Commonplacing and Commonplace Books Vol. 2
Co-Editors: Kacie L. Wills & Olivia Loksing Moy
September 2024
In this second volume of the KSJ+ special issue on commonplacing and commonplace books, essays place special emphasis on the relationship commonplacing has to pedagogy, creativity, and audience. Through a series of interviews, essays, assignments, and an artist’s spotlight, this volume highlights the work of faculty and librarians at institutions of higher education, showing the role commonplace books and university and college archives can play in student engagement across a variety of courses.
Karen Nelson shares her wealth of teaching experience bringing early modern commonplace books into her classroom at the University of Maryland. In an interview with artist Candace Hicks, editors Kacie L. Wills and Olivia Loksing Moy discuss the role of commonplacing in personal creative practice and visual art. Padma Rangarajan, Sandy Enriquez, and Carrie Cruce (UC Riverside) share their experiences with library and special collections-based pedagogy, while Jessica Gray and Bethany Qualls reflect on teaching with commmonplacing to STEM-based undergraduate students (UC Davis and Université Caen Normandie). Finally, bringing the various pedagogical and personal elements of this volume together, Wills considers the larger questions of audience and attention that are often not addressed when publishing and studying personal writing, such as commonplace books and diaries.
K-SJ+ is the digital supplement to the K-SJ print journal.
A pamphlet produced in one of Mai-Lin Cheng’s book-making workshops. Photo by Sarah Northrup.
Transcribed letter from “R B” marked “copy” on the top left, opposite the transcribed title page to Pauline. William Allingham commonplace book. Courtesy of the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, University of Delaware Library.