March 27, 2024

Laura E. Helton on Scattered and Fugitive Things

In Scattered and Fugitive Things, Laura E. Helton tells the stories of six Black collectors who played a pivotal role in shaping the early twentieth-century Black archive. From the parlors of the urban North to HBCU reading rooms and branch...

February 7, 2024

Black Life in a Nazi Internment Camp:

The Art of Josef Nassy

Sarah Phillips Casteel

In July 1947, an exhibition of artworks created in Nazi concentration and internment camps was mounted in railway cars stationed in Brussels’s Gare du Nord. Included in the exhibition were several works by Josef Nassy, an artist from the Dutch...

February 15, 2023

Q&A: Dr. Amy Yeboah Quarkume and Dr. Frank Guridy on Black Lives in the Diaspora: Past / Present / Future

A Howard-Columbia Intellectual Partnership

In February 2021, Columbia University Press announced a new partnership with Howard University’s College of Arts and Sciences and Columbia University’s African American and African Diaspora Studies Department—the Black Lives in the Diaspora: Past / Present / Future series. Building on Columbia University...

February 8, 2023

The Struggle and Resistance of Black Women Beneficiaries of Social Welfare

Gladys L. Mitchell-Walthour

On September 27, 2022, Renée Graham, a Boston Globe columnist, published a piece entitled “Brett Favre, Welfare Queen: The Same People Who Denounce Welfare Don’t Seem Outraged Over the Former Quarterback’s Alleged Misappropriation of Antipoverty Funds.” Her bold title was...

February 1, 2023

Why Historically Black Colleges and Universities Are Vital and Valuable to the U.S. Higher Education System

James V. Koch and Omari H. Swinton

Are Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) “vital and valuable” to contemporary America? Absolutely. HBCUs capably fill a niche in higher education (and in society) that the typical American college or university either ignores or downplays. Many Americans, especially those...

January 3, 2023

Announcing Our 2023 Literary Studies Catalog

Letter from the Editors: We are very excited to share our new catalog in literary studies, which includes a wide range of books in a variety of areas. Imani Owens’s Turn the World Upside Down, is one of the first...

December 12, 2022

Announcing The Columbia University Press Spring 2023 Catalog

Dear Readers, I am proud to present our Spring 2023 catalog, which demonstrates the shared strengths of Columbia University Press and Columbia University itself. In these books, Columbia authors build on distinguished careers to share important ideas with readers everywhere....