The Association of University Presses (AUPresses) will convene a virtual conference this summer, as part of its plan to alternate yearly between virtual and in-person events. AUPresses 2023 will take place online weekdays June 5-16, with a mid-week break from conference activity each Wednesday.
The 2023 Annual Meeting Program Committee, co-chaired by Hope LeGro (Assistant Director, Georgetown University Press) and Cameron Ludwick (Assistant Marketing Manager, University of Texas Press), has organized 3 plenaries and more than 40 concurrent sessions and networking events to inspire and inform participants as well as foster the collaborative spirit for which this community of mission-driven publishers is known.
A preliminary program for this flagship event is available and registration is now open.
Plenary speakers will offer vital perspectives on issues of concern and deep interest to this professional community:
April Baker-Bell will discuss antiracist writing and academic publishing. Associate Professor of Language, Literacy, and English Education at Michigan State University, Baker-Bell is the author of Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy (Routledge, 2020) and a national leader in conversations on Black Language education.
Mandy Hill, Managing Director of Academic Publishing at Cambridge University Press, will address leading change as a university press. Responsible for the quality, development, and performance of the press’s academic books and journals, Hill is interested in the changing role of the university press in supporting researchers and learners worldwide.
Jeremy C. Young, PEN America’s senior manager of free expression and education, will speak on educational censorship and the work of university presses. A former history professor, Young supports academic freedom in higher education as well as the freedom to read, learn, and teach in K-12 schools, advocating against politically motivated efforts to ban curricular materials.
Overarching themes for concurrent sessions include a continuing focus on equity, justice, inclusion, and belonging, as well as open access topics and navigating career pathways. Sessions such as “Publishing Sustainably: Working toward Net Zero,” “eBook Best Practices,” “What Authors Want University Press Publishers to Know,” “The Changing Sales Landscape,” “Fundraising and Development Forum,” and “Neurodiversity in University Press Publishing” will allow participants to explore best practices and common ground.
Other sessions will introduce new AUPresses resources such as the Journal Editors Toolkit and the Diversity and Inclusion Baseline Survey Toolkit, provide an update from the AUPresses Career Progression Task Force (working jointly with the Society for Scholarly Publishing and Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers), and explore the Antiracism Toolkit for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, hosted by the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications of which AUPresses is a founding member.
Providing professional education opportunities to members is core to the Association’s mission. Group deals for member presses and discounted nonprofit registration rates for nonmembers are all offered to support this essential mission. The Association works to assist all in taking advantage of the unique professional development and networking opportunity that is the Annual Meeting.
AUPresses Annual Meetings alternate yearly between an in-person event and a virtual one. By embracing the accessibility of virtual programming as well as the energy of an in-person conference, the Association envisions a series of complementary events that will enhance the collaborative, educational, and professional networking opportunities available to all members and the wider network of community partners.
About AUPresses
AUPresses is an organization of more than 160 international nonprofit scholarly publishers. Since 1937, the Association of University Presses advances the essential role of a global community of publishers whose mission is to ensure academic excellence and cultivate knowledge. The Association holds intellectual freedom, integrity, stewardship, and diversity and inclusion as core values. AUPresses members are active across many scholarly disciplines, including the humanities, arts, and sciences, publish significant regional and literary work, and are innovators in the world of digital publishing.