Panizzi Lectures 2024: Thinking Bibliographically

In recent years, the field of Black Bibliography has experienced a resurgence. In the second of three lectures in this series, Elizabeth McHenry considers the history of Black Bibliography alongside questions about its critical potential and future directions. What has “thinking bibliographically” meant in Black intellectual circles, and what critical, scholarly, and artistic forms is it taking now? What is distinctive about Black Bibliography, and how can knowing its history and centering its principles and practices lead us toward expanded future possibilities in the study of Black print, in ways that remain attentive to its formats, publication histories and conditions of circulation and use?

Part of the lecture series ‘Black Bibliography, Here and Now’, which asks what are the stakes and challenges of studying the history of Black print? What is Black bibliography, and how can renewed attention to it lead us to a better understanding of the ways Black writing has been produced, conceptualized and valued?

This series of lectures by Elizabeth McHenry grapples with these questions by examining the work current scholarship in Black Bibliography is doing to expand our knowledge of Black print culture, and what it has the potential to do going forward.