SEATTLE, WA — The University of Washington Press, the MIT Press, Duke University Press, the University of Georgia Press, and the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) today announce the recipients of the 2017-2018 Mellon University Press Diversity Fellowships and future plans of the 2016-2017 Fellows.

The Mellon University Press Diversity Fellowship was established in 2016 by the four university presses and the AAUP as the first cross-press initiative of its kind in the United States to address the marked lack of diversity in the academic publishing industry. The initiative seeks to create a pipeline program of academic publishing professionals with significant personal experience and engagement with diverse communities and a demonstrated ability to bring the understanding gleaned from such engagement to bear on their daily work.

The program provides professional and financial support to cohorts of four fellows per year for three years. The yearlong appointments offer each fellow immersive, on-the-job training along with one-on-one mentoring and opportunities for networking and professional development. Fellows are given the opportunity to connect with one another and meet industry colleagues at two AAUP annual meetings. Please join us in welcoming the 2017-2018 fellows and in congratulating the 2016-2017 fellows on their accomplishments, including securing full-time positions within scholarly publishing.

The 2017-2018 Mellon University Press Diversity Fellows:

Michael Baccam joins the University of Washington Press. He received an MFA in creative writing from Eastern Washington University’s Inland Northwest Center for Writers and a BA in English from the University of Iowa. His recent professional experience includes roles as an associate editor, copy editor, and production editor for leading science and medical publishers in Philadelphia. His scholarly interests encompass Asian American studies, Southeast Asian culture and history, and the art and literature of immigrant and refugee communities.

Kyle Gipson joins the MIT Press. He has worked as an editorial intern and an editorial assistant at Beacon Press, an independent publisher devoted to social justice. Kyle received a BA from Bard College, an MA in English from Harvard University, and a graduate secondary field in studies of women, gender, and sexuality from Harvard. He is ABD in Harvard’s Program in American Studies under the direction of Henry Louis Gates Jr. and his scholarly interests include African American history and literature, gender and sexuality studies, and performance studies.

Ana M. Jimenez-Moreno comes to the University of Georgia Press from the University of Notre Dame Press, where she was awarded the 5+1 Postdoctoral Fellowship from the College of Arts and Letters after completing her PhD in English at the University of Notre Dame. She received her BA from Rutgers University, where she was an English major and a history minor.  Ana was born in Bogotá, Colombia, and grew up in Edison, New Jersey. In her future career as an editor, Ana hopes to “incorporate voices that have been silenced, but also to include scholarship by those who work with problematic or ideologically compromised authors, groups, and schools of thought. To do so is to affirm and not simply value difference.“

Stephanie Gomez Menzies joins Duke University Press from the University of California–San Diego where she is currently completing her PhD in literature. Her scholarly work focuses on the global connections between performance, activism, and citizenship, particularly in the Caribbean. She has been an active member of the UCSD community, helping to create inclusive social and professional programming for graduate students and serving as a graduate representative to the LGBT, Cross-Cultural, and Women’s Centers. She has also worked on textbooks for secondary education and served as an expert on the Chinese Cultural Revolution for a textbook series.

The 2016-2017 Mellon University Press Diversity Fellow updates:

Maryam Arain (Duke University Press) started in April as assistant editor at NYU Press.

Niccole Leilanionapae’aina Coggins (University of Washington Press) will continue at the University of Washington Press as assistant editor, transitioning into her new position on June 1.

Jesús J. Hernández (The MIT Press) is cultivating opportunities in and out of publishing.

Christian Pizarro Winting (University of Georgia Press) started in March as editorial assistant at Columbia University Press.

The fellowship program is generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with a four-year, $682,000 grant.

Media Contact: Casey LaVela / Publicity and Communications Manager / University of Washington Press / 206.221.4994

SEATTLE, WA—The University of Washington Press, the MIT Press, Duke University Press, the University of Georgia Press, and the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) today announce the recipients of the 2016–2017 Mellon University Press Diversity Fellowships. The program is the first cross-press initiative of its kind in the United States to address the marked lack of diversity in the academic publishing industry.

The Mellon University Press Diversity Fellowship was established in 2016 by the four university presses and the AAUP as a pipeline program to diversify academic publishing by offering apprenticeships in acquisitions departments. The program will create cohorts of four fellows per year for three years.

Fellowships are awarded to outstanding candidates who have significant personal experience and engagement with diverse communities and a demonstrated ability to bring the understandings gleaned from such engagement to the daily work of academic publishing.

The yearlong appointments offer each fellow opportunities for one-on-one mentoring as well as monthly cross-press video conferences led by staff at the partner presses covering a range of topics to supplement the hands-on training. Fellows are given the opportunity to connect with one another and engage with industry colleagues at two AAUP annual meetings.

The fellowship program aims to develop best practices for fostering diversity at all levels of the profession. Further, this collaboration will focus attention on the centrality of diversity to the future of global academic discourse and, it is hoped, will inspire related efforts to prioritize diversity more broadly in the publishing industry.

Although university presses have long fostered and supported diversity-related fields such as Native and Indigenous studies; African American studies; women’s, gender, and sexuality studies; and Asian American studies, the fellowship program represents a significant investment in creating career development opportunities and a supportive environment for diversity in publishing.

The 2016–2017 Mellon University Press Diversity Fellows:

Maryam Arain comes to Duke University Press from Chicago, where she has been working as a freelance editor and volunteering at the Crescent Learning Center, a day care that serves refugee populations from Somalia and Burma. She previously worked as a junior commissioning editor at Oxford University Press in Karachi, Pakistan, and as a communications coordinator at the Council on American Islamic Relations in Chicago. Maryam received her BA from Dartmouth and her MA in postcolonial studies from SOAS, University of London.

Niccole Leilanionapae‘āina Coggins comes to the University of Washington Press from the department of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she is currently a PhD candidate working under the direction of Paul Spickard. Her research interests focus on Hawaiian history as well as on identity and mixed-race youth. Niccole’s work with underrepresented communities includes participation in a local hula hālau (school) and various student life programs. Niccole received her BA from Carleton College and her MA in religion and society from the Graduate Theological Union.

Jesús J. Hernández joins the MIT Press. He held two visiting assistant professorships at Williams College and Mount Holyoke College, where his scholarly interests were in the areas of American/ethnic studies, Latina/o studies, literary studies, diaspora studies, and queer theory. He received his BA in ethnic studies from Brown University and his PhD in American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California.

Christian Pizarro Winting comes to the University of Georgia Press from Chicago, where he has been freelance copyediting and working as a research associate for a corporate recruiting company. Christian has also worked as a graduate intern on the Hemingway Letters Project at Pennsylvania State University and tutored underperforming high school students in the Chicago public school system. Christian has a BA in liberal arts from St. John’s College, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and an MA in humanities (American literature emphasis) from the University of Chicago.

The fellowship program is generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with a four-year, $682,000 grant.

Media Contact: Casey LaVela / Publicity and Communications Manager / University of Washington Press / 206.221.4994