Press Matters
Disciplinary Nomenclature, Specializations, and University Presses: Exploratory Observations of Scholarly Publishing
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jean Pierre Herubel
University presses select and publish intellectually significant scholarship. As they each occupy disciplinary space, particular to their publishing and editorial missions, university presses consider manuscripts per respective brands and imprimatur. This presentation will examine subject specialization within the larger context of disciplinary formation and disciplinary alignments university presses consider within their purview. To gain a greater appreciation of their missions in subject specialization, a definitional model will animate further discussion of publication trends, and disciplinary nomenclature utilized by university presses to capture their emphases within the constellation of scholarly publishing. Methodology and discussion will focus on data gleaned from the 2018 Directory of Association of American University Presses. Via a bibliometric approach, comparison with earlier Directories will situate discussion within the wider frame of disciplinary specialization growth. Disciplinary subjects and disciplinary nomenclature will constitute the focus of discussion as central to university press monographic publication trends. Special emphasis and illustrations will focus on fragmentation, hyper-specialization, and trends accommodating emerging scholarly domains. Further broached vis-à-vis academic publishing and corresponding influence on scholars, especially, humanities scholars, as they navigate the scholarly communication system, exemplified by university presses.
Print Culture in the Making : Publishing for Wide Audiences in the Twentieth Century
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nuno Medeiros
This study sets out to understand the ways a publishing house can set itself up as an actor able to intervene in the agency of authors, guiding – even determining – the performance of the writers, translators, and adapters it accommodated in the catalogue. The empirical angle is supported by an in-depth case-study of Romano Torres publishing house, a publisher set in Lisbon which established its activity in the realm of the Portuguese language between the years of 1885-1886 and 1990. To examine the publishing activity through the case analyzed herein is to understand how an intricate system of relations, and their context, shapes the action of agents and their dispositions. This reveals how in cultural production and circulation, the autonomy of each field can only be explained taking into account its permeability. In the end, this proposal is interested in capturing the ways a book publishing house for mass consumption ends up shaping a catalogue and its forms of circulation, by interfering simultaneously in the transformation of the book market and in the forms of making books reach their readers.
The Rise of Far-Right Publishing in Greece since 1974
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anna Karakatsouli
The rise of the far-Right, both in its post-fascist variant and in its neo-fascist/neo-nazi one, is a phenomenon well entrenched across Europe. Nowadays, such political formations record two-digit percentages in various countries. Greece is witnessing the sharp rise of one of the most extremist parties in Europe, Golden Dawn. The economic and the refugee crises have been instrumental in Golden Dawn’s breakthrough in the 2012 elections, offering it the opportunity to build grassroots support and links to local communities. Following the fall of the Greek military junta in 1974, Greece was considered immune to far-right extremism, given that the memory of authoritarianism was still fresh. The electoral breakthrough of Golden Dawn may have taken many by surprise, but a careful observer should have noticed the growing audience of far-right publications. Significantly, Golden Dawn chose to issue a newspaper before establishing itself as a political party. Far-Right publishing has been operating in close collaboration with private local TV channels that systematically promote extremist publications. Pseudo-scientific studies in support of far-Right positions on nationalism, illegal immigration, racism, and antisemitism have been systematically publicized and sold through telemarketing providing popular audience and a lucrative source of income to far-Right groups and individuals. The paper examines this yet understudied field of extremist publishing, its choice of authors and titles as well as its networking and aggressive marketing practices.
Partnering for Digital Publishing: Resurfacing At-risk Works of the Small, Independent, Feminist Press
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jane Nichols
Presenters discuss a digital publishing partnership between OSU Libraries and Calyx Press, Inc. A non-profit feminist press, Calyx brought many now-prominent authors to international attention, including the poet Sharon Olds and Nobel Laureate Wisława Szymborska. Supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, we aim to preserve Calyx Press titles and make them readily available in ebook formats with a Creative Commons license. The project relies on the strengths of each partner, embodying how a comparatively well-resourced public institution serves to amplify an important community non-profit, preserving its rich contributions to feminism and women’s movements. This project aligns with similar efforts such as the digitization of the feminist magazine Spare Rib (1972-1993) by the British Library and JISC. Digitization of feminist publications like these has the potential to attract new and returning generations of readers and scholars interested in twentieth- and twenty-first-century feminist writing. Ideally we hope our digital collection will find new audiences and re-invigorate our long standing audience. Along the way, we have tussled with problematic questions of ownership, valuing the labor of creative workers, and digital rights. By sharing our experience thus far, we align with our feminist foresisters who were “contributing to the movement through the very act of producing a magazine” (Forster, 2016, p. 28). Sharing the complex concerns we’ve encountered along with our hopeful vision for aggregating and disseminating at-risk work of feminist authors and scholars, we are working to contribute to today’s digital feminist movement.
