The Association of University Presses opens another University Press Week promotion with readings and events  for consumers.

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

Cond: ‘Books That Amplify the Humanities’

The 13th annual University Press Week group of features—a promotional program of the Association of University Presses—opens today (November 11) to run through Friday. The intent of the week each year, as the association puts it, is “to celebrate and raise awareness of the work that university presses do every day.”

The week is again largely consumer-facing and heavily weighted to the US marketplace, although the organization refers to itself as “global.”

The association, founded in 1937 and often called “AUPresses,” has 161 publishers, 37 of which are outside the States. The roster includes some of the best-known universities in the world, but its official name wasn’t changed from the Association of American University Presses until 2012. Those decades of being dubbed an explicitly American entity haven’t yet given way to the broad, world-industry reach that such an articulate service organization might be expected to achieve.

Our Publishing Perspectives international readership can find a list below of the 37 presses based outside the United States, thanks to the assistance of the organization. Both US and other markets’ publishers in the association have again this year contributed to the always-interesting “StepUP” reading list (“UP” for university presses). There are 123 readings available there, referencing a wide range of issue-driven interests.

A good way to explore this is by using the gallery of PDF slide shows set up by subject, reachable through each theme’s link:

• Arts, Performing Arts, Media Studies
• Black Studies
• Business & Economics
• Education
• Fiction/Poetry
• Gender/LGBTQIA Studies
• History
• Indigenous Studies
• Latine Studies
• Memoirs, Biographies, Essays
• Military History & Veterans’ Perspectives
• Politics & Current Events
• Religious Studies
• Science & Environment
• Urban Studies

Five journals are also highlighted in a small collection here.

‘Advocating for Change’

In their media messaging today, organizers are making the point that many university presses are “advocating for change by supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,” very familiar to our professional readership, and several university press members of the association have signed the SDG Publishers Compact from the UN and the International Publishers Association (IPA).

The association points out, as an example, that the United Kingdom’s Liverpool University Press staff “is taking stock of how much their office wastes, and how much it recycles.” That program is “working with other university presses in the UK and Ireland to share best practices for diversity and inclusion in publishing,” as well.

Other Association of University Presses that have become signatories to the SDG Publishers Compact include Bristol University Press; Cambridge University Press & Assessment; Edinburgh University Press; Marine Corps University Press; University of Ottawa Press; Oxford University Press; Qatar University Press; University of Toronto Press; and the University of the West Indies Press.

The Association of University Presses itself signed the Publishers Compact in 2021, and since then, per organizers, it has begun “to document gender pay parity in its compensation survey; to create transparency around scholarly publishing career skills and advancement; and to alternate between in-person and virtual annual meetings to better steward resources.”

And because the week this year has opened on November 11, the association’s members have included a number of books about military history and veterans’ experiences.

What’s called Remembrance Day in Canada, Bermuda, and Ireland, Armistice Day in France and Belgium, Veterans’ Day in the States, Norway, Germany, and other markets, the association has featured reading list highlights, reflected in the gallery’s section on military history and veterans’ perspectives.

Five of the members of the Association of University Presses are, in fact, associated with American armed forces campuses:

• Air University Press
• Army University Press
• Marine Corps University Press
• Naval Institute Press
• West Point Press

As each year, the association has a list of various events being produced usually on the presses’ campuses.  You can find that list here.

In a comment on the opening of the week, Liverpool University Press’ Anthony Cond, the president of the Association of University Presses, is quoted, saying, “A majority of university presses have a primary focus in the humanities, the disciplines that drive critical thinking, justice, democracy, and our understanding of what really matters

“So by publishing books that amplify the humanities, university presses not only help scholars but also all general readers who want to learn more about history, culture, and the wider world. And that mission has never felt more important.“

Internationally Based ‘AUPresses’

In the list provided to us below by the Association of University Presses, a single asterisk indicates that a press has contributed a title to this year’s “StepUP” gallery and/or reading list for University Press Week. A double asterisk indicates that a press is expected to provide an entry for those writings being submitted to this week’s “blog tour,” which is also part of the week’s programming.