# Event Details - **Event Name**: Reading Practices: Disability, the Senses, and Literary History - **Event Start and End Date**: Wed, 14 Apr, 2027 at 05:30 pm – Wed, 14 Apr, 2027 at 07:00 pm (-04:00) - **Event Description**: Sari Altschuler asks how centering the experiences of disabled readers in the past opens up our ideas about contemporary reading practices.About this EventWolf Humanities Center • University of Pennsylvania2026–2027 FORUM ON PRACTICEPracticing Attention—But Why?Reading Practices: Disability, the Senses, and Literary HistorySari AltschulerAssociate Professor of English and Founding Director, Health, Humanities, and Society Program; Northeastern UniversityHow different is reading by sight from listening to an audiobook or reading braille, and do those differences matter? Most of us don’t think much about such questions today because contemporary ideas about reading are biased toward the visual. Beginning from collections of raised-print books made for nineteenth-century blind readers, Sari Altschuler asks how centering the experiences, epistemologies, and texts of disabled readers in the past opens up our ideas about reading practices both past and present. By pressing us to think differently about fundamental practices like reading, such disability histories open up new literary histories, too.More information: ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– is associate professor of English and founding director of the Health, Humanities, and Society Program at Northeastern University. Altschuler is the author of (University of Pennsylvania Press, June 2026) and (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018). With Jonathan Metzl and Priscilla Wald, she is co-editor of (NYU Press, 2023) and, with Corinna Treitel, co-editor of Health Humanities: An Introduction (under contract with NYU Press). She has written multiple essays for leading journals including PMLA, American Literature, and the medical journal the Lancet as well as essays for American Literary History, Early American Literature, Nineteenth-Century Literature, Journal of the Early Republic, and ISLE. Altschuler serves or has served on the boards of American Literature, American Quarterly, Early American Literature, J19, Literature and Medicine, and ISLE. She has received awards from the Society of Early Americanists, the Society for the Historians of the Early American Republic, the Disability History Association, the Melville Society, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and the American Literature Society and long-term funding from the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, the American Antiquarian Society, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and the Wellesley College Newhouse Center for the Humanities. In 2020 she was an invited professor at the Université Paris Cité.Currently she directs Touch This Page! Making Sense of the Ways We Read, an award-winning multi-local and online exhibition about the multisensory experiences of reading with David Weimer and chairs the Critical Health Humanities seminar at Harvard University’s Mahindra Humanities Center with Amy Boesky and David Jones.–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––This event is free and open to the public. Registration is encouraged.The Wolf Humanities Center values inclusivity and we aim to create a welcoming environment for people of all backgrounds. Please feel free to note any accessibility needs or concerns in your registration, or connect with us by email or phone (215.573.8280). - **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/philadelphia/reading-practices-disability-the-senses-and-literary-history/100001996816170920 - **Event Categories**: art, literary-art, health-wellness, nonprofit, business, workshops, exhibitions - **Interested Audience**: - total_interested_count: 0 - **Event Highlights**: - Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes - Location: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Van Pelt Library - Languages: English ## Ticket Details - **Ticket Price Range**: min: 0, max: 0, currency: USD ## Event venue details - **city**: Philadelphia - **state**: PA - **country**: United States - **location**: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Van Pelt Library - **lat**: 39.9527236 - **long**: -75.19400229999997 - **full address**: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Van Pelt Library, 3420 Walnut St, Philadelphia, United States ## Event gallery - **Alt text**: Reading Practices: Disability, the Senses, and Literary History - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events8/banners/8bcf9f4d418e5db854ed802761e70bf8a01bd1e2d22d44f6df45da1d5ad42e6a-rimg-w800-h1062-dcf8e8e8-gmir.jpg?v=1786084917 ## FAQs - **Q**: When and where is Reading Practices: Disability, the Senses, and Literary History being held? - **A:** Reading Practices: Disability, the Senses, and Literary History takes place on Wed, 14 Apr, 2027 at 05:30 pm to Wed, 14 Apr, 2027 at 07:00 pm at Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Van Pelt Library, 3420 Walnut St, Philadelphia, United States. - **Q**: Who is organizing Reading Practices: Disability, the Senses, and Literary History? - **A:** Reading Practices: Disability, the Senses, and Literary History is organized by Wolf Humanities Center. - **Q**: Who is this event for? Is it right for me? - **A:** Reading Practices: Disability, the Senses, and Literary History is ideal for art lovers, collectors, creatives, and anyone inspired by visual arts, installations, and exhibitions. Whether you're a first-time attendee or a longtime enthusiast in Philadelphia, this event is thoughtfully curated to deliver a standout experience worth every moment. 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Please join us in considering our common stake in the \"thinking arts!\"" } ] } ] ```