Reading as a Social Practice – Interdisciplinary Workshop
Workshop Date & Location
27–28 March 2026 · Campus Berlin
Neues Kranzler Eck, 3rd Floor · Kurfürstendamm 21 · 10719 Berlin
Following the CfP in October 2025, we are thrilled to announce the programme of the interdisciplinary workshop on Reading as a Social Practice, organized by Irmtraud Hnilica and Martin Lenz. We are excited about the range of perspectives brought together in this event. Further information can be found below, and we would be happy to answer any questions.
Day 1 · March 27, 2026
09:00–09:30
Welcome and Introduction
Martin Lenz, Irmtraud Hnilica
09:30–10:15
Barbara Bausch (FU Berlin)
Reading as Self-Help, Writing as Care. On Contemporary Reading Communities
10:15–10:45
Coffee Break
10:45–11:30
Stefanie Jakobi (Cologne)
Reading as a (Un)Social Practice. Collective Reading Practices in the Context of Dark Romance and BookTok
11:30–12:15
Merten Kröncke (Stuttgart)
Terminological Practices and Digital Social Reading
12:15–13:00
Maria Kraxenberger (Mainz)
From Reading to Relating: An Empirical Study of Climate Fiction Reading
13:00–14:30
Lunch Break
14:00–14:45
Madeleine Span (Vienna)
Contemporary Cultural Functions of Reading. An Empirical Exploration
14:45–15:30
Katharina Grabbe (Münster)
The Gap of the Reading Community. Reflections on Multiple Address in Children’s and Young Adult Literature
15:30–16:00
Tea Break
16:00–16:45
Bastian Ronge (Wuppertal)
Crisis of Reading? Crisis of the Bourgeoisie! Academic Reading as a Classist Practice
16:45–17:30
Céline Padtberg (Marburg)
Reading as a Shared Practice: Read-Aloud Scenes in Literary Journal Texts of the 19th Century
17:00–18:00
Panel Discussion
What did we learn with regard to the main thesis?
Day 2 · March 28, 2026
09:00–09:45
Silvia Mazzini (Haarlem)
The Courage of Interpretation. Vattimo’s Hermeneutics as Collective “Reconstruction of the World”
09:45–10:30
Vanessa Albus (Paderborn)
Reading Culture in Philosophy and Ethics Classes? Reflections on Reading as a Social Practice from a Philosophy Didactics Perspective
10:30–11:00
Coffee Break
11:00–11:45
Valentina Sperotto (Venice)
Reading as Conversation: An Historical Analysis of Passive/Active Philosophical Polarity and its Metaphors between the 15th–19th Centuries
11:45–12:30
Dana Jalobeanu (Nuremberg)
From Prerogative Instances to Research Programs: Interactive Reading of Francis Bacon’s Novum Organum in the Seventeenth Century
12:30–13:15
Martina Feichtenschlager (Salzburg)
Reading as a Social Practice in the Courtly Culture of the Middle Ages
13:15–14:45
Lunch Break
14:45–15:30
Jola Vollmer (Wuppertal)
In Process. In Conflict. In Exchange. An Attempt on Feminist Reading Practices
15:30–16:15
Julian Sieler (Mannheim)
“Stop listening to Joe Rogan and read a book instead.” Addressing and Staging Masculinities on BookTok
16:15–17:00
Johannes Franzen (Mannheim)
Reader vs. Author. Reflections on the Study of a Productive Conflict
17:00–17:30
Tea Break
17:30–18:15
Round Table / Panel Discussion
Where do we go from here?
According to a widely held consensus, we are currently experiencing a reading crisis. This workshop aims to take a step back from the rhetoric of decline and instead ask how reading itself can be conceptualized and examined from different disciplinary perspectives – particularly in philosophy and literary studies. As an initial approach, we propose that reading is shaped not only by the texts themselves or by individual readers, but significantly by the interactions among readers. The workshop brings together researchers who discuss reading as a social practice from historical, theoretical, and contemporary perspectives. In doing so, it opens a space for interdisciplinary exchange and lays the foundation for future collaborations and a shared network.
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