The University of Tennessee gathers a considerable body of scholars who work with manuscripts in their research. These manuscripts come from many chronological periods and geographical areas, from antiquity to the eighteenth century, from Sinai to Yunnan, and record languages from Arabic to Old English. The Manuscript Cultures seminar is a regular, informal meeting of faculty, graduate students, and guests for presentations and conversation about our ongoing work with manuscripts. Its themes span pragmatic issues of accessing and interpreting handwritten materials; abstract concepts like writing's relationship to power; and questions that pass through and beyond both of these, such as practices of writing, speaking, listening, and reading in the production and dissemination of knowledge. We discuss multilingual manuscripts, excavated materials, religious writings, and the working texts of literary creation. An interdisciplinary group of faculty and graduate students make up the seminar, representing Classics, English, History, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and Religious Studies.