Lives and Afterlives of Letters Network / Manchester Centre for Correspondence Studies

Description

The Manchester Centre for Correspondence Studies was founded in 2019, emerging from the Lives and Afterlives of Letters Network, which was founded in 2017 by Naomi Billingsley, Florence Impens, Katharina Keim, Alice Marples, and Oscar Seip.

Here is a bit about our story:

In 2017, a group of researchers associated with the John Rylands Research Institute engaged in conversations through which they discovered a shared interest in letters. In spite of working in different disciplines, time periods, and languages it became clear they all used correspondence in their research. This common interest created a desire to share and compare their experiences.

From there, these scholars developed a programme of seminars and workshops that ran in 2017–2018 to explore methods and best practices surrounding the use of correspondence in research. This programme was generously supported through a Collaboration Grant from the John Rylands Research Institute and the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures Research Network Fund.

We continued our programme in 2018–2019 with support from John Rylands Research Institute and the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures.

Meanwhile, the level of engagement and interest from scholars within the University of Manchester, and beyond, was such that conversations were initiated to build on this momentum and establish a long-term future for correspondence studies at Manchester. Andrew Morrison (Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology) and Douglas Field (English and American Studies) joined the team in 2018 to support this new development as co-directors of the Centre.

We were granted Centre status by the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures in March 2019.