T1 - Information and Document Management & Ephemera

What type of documents are defined as printed ephemera in libraries and archives, and how they are/should be classified will be among the scrutinized topics. Several issues like the current situation of national and international physical and digital ephemera archives and their accessibility for scientific research are also going to be examined.

T2 - Urban Studies & Ephemera

Studies in different disciplines like literature, philosophy and sociology which—by utilizing ephemeral sources—question the relationship between urban life, the city and the individual are going to be investigated. In addition, the significance of ephemera in architectural studies will be assessed within the scope of this theme. 

T3 - Collectors, Museology & Ephemera

Apart from detecting topics like ephemera collecting and ephemera collectors, this theme will also focus on different types of ephemera that secondhand and antiquarian booksellers prefer to purchase and sell, as well as the printed documents which ephemera collectors aspire to obtain. How ephemera are preserved in museums, and via which methods they are utilized and displayed by curators are going to be among the emphasized topics.

T4 - Cultural Studies & Ephemera

The relationship between material culture/popular culture/consumer culture and ephemera will be inspected. In addition to their production purposes, the meaning and impact of minor temporary documents within the (un)changing cultural structures of various societies will be discussed. The connection between everyday life objects and ephemera will also be amongst the analyzed subjects.

T5 - Art & Ephemera

How artists and illustrators define ephemera (for instance, “high art” and/or “low art”) within the scope of artistic production, the relationship between ephemera and fine arts and performance arts, and how ephemeral sources are utilized within these pertinent art forms are going to be some of the highlighted topics.

T6 - History Writing & Ephemera 

The utilization of ephemera as primary sources within the context of cultural, economic, political and social history will be emphasized. This theme will also focus on the specific time period when printed ephemera commenced to be influential tools among certain groups in different societies. Apart from examining their significance in book history and typography, for the purpose of realizing how printed ephemera can be evaluated within the scope of the history of everyday life (alltagsgeschichte), the participants will also consider how education, entertainment, urban, medical and commercial ephemera, etc. have been employed as historical sources.