Acquisitions Editorial
The Acquisitions Editorial Committee continued to foster community among acquisitions staff by providing opportunities for mentorship, learning, and professional development. The committee promoted the new guidelines for best practices in peer review; evaluated the need for a new survey of presses regarding faculty board practices; planned AUPress panels and Hangouts about critical topics and emerging concerns within scholarly publishing; promoted equitable, inclusive, and ethical editorial and workplace practices; and gathered and shared resources that support editors and acquisitions staff in their work.
Andrew Berzanskis, Oklahoma, Chair
Jaya Chatterjee, Yale
Elizabeth Demers, Michigan
Christine Dunbar, Columbia
Suzanne Guiod, Bucknell
Carli Hansen, Toronto
Nate Holly, Georgia
Kitty Liu, Cornell
Christabel Scaife, Liverpool
Peggy Solic, Rutgers
Jenny Tan, Pennsylvania
Rachael Levay, Colorado, Board Liaison
Brenna McLaughlin, Central Office Liaison
Annual Meeting 2023
The 2023 Program Committee planned the first scheduled virtual program with an emphasis on inclusivity within the AUPresses community—across time zones and locations, across levels of experience in the UP world, and across levels of publishing knowledge. The goal of inclusivity and the virtual format resulted in more sessions scheduled in a two-week block across two-time banks so that a more complete breadth of the membership could participate during a reasonable time. The program also includes three plenaries instead of two to allow for more shared time across the participants. This year’s keynote speakers include Jeremy Young from the PEN Foundation, speaking about censorship; Mandy Hill from Cambridge University Press, speaking about change in academic publishing; and April Baker-Bell from Michigan State University, speaking about linguistic justice in academic publishing. In addition, there are several open sessions where like-minded folks can come together and discuss, from a distance, issues that impact their part of the publishing world. The committee is working toward continuity next year by encouraging current members to serve a second term.
Hope LeGro, Georgetown, Co-Chair
Cameron Ludwick, Texas, Co-Chair
Rebecca Allen, TCU
Chad Attenborough, California
Rebecca Brutus, Cornell
Chris Grieves, Edinburgh
Meagan Levinson, Princeton
Kemi Ogunji, South Carolina
Alison Welsby, Liverpool
Michelle Woo-Deemer, Getty
Charles Watkinson, Michigan, Board Liaison
Peter Berkery and Alexis Fagan, Central Office Liaisons
Annual Meeting 2024
With planning season approaching, the Annual Meeting Committee is soon to begin organizing the program, and procuring speakers, panelists, and moderators for AUPresses 2024. Returning to an in-person meeting in June 2024, the committee is looking forward to planning a dynamic program filled with thought-provoking plenaries, informative concurrent sessions, interactive collaboration labs, and networking events—all designed to maximize our community’s time together.
Pending, Chair
Jane Bunker, Cornell, Board Liaison
Peter Berkery and Alexis Fagan, Central Office Liaisons
Book, Jacket, and Journal Show
The Book, Jacket, and Journal Show Committee has ensured the continued success and visibility of the show against the backdrop of the pandemic. The committee has maintained year-round visibility in the AUPresses and graphic design communities through the AUPresses Design website and @AUPressesDesign social media accounts on Instagram. The committee also produced the show catalog in print and in digital format on issuu.com. This year, the traveling exhibit returned with the show touring university presses across the US from September 2022 through April 2023. The show, once again, showcases the breadth and depth of design and typography accomplished by member presses of the Association.
Mindy Basinger Hill, Washington, Co-Chair
Wendy McMillen, Notre Dame, Co-Chair
Jennifer Blanc-Tal, Rutgers
Kevin Barrett Kane, California
Mark Lerner, Fordham
Lori Lynch, Alabama
Isaac Morris, New Mexico
Peter Perez, North Carolina
Regina Starace, Penn State
Carrie Downes Teefey, Wayne State
David Zielonka, Stanford
Saleem Dhamee, Chicago, Board Liaison
Kate Kolendo, Central Office Liaison
Digital Publishing
The Digital Publishing Committee continues to support member needs for learning about digital publishing and developing presses’ digital publishing programs. In advance of the Annual Meeting in June 2023, the committee is organizing a two-part session, “Open Publishing Platforms: A User’s Guide,” to highlight open-source publishing platforms and share user perspectives on Manifold, Fulcrum, RavenSpace, and others. We are also making preliminary plans for a webinar to be offered next year focused on accessibility for complex digital projects, such as those in art history, mathematics, and music. Committee members collaborated with the Editorial, Design, and Production Committee to submit a working group proposal to C4DISC, also centered on accessible publishing, and are engaging in community outreach to member presses to shape future resources and improve engagement. The committee continues to participate in the Adventures in Digital Publishing series and joined in presenting the third webinar in the series, focusing on Stanford’s digital publishing program.
Emily Zoss, National Gallery of Art, Co-Chair
Sara Thaxton, Arizona, Co-Chair
Sara Cohen, Michigan
Julia Cook, Rochester
Meagan Dyer, British Columbia
Jenny Hunt, Baylor
Ally Lee, Liverpool
Daniel McShane, SUNY
Deirdre Mullervy, Gallaudet
Kate O’Brien-Nicholson, Fordham
Allison Belan, Duke, Board Liaison
Kate Kolendo, Central Office Liaison
Editorial, Design, and Production
The Editorial, Design, and Production (EDP) Committee has traditionally assisted the Annual Meeting Program Committee in developing EDP content as part of its charge to develop and manage tools, programs, and resources to support the editorial, design, and production departments of member presses. Over the past year, responding to feedback from committee members and other EDP staff, the committee has focused in particular on organizing a webinar on maximizing EDP workflows; submitting a proposal to C4DISC to jointly create a roadmap for ebook accessibility; organizing documents on accessibility to upload to UP Commons; and helping plan panels for the Annual Meeting on environmental sustainability, EJIB initiatives within EDP departments, a ebook best practices, and digital web-based monograph publishing.
Lynne Ferguson, Texas, Co-Chair
Ryan Morris, SUNY, Co-Chair
Jinni Fontana, Nevada
Amanda Frost, Michigan State
Chris Granville, Duke
Jason Gosnell, Marine Corps
Sarah Muncy, American Historical Association
Christine Thorsteinsson, Harvard
Nicole Tilford, SBL
Marthe Walters, Florida
Allison Belan, Duke, Board Liaison
Kate Kolendo, Central Office Liaison
Equity, Justice, Inclusion, and Belonging
The EJIB (Equity, Justice, Inclusion and Belonging) Committee added ‘Belonging’ to its previous name (EJI), to help foster an environment where everyone feels valued and accepted across the AUPresses’ community.
Throughout the 2022-2023 year, the committee worked with other committees and task forces to embed an EJIB perspective into work carried out by AUPresses. Committee invited EJIB liaisons into meetings, and the EJIB committee hosted representatives from other committees as well, to continue conversations. The committee worked to complete the demographic survey toolkit, including a peer review process and intensive revisions. The final version will be released in time for the 2023 AUPresses Annual Meeting. The events subcommittee held a webinar on neurodiversity in March—demand for attendance outstripped capacity, demonstrating the real need addressed by this topic. Three panels have also been organized for the 2023 Annual Conference: Introducing the Diversity and Inclusion Baseline Survey; DEI: A Global Publishing Perspective; and Neurodiversity in University Press Publishing. Additionally, the committee is co-organizing a panel with the Open Access Committee: Equity in OA Publishing.
Valarie Guagnini, Cambridge, Co-Chair
Clare Litt, Liverpool, Co-Chair
Michael Baccam, Washington
Tara Cyphers, Ohio State
Kate Danser, Princeton
Craig Gill, Mississippi
Jason Gosnell, Marine Corps
Christie Henry, Princeton
Dominique Moore, Illinois
Wren Morgan Myers, Virginia
Porsha Perry, Library of Congress
Caitlin Tyler-Richards, Michigan State
Carmen Tiampo, British Columbia
Saleem Dhamee, Chicago, Board Liaison
Brenna McLaughlin, Central Office Liaison
Faculty Outreach
The Faculty Outreach Committee sustained its commitment to the Ask UP site this year, recruiting a diverse group of hosts, gathering FAQs, and generating new content. The committee continued work on a glossary of publishing terms for authors/faculty and expect to add this new resource to Ask UP after a final round of vetting. The group also focused on outreach to scholarly societies, organizing panels at the National Communication Association Convention and the Modern Language Association Convention as well as a webinar for members of the Latin American Studies Association. Several members created tools to streamline future efforts, including a templated letter to organizations, a publishing panel request form that can be submitted online, guidelines for panel chairs, and tips for planning a webinar. Spurred by an interest in strengthening collaborations with other committees and the broader AUPresses community, Faculty Outreach Committee is also sponsoring two sessions for the upcoming Annual Meeting.
Angie Hogan, Virginia, Chair
Katie Cortese, Texas Tech
Kimberly Guinta, Rutgers
Jenny Keegan, Louisiana State
Kathryn King, Bristol
Philip Leventhal, Columbia
Anne Savarese, Princeton
Elizabeth Wilder, Arizona
Christie Henry, Princeton, Board Liaison
Annette Windhorn, Central Office Liaison
Financial Operations
The general objective of the Financial Operations Committee is to develop and manage tools, programs, and resources to assist Association members in improving the financial management and analysis of their presses. One way the committee advances this goal is by assisting the Financial Officers Meeting organizers with planning sessions on the Operating Statistics Survey. This year, the committee also organized a similar session on Operating Statistics use and participation for the 2023 AUPresses Annual Meeting. In 2022-2023, the committee also spoke with the EJIB Committee about the needs of presses currently not represented in the Operating Statistics Survey, specifically non-US presses, journals publishing programs, and open-access presses. By addressing the needs of a broader group of presses and sharing information about the survey via community sessions, the committee hopes that participation in the statistical programs will increase overall reporting participation and the usefulness of the survey.
Hilary Claggett, Georgetown, Co-Chair
Jennie Collinson, Liverpool, Co-Chair
Eric Brandt, Virginia
Alice Ennis, Illinois
Scot Kuehm, Princeton
Amy Liu, Oklahoma
Wynona McCormick, Texas A&M
Mike Bieker, Arkansas, Board Liaison
Brenna McLaughlin, Central Office Liaison
Intellectual Property and Copyright
The Intellectual Property and Copyright (IP&C) Committee focused this year on creating programming around IP&C issues, a backlist digitization pilot lead by New York Public Library, and evaluating the Association’s IP&C resources. The programming has been focused on Annual Aeeting sessions on subsidiary rights and backlist digitization and planning a hangout on fair use in fall 2023. The group’s evaluation of the existing IP&C resources is an extension of work begun last year regarding permissions for highly illustrated works, and will continue into next year, with plans to update the IP&C resources provided on aupresses.org. Two newer committee commitments, both of which will continue into next year, are to support Anjali Vats’s Race and IP Curriculum and to provide programming around IP and OA, in collaboration with the Open Access Committee.
Aurora Bell, South Carolina, Co-Chair
Leslie Rollins, Getty, Co-Chair
Albert Cascio, Cambridge
Andrea Gapsch, Purdue
Ellie Goodman, Penn State
Neal Swain, California
Clara Totten, Kent State
Stephanie Vyce, Harvard
Mike Bieker, Arkansas, Board Liaison
Kate Kolendo, Central Office Liaison
Investment
The Investment Committee provides oversight and monitors the association’s quasi-endowment fund. The committee reviews the investment policy statement of the association annually and assures adherence of investments in the fund to the policy. If needed, the committee will make a recommendation to the board of directors regarding use of the endowment for funding strategic initiatives.
Erik Smist, Johns Hopkins, Chair
Paul Ashenfelter, Notre Dame
Tera Beerman, Nebraska
Mike Bieker, Arkansas
Teresa Collins, Kentucky
Kate Danser, Princeton
Dennis Lloyd, Wisconsin
Alexandria Leonard, Princeton, Board Liaison
Kim Miller, Central Office Liaison
Journals
In keeping with the Journals Committee’s charge to develop and manage tools, activities, and resources to assist Association members in improving the function of and promoting the public face of their journals programs, the committee organized programming for the Annual Meeting, collaborated on virtual programming, and created a resource to support journals programs in creating onboarding toolkits for new journal editors.
Sarah Jones Weicksel, American Historical Association, Chair
Ian Caswell, UCL
Katharine Easterby, Liverpool
Mary Francis, Pennsylvania
Sara Pastel, MLA
Jennifer Sacher, ASCSA
Sandra Shaw, Toronto
Wendy Queen, Johns Hopkins, Board Liaison
Alexis Fagan, Central Office Liaison
Library Relations
During the past year, the Library Relations Committee has worked to promote mutual understanding between university presses and academic libraries as publishing partners, institutional reports, and project collaborators, and particularly as core customers. Chair Jason Fikes (Abilene Christian) participated in a panel, “Why Should We Care About Bibliodiversity in Academic Book Publishing? The Implications of Regional Identity for American University Presses,” at the Charleston Conference in fall 2022, which will be reprised during the AUPresses 2023 Virtual Annual Meeting. The committee also organized another 2023 Annual Meeting panel, “What University Presses Need to Know about Libraries.” In addition, the committee has maintained partnership with the Library Publishing Coalition (LPC). Despite a pause in the cross-pollination grant program because the AUPresses Annual Meeting and the Library Publishing Forum are virtual this year, the committee looks forward to welcoming a LPC representative to AUPresses 2023 in June and to continuing conversation afterwards about their conference experience and professional expertise.
Jason Fikes, Abilene Christian, Chair
Stephen Hull, New Mexico
Annie Johnson, Delaware
Tracy Kellmer, Pennsylvania
Jon Miller, Akron
Jane Bunker, Cornell, Board Liaison
Annette Windhorn, Central Office Liaison
Marketing
The Marketing Committee has improved the Publicity and Social Media sections of the Marketing Handbook, updating eight chapters for accuracy and clarity as well as EJIB considerations. The committee has also created an entirely new handbook section on designing and managing inclusive, diverse marketing internships to maximize benefits to press and intern. Following a collaborative review with the AUPresses EJIB Committee, the committee looks forward to announcing and promoting these new resources in late spring 2023. In addition, the committee organized and hosted a March 2023 hangout on the state of academic conference exhibits, which included marketing as well as acquisitions perspectives and drew more than 165 attendees. The committee is also hosting a virtual session on “The New Age of Marketing” at the AUPresses 2023 Virtual Annual Meeting, focusing on sharing examples of innovation, inspiration, and inclusion within marketing’s functional areas.
Emily Hamilton, Minnesota, Chair
Ken Carpenter, Harvard
Chris Hart, Manchester
Khelee Williams Gardiner, West Indies
Jeremy Grainger, Rutgers
Lisa Renee Kuerbis, Syracuse
Sarah Caroline Noell, Cornell
Emily Powers, Beacon
Anne Strother, Northwestern
Colleen Suljic, Princeton
Colleen Lanick, Harvard, Board Liaison
Annette Windhorn, Central Office Liaison
Open Access
The Open Access (OA) Committee has continued to support the Association’s members as they respond to changes in the publishing environment as a result of Open Access (OA) publishing. The main areas of focus this year have been to create an OA resource overview, building on the outline from last year’s committee; strengthen external partnerships; and identify viable options for ensuring the transition to open is equitable. The committee has created a working OA resource overview document that is now live for feedback on UP Commons; initiated a collaboration with the DEI committee to bring an open research and DEI lens to the OA work; and will be putting together a recommendation to the Board to update the Association’s OA statement to include an explicit mention in support of an equitable transition to open. The committee meeting time was also spent in professional development and education by inviting external partners from the Book Analytics Dashboard, DIAMAS, OpenStax, and COPIM to offer presentations on their work.
Brigitte Shull, Cambridge, Co-Chair
Kelley Squazzo, Johns Hopkins, Co-Chair
Angela Anderson, Marine Corps
Beth Fuget, Washington
Megan Hall, Athabasca
Justin Race, Purdue
Andy Redman, Oxford
Bonnie Robinson, North Georgia
Tony Sanfilippo, Ohio State
Dhara Snowden, UCL
Elizabeth Swayze, MIT
Alexandria Leonard, Princeton, Board Liaison
Brenna McLaughlin, Central Office Liaison
Professional Development
The Professional Development Committee (PDC) develops and manages tools, programs, and resources to assist Association members in improving their publishing expertise, developing their leadership skills, and enhancing their professional development and networks. The committee focused much of its work this year on helping members find ways to expand their professional networks and reconnect with colleagues post-pandemic. The PDC organized three webinars: “Resumes and Cover Letters: Tips from University Press Professionals” and “Interviewing Best Practices: Tips from University Press Professionals,” both held in conjunction with the Paths in Publishing program; and “Mentorship: Tips for Mentees and Mentors,” which focused on the AUPresses Mentorship Program. The committee will also host a panel at the AUPresses Virtual Annual Meeting in June, “Career Transitioning: How to Pivot into a New Role Within Publishing.” In addition, the committee organized five virtual networking hangouts: three were held this spring for EDP; marketing and publicity; and mid-career professionals; and two more, an early and mid-career meetup and a meetup for newly paired Mentorship Program mentors and mentees, will be held during the Annual Meeting. The committee continued the AUPresses Mentorship Program, matching this year’s mentors and mentees after completing revisions of the mentorship guidelines and application form in collaboration with the Equity, Justice, Inclusion and Belonging (EJIB) Committee. The committee has also collaborated with the SSP (Society for Scholarly Publishing) Early Career Committee on potential co-sponsored programs and included an AUPresses PDC member as a panelist at the SSP’s “Publishing Career Builder: Connecting in the Field.” Finally, the committee also helped successfully relaunch the Residency Program with six applicants completing residencies at member presses.
Nicole Solano, Rutgers, Co-Chair
Bethany Wasik, Cornell, Co-Chair
Rebecca Carhart, IVP Academic
Kim Hogeland, Oregon State
David Juarez, Notre Dame
Alodie Larson, Oxford
Mary Lui, Toronto
Megan Mendonca, Princeton
Christian Winting, Columbia
Jane Bunker, Cornell, Board Liaison
Alexis Fagan, Central Office Liaison