Northeastern University

“Reading Machines” will pivot around the double valence of its title, outlining a literary history of new media from the hand-press period to the present. Our approach will draw on scholarship in book history, bibliography, media studies, and digital humanities, an intersection described by N. Katherine Hayles and Jessica Pressman as “comparative textual media.”

We will take this comparative, interdisciplinary approach first to better understand machines of reading (e.g. the printed...