Today’s post is a part of University Press Week 2023’s blog tour. This year, the members of the Association of University Presses (AUPresses)—an organization of 160 mission-driven publishers in the United States, Canada, and around the world—have chosen #SpeakUP as the theme for University Press Week. We’re thrilled to join our peers in the university press community to celebrate university press work that amplifies thought-provoking concepts, new points of view, and ideas that advocate for social change. Today’s post, from Director of Journals Jocelyn Dawson, responds to Wednesday’s blog tour prompt: “When do university presses #SpeakUP?”
University Presses’ publishing formats are primarily books and journals, which take time to vet and produce. Presses rarely operate at the pace of up-to-the-minute news and media outlets. The time that is baked into our work is a privilege: university presses and their authors provide the long view; it is our remit to provide context, historical timelines, and well-laid out arguments built on citations. In response to the UP Week question, “when does your press speak up,” the answer in regard to our scholarship is “not in the moment, but in time, and with impact.”
Penn Press is proud to publish Humanity, a journal dedicated to publishing original research and reflection on human rights, humanitarianism, and development. Humanity addresses events from recent years as well as from modern history. The journal addresses topics of international significance, including human rights history, humanitarian aid in Syria and Lebanon, hunger strikes at Guantánamo Bay, and much more.
In connection with University Press Week 2023, we are sharing the top five most-read articles in Humanity so far in 2023. These articles are free to read through the end of the year.
Human Rights and Decolonization: New Perspectives and Open Questions
Jan Eckel
Two Regimes of Global Health
Andrew Lakoff
Humanity as an Identity and Its Political Effects (A Note on Camps and Humanitarian Government)
Michel Agier
Ethics of Survival: A Democratic Approach to the Politics of Life
Didier Fassin
Human Rights Mainstreaming as a Strategy for Institutional Power
Martti Koskenniemi
