On 3 June 1869, the University of Otago Ordinance 1869 became law. This meant that the newly established University became a corporate body with power to grant degrees. This was a significant first for New Zealand. Two years later, with a building secured (the now demolished ‘Post Office’ building near the Exchange), and three professors appointed: John Shand, (Natural Philosophy); George Sale (Classics); and Duncan Macgregor (Mental and Moral Philosophy and Political Economy), classes began. The first class was on 10 July 1871, with 81 students enrolled. The University of Otago’s rich history continues today. Its establishment and legacy form part of the current exhibition “1869: The Year That Was,” which begins on 20 September 2019 at the de Beer Gallery, Special Collections, 1st floor, Central University Library.

Of course, other events occurred in 1869, forming a then unwritten but much wider history. While the University Council were debating the administrational matters necessary to make the newly formed educational institution work, events were occurring on a local and international level. Each had their own particular impact. Some of the events of 1869 that feature in the exhibition include the formation of the Otago Institute; the first Fine Arts Exhibition in New Zealand; the first ‘Royal’ visit to New Zealand; the introduction of the New Zealand Cross; the births of Rasputin, Emma Goldman, and Gandhi; the opening of the Suez Canal; and the formation of Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev’s periodic table. Tolstoy’s War and Peace was published in 1869, as was Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. ‘Contextualization is everything!’

All these moments and more are available for your viewing pleasure in Special Collections from 9–5 Monday to Friday.  Please enjoy “1869, The Year That Was.”

Due to an exciting opportunity to host a major scholar, we are deferring the annual World Book Day celebrations slightly next year.  So pencil Wednesday 25 March into your diaries, and look forward to a most interesting public lecture by Prof. Maryanne Wolf, and consider joining us afterward for a buffet dinner at the Staff Club.

Prof. Wolf is a scholar, a teacher, and an advocate for children and literacy around the world. She is the Director of the  newly created Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.  Previously she was the  John DiBiaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service and  Director of the Center for Reading and Language Research in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University.  She is the author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain (2007, HarperCollins), Dyslexia, Fluency, and the Brain (Edited; York, 2001),  Tales of Literacy for the 21st Century (2016, Oxford University Press), and Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World (August, 2018, HarperCollins). (More details at maryanne.com.)

Her visit is made possible by the Book Council of NZ and we are thrilled to be able to hear about Prof. Wolf’s work and deep insights about reading.

This year’s research symposium on the topic of “Biography, Autobiography and Memoirs” will take place on the evening of Thursday 14 November and all day Friday 15 November.  We have a strong line-up of four panels during the day Friday and an exciting presentation by three practitioners of life writing on Thursday evening at the Public Library.

We hope you can join us.  There is no cost to register, but letting us know you are coming will ensure we have ample morning coffee and afternoon tea and a name badge for you.  Lunch will be on your own; you are welcome to bring a lunch or wander out from the Richardson building and find your favourite food.  Click here to register.

You can download the full programme here.  And we will look forward to an inspiring series of talks from a wide variety of perspectives.  Do join us.

The University of Otago Centre for the Book Is delighted to host a public lecture by Assoc Prof David Ciccoricco on “Literary Tourism, Geo-narratives, and Public Humanities; or, why there’s an app for that”.  The talk will take place in the Moot Court, 10th floor of the Richardson Building, at 5:30 pm on Wednesday 2 October 2019.  Details below.

This Centre for the Book talk by David Ciccoricco will share the backstory and future directions of dtour, Dunedin’s literary tourism app, which was created as a UNESCO City of Literature project in 2018. It will demonstrate both live features and backend functionality of the app. The talk will conclude by discussing some of the theoretical context and planned publications surrounding the project, including perspectives from digital humanities, “geo-narratives,” and public humanities.

David Ciccoricco is Creative Director of dtour, Dunedin’s literary tourism app. He is Associate Professor in English and Linguistics at the University of Otago. His research is focused on literary and narrative theory with an emphasis on emergent forms of digital literature, as well as digital culture and posthumanism more generally. He is the author of Reading Network Fiction (2007), a book on pre-Web and Web-based digital fiction, and Refiguring Minds in Narrative Media (2015), which is focused on cognitive approaches to narrative and literary theory in print novels, digital narratives, and story-driven videogames.