Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
Finland
fellow
Bill Bell
Home institution
Cardiff University
Country of origin (home institution)
United Kingdom
Discipline(s)
Modern history
Theme(s)
Cultural Studies
Fellowship dates
›
Biography
Bill Bell is Professor of Bibliography at Cardiff University and also a Corresponding Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Munich. He was the founder of the Centre for the History of the Book at The University of Edinburgh in 1995, and Director until 2012. He has held visiting posts at the Humanities Research Centre of The Australian National University, The University of Ottawa, and St John's College, Oxford, Jadavpur University, and The University of Goettingen. Bell has also served on several professional bodies and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Research Project
Utopian Things
Bill Bell’s project is a book-length study of the place of material culture in utopian writing and thought since Thomas More’s influential imagining of the island of Utopia in 1516. The central focus is on the significance and function of objects in utopian writing, thought, and design, with particular reference to five major themes, each to be represented in chapters of their own: technology, the body, the built environment, and the utopian library. A final conclusion will consider the place of utopia in the virtual world of immaterial things.
Research Interests:
Victorian literature and culture; utopian literature and theory; hermeneutic history