AUPresses 2021 - Association of University Presses

Virtual Annual Meeting

June 2021: Exact Dates TBD

The AUPresses 2021 Annual Meeting, originally scheduled to be held June 15-17 in Montréal, will now be held virtually. The Board of Directors determined that the risk of compromising the health and safety of attendees, and the communities in which they live, makes convening virtually in 2021 the appropriate step. The Association is now scheduled to meet in Montréal in June 2024.

The 2021 Program Committee, chaired by Jocelyn Dawson (Duke), is excited to build on the first AUPresses Virtual Annual Meeting (2020) and is seeking proposals for virtual sessions and collaboration labs.

Call for Proposals

Proposal Form
Deadline to Submit: October 15, 2020
2020 has been a year defined by resilience and reinvention. Our professional and personal lives changed dramatically, in an instant. Our universities are reimagining (and re-reimagining) how to meet their educational mission. And, even as we’ve struggled to keep the lights on, our work as publishers has taken on urgent new meaning in the face of injustice and the pandemic. As we all figure out what it means for our presses—and our careers—to persevere and even thrive in these extraordinary times, we invite you to submit session ideas for our virtual 2021 meeting that address the theme of disruption and reassembly. What new forms of collaboration have arisen? What has changed about your work this year that will never be the same? What opportunities and challenges might a distributed work environment present? What possible futures lie ahead for university press publishing?

The program committee invites proposals that:

consider how to effectively create an inclusive work culture that accounts for the full range of human talent.
explicitly complicate and expand current conversations (e.g., around neurodiversity, learning styles, mentorship, community engagement, recruitment and advancement of BIPOC staff, the integration of equity principles into the nuts and bolts of our publishing processes.)
address the interaction of university press work and social justice movements. The academy and academic publishing have often served as a wellspring for social movements, percolating out from campus into the broader culture. At this time of social ferment, what role should we play here?
take advantage of the opportunities that the virtual meeting format presents.
offer takeaways and actionable advice applicable to presses of all sizes.

The program committee will strive to represent a variety of perspectives in all sessions: presses of different sizes and regions, speakers and facilitators from different departments, career levels, and other variables—with racial and gender diversity being an integral part of that variety.

Stay in the Know

Any questions, please email annualmeeting@aupresses.org.