November 7 - 8, 2008 A.D. White House, Cornell University

Sponsors: Cornell University Library, the Society for the Humanities, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Office of the Provost, and the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences.

Technological, economic, and political developments of the past decade have drastically altered the means and the tempo by which cultural products of all kinds are disseminated. The news media and commercial book publishing are sites of increasing market volatility. In light of sweeping changes in the systems of information exchange in the society at large, what are the future prospects of scholarly publishing in the humanities? A recent MLA report identifies a "narrowing of publishing possibilities" in the humanities, due in part to economic pressures on the university presses that accompany a broad "corporatization of the university and the imposition of business models of efficiency and output." How might the space for critical scholarly exchange in the humanities be preserved - even expanded - in the current environment?