Extracurricular & International Activities

One of our goals at the Chair of Book Studies is to offer students a hands-on experience and connect with practitioners in the industry and international colleagues and students alike.

Regarding international collaboration, we have close ties to universities in Europe and beyond which teach book history and publishing. We are members of the Association of Publishing Education (APE) through which we can offer students participation in online seminars for publishing students. We participate in international exchanges and an informal publishing pen pal program coordinated by the Graduate Program Book Publishing at Portland State University.

We encourage our advanced students to contribute to scholarly organizations such as the globally active Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) or the UK-based Bookselling Research Network (BRN). Our students have participated actively in conferences hosted by these and other scholarly organizations.

Beyond our Book Studio and meetings with practitioners in the industry, we have organized study trips to the  Gutenberg Museum (Mainz) and to Frankfurt Book Fair. We are also currently forging closer ties with the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) and will visit antiquarian book fairs for exchange and new perspectives. In 2024, our students will be participating in the Leipzig and Frankfurt book fairs as part of the “Studium rund ums Buch” initiative alongside other German universities offering book studies programmes.