Kevin Wisniewski Joins Staff of American Antiquarian Society

Worcester, MA — Kevin A. Wisniewski, Ph.D. has joined the staff of the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) as director of book history and digital initiatives. Dr. Wisniewski earned his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He also holds two masters, one in English and History from the University of Pennsylvania and one in Publication Design from the University of Baltimore. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Language and Literature from Stevenson University. Dr. Wisniewski has extensive experience in both traditional and digital history. He is a founding editor of the online journal Textshops Experiments (http://textshopexperiments.org) and served as the managing editor of Roving Eye Press.  He has also served on the editorial boards of the Beyond Criticism Series published by Bloomsbury Publishing and the Calypso Editions.

Additionally, Kevin has widespread teaching experience having taught at: the University of Maryland, College Park; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Widener University; and Cecil College. His scholarly interests include both the history and current trends in reading, writing, and publishing in both traditional print and digital forms. Kevin is also a graphic designer and book artist who has created limited edition broadsides of both eighteenth-century and contemporary poetry. His wide-ranging intellectual interests include eighteenth-century trans-Atlantic print culture, contemporary performance and comedy, and eighteenth-century environmentalism.

At AAS, Wisniewski will lead the Society’s signature Program in the History of the Book in American Culture (PHBAC) and will develop a strategic plan to move this program into the future. First initiated in 1983, the PHBAC program draws on the AAS resources as a center of bibliographical research and as a matchless repository of early American printed materials, but also on recent intellectual currents that look at the history of books and other printed objects in their full economic, social, and cultural context. The program regularly sponsors fellowships, a weeklong summer seminar in the history of the book, workshops and symposia, and the James Russell Wiggins Lecture in the History of the Book in America. The program created a five-volume work of collaborative scholarship entitled A History of the Book in America published from 2007-09, which takes the subject from Colonial times to the present day.

“We are delighted that Kevin has joined the Society," said James David Moran, vice president for programs and outreach. “He will be instrumental in bringing our long-standing signature PHBAC program into the 21st century and leading the Society’s efforts in creating and sustaining our many digital humanities initiatives.”