Forgers, Fakers, and Publisher-Pirates
Instructor: Linda Quirk (Bruce Peel Special Collections).
Description: Whether print or digital, text or image, artistic or scientific, rare or common, historic or contemporary, most of the content we encounter contains accidental mistakes–ranging from typos to factual errors to errors arising from prejudicial assumptions–and a significant proportion of it also contains deliberate misinformation resulting from various forms of forgery, fakery, and piracy. Caveat emptor applies–reader, beware! This digital workshop digs a little bit deeper than the exhibition currently on display in the Peel library. It introduces the work of notorious and lesser-known book and document forgers, it reveals the various ways in which experts and authors have faked their own identities over the centuries–ranging from carefully-selected pseudonyms to falsified ethnicities to fraudulent credentials–and it explores a number of shady publishing practices, including piracy.
This online workshop is open to the University of Alberta community.
- Date:
- Wednesday, January 28, 2026
- Time:
- 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
- Audience:
- Faculty Graduate Students Staff Undergraduate Students
- Categories:
- Remote Delivery