All Rare Book School summer lectures are free, open to the public, and hosted on Grounds at the University of Virginia. Lectures begin at 5:30 p.m. and are followed by a reception. Monday lectures are held in Room 330 of UVA’s Edgar Shannon Library, and Wednesday lectures are held in the Auditorium of UVA’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.

Recordings of this summer’s lectures will be made available later this year.

Please email contactRBS@virginia.edu with any questions.

• Jun
  2

  2025
  A Parallel History of Books and Blooks

  Lecturer: Mindell Dubansky - Conservator at the Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  UVA Edgar Shannon Library (Room 330) or Zoom • 5:30 p.m. ET
  
• Jun
  4

  2025
  Jane Austen on the Cheap – The 2025 Kenneth W. Rendell Endowed Lecture

  Lecturer: Janine Barchas - Chancellor's Council Centennial Professor in the Book Arts, University of Texas at Austin
  UVA Special Collections (Auditorium) or Zoom • 5:30 p.m. ET
  
• Jun
  9

  2025
  Stationery Bindings: A Law Story

  Lecturer: Paul Halliday - Julian Bishko Professor of History and Professor of Law, University of Virginia
  UVA Rotunda (Multipurpose Room) or Zoom • 5:30 p.m. ET
  

Rare Book School sponsors and co-sponsors a range of programming at various times throughout the year, including activities at book fairs, symposia at UVA and other locations, and more. These include events organized by members of the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography at their home institutions.

• May
  22

  2025
  SoFCB Keynote Lecture: Transporting Visions, Transcending Boundaries

  Presented by: The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School
  McNeil Center for Early American Studies, Lecture Hall, 3355 Woodland Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104 • 9:15–10:45 am
  
• Mar
  5

  2025
  Bibliographic Performances and Surrogate Readings: Author Janelle Rebel in Conversation with Alison Fraser

  Presented by: The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography
  Zoom • 12:00–1:00 p.m. ET
  
• Feb
  11

  2025
  Faces of God: Author Murad Mumtaz in Conversation with Holly Shaffer on Images of Devotion in Indo-Muslim Painting, 1500-1800

  Presented by: The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography
  Zoom • 12:00–1:00 p.m. ET
  

Since 1992, Rare Book School has been responsible for a rotating series of exhibitions in the Dome Room of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia, many curated by UVA undergraduate and graduate students. The books and other materials shown in these exhibitions are drawn both from the RBS collections and from the UVA Library, supplemented by occasional loans by other institutions and individuals.

• Sep 28
  /
  Dec 23
  

  
  2022
  Building the Book from the Ancient World to the Present Day: Five Decades of Rare Book School & the Book Arts Press

  Curated by: Barbara Heritage & Ruth-Ellen St. Onge
  The Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York
• Jun 6
  /
  May 1
  

  
  2019
  Comics in Circuit

  Curated by: Ruth-Ellen St. Onge, Jennifer Camp, Elizabeth Dorton, Devon Shannahan, Katherine Smith, and Zach Tauscher
  Dome Room, UVA Rotunda
• Jun 13
  /
  Apr 30
  

  
  2018
  An Archipelago of Readers: Forming a Literary Culture in Digital Media

  Curated by: Katherine McNamara, with the assistance of Will Norton
  Dome Room, UVA Rotunda