“Subject Area Spotlight”

November 10-16 marks University Press Week 2013! All week long, presses around the Web will be hosting special posts as part of a UP Week Blog Tour. The Digital Digest will be following the tour with a daily round up.

MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY

MIT Press: “Aural History on the Web: Reconstructing the Past through Sound”
Editorial Director Gita Manaktala explores the rich context of the The Roaring ‘Twenties project, demonstrating how university press scholarship can excel beyond the book. Historian and author Emily Thompson shares how the experience compared with traditional scholarly publication.

Texas A&M University Press: “Texas A&M Press Leader in Texas History Titles Since 1974”
Like many university presses, TAMU Press is a major publisher of regional history. Texas author, historian, and water rights expert Charles Porter reflects on the press’s contribution of key scholarship to critical community debates.

University of Georgia Press: “University Press Week: Guest Blogger Nik Heynen”
University of Georgia professor Nik Heynen recounts the university press’s strengths in publishing geography titles via one story of adopting a series that “engage[s] the importance of space for questions of social and political change,” intended to engage scholars but also serve as tools for policymakers and local activists.

University of Pennsylvania Press: “Growing from our Strengths: Penn Press Builds on Its Distinguished Traditions”
Publishing upward of 150 titles per year, Penn Press focuses its editorial strength on a variety of humanities and social science lists developed over decades that have garnered well-earned recognition—among them, medieval studies, American studies (both early and modern), human rights, and public policy—that will soon continue to expand into the digital shorts arena.

University of Toronto Press: “Medieval and Renaissance Studies at University of Toronto Press”
UTP currently publishes more than a dozen medieval and Renaissance series, along with a historical database of early modern English; the strength of these growing lists along with the press’s involvement in key scholarly conventions make it a leader in the field.

Wilfrid Laurier University Press: “Subject Area Spotlight: The Environmental Humanities”
Environmental Humanities series editor Cheryl Lousley discusses why the environment must be addressed not only in respect to technology issues: “environmental problems are embedded in culture and thought … Ecology is not only about the sciences, but also an urgent question for the humanities … Too often, for example, environmental problems are taken to be about animals or landscapes when human health, cultures, and experiences are also stake.”