The Rutgers Book Initiative is designed to introduce a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students to the intersection of media history with book arts. We offer talks and workshops on the history of print and digital media, along with field trips and studio sessions; a book arts makerspace with facilities for printing and binding and a collection of books for reference, study and dissection; and tuition fellowships for extramural training as well as internships at libraries and presses.
In its first year, the Book Initiative hosted inaugural lectures by Isabel Hofmeyr and Jill Lepore, co-organized a transcribe-a-thon with the Colored Conventions Project and Alexander Library, sponsored graduate student field trips to area libraries and letterpresses, granted graduate student fellowships to Rare Book School, and sponsored an undergraduate class in bookmaking. As soon as social distancing permits, the Scarlet Letterpress will be open to print student projects, dissertation and honors thesis title-pages, protest posters – please add your ideas to the list.
