University Press Roundup
Welcome to our weekly roundup of the best posts from the blogs of academic publishers! As always, if you particularly enjoy something or think that we missed an important post, please let us know in the comments.
The Supreme Court decisions on Wednesday ruling the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8 unconstitutional made big headlines in the academic publishing blogosphere this week. At the OUPblog, Robert J. Hume looks at where same-sex marriage goes from here. Beacon Broadside featured an excerpt from What is Marriage For?, in which E. J. Graff examines the point of marriage, and how private and public definitions of marriage often collide. Finally, at From the Square, the blog of NYU Press, Suzanna Danuta Walters looks at the language of some of the news cycle’s talking heads and explains her frustration at the “centrality of marriage to the gay rights movement.”
Monday was another important day at the Supreme Court, as the justices came to a decision on Fisher v. University of Texas. At the JHU Press Blog, Michael A. Olivas has a guest post examining the Fisher case from a number of different angles.
Last week and this past weekend were an important time for academic presses, of course, because of the 2013 AAUP annual meeting. This week, This Side of the Pond, the blog of Cambridge University Press, has a post detailing why AAUP 2013 was a success, and looking at some of the most important questions brought up at the meeting.
How can professors get publicity for books that are important, but scholarly? That’s the question asked and answered by Michael Chwe in a guest post on the Princeton University Press Blog. Chwe uses the example of his recently published book to walk readers through the publicity process from the point of view of an author and scholar.
Silvio Berlusconi has recently been sentenced to “seven years in prison and permanent exclusion from public office.” At North Philly Notes, the blog of Temple University Press, John Agnew looks at Berlusconi’s fall and discusses what it will mean for Italian politics and society.
Canada, Calgary in particular, has been struck by massive floods in 2013. At the McGill-Queen’s University Press blog, Matthew Evenden discusses the history of the Bow River and Calgary, and looks at the floods this year in the context of other floods in the past.
June 26th was the birthday of Peter Sloterdijk, the German philosopher, critic, and public intellectual (and Columbia University Press author). At the MIT Press blog, Marc Lowenthal has a brief guest post in honor of Sloterdijk’s birthday.
At the University of Virginia Press blog, Jeffrey Greene has a fascinating guest post in which he details his trip to the mountains in Poland, where he spent his time foraging for wild edibles.
Finally, we’ll end this week’s Roundup with a post from the Texas A&M University Press blog by William C. Latham, Jr. In his post, Latham looks back at the end of the Korean War, which took place on June 27th, 1953.
Thanks again for reading this week’s roundup! Have a great weekend, and leave any thoughts in the comments!
