"Community-led Approaches and Ethical Considerations for Book Science Research" (22 mins.)

Alexandra Gillespie (U. Toronto) and Melissa Moreton (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton)

Book Science Virtual Meeting, May 29, 2026

This presentation considers community-centered approaches to the testing and imaging of books and book-adjacent objects. For many communities of origin, books are understood as non-human relations, and considerations about how and if to image and test these belongings follows guidelines for ethical care. For sacred books and other belongings held in collections away from their origin communities and separated from their traditional care practices and knowledge-keepers, it is essential to build connections with community members to advise on best practices for testing and imaging. The discussion will address questions such as: What kinds of knowledge about books and belongings are considered ‘scientific’ and who possesses this knowledge? What is ‘traditional’ vs. ‘non-traditional’ knowledge and how do different ways of knowing function within both origin community and institutional spaces? The speakers will share methodologies for working with communities of origin and their books and book-adjacent belongings - approaches that have grown out of the Mellon Foundation-funded Book and the Silk Roads (2019-2021) and current Hidden Stories projects.

“The Book as Living Relation: Collaborative Study of Lenape (Delaware) Belongings with Indigenous Communities of Origin” (52 mins.)

Suzanne Conklin Akbari (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton)

Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, University of Hamburg, May 30, 2024

In the spring of 2024, as a visiting scholar at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) in Hamburg, Suzanne Conklin Akbari delivered a lecture discussing the community-led approach to gathering around Indigenous books and book-adjacent objects (such as wampum), currently residing in museum and library collections in North America and Europe. Akbari’s talk offers methodological insights concerning collaboration, relationality, and the status of the book that inform the Hidden Stories project as a whole.