FURE 2023—Recap

Fure, the conference on the Future of Reading, took place in Münster on March 17th, 2023, after a break of more than two years due to the Corona pandemic. We can look back on a day full of inspiration, packed content, and hard-hitting scientific teaching by the speakers Imke Mühlenfeld, Pascal Reckel, Konstantin Schulze, Adrian Szymanski, Felix Hunger, Sabine Reister, Verena Gerlach, Andreas Wrede, Andreas Plettner, Johannes Erler, Sandra Hartung, Kristina Hoppe, Marleen Krallmann, Lars C. Grabbe, and Birgit Schmitz. 

Here follows is a brief summary of the event’s contents
There are more texts in this world than ever before. Mankind is writing and reading more than ever: books, reports, newspapers, blogs, tweets, and even WhatsApp messages. A logical conclusion therefore must be: Things can’t be all that bad in terms of reading ability—the constant warning about a decrease in reading competence is perhaps more the lament of a pack of cultural pessimists after all.

On the other hand, it is not only what we read that changes us, but also how we read. We still know too little about how the digital age is changing us and how we can shape the transition to the new technology.

What new roles can print take on in the age of digitization? What are the ideas and possibilities in digital reading? How do the two media influence each other, both positively and negatively? How is our reading behavior changing? How can reading hold its own against other technologies such as playing games, listening, or watching?

Thank you for having us and we look forward to the next edition.