Publications

As this project generates new research, I’ll post open-access versions of published work here. I’m sole author  of publications unless otherwise noted.

New publications:

Alan Galey and Ellen Forget. “Video Games with Footnotes: Understanding In-Game Developer Commentary.” (Not) In the Game: History, Paratexts, and Games. Ed. Ed Vollans and Regina Seiwald. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023. [forthcoming, in production]

“Behind the Scences at ApertureScience.com: Portal and Its Paratexts.” Games and Culture. This article is part of a cluster on the topic “Video Games and Paratextuality,” for which I’m also the editor. It will appear in a future issue of the journal along with other articles on the topic, but for now it’s available on its own through the journal’s online first publication stream: https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120221106927M.

“Imagining Marshall McLuhan as a Digital Reader: an Experiment in Applied Joyce,” in “Reading McLuhan Reading,” ed. Paula McDowell, special issue, Textual Practice 35, no. 9 (2021): 1525–49 [open-access version and accompanying blog post]

“The Work and the Listener.” Textual Cultures 14, no. 1 (2021): 50–64

“Analyzing E–books in the Age of Digital Locks: Challenges and Strategies,” in Books.Files: Preservation of Digital Assets in the Contemporary Publishing Industry, by Matthew Kirschenbaum et al., (College Park, MD, and New York, NY: University of Maryland and the Book Industry Study Group, 2020), 40–42

“Looking for a Place to Happen: Collective Memory, Digital Music Archiving, and The Tragically Hip,” Archivaria 86 (2018): 6-43. [open-access version and accompanying blog post with linked audio]

Recent and upcoming presentations:

“A Bibliographical Disturbance: Teaching and Learning in Book History After 2020,” Frederic Alden Warren Lecture, Trinity College, University of Toronto

“Digital Files, Digital Books, and the Bibliographical Dimensions of Format Theory,” part of a panel I organized on “How to Read Digital Book Formats, and Why,” with Ellen Forget and John Maxwell, for the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP) Annual Conference, July 26–30, 2021 (held virtually due to COVID-19)

“‘You Really Shouldn’t Be Here’: Backstage in the Portal Games,” part of a panel I organized on “Video Games and (Para)Textual Studies,” with Jon Saklofske and Regina Seiwald, for the Canadian Games Studies Association’s annual conference, May 30–June 4, 2021 (held virtually due to COVID-19)

(panel session co-organized with Katherine Harris) “Pleasures of Contamination: David C. Greetham’s Influence on Textual Scholarship, Past and Future.” Presenters: Paul Eggert, Katherine Harris, Amanda Licastro, Sarah Lubelski, and Jerome McGann. Roundtable co-sponsored by the Society for Textual Scholarship and the MLA’s Committee on Scholarly Editions. Modern Language Association Annual Convention, 10 January (held virtually due to COVID-19)

(cancelled due to COVID-19) “E-Books and Black Boxes: The Challenge of Digital Rights Management and the Boundaries of Artifacts.” Society for Textual Scholarship (STS) Conference, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19 March 2020

“Reading McLuhan Reading Joyce Reading,” Reading McLuhan Reading symposium, New York University, New York City, 5 March 2020

“In the Borderlands of Copyright: E-Books, Evidence, and the Future of Digital Bibliography,” Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP) Annual Conference, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 17 July 2019

“The Sea of Doors: Navigating Video Games in Variant Versions,” Canadian Game Studies Association Annual Conference, Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 7 June 2019

“Subterranean Algorithmic Blues: Textual Criticism, Digital Formats, and Bob Dylan’s ‘Bootleg Series,'” Society for Textual Scholarship Conference, New School, New York City, 20-22 March 2019

Older publications and presentations related to the project:

Alan Galey. “Reading the Book of Mozilla: Web Browsers and the Materiality of Digital Texts.” The History of Reading, Vol. 3: Methods, Strategies, Tactics. Ed. Rosalind Crone and Shafquat Towheed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 196-214.

Alan Galey. “The Enkindling Reciter: E-Books in the Bibliographical Imagination.” Book History 15 (2012): 210-47. Awarded the Fredson Bowers Prize by the Society for Textual Scholarship for the best article in the field in 2011–2012. [open-access version]

The ideas I’m pursuing in this project were also developed over several years through several public presentations and conference papers. I’m grateful to all the audiences, co-panellists, and organizers for their feedback:

  • “Bibliography for a Used Future: What Bibliographical Methods Can Teach Us About Digital Artifacts (and Vice Versa).” Bibliography Among the Disciplines Conference. Rare Book School. Philadelphia, PA, 13 October 2017.
  • “Looking for a Place to Happen: the Archival Practices of Music Bootlegging Communities.” Plenary lecture for the Archival Education and Research Institute (AERI), University of Toronto, 13 July 2017.
  • “Portal‘s Hidden Paratexts: Analytical Bibliography and the Study of Videogames.” Society for Textual Studies (STS) Conference, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 2 June 2017.
  • Closing remarks for “Preserving Popular Music in Canada.” Panel discussion moderated by Denise Donlon, with Alex Lifeson (Rush), Lorraine Segato (Parachute Club), Rob Bowman, and Marty Melhuish. University of Toronto Libraries, Innis College Town Hall, 17 May 2016.
  • “Textual Scholarship in the Wild: the Digital Curation of Bootleg Concert Recordings.” Society for Textual Scholarship (STS) Conference, Ottawa. 15 April 2016.
  • “Bibliography for a Used Future: Finding the Human Presence in E-Books and other Digital Artifacts.” Toronto Centre for the Book / iSchool Colloquium Series, University of Toronto, 24 March 2016.
  • “Ripples on the Surface: Reading Digital Books as Artifacts.” History of the Book Seminar, Harvard University, 6 October 2015.
  • “Bibliography Beyond Books: Digital Artifacts, Bibliographical Methods, and the Challenge of ‘Non-Book Texts.'” Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP) Annual Conference, McGill University Montréal, 10 July 2015.
  • “Veils of Print and Veils of Code: the Challenge of Understanding Digital Texts Bibliographically.” Washington Area Group for Print Culture Studies, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 6 February 2015.
  • “The Bibliographic Study of Born-Digital Texts.” Joint keynote address for the conferences of the Bibliographical Society of Canada (BSC) and the Canadian Association for the Study of Book Culture (CASBC), CFHSS Congress, St Catherine’s, ON, 27 May 2014.
  • “The Veil of Code: Born-Digital Texts and Future Prospects for Digital Textual Scholarship.” Society for Textual Scholarship Conference, University of Washington, Seattle, 21 March 2014.
  • “Fahrenheit 2,570: Ray Bradbury and the Dangerous Materiality of Books.” Public lecture co-sponsored by the Toronto Public Library’s “Keep Toronto Reading” Festival. University College, University of Toronto, 4 April 2013.