General Series seminars feature keynote lectures, panel discussions, and individual presentations that explore the historical, cultural, and social significance of periodicals across different periods and regions.

Sessions in this series are designed to engage a broad audience, fostering discussions that contribute to the evolving field of periodical research.

If you would like to propose a seminar to ESPRit, please contact the Coordinator of Online Seminars, Bénédicte Coste (Université de Bourgogne) at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Seminar recordings

Recordings of past seminars are available below, organized by date, allowing you to explore topics of interest at your convenience.

You may also watch them on YouTube.

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 3 March 2023 Knowledge transfer and materiality in and around avant-garde journals

• Gábor Dobó (Kassák Museum–Petőfi Literary Museum, Budapest), ‘Comrades and censors: Tracing implied and actual readers of radical periodicals during the interwar period’
• Merse Pál Szeredi Dobó (Kassák Museum–Petőfi Literary Museum, Budapest), ‘No clichés. Conflicting aspects of knowledge production and printing techniques of avant-garde periodicals’

Chair: Barbara Winckler, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

3 February 2023 Spaces of Translation: European Magazine Culture, 1945-1965

The members of the research group Spaces of Translation share some of the results from the project.

• Alison E. Martin (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)
• Marina Popea (Nottingham Trent University)
• Dana Steglich (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)
• Andrew Thacker (Nottingham Trent University)

Chair: Mara Logaldo, Università IULM

20 January 2023 New Computational Approaches to Periodical Studies

• Thomas Smits (Antwerp University): 'Distant Viewing the Illustrated World of the Illustrated London News, 1842-1900'
• Kaspar Beelen (Alan Turing Institute, UK), 'Mining Victorian Metadata. A computational analysis of historical press directories'
• Ben Lee (University of Washington), 'Newspaper Navigator: Reimagining Digitized Newspapers with Machine Learning'

Chair: Peter Buse, University of Liverpool

 8 December 2022 Joint RSVP/Esprit Online Seminar on The Foreign Language Press

With speakers from TransfoPress, the Transnational network for the study of foreign language press from the 18th-20th century:

• Diana Cooper-Richet (Université Paris-Saclay): "The Transfopress network (2012-2022): object, activities, publications"
• Jennifer Hayward (Wooster college, Ohio) and Michelle Prain (Universidad Adolfo Ibànez, Valparaiso): "The English-Language press in Chile: 19th Century global networks to 21st Century digital dialogues"
• Nicolas Pitsos (BULAC/Université Paris-Saclay): "The foreign-language press and the emergence of a polyphonic capital: the case of Paris"
• Isabelle Richet (Université Paris Cité): "Helen Zimmern and the Italian Gazette: the editor as cultural go-between"

Chair: Fionnuala Dillane, University College Dublin

17 June 2022 Seminar Series: Sources beyond the periodical text

• Nora Ramtke (Ruhr-Universität Bochum), ‘Europa (1835-1844) and its Supplements: Archiving the Abundance’
• Hannah Connell (King’s College London and British Library), ‘Uncovering the relationships between periodicals through editorial correspondence: Networks of Russian-language emigre periodicals in interwar Paris’

Chair: Mara Logaldo, Università IULM

 13 May 2022 Seminar Series: Sources beyond the periodical text

• Zsuzsa Török (Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute for Literary Studies, Budapest), ‘Sources for Anonymous Contributors to Periodicals: The Case of the Hungarian Stephanie Wohl and The Scotsman’
• Levente T. Szabó (Babeș-Bolyai University), ‘Reconstructing the Entangled History of the First International Journal of Comparative Literary Studies’

Chair: Peter Buse, University of Liverpool

10 December 2021 Seminar Series: Crossover influences and local identities of the popular illustrated periodicals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

• Yelizaveta Raykhlina (New York University), 'From Paris to the Russian Provinces: Russian-language Fashion Magazines of the late 1830s and 1840s as Domains of Cultural Adaptation and Women’s Entrepreneurship'
• Effrosyni Zacharatou (Athens School of Fine Arts), 'From Europe to Greece: The illustrated magazine as a distinct form'

Chair: Aled Jones, Panteion University, Athens

 19 November 2021 Seminar Series: Crossover influences and local identities of the popular illustrated periodicals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

•  Susann Liebich (Heidelberg University), 'A New Zealand ‘quality magazine’: The Monocle, 1937-1939'
• Felix Larkin, 'Periodicals and Journalism in Twentieth-Century Ireland'

Chair: Peter Buse, University of Liverpool

5 November 2021 Keynote Lecture

• Evanghelia Stead (Institut Universitaire de France / Université de Versailles), 'Exploring Periodicals through Images and Networks'

Abstract: Supported by individual investigation and collaborative work, the presentation offers a comparative and interdisciplinary approach to periodicals. It broaches the beneficial effects of collective exchange, and flags up some of the counter-productive effects and burdens. It embraces not so much strict methodologies as tactics and ploys to variously approach such a varied and complex field. The talk first discusses visual studies and interdisciplinarity. There follows an overview of group work on periodical networks, stressing the importance of relational dynamics. It further shows the preconceptions and limitations behind such expressions as “little magazine” and the recurrent split separating big mags from small reviews. Its conclusion reasons why periodicals are so fascinating and invites further discussion.

Chair: Maaike Koffeman, Radboud University

14 May 2021 Seminar Series: Crossover influences and local identities of the popular illustrated periodicals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

• 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”

Chair: Andrés Mario Zervigón, Rutgers University

16 April 2021 Seminar Series: Crossover influences and local identities of the popular illustrated periodicals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

• 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”

Chair: Sophie Oliver, University of Liverpool

 

26 March 2021 Keynote Lecture

• Victoria Kuttainen (James Cook University, Australia): “Portholes, Channels, and Seductions: The Messy Affordances of Antipodean Periodical Scholarship”

Chair: Peter Buse, University of Liverpool University