly into the books they had brought with them, we themed our second Printmaking Social Hour around bookplates and bookmarks. Bookplates, or ex libris, are a mark of book ownership. Evolving over centuries, from simple markings to more elaborately printed and decorative artworks, bookplates have a rich history that is about as old as written records themselves.

During the event, we encouraged participants to BYOB—bring your own book—to print or paste their linocut ex libris into. From designing (and figuring out how to write their ex libris in reverse), cutting, inking, and printing, students got to experience some of the skills they could take with them into the TXTDS classroom. For example, a core course of the Undergraduate Minor in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities, TXTDS 402 Book Arts: Proseminar in Printing, Bibliography, and Special Collections, instructs students in the art of letterpress printing and features discussions around the history and development of print illustration—both of which share core techniques and processes with linocut printing.

Linocut is a type of block printing, which involves carving a pre-set design into linoleum block using a linocutter. Then, ink is rolled onto the surface of the cut, and the design is impressed onto paper using pressure, which appears as a mirrored image to the cut block.

Linocut and Wood Type Printing with Provisional Presses

Textual Studies brought three Provisional Presses to run throughout the event. The Provisional Presses are small, portable proofing presses that can be used for a variety of printing techniques including linocut and other relief printing, letterpress printing, and wood type printing. They are part of Textual Studies growing print arsenal, which includes metal letterpress type, a platen press, and our most recent acquisition of wooden type. We brought along some of our wood type to the event, allowing students to experiment with type setting and utilize both linocut and letterpress techniques.

UW Textual Studies and UW Global Literary Studies Programs

During the printmaking event, students also had the chance to learn about the UW Textual Studies and UW Global Literary Studies programs, two interdisciplinary academic units on campus.

UW Textual Studies offers both an Undergraduate Minor in in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities and a Graduate Certificate in Textual and Digital Studies. The programs are focused on hands-on work with historical and present-day technologies for writing, reading, and archiving. From medieval manuscripts to early printing, to digitizations, databases, and archives, students in TXTDS courses learn how texts have been written, published, read, circulated, preserved, and archived from antiquity to today.

The Global Literary Studies Program (GLITS) offers students the chance to explore literature from around the world. It offers an undergraduate major in which students encounter a wide range of literatures in diverse genres that hail from various language traditions, periods, and geographies.

TXTDS Courses in the History of the Book and Printing

TXTDS courses reflect the program’s dedication to the study of diverse texts across time, place, media form, and language, including non-anglophone and non-alphabetic corpora, computational and digital approaches to textual study, and the ability to experience hands-on learning with materials in UW Special Collections and the UW Libraries’ archives. 

If you’d like to find out more about opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students in UW Textual Studies, our upcoming courses, or the undergraduate minor and graduate certificate programs and their requirements, you can explore our website or email text@uw.edu.

For UW Textual Studies news, upcoming events, and updates on faculty and student research, sign up for the Textual Studies listserv and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and X.

UW Textual Studies Alums Continue to Masters at the School of Advanced Study at the University of London

Join us in congratulating recent UW Textual Studies alums, Riley Hull and Jules Lockett, who have been accepted to the MA in the History of the Book program at the School of Advanced Study at the University of London. We sat down with Riley and Jules to speak about their path through the TXTDS program, their route to the MA in the History of the Book, and their aspirations post-graduation. Read on to find out more!

English Majors and TXTDS Minors to attend MA Program at University of London

Riley Hull and Jules Lockett are majors in English and minors in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities. Next year, they’re set to attend the MA Program in the History of the Book at the School of Advanced Study at the University of London. This is a graduate program focused on all aspects of the making, distribution, and reading of books and other written media, such as newspapers and magazines, manuscripts, ephemera, digital texts, and more, from the clay of cuneiform tablets to the digital devices of today.

Pictured Above: Clay cuneiform tablet and repaired parchment. These substrates are important examples in the history of written media.

For both Riley and Jules, the draw of this specific program rests with the opportunities it offers within and beyond coursework. As part of the program’s modules, students have the chance to complete an internship in the London book trade or working with a library or museum. According to Jules, this opportunity forms a particular point of interest as she hopes to go on to complete a Masters in Library and Information Science upon graduation in pursuit of a career in special collections and archival librarianship. Riley has been accepted to the M.S. in Library Science program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and will continue on to this program upon her completion of the MA in Book History.

For Riley, the internship is also a huge draw, but alongside this, the opportunities the program provides for tailoring the focus of study is also especially enticing. As Riley hopes to go on to further study or to a PhD program, the MA’s specialization opportunities in various geographies and periods of the book are particularly exciting. One of the MA’s course modules, The Book in the Industrial Age, suits one of Riley’s special research interests in the nineteenth-century book and print’s industrialization during the period. This module is dedicated to print’s post-handpress era from the mechanization of printing in the nineteenth century to the advent of the digital era.

Pictured Above: Charles Dickens’ Bleak House in serialized parts and Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret in yellowback form are examples of industrialized formats of book production manufactured during the nineteenth-century.

Textual Studies Courses Prepare Graduates for Advanced Training in the History of the Book

Jules and Riley both credit their experiences in the UW Textual Studies program, undertaking the Minor in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities, as a key in their successful applications and in their preparation for advanced study in the history of the book.

In fact, Riley credits TXTDS 402 Book Arts: Proseminar in Special Collections, Bibliography, and Letterpress Printing, with first sparking her interest in nineteenth-century British book history—an interest she hopes to explore and cultivate in the MA program. During the fall quarter of 2023, Riley was fascinated by a session that focused on printed books from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, representing the industrialization of printing technology and the changing format of the book throughout the period.

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Pictured Above: Stills from digital projects produced by Riley Hull and Jules Lockett during their TXTDS coursework. These projects received recognition from the Annual Textual Studies and Digital Humanities Academic Awards.

During their time in the TXTDS minor program, both Riley and Jules were recognized for their outstanding work. Each academic year, the Annual Textual Studies and Digital Humanities Academic Awards celebrates the accomplishments of students enrolled in Textual Studies courses. In 2024, Riley, as part of a team including fellow students, Trisha Binwade and Tara Boyd, won First Place in the Undergraduate Award for “The Ladies’ Handbook of Fancy and Ornamental Work,” a TEI-XML edition of the 19^th-century handbook from UW’s Special Collections holdings. Jules, also as part of a team that included Sofia Posada and Nic Staley (an Art History graduate student in the Textual and Digital Studies certificate), won Honorable Mention for their work on the  “Jasper N. Bertram Papers,”  a TEI-XML edition of the 19^th and early-20^th century papers housed in UW’s Special Collections. Gaining both skills in bibliography and print culture studies, as well as digital approaches to the book, has been especially helpful, note Riley and Jules, as their future MA program spans a broad period of written production from the pre-print era of manuscripts to the digitized text formats of modern day.

TXTDS Students Blend English Studies and Book History

One of the exciting things about the MA in the History of the Book program for both Riley and Jules is that it is housed in the Institute of English Studies within the Institute of Advanced Study. As English majors themselves, and enrollees in the English Honors Program, this circumstance is ideal for the way in which it allows them to continue to pursue the intersection of their dual scholarly interests, something the interdisciplinarity of the Textual Studies undergraduate minor has encouraged from the start.

The undergraduate Minor in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities pairs well with a variety of other majors and its courses allow students to specialize in their areas of interest, often blending the concerns of their major into the coursework of the minor. In fact, Textual Studies students come from a range of disciplinary affiliations including English, Applied Mathmatics, Anthropology, French, History, Linguistics, and many more!

Undergraduate Courses in Textual Study, Special Collections, and Digital Humanities

Congratulations to Riley Hull and Jules Lockett on completing the Minor in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities and on their acceptance to the MA in the History of the Book Program at the University of London! Many thanks to both for sharing their research interests and hopes for the upcoming program with the Textual Studies blog!

The Textual Studies program offers an array of courses at the undergraduate level that reflect the program’s dedication to the study of diverse texts across time, place, media form, and language, including non-anglophone and non-alphabetic corpora, computational and digital approaches to textual study, and the ability to experience hands-on learning with materials in UW Special Collections and the UW Libraries’ archives. 

If you’d like to find out more about opportunities for undergraduate students in UW Textual Studies, our upcoming courses, or the undergraduate minor program and its requirements, you can explore our website or email text@uw.edu.

For UW Textual Studies news, upcoming events, and updates on faculty and student research, sign up for the Textual Studies listserv and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and X.