Katherine M. Ruffin

Katherine M. Ruffin

Katherine M. Ruffin is the Director of the Book Studies Program and a Lecturer in Art at Wellesley College, where she integrates the practices of papermaking, letterpress printing, and bookbinding into the liberal arts curriculum. She also teaches the history of the book at the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons University, in both in-person and fully remote formats. Since 1994, she has published limited editions under her own imprint of Shinola Press. Her research interests include the history of printing, bibliography, and libraries. Her dissertation was titled “Carl Purington Rollins and the Bibliographical Press at Yale University.” In 2017, she gave the Hofer Lecture at Harvard University’s Houghton Library: “Books as Portals: Reading and Responding to Historical Collections in the 21st Century.” She serves on the advisory board for the Bookbinding Program at North Bennet Street School and is a member of the American Antiquarian Society. She holds an A.B. in Philosophy from Bryn Mawr College, an M.F.A. in the Book Arts from the University of Alabama, and a Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from Simmons University.

Courses Offered