AAUP Announces Election of MaryKatherine Callaway to Presidency
NEW YORK, NY—On June 4, 2011, at the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Louisiana State University Press Director MaryKatherine Callaway assumed leadership of the AAUP for the 2011-2012 term. Callaway succeeds Richard Brown, director of Georgetown University Press, who remains on the AAUP Board of Directors.
Formally established in 1937, AAUP promotes the work and influence of university presses, provides cooperative marketing opportunities, and helps its more than 130 member presses fulfill their common commitments to scholarship, the academy, and society. The president of AAUP serves as a spokesperson for and an advocate of university presses and works with the executive director and board of directors to set the direction and immediate goals of the organization.
Callaway began her university press career in the marketing department at the University of Georgia Press, where she worked for a year before crossing the Atlantic to open the UK marketing office for Johns Hopkins University Press. Upon her return to the States, Callaway continued at Johns Hopkins as international sales and subrights manager and then became marketing director. In 2003, after 14 years with Johns Hopkins, Callaway left to direct Louisiana State University Press, where, over the last eight years, the press has won its fourth Pulitzer Prize, published three National Book Award finalists, and received many other prizes.
While at Johns Hopkins, Callaway used her overseas publishing experience to benefit the AAUP community, serving for four years on the International Committee and chairing it for one. As director at LSU Press, Callaway served a full term as a board member before returning in 2010 as president-elect.
In her inaugural address at the AAUP Annual Meeting, Callaway emphasized the growing importance of collaboration—the theme of the 2011 meeting—both among university presses and between presses and their parent universities. Speaking to the latter, she announced the creation of a task force on university relations, “to build better relations with our parent institutions, ways to remain relevant, and thereby help ensure our survival.” But generally, Callaway recognized that “we figure things out with each other, which is one reason AAUP is so important: our collegiality and willingness to shape our future together.”
Media Inquiries:
Regan Colestock
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