Dr Eben Muse
Reader in Bookselling / Director of Teaching and Learning
Additional Contact Information
Position: Reader in Bookselling
Email: e.muse@bangor.ac.uk
Skype: Twitter: ebenjmuse
Personal website: Phone: +44 (0)1248 388628
鈥淎 bookstore is one of the few places where all the cantankerous, conflicting, alluring voices of the world co-exist in peace and order and the avid reader is as free as a person can possibly be, because she is free to choose among them.鈥� Jane Smiley鈥檚 oft-quoted description of the multitude of voices in a bookstore, and the freedom that complexity creates, echoes Doreen Massey鈥檚 description of 鈥渢he chance of space鈥�, a location where unexpected intersections, of people, ideas and cultures can create the opportunity for new connections and for action that is not restricted by pre-existing structures. This bookstore space can outwit the curator, the corporate chain, the academic and the bookseller, creating unexpected opportunities for action and change. As such, the bookstore as a meaningful location has historically been a meeting place for debate, planning and for action.
My research,聽The Space of Bookselling, examines physical bookstores and their digital counterparts as meaningful locations, a term John Agnew (Place and Politics, 1987) as 鈥渓ocale, location and, sense of place鈥�. As a meaningful location, the bookstore, physical or digital, is a space created in a specific setting within a geographical and social context that has its own meaningful identity. The location and locale create a space that gathers elements and creates the potential for events. Osborne, in聽The Rise of the Modernist Bookshop, identified them as counter-spaces: 鈥渟paces that hijack dominant spaces and repurpose them to leisure or liberating ones鈥�, spaces that 鈥渜uestion or change the nature of that dominant space.鈥澛�The Space of Bookselling聽looks at the evolution of these meaningful locations through interviews with booksellers in the UK and USA, corpus analysis of social and broadcast media text, and critical review of the representations of bookstores in film and literature, and historical studies of the inter-dependency between bookstore and community. The work has been presented at international conferences in the UK and United States, including SHARP, By the Book, and The Future Space of Bookselling. The Fantasy of the Bookstore (2022) explores these themes through a study of the bookstore novel.
I am interested in supervising postgraduate researchers in any aspect of the book trade, especially indie bookselling & publishing, artisanal publishing, book culture, or bookselling as a function of community.
Publications
2022
- Published
Muse, E., 1 Jul 2022, London: Cambridge University Press. 98 p. (Elements in Publishing and Book Culture)
Research output: Book/Report 鈥� Book 鈥� peer-review
2014
- Published
Skains, R., Lewis, A. & Muse, E., 7 Jul 2014.
Research output: Contribution to conference 鈥� Paper 鈥� peer-review
2012
- Published
Muse, E., 14 Sept 2012, In: Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds. 4, 2, p. 115-116
Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article
2011
- Published
Muse, E. J. (Editor), Ensslin, A. (Editor) & Muse, E. (Editor), 1 Jan 2011, 2011 ed. Routledge.
Research output: Book/Report 鈥� Book - Published
Muse, E. J., Muse, E. & Ensslin, A. (Editor), 1 Jan 2011, Creating second lives: Community: identity and spatiality as constructions of the virtual.. 2011 ed. Routledge, p. 190-211
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding 鈥� Chapter
2007
- Published
Hathaway, T., Muse, E. & Althoff, T., 19 Jan 2007, Prifysgol 麻豆传媒高清版.
Research output: Book/Report 鈥� Other report
Activities
2023
3 Jul 2023 鈥� 4 Jul 2023
Activity: Participation in Academic workshop, seminar, course (Organiser)Booksellers鈥� Panel
3 Jul 2023
Activity: Participation in Academic workshop, seminar, course (Speaker)Affordances of the Doubly Constructed Bookshop
30 Jun 2023
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker)Most Difficult Task of All: Advising independent booksellers on the successful bookshop
22 Jun 2023
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker)
2022
28 Oct 2022
Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)7 Sep 2022 鈥� 8 Sep 2022
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Organiser)Roundtable: Bookish Women of the Book Trade
15 Jul 2022
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker)Roundtable: Preserving the power of the written word: Cambridge Elements
and the role of short monographs in the humanities
13 Jul 2022
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker)鈥淭hat she existed in her own right鈥� Evolving Representations of Woman Booksellers in the Bookstore Novel
22 Jun 2022
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker)We will develop a research proposal to fund the development of a geographically based mapping project which will elucidate a) the role of independent bookstores in sustaining their communities and the independent publishing field, and b) the factors (economic, political, policy, etc) that have impacted the sustainability of UK independent bookstores during the recent years of industry change. The project will use this process to identify future conditions needed to enable independent booksellers to thrive as economic and cultural agents in our communities. The results will provide an evidence-base for national/local policymakers and industry bodies to create innovative, sustainable models which maximize the benefits of indie booksellers and publishers for local communities and economies.
Funding awarded through the 麻豆传媒高清版 Innovation and Impact Award (Research Wales Innovation Funding). Value = 拢6,927
4 May 2022 鈥� 30 Apr 2023
Activity: Other (Contributor)
2021
Community, Curation, Convening: Lockdown and Welsh Booksellers
28 Jul 2021
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker)
2020
15 Feb 2020
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Organiser)This Network, international in scope but based in the UK, brings together booksellers, researchers, and associations to celebrate and explore the histories, practices, and cultures of bookselling, past, present and future. The Network helps facilitate practical training, research projects, events, and a living archive of bookselling-related information; it also works closely with organisations like the Booksellers Association and the Books Council of Wales to support strategic plans and encourage knowledge exchange initiatives. The Network is led by Dr Eben Muse (麻豆传媒高清版, The Stephen Colclough Centre for the History and Culture of the Book) and Dr Samantha Rayner (UCL, The Centre for Publishing and the Bloomsbury CHAPTER), and supported by the Booksellers Association and the Books Council of Wales.
2020 鈫�
Links:
2019
Bookstore Fantasies: Counter spaces and the space of chance
18 Jul 2019
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker)10 Jul 2019 鈥� 12 Jul 2019
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Organiser)"Bookstore Fantasies"
Panel: Representing Reading Spaces (Sponsor: the Stephen Colclough Centre for the History and Culture of the Book, 麻豆传媒高清版)
2019
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker)
2018
26 May 2018
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Member of programme committee)4 Apr 2018
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Organiser)"Fantasising the Bookstore"
2018
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker)
2017
"Curating for readers: independent bookstores"
2017
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker)鈥淕atherings鈥� can mean both an occasion when people are brought together and a group of leaves, or pages, bound together in a book. Each Gathering will be a study of a particular area of publishing or book culture, presented as a collection of short monograph length outputs, all with the potential to be extended via additional online paratexts.
2017 鈫�
Links:
2016
3 Jun 2016 鈥� 4 Jun 2016
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Organiser)Academic Book Week-Independent Publishing Group Autumn Conference
12 May 2016
Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)The Future Space of Bookselling
17 Mar 2016
Links:
2015
12 Nov 2015
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Invited speaker)11 Nov 2015
Links:
7 Sep 2015
Links:
2014
Living with Uncertainty in Virtual Worlds
18 Jul 2014
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Participant)Social networks and the space of bookselling
20 Jun 2014
Links:
2012
Let loose the players of games
13 Jun 2012
Links:
2011
9 Sep 2011 鈥� 10 Sep 2011
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Organiser)
2007
2007 鈥� 2018
Links:
Projects
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01/10/2017 鈥� 01/08/2022 (Finished)
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06/01/2014 鈥� 03/01/2018 (Finished)
Links:
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01/10/2006 鈥� 28/08/2014 (Finished)
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01/10/2006 鈥� 03/09/2010 (Finished)
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01/07/2006 鈥� 31/08/2009 (Finished)
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02/01/2006 鈥� 17/07/2008 (Finished)
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27/09/2005 鈥� 31/08/2009 (Finished)
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01/10/2003 鈥� 01/08/2022 (Finished)