Dr. Shafquat Towheed

Candidate statement

Dr Shafquat Towheed, Senior Lecturer in English, The Open University. (web profile, http://www.open.ac.uk/people/sst46. My expertise is primarily in the history of reading, where projects include the UK Reading Experience Database, 1450-1945, the Reading Communities public engagement project and currently, the UK part of the ‘Reading Europe Advanced Data Investigation Tool’ (READ-IT, 2018-2021) project. I am the author, editor or co-editor of nine books; I was lead co-editor of the world’s first reader in the history of reading. As co-editor of Palgrave’s New Directions in Book History series (2014-) I have been closely involved in the publication of 34 new titles with cumulative sales (print and download) of over 60,000 copies. I have been a member of SHARP since 2003 and have participated in 16 of the last 18 annual conferences. I was a member (2007-2009) and Chair (2008-9) of the SHARP DeLong Book Prize committee. More recently, I co-organised an international conference, ‘Bookshelves in the Age of the COVID-19 pandemic’ (2020) which was supported by SHARP and attracted over 230 registrations from more than 30 countries. I also served on the judging panel for SHARP’s inaugural Research Development Grants for BIPOC Scholars (2020). If elected, I would bring considerable project management, team leading, peer review, conference organisation and public engagement expertise to the Board of Directors, which I see as providing both oversight (quality assurance) and encouragement (future strategy) to SHARP. I would bring a particular interest in promoting public engagement for impact in research in Book History.