March 23, 2022

Announcing Our 2022 Asian Studies Catalog

Letter from the Editors: We are pleased to present the 2022 Columbia University Press Asian studies catalog. These books span  many fields in Asian studies—history, politics, literary studies, philosophy, religion, and film—and reflect the interdisciplinary and global approach of our...

March 22, 2022

Dr. Katie Gaddini on The Struggle to Stay: Why Single Evangelical Women Are Leaving the Church

Evangelical Christianity is often thought of as oppressive to women, yet more than thirty million women in the United States identify as evangelical. The Struggle to Stay: Why Single Evangelical Women Are Leaving the Church offers an intimate and insightful...

March 15, 2022

Nancy Woloch on The Insider: A Life of Virginia C. Gildersleeve

As dean of Barnard College from 1911–1947, Virginia C. Gildersleeve promoted the value of the liberal arts, defended women’s intellectual capacities, and filled a leading role in higher education. She also sought a role in foreign policy. At the peak...

March 8, 2022

Reflections on International Women’s Day and Chinese History

Elizabeth LaCouture

On International Women’s Day, March 8, 1942, the author Ding Ling published her “Thoughts on March 8” in the Yan’an Soviet newspaper. She opened with a question: “When will it no longer be necessary to attach special weight to the...

March 4, 2022

Stephanie D. Preston in Conversation with Robyn Massey About The Altruistic Urge

From the Good Samaritan to Wesley Autry, who jumped in front of a train to save another, stories of altruism fascinate people for many reasons. We are struck by these self-sacrificing acts, and moved by such heroism. Why do ordinary...

March 3, 2022

Women with Good Ideas

Saluting female inventors of the past; inspiring women innovators in the future

Lorraine Marchand

It’s unfortunate but true: Only 5 percent of patents are held by women. Only 25 percent of top innovation firms are led by women. Half as many women as men are likely to start their own business, and 95 percent...

March 2, 2022

Jon Wilson in Conversation with Alisa Freedman on Japan on American TV

The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Asia Shorts book series—distributed by Columbia University Press—offers concise, engagingly written titles by highly qualified authors on topics of significance in Asian Studies. Topics are intended to be substantive, generate discussion and debate within...

February 25, 2022

Andy Secher in Conversation with Robyn Massey about Travels with Trilobites

For thirty years before delving more fully into the Paleozoic world of trilobites, Andy Secher was a key behind-the-scenes figure in the rock and roll industry. He was not only the long-time editor of the popular and influential hard rock...

February 24, 2022

Revised Excerpt from the Epilogue of The Sexual Politics of Black Churches

Josef Sorett

The Sexual Politics of Black Churches began as an idea that grew from an event organized in response to a set of public debates over ten years ago. Surprisingly, what the book presents to readers is no less relevant today,...

February 24, 2022

Gary L. Francione on Why Veganism Matters

Most people think that animals matter morally. That is, they reject the view, popular in the West up until the nineteenth century, that animals are just things that are excluded completely from the moral and legal community. They think that...

February 21, 2022

The Innovative Mindset of Marie Van Brittan Brown

Lorraine H. Marchand

When we think of great innovators, the faces are usually the same—typically, white males, such as Edison, Tesla, Jobs, Musk. . . But history teaches us that while African Americans and women are historically underrepresented among the ranks of innovators and inventors,...

February 18, 2022

Anne Skomorowsky in Conversation with Robyn Massey about The Carriers

A tiny mutation on the X chromosome is a relatively common but still little-known genetic condition that can shape a family’s history. Passed down from a “carrier” parent to a child, fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited cause...