ASA Graduate Education Committee: An Introduction to Publishing

Session Submission Type: Non-Paper Session: Dialogue Format

Abstract

This roundtable is intended to introduce graduate students and junior faculty to the changing arena of academic publishing. The discussion will consider what the persistence of long-standing forms of publication, editorial review processes, new technologies, and the volatility of university economies mean for authors seeking to publish their research for the purpose of contributing to scholarly debates as well as institutional requirements for advancement. The scholarly monograph endures despite the now routine pronouncement of its demise. Yet online formats and venues and debates over open access all significantly change the publishing dynamics with which authors must contend. These new possibilities potentially transform the practices of scholarly production, circulation, and engagement. This roundtable assesses the current state of the field of academic publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences—as well as publishing ventures that may or may not by recognized by the standards of tenure and promotion—in order to provide graduate students and junior faculty with a practical understanding of this context and to encourage their informed pursuit of publication.

Roundtable participants from a broad range of institutional locations will focus on the opportunities and challenges prospective and emerging authors encounter in the context of today’s publishing landscape. Courtney Berger will offer insights as editor at Duke University Press. Neferti Tadiar will reflect on the specificities of a journal collective as one of the principle editors and editorial collective member of Social Text. As coeditor of the “Difference Incorporated” series for the University of Minnesota Press, Roderick Ferguson will speak to the role of the book series and its relationship to the editorial processes of academic presses. Sandra Soto will discuss her perspective as editor of the National Women’s Studies Association journal Feminist Formations. Other roundtable participants address working across conventional, alternative, and/or new forms of publishing that bridge academic and non-academic readerships. Nicholas Estes, a PhD student currently coediting a special issue of the journal Wicazo Sa Review, will speak about this experience as well his work publishing the online blog Owašíču Owé Wašté Šní. Recently having completed her doctorate, Christina Heatherton will share her thoughts on editing two books, coediting a third, and co-founding Freedom Now Books—an independent publishing company dedicated to collaborative work between scholars, activists, and artists. This roundtable will be chaired by Alyosha Goldstein. Together the panelists provide novice and already-published authors alike with an essential understanding of academic publishing today.

Sub Unit

• American Studies Association Annual Meeting

Chair

• Alyosha Goldstein, University of New Mexico (NM)

Panelists

• Courtney Berger, Duke University Press (NC)

• Neferti X. M. Tadiar, Barnard College (NY)

• Roderick Ferguson, University of Illinois, Chicago (IL)

• Sandra K. Soto, University of Arizona (AZ)

• Christina Heatherton, Trinity College (CT)

• Nicholas Estes, University of New Mexico (NM)