Why Close Reading?
Saturday, January 31, 2026 10:00 am – 6:30 pm CET/GMT+1JJK Hall
Close reading is having a global renaissance, both as a literary approach and a teaching practice. It is also a core aspect of the Bard College Berlin curriculum. And yet, what is close reading: a method, an academic exercise, or an ethical stance and epistemic orientation? What are its historical roots and contemporary uses, and what debates and contestations have shaped close reading as a form of inquiry and pedagogy? What kinds or varieties of close reading have established themselves in different academic disciplines? And how can we evaluate the benefits and also drawbacks of close reading compared to other scholarly and pedagogical techniques and emerging technologies?
This one-day workshop explores the long history and diverse theories of close reading, and probes the plurality of close reading approaches practiced by BCB faculty and students. We would also discuss the possibility of convening an interdisciplinary conference that would consider, through the question of close reading, the role of humanistic inquiry today vis-à-vis the rise of new technologies, the broader devaluation of expertise, and the erosion of democratic values.
Please register to attend the workshop by January 29 so that we can prepare seats and catering accordingly. If you decide last-minute to attend, you're still welcome.
Program
10:00-10:15 Institutional Welcome: Florian Becker
10:15-12:00 Panel I: Close Reading as Analytical Method(s) – moderator Giulia Clabassi
Luis Miguel Isava: “Varieties and Specificities of Close Reading”
Matthias Hurst: “Close Reading and Film”
Geoff Lehman: “Interpretation and the Pictorial Encounter”
Berit Ebert: “Close Reading and Law”
Lunch Break
13:30-15:00 Panel II: Close Reading as Pedagogical Practice – moderator Christian Wollin
Ewa Atanassow: “Close Reading Plato’s Republic, or How to Learn from Students”
Martin Widmann: “Close Reading as a Tool in Teaching Literature in a Foreign Language”
Donovan Stewart: “The Time of Close Reading”
Coffee Break
15:30-17:00 Panel III: Close Reading and the Liberal Arts – moderator Courtney Hodrick
Jeffrey Champlin: "Three Teachers who Made Me Close Read"
Michael Weinman: “We are All Close Readers: Esotericism; Hermeneutics; Historicism; New Criticism”
James Harker: “Close Reading from and beyond Literature”
17:15-18:30 Panel IV: Close Readings and the Humanities – moderator David Hayes
Glenn Most, MPWIG/ University of Chicago
Beer Albers, Cluster of Excellence Cross-Cultural Philology, Ludwig Maximilian University
Hosted by the BCB Learning Commons and European Democracy Institute.
Poster design by Nora Krasniqi.
Email: [email protected]