Category Archives: From the Desk of the Director

Your University Press in Action: UW Press Releases New Report

For over 100 years, the University of Washington Press has produced groundbreaking books for a global community of scholars as well as essential books that tell the stories of our city and region. Over the past three years, we’ve released 150 new books, organized hundreds of public talks and other author events, and collaborated with numerous campus and community partners to carry out this vital work.

With this report, I’d like to highlight some of our recent activities—not just our fantastic new books but the many ways in which we engage the world and support the public good. From combatting misinformation with robustly peer-reviewed publications to diversifying the publishing industry to co-creating materials for Indigenous revitalization, our work touches many lives on campus, in our local communities, and around the world. We invite you to learn more about us in the following pages.

Read about how UW Press serves our many communities

Thank you for reading!

Nicole Mitchell, Director

UW Press joins UW Libraries

SEATTLE, WA, February 21, 2018 – Starting March 1, 2018, the University of Washington Press will join the UW Libraries and report to the vice provost of digital initiatives and dean of University Libraries, Lizabeth (Betsy) Wilson.

Lizabeth (Betsy) Wilson (Credit: Cass Redstone)

The Press and the Libraries currently collaborate on a number of joint initiatives including exploration of digital publishing platforms, open access publishing, open educational resources development, and support for digital scholarship. The Press has also published a number of books in association with the Libraries including Rural China on the Eve of Revolution; Mary Randlett Portraits; Roots and Reflections: South Asians in the Pacific Northwest; and Shadows of a Fleeting World: Pictorial Photography of the Seattle Camera Club.

“The Press and the Libraries share a complementary mission and vision for the creation, dissemination, and preservation of knowledge,” said Wilson. “I am excited to welcome the Press to the Libraries.”

Nicole Mitchell, UW Press director, is equally enthusiastic about this new partnership. “My colleagues and I look forward to working more closely with the Libraries as we explore ways to support and make discoverable new forms of scholarship. We’re excited about the opportunities to learn from each other and share our expertise.”

Nicole Mitchell (Credit: Hayley Young)

The Press has for many years reported to the vice provost and dean of the UW Graduate School, and In recent years has expanded its publishing program, garnered many prestigious awards, and received major funding, including most recently significant grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation: one to establish the Mellon University Press Diversity Fellowship program and another to create, with UBC Press, a new model for multi-path digital works in Indigenous studies in collaboration with local communities.

“The future of scholarly communication creates a need to explore new models of publishing and authorship,” said Gerald (Jerry) Baldasty, provost and executive vice president of the UW. “A strengthened partnership between one of the nation’s leading research libraries and one of the oldest and most esteemed presses in the United States will engender an even deeper sharing of expertise and increased innovation.”

About the University of Washington Press
Established in 1920, the University of Washington Press supports the university’s research, education, and outreach missions by publishing important new work for an international community of scholars, students, and intellectually curious readers. As one of the largest book publishers in the Pacific Northwest, the Press is known for both its groundbreaking scholarly lists and broad range of regional books for general readers.About the University of Washington Libraries
The University of Washington Libraries is a network of 16 academic research libraries serving three campuses: Seattle, UW Bothell, and UW Tacoma, and is home to the largest library collection in the Pacific Northwest with over 9 million books, journals, and digital resources. The Libraries’ mission is to advance intellectual discovery and enrich the quality of life by connecting people with knowledge.Media Contacts:
Casey LaVela, Publicity Director, University of Washington Press, kclavela@uw.edu 206-221-4994
A.C. Petersen, Libraries Communications Officer, UW Libraries, acpete@uw.edu 206-543-9389

From the Desk of the Director: Knowledge and Facts Matter

With fall quarter now well underway, I thought I’d take a moment to update you on the latest news from the University of Washington Press.

It has been an especially busy time for me since I assumed the presidency of the Association of University Presses at our annual meeting this past June. Diversity and inclusion were pervasive themes at the conference this summer thanks in large part to our Mellon-funded University Press Diversity Fellowship Program, which was featured during the opening plenary, two panels, and a breakfast roundtable. Our first Mellon fellow, Niccole Coggins, is now an assistant editor on our permanent staff, and in early June we welcomed our second fellow, Mike Baccam. This is the first program of its kind in university press publishing and we are proud to be taking the lead in increasing diversity in our industry together with our partner presses at MIT, Duke, and Georgia.

To expand on this work, my first initiative as president of the Association was to create the new Diversity and Inclusion Task Force. I am also working on other initiatives, including forming an international working group. I’ve just returned from a board of directors meeting in Washington, DC, where I was also able to participate in a publishing workshop for doctoral and post-doctoral scholars (Kluge Fellows) currently researching a wide variety of topics at the Library of Congress.

Advocating for the value of university presses is one of my main duties as president. A recent piece in Publishers Weekly, which I coauthored with Association executive director Peter Berkery, discusses the importance of scholarship in the current political climate. During this time of “fake news” and “alternative facts,” university presses offer deeply informed, reliable discussions of pressing issues, including questions about climate change, disputes over the meaning of public monuments, and debates about the rights of refugees. As we launch University Press Week on the theme “#LookItUP: Knowledge Matters,” I find myself thinking back to Dan Rather’s words at our annual meeting in June where he told a room full of scholarly publishers: “Our country needs you and your work right now. . . . What you do matters.”

Throughout the year, we at UW Press provide dozens of opportunities to engage in informed discussions at public events with our authors. Please visit our events calendar for more information, and find us and other presses during UP Week online with the hashtag #LookItUP. We hope you’ll join the conversation.

With very best wishes,

Nicole F. Mitchell
Director, University of Washington Press
President, Association of University Presses 2017–2018

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From the Desk of the Director: Books in Common

In May we received exciting news from Western Washington University: the Western Reads committee has chosen a University of Washington Press book, Tulalip, From My Heart: An Autobiographical Account of a Reservation Community, by Harriette Shelton Dover, as their common book for the 2017–18 school year. The committee selected this book by a Tulalip elder in consultation with Indigenous people on and off campus to commemorate the 1969 “Right to be Indian” conference. This gathering drew tribal members from across the region in support of young people working to improve their communities through social and political self-determination. Now, as we approach the conference’s fiftieth anniversary, more than 4,000 incoming Western students, faculty, and staff will engage with Tulalip, From My Heart, Dover’s remarkable story about her tribe’s history, struggles, and powerful ties to land now occupied by others.

Harriette Shelton Dover

Dawn Dietrich, associate professor and director of the Western Reads program, shared her enthusiasm for this selection as a way of fostering collaboration and relationship building around Native American education. The choice of this common book “honors the Coast Salish traditions that defined, and continue to define, this region,” Dietrich told us.

UW Press has played an important role in publishing the stories of Native American and Indigenous communities for almost 100 years. Our list includes memoirs by Coast Salish and Alaska Native writers, tribal dictionaries and grammars, books about Native American art and culture, as well as new work presenting contemporary issues from decolonizing perspectives. Our books are enjoyed by general readers, taught in classes, found in libraries of tribal colleges, and used by scholars and artists in many disciplines.

The Western Reads common book selection is just one example of how communities and readers engage with the work we publish. Another is Promised Land, a new documentary about the Duwamish and Chinook fight for treaty recognition. Several UW Press books “formed the academic framework of the film’s narrative,” as filmmaker Sarah Samudre Salcedo puts it, including Coll Thrush’s Native Seattle: Histories from the Crossing-Over Place, Robert T. Boyd, Kenneth Ames, and Tony Johnson’s Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia, and Jon Daehnke’s forthcoming Chinook Resilience: Heritage and Cultural Revitalization on the Lower Columbia River. The Seattle Theatre Group will present Promised Land on July 6, 2017, at the Neptune Theatre. The screening is free and open to the public and will include a preshow discussion with representatives from the tribes. We hope you can join us.

UW Press is dedicated to publishing books that help communities engage in shared conversations and inform new art and scholarship. We are proud to bring important stories and ideas to life for current and future generations.