12th International ESPRit Conference (Urbino, 2024): Periodicals: S.T.E.A.M. AHEAD!

In periodicals, the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (“S.T.E.M.”) and the Arts are imbricated with one another (“S.T.E.A.M.”) in both material and theoretical terms. The history of journals and magazines runs parallel to the industrial and scientific revolutions.  These revolutions have found a privileged place of diffusion in periodicals thanks to the timeliness of information, flexibility of content, easy diffusion and prompt response to the dialogues and controversies reflected within them. Technological progress has shaped the materiality of periodicals, including the type of paper, graphic design and technologies for the reproduction of both text and images.

This international conference will bring together academics from universities around the world from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives to reflect on how periodicals represent, create, maintain, or challenge, the notions of “techniques”, “sciences”, and “art” within the contexts of their localities, their communities of production, their readerships, and their editorial boards.