Press Releases

University Presses Lead the Way for Publisher-Based Ebook Systems

Oct 11, 2011
In the 1920s, there were an estimated 12 university presses operating in America; today that number is about 130. Over the years, university presses have forged ahead with some of the more thoughtful and “daring” coverage and analysis of such complex issues as globalization, immigration, civil rights, constitutional law, and so on. Many of these presses have also developed their own areas of specialization and acclaim: MIT and Yale’s coverage of architecture; Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Oxford, and Harvard’s emphasis on literacy criticism; Minnesota’s coverage of cultural critique, ethnic studies, and theory; and some of the excellent regional coverage from Arizona, Kansas, and Nebraska. “As commercial publishers increasingly turn away from books that are deemed unlikely to make a lot of money,” notes the American Association of University Presses, “university presses have found new fields to publish in and new audiences for their books.”

Author Pamela Simpson dies at 65

Oct 11, 2011
Pamela Hemenway Simpson, an art historian who was one of the most influential figures of the last four decades at Washington and Lee University, died at her home in Lexington, Va., on Oct. 4th, 2011. She was 65.