Working Groups

Catering to the need of critically digesting and reflecting previous research on theoretical and methodological problems, the working group ‘Theory and Terminology’ (TNT) was founded in 2012. Chaired by Alessandro Bausi, it has since then been an incubator and unifying force in the variety of CSMC’s projects. TNT meets regularly, organises workshops and conferences and contributes to Occasional Papers.

In 2018, the conference on ‘Manuscript Cataloguing in a Comparative Perspective: State of the Art, Common Challenges, Future Directions’ led to the establishment of the ‘Permanent Seminar on Manuscript Analysis, Description, and Documentation’. The group is headed by two of CSMC’s fellows: Marilena Maniaci and Patrick Andrist.

In the same year Cécile Michel and colleagues had initiated a discussion of ethics and scientific integrity at CSMC. A survey among its members revealed the immediate relevance of this topic to the activities of CSMC, and in consequence, the working group ‘Ethics’ was founded in 2019 to monitor ongoing discussions and to develop guidelines for responsible behaviour in an increasingly complex world, without releasing scholars from their personal responsibility.

‘Facing New Technologies’ is the youngest of CSMC’S working groups, established in 2020. It was triggered by the affiliation of four projects studying the reactions of manuscript cultures to changes induced by print and digital technologies, and attracted colleagues from the Cluster of Excellence ‘Understanding Written Artefacts’. Tilman Seidensticker coordinates their efforts.