Katie Hannah, Director at University of Tennessee Press, Reports on Visiting University of Pennsylvania Press

The City of Brotherly Love sure lived up to its name during my visit to Penn Press! Thanks to the support of the Association of University Presses (AUPresses), I spent four days with a crack team of publishing professionals who shared their time and wisdom with incredible generosity. This visit was invaluable not only because I learned so many new things, but also because I confirmed that many of the changes I’ve made since becoming director of the University of Tennessee Press (UT Press) in April 2024 are putting us on the right, upward trajectory.

Suzan Kenawy, Marketing Manager at the American University in Cairo Press, reports on visiting University of Toronto Press

Rationale for visit

I was honored to be selected for the 2025 AUPresses Week in Residence Program, and I purposefully selected the University of Toronto Press (UTP) to learn from one of North America’s leading university presses. UTP’s integrated model with their publishing, distribution, and retail divisions offered a comprehensive view into areas highly relevant to my role at the American University in Cairo (AUC) Press. I’m deeply grateful to everyone at UTP for their warm welcome and generous willingness to share their knowledge. My sincere thanks go to Jennifer DiDomenico, Editorial Director, for thoughtfully organizing an outstanding program of meetings and visits throughout my stay, and to Jessica Mosher, Publisher and CEO, and Antonia Pop, VP Publishing Division, and Vesna Micic, Marketing Director, for making this invaluable experience possible.

Patrick Samuel, Operations Coordinator at Vanderbilt University Press, reports on visiting the Rutgers University Press

Rationale for visit

As Vanderbilt University Press (VUP) prepares to switch our distribution to Chicago Distribution Center (CDC), the AUPresses Week-in-Residence program offered the perfect opportunity for me to gain a better sense of CDC processes from a peer press, Rutgers University Press, who had recently undergone the same transition. I aimed to preview CDC systems and get a better sense of the workflows afforded by its platforms and royalty reporting modules, I was also curious to learn how departments at another press collaborate with each other and how they approach and conceive of their budgets—managing stakeholder input, modeling for different financial environments, and forecasting based on actual results.

Brittany Nicolaysen, Marketing Operations Lead at Harvard Education Press, reports on visiting Duke University Press

Rationale for visit

The announcement of the Week in Residence arrived in my inbox at the perfect time. In my daily work, I had accumulated a number of specific questions I wished I could discuss with others in the publishing industry to get their insights. The residency was a unique opportunity to connect directly with another press, allowing me to explore different perspectives and ideas.

For seven years, I’ve had the privilege of working at Harvard Education Press (HEP), where I’ve spent the majority of my career. Being part of a small yet dynamic team, I have many opportunities to learn new parts of the business and explore my curiosities. My focus often involves enhancing systems and innovating our processes. However, with HEP as my sole reference point for university press operations, I’ve increasingly sought external resources and support. It was clear to me that the residency would be an ideal occasion to talk through a wide range of questions, and to observe how another press addresses challenges similar to our own.

Jasmine Mulliken, Journals and Digital Program Manager at Stanford University Press, reports on visiting Johns Hopkins University Press

Me and SUP

My publishing career started in 2016 at Stanford University Press (SUP), where I was hired to work on its new digital publishing initiative. I learned right away that my position, then Digital Production Associate, had no equivalent at other presses and that the work we were publishing with Mellon Foundation funding was wildly unique. SUP was doing some weird, experimental, and brave things, and thereby urging tenure and review committees to begin acknowledging the kind of work I had previously been attempting as an early-career Joyce scholar. Working on SUP’s digital initiative was exciting and fulfilling because it meant, rather than repeatedly failing to convince English departments I would be a good hire despite my digital research agenda, I would be helping scholars with similar projects advance their careers because of those innovative approaches to scholarship. Now as the digital initiative sees less volume with the end of the Mellon funding, and as SUP ventures into journals publishing using the subscribe to open (S2O) model, I am taking on a new challenge as the press’s inaugural Journals and Digital Program Manager.

Keara Mickelson, Digital Manager at Edinburgh University Press, reports on visiting University of North Carolina Press

Rationale for visit

Two years into a new role focused on metadata and discoverability, and at a midway point in our five-year strategic plan centring digital transformation at Edinburgh University Press (EUP), I applied for the AUPresses Week in Residence grant in order to learn from people and presses focussed on similar areas. In particular, I was interested in learning about metadata workflows and best practices for discoverability in the library and retail markets, as well as strategies for measuring success. Metadata experts often work behind the scenes of the scholarly information network, and getting the opportunity to meet US-based peer presses and librarians face-to-face was invaluable. I specifically chose University of North Carolina Press as my host because of its strong commitment to digital transformation, metadata management, open access, and active engagement with both local and global academic communities. Additionally, I was able to meet with a metadata specialist at nearby Duke University Press and metadata librarians from both UNC Chapel Hill and Duke.