BSANZ member profile

I am a Master of Information candidate at the University of Toronto in Canada, doing a double concentration in Library & Information Science and Archives & Records Management and a specialized collaboration in Book History and Print Culture. My research focuses on studying book cultures of the Ancient Mediterranean world, particularly Egypt as I also have an MA in Ancient Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations from the University of Toronto. I’ve always had a passion for Egyptology as well as book studies with regards to rare books, but it was not until I entered the MI program that I realized they need not be mutually exclusive and that I could combine the two fields to provide a better understanding of Egyptian book culture as many people believe is solely based on papyrus. I focus primarily on how stone inscriptions can be considered books because in Ancient Egypt stone was a fundamental substrate, but I also look to inscriptions on wooden coffins and ostraca. With this I challenge Western notions and modern bias in the field of book history to explain the book as an idea rather than an object in order to account for unconventional non-portable book mediums that have subsequently become discarded in book studies.

What first drew my attention to BSANZ was this year’s annual conference on Communities, Books and the Power of Words as I knew it would be a perfect platform to discuss the power dynamics of and in Ancient Egyptian funerary books. I look forward to presenting at the 2021 Conference and immersing myself further in the field of book history by being a part of BSANZ—expanding and imparting my knowledge with the community!

Contact: chana.pires@mail.utoronto.ca.