From 9 to 11 September, the 14th annual ESPRit conference 'Periodicals and the World' took place at the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels. The conference was co-organised by CLIC members Chiara Cremona, Dirk Vanden Berghe, Florian Deroo, Cedric Van Dijck and Birgit Van Puymbroeck. It explored how periodicals have moved across borders, connected people and ideas, and shaped understandings of the world. The conference also considered magazines and newspapers as worlds in their own right, with distinctive editorial practices, communities and ways of seeing.
The programme brought together research on periodical cultures across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas and featured three keynotes by Stefano Evangelista (Oxford University), Barbara Mittler (Heidelberg University) and Christopher Ouma (Duke University). Sessions addressed translation and cultural mediation, colonial and postcolonial print cultures, transnational networks, visual and material forms, and the circulation of literature, images and knowledge. Other panels examined fashion and children’s magazines, political and commercial periodicals, and digital approaches to periodical research. On the opening day of the conference, a postgraduate workshop also took place.
Beyond the formal sessions, the conference offered many opportunities for conversation and exchange. Discussions continued during breaks, over the conference dinner, and in the time participants spent together in Brussels.