Dr Sydney J Shep

Candidate statement

Dr. Sydney J Shep, Reader in Book History & The Printer Wai-te-ata Press : : Te Whare Tā O Wai-te-ata Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Sydney focuses on the interdisciplinary study of transnational and cross-cultural book history and print culture in the contexts of the history of empire, history of technology, and the history of reading. Technological convergence is an additional platform with her experience as a letterpress printer, exhibiting book artist, and designer bookbinder offering unique insights into physical and digital materialities. Her current research focuses on big cultural data and collaborative kaupapa Māori approaches and is grounded in the theories, methods, and practices of digital humanities, spatial history, and cultural informatics. In 2014, she was awarded a Marsden Fund grant (her third) to study the personal geographies and global networks of William Colenso and the Victorian Republic of Letters, followed by a British Academy Visiting Fellowship to the University of Southampton in 2018-19, investigating the town’s nineteenth-century book trade and experimenting with forms of digital storytelling. As a long-time SHARP member, Sydney has variously edited SHARP News, was on the Advisory Board of Book History, and held the executive positions of Vice-President and President as well as being a Member of the SHARP Board. In putting herself forward for the Nominating Committee, she builds upon her well-established networks and acknowledges a key strategic role of the NC that can help shape the organisation as it responds dynamically to contemporary challenges and future aspirations.