Jonathan Senchyne won’t need to adjust to Madison winters. After all, he grew up in Buffalo, New York, a city known for its gargantuan snowfalls.
Senchyne did all of his schooling in his native state: He attended the State University of New York at Geneseo for his undergraduate studies, earned his master’s degree in English at Syracuse University and completed his Ph.D. in English Language and Literature at Cornell University.
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he joins the School of Library & Information Studies as an assistant professor and will bring expertise on the history of print culture in the United States.
Welcome, Jonathan! Tell us about your research interests.
I am, by training, an early and 19th-century Americanist, which means my work focuses on the literature and culture of the United States before 1900. Specifically, I work in the history of the book and print culture of the period and think about books and other printed materials as meaningful objects circulating within and having their own influence on American culture.
Why are you most excited about being at UW-Madison?
I'm especially looking forward to collaborations with students and faculty across the humanities. The Wisconsin Historical Society collections are going to be a great asset to my research, too.
What courses will you teach?
I will be teaching some core courses in the Library and Information Studies M.A. and Ph.D. programs, such as "Information Agencies and Their Environments" and "Information Architecture" along with graduate electives like "History of Books and Print Culture" and "History of Readers and Reading." I am also going to be offering an undergraduate course on the intersections of material texts and digital media/collections.
What can students expect in the classroom?
I am very interested in trying to understand the present by way of the past. I think, for example, that it is useful to read Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography and to think about his use of the printing press if you want to understand contemporary social media and techno-entrepreneurial selfhood. Even when I'm teaching what on the surface look like contemporary topics, I like to assign readings from the 18th and 19th centuries and to shape discussions that lead students to see continuities between, for example, past media cultures and present ones.
What did you know about Madison before coming here?
I think I forgot exactly what an isthmus was after the seventh-grade geography test, but now I'll never forget!