Andrea Reyes Elizondo is a lecturer and PhD candidate at the Centre for the Arts in Society working on the history of reading, and a researcher at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS).

More information about Andrea Reyes Elizondo

Fields of interest

• History of reading
• Book history
• Cultural history
• Media and technology

Research

Reading is a highly complex activity. It is realised by individuals of various backgrounds who have specific interests, expectations, and degrees of literacy. It also takes place in distinct places and periods. However, our subjects of study are long gone; reliable census data is lacking and archival sources that directly attest reading are rare. Reconstructing reading and its different practices throughout history is therefore quite an elaborate task.

As an answer to these challenges, my research proposes the use of ‘reading spaces’ to outline the reading possibilities for various social groups in specific historical periods and places. The study goes beyond the basic divide of the literate and the illiterate by considering a wider context and analyzing the elements that can foster or inhibit reading.

This particular approach was developed to study reading in seventeenth-century New Spain during my MA. The resulting thesis proposed a theoretical framework for reading spaces (or reading possibilities) while examining the various differentiators and conditions that influenced reading in seventeenth-century colonial Mexico. The study also draw parallels between three book inventories belonging to individuals of different classes and their corresponding reading spaces.

For my PhD I am further developing the theoretical framework of the reading spaces and its application as a research tool. While the focus has remained on New Spain, the periods examined concern two intervals during the eighteenth century. The sources for my research include various archival materials as well as books available during the colonial period.

In contrast, my work as a researcher for the Social and Behavioural Sciences Faculty covers mainly the different academic systems around the world and the relationship between universities and research and health organizations. Lately, some of my research also focuses on issues of scientific integrity related to academic publishing. Read more>>

PhD supervisors

Prof. P.G. Hoftijzer
Prof. A.H. van der Weel

C.V.

2016–present 
PhD candidate, Book History, Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society

2013–present 
Research assistant and since 2016 researcher at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS). Main projects: Leiden Ranking, RISIS (Research Infrastructure for Science and Innovation Studies), PRINTEGER (Promoting Integrity as an Integral Dimension of Excellence in Research)

2012–2014 
MA Book and Digital Media Studies (Leiden University)

2008–2012 
Outreach for the education department of the European Space Agency (ESA)

2007 
Research intern at the Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie (INL). Data collection for the Oudnederlands Woordenboek (Old Dutch Dictionary)

2003–2010 
BA, Dutch Studies (Leiden University)

1996–2001 
BA, Communication Science (Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico City, Mexico)

Publications