funded by the CNRS, brings together scholars working in the fields of postcolonial studies and literatures, book history, print and material cultures and digital humanities. We are interested in the production, circulation, and consumption of print as an agent in social, cultural, and political life, and look at the practices, institutions, and networks that have shaped writing, reading and publishing in colonial and postcolonial contexts.

The initial network was founded in 2017 when an international group, co-convened by Neelam Srivastava, Newcastle U. and Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, NYU, hosted, for 3 years, a series of events which set the parameters for a new field of enquiry.

In 2023, the network was restarted by Laetitia Zecchini, with funding from the CNRS for a period of 5 years, expanding and consolidating the group through institution-based collaborations between eight academic institutions: CNRS (France), the University of Chicago, Newcastle University, University of the Witwatersrand, NYU and NYU Abu Dhabi, Jadavpur University and the Center for Studies in Social Sciences (Kolkata).

The network has also received additional funding from the University of Chicago Center in Paris (2023-25), and from PSL via the EUR Translitterae (2023-24).

Over the 2023-2027 period, the network will hold yearly conferences in Paris, Calcutta, Chicago, Johannesburg and Newcastle, with a series of more localized workshops, and a bi-monthly seminar.