The Manuscript and Mind Lecture Series Let’s Talk About Paratexts is a hybrid series of talks hosted by the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. The series runs from April 2025 – September 2026 at the Chester Beatty. No booking is required for onsite talks, but registration is required for online viewing. Links to register for the first six lectures are listed below.
Wednesday 30 April 2025, 6pm
Out of Thin Air: Reading Manuscript Pages that Don’t Exist
Garrick V. Allen (Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism, University of Glasgow)
Wednesday 17 September 2025, 6pm
Forgery, Theft, and an Early English Bible
Francis Watson (Research Chair in Early Christian Literature, Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University)
Wednesday 8 October 2025, 6pm
Annotating Islamic Manuscripts. Scribes and Readers
Stefanie Brinkmann (Senior Research Fellow, Bibliotheca Arabica project, Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Leipzig)
Asma Helali (Associate Professor, Islamic Studies University of Lille)
Wednesday 29 October 2025, 6pm
Tibetan Xylographs (wood-cut engravings) from the sDe-dge Printing House
Dorji Wangchuk (Professor for Tibetology, Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Asien-Afrika-Institut, Faculty of Humanities, Universität Hamburg)
Wednesday 19 November 2025, 6pm
Putting the Text in a Picture Frame
Stephen Carlson (Associate Professor in the Biblical and Early Christian Studies, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne)
Wednesday 10 December 2025, 6pm
Matthew Keegan (Assistant Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern cultures, Barnard College, Columbia University)
Wednesday 21 January 2026, 6pm
Chains of Scripture: Sacred Tradition on the Page of a Gospel Book
Jonathan Zecher (Associate Professor, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University)
Wednesday 18 February 2026, 6pm
The Samaritan Pentateuch and Samaritan Hebrew manuscript culture
Stefan Schorch (Professor, Department of Bible, Hebrew University)
Wednesday 11 March 2026, 6pm
Dressing the Divine Text: A Look at the Hebrew Bible’s Paratexts
Elvira Martín-Contreras (Scientific Researcher, Institute of Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean and Near East (ILC), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC))
Wednesday 22 April 2026, 6pm
The Author is Present: Voice, Manuscripts, and Manuscripts
Kelsie Rodenbiker (Assistant Professor of New Testament at the University of Copenhagen)
Wednesday 23 September 2026, 6pm
Ancient Manuscripts and the Psychology of Reading
Christoph Scheepers (Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology, University of Glasgow)
