You are on page 1of 4

PRESS FORWARD

NYU PRESS NEWSLETTER Spring/Summer 2013

Editorial Corner
This spring, NYU Press is offering primers on how to change the world. Joan C. Trontos Caring Democracy: Markets, Equality, and Justice takes on Americas caring deficit, arguing that we need to make care, not economics, the central concern of democratic political life. Ruth Colkers Disabled Education: A Critical Analysis of the Individuals with Disabilities Act takes a hard look at the ways our special education system fails disabled students and what we have to do to fix it. Were also looking at how the scientific and political innovations of the twenty-first century have changed our lives. In The Material Gene: Gender, Race, and Heredity after the Human Genome Project, Kelly E. Happe looks at how we talk about genomics and how we think about society and examines the relationship between the two. Across the globe, Joshua D. Hendricks Glen: The Ambiguous Politics of Market Islam in Turkey and the World looks at Turkeys largest and most influential Islamic identity community, the Glen Movement, and how it is affecting world politics.

Closer to home, S. Zohreh Kermanis Pagan Family Values: Childhood and the Religious Imagination in Contemporary American Paganism looks at the new generation of kids who are growing up Pagan, and what they tell us about parenting in the United States. And Timothy Havens Black Television Travels: African American Media around the Globe, the first major study of the globalization of African American television, is based on interviews with television executives around the world--the people who decide how to represent African American culture on television. Meanwhile, were going back in time to look at sex in early America. Mark E. Kanns Taming Passion for the Public Good: Policing Sex in the Early Republic shows us how revolutionary elites used patriarchal authority to prevent a sexual revolution after the War of Independence. And in Tomorrows Parties: Sex and the Untimely in Nineteenth-Century America, Peter Coviello looks at works of Sarah Orne Jewett, Henry James, Joseph Smith, and others to think about the concept of sex before it was sexuality as we know it today.

A Note from the Director


As I read the recent New Yorker article The Dark Ages: Guantanamo and Legal History (March 18, 2013) by distinguished Harvard historian and author Jill Lepore, I was delighted, but not surprised, to note that her sources included two NYU Press books: Jonathan Hafetzs Habeas Corpus After 9/11: Confronting Americas New Global Detention System (2010) and The Guantanamo Lawyers: Inside a Prison Outside the Law (2011), by Mark P. Denbeaux and Jonathan Hafetz. Part of our mission is to foster knowledge that resonates within and beyond the walls of the university, and The New Yorker reaches more than a million subscribers worldwide. Lepores recent citation of the two books also highlights one of the characteristics of university presses that make them so valuable. We recognize that the scholarship we publish is not evanescent; it stays relevant. Unlike trade publishers, who often put books out of print when sales decline to fewer than a hundred copies per year (a policy that would render much of our backlist out of print!), we are committed not only to keeping our books in print, but also to marketing them for the long term, making sure their ideas continue to circulate within and beyond the academy and attract new audiences of readers. Were delighted that these two important books, published in 2010 and 2011, continue to spark and inform public debate about the many humanitarian, public policy, and constitutional issues relating to the Guantanamo detention center. STEVE MAIKOWSKI, DIRECTOR, NYU PRESS steve.maikowski@nyu.edu

Books in the News

Our fall list opened with a publication of the much anticipated City of Promises: byways), Well Met quickly sold out its first printing. The Atlas of the Great Irish A History of the Jews of New York by Howard Rock, Annie Polland, Daniel Soyer, Famine, edited by John Crowley, William J. Smyth, and Mike Murphy, received and Jeffery S. Gurock with general editor Deborah Dash Moore. In a starred review, accolades on both sides of the Atlantic from Library Journal, Booklist, The Times Kirkus said, This ambitious three-volume history...provides a lively, much-needed Literary Supplement, Irish Times, Irish America Review of Books, and Choice. overview of the role that Jews have played in the history and success of the Big This is a book that makes you feel good about a system that requires this type Apple, helping to transform it into a city of promises, some fulfilled, some pending, of participation, in which we must reflect with clarity on the guilt or innocence of some beckoning new generations. Terrific reviews from Publishers Weekly, The an individual. A genuine encouragement that speaks to the role juries play in our New York Times, New York Jewish Week, The Nation, Choice, Moment Magazine, constitutional structure, is how Kirkus Reviews described Why Jury Duty Matters: and Jewish Review of Books followed. Kirkus named City of Promises one of its A Citizens Guide to Constitutional Action by Andrew Guthrie Ferguson. Other Best Nonfiction Books of 2012, and the Jewish Book Council gave it the Jewish favorable reviews include Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, The Baltimore Sun, Book of the Year Award, the Councils highest honor. The Champion, The Daily Journal, and the PrawfsBlawg. Well Met: Renaissance Faires and the American Counterculture by Rachel Lee Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, and Joshua Green, authors of Spreadable Media: Rubin received a starred review in Library Journal, which called it A must read Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture, drew a standing-room-onlyfor anyone interested in a nonstereotypical view of the faire, its adherents, and crowd when they discussed their book at the 2012 South by Southwest why it retains its appeal decades after its inception. Spurred by good reviews in conference. It won favorable reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Deep Media, Harpers Magazine and the San Francisco Bay Guardian and on WBURs Here & Harvard Business Review, PBSs Media Shift, Fastcompany.com, the Wall Street Now, WNYCs The Brian Lehrer Show, and Slate.com (Careful, informative, and Journal, and PRweek.com. thought-provoking... packed with welcome detours into fascinating historical

Rights and Translations


Increasing the global reach of our scholars is a strategic goal of the Press, and we are pleased to announce several major international publishing deals. The Commercial Presss Chinese language edition of Henry Jenkinss Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide was released in February 2013. Jenkinss latest book, Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture (January 2013), co-authored with Sam Ford and Joshua Green, will be translated into Italian (Apogeo), Swedish (Bokfrlaget Daidalos), and Portuguese (Editora Aleph). French rights to Caring Democracy: Markets, Equality, and Justice (April 2013), by Joan Tronto, have been purchased by the prestigious Presses Universitaires de France. The Gender Trap: Parents and the Pitfalls of Raising Boys and Girls by Emily W. Kane will be translated into Russian by Phoenix Publishing House. For the South Asian market, Orient Blackswan of India will publish an English-language edition of The Sun Never Sets: South Asian Migrants in an Age of U.S. Power, edited by Vivek Bald, Miabi Chatterji, Sujani Reddy, and Manu Vimalassery. Blackswans edition will be available in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. We are delighted that more of our backlist titles, all published before 2010, are becoming available to a global audience. Race War: White Supremacy and the Japanese Attack on the British Empire by Gerald Horne will be published in Japanese by Shoden-Sha, while Misuzu Shobo, Ltd. will publish a Japanese version of Against Health: How Health Became the New Morality by Jonathan M. Metzl and Anna Kirkland. Autism and the Myth of the Person Alone by Douglas Biklen will be published in Chinese by Huaxia. Marcial Pons will translate into Portuguese Law, Culture, and Ritual: Disputing Systems in Cross-Cultural Context by Oscar G. Chase.

NYU Press | Spring/Summer 2013

Academic Awards
Sarah Banet-Weiser, Authentic: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture
2013 Winner of the International Communication Associations Outstanding Book Award

Erin Khu Ninh, Ingratitude: The Debt-Bound Daughter in Asian American Literature
2013 Winner of the Asian American Studies Associations prize in Literary Studies

Robin Bernstein , Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights
2012 Outstanding Book Award Winner from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education 2012 Winner of the Lois P. Rudnick Book Prize presented by the New England American Studies Association 2012 Winner of the Childrens Literature Association Book Award 2012 Honorable Mention, Distinguished Book Award presented by the Society for the Study of American Women Writers 2012 Runner-Up, John Hope Franklin Publication Prize presented by the American Studies Association

Yagil Levy, Israels Death Hierarchy: Casualty Aversion in a Militarized Democracy


2012 Winner of the Shapiro Award for the Best Book in Israel Studies, presented by the Association for Israel Studies

John Crowley, William J. Smyth, and Mike Murphy, Atlas of the Great Irish Famine
2012 Best Reference Book presented by Library Journal

NYU Author Feature

Recent Award Winners

Lauren Benton

Bernadette Barton, Pray the Gay Away: The Extraordinary Lives of Bible Belt Gays
2013 Finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards, LGBT Studies

Rick Baldoz, The Third Asiatic Invasion: Migration and Empire in Filipino America, 1898-1946
2012-2013 Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association Book Award

Jason E. Shelton and Michael O. Emerson, Blacks and Whites in Christian America: How Racial Discrimination Shapes Religious Convictions
2012 Winner of the C. Calvin Smith Award presented by the Southern Conference on African American Studies, Inc.

Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science and Professor of History and Affiliated Professor of Law at NYU, Lauren Benton specializes in the comparative history of empires, with emphasis on the history of law. NYU Press is delighted to publish her latest book, Legal Pluralism and Empires, 1500-1850 (July 2013), coedited with Richard J. Ross. Legal Pluralism and Empires offers a much-needed framework for analyzing the complex and fluid legal politics of empires. The books tremendous geographical breadth, including the British, French, Spanish, Ottoman, and Russian empires, gives legal scholars, historians, and other readers the most comprehensive examination of legal pluralism to date. Bentons other books include A Search for Sovereignty: Law and Geography in European Empires, 1400-1900 and Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400-1900.

Design Awards
Simone Cinotto, Soft Soil, Black Grapes: The Birth of Italian Winemaking in California
2013 New York Book Show Award in Scholarly/Professional Book Design

Tony Michels, Jewish Radicals: A Documentary History


2013 New York Book Show Award in Scholarly/Professional Book Cover Design

Deborah Dash Moore, City of Promises: A History of the Jews of New York, Vol. 1-3
2013 New York Book Show Award in Scholarly/Professional Book Set Design

NYU Press | Spring/Summer 2013

ABOUT NYU PRESS New York University Press is a department of the New York University Division of the Libraries. NYU Press is committed to publishing, in both electronic and print formats, important and distinctive authors and voicesacademics, journalists, and writers. Our publishing program includes general interest or trade books, scholarly monographs, regional books, reference books, college texts, paperback reprints, and e-texts. We now publish 110 new books each year and have a strong backlist of over 2,500 books in print. Our core publishing disciplines are sociology, law, cultural and American studies, religion, American history, anthropology, politics, criminology, media and film, and psychology. We are committed to scholarly excellence. Such excellence is expensive, and few academic books are able to recover in sales the direct costs of copyediting, design, and manufacturing. Please become a Friend of the Press by sending a gift to NYU Press, 838 Broadway, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10003. Let us know if you would like your donation to be directed to a specific series or academic discipline. NYU Press is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and all contributions are tax deductible.

NYU Press Centennial Endowment Fund


In anticipation of the 100th Anniversary of NYU Press in 2016, we have launched a Centennial Endowment fund. The endowment will allow us to continue to publish many first works of original scholarship (now almost 30 percent of our annual book output), as well as grow and diversify our publishing program, ensuring further innovation and long-term sustainability. We hope you will help us foster scholarly innovation by giving to the Centennial Endowment Fund in support of first books by junior scholars. Your contributions are fully tax deductible. Please e-mail Margie Guerra at margie.guerra@nyu.edu for details on how to contribute.

Library of Arabic Literature (LAL) Debuts


In December, the Library of Arabic Literature (www.libraryofarabicliterature.org) published its first book, Classical Arabic Literature: A Library of Arabic Literature Anthology, selected and translated by Geert Jan van Gelder, who until his retirement in 2012 was the Laudian Professor of Arabic at Oxford. This English-only anthology offers a wide-ranging selection of poetry and prose, from pre-Islamic times until the 18th century, revealing the rich variety of pre-modern Arabic social and cultural life. February saw the release of two additional LAL books: The Epistle on Legal Theory, by alShafii, edited and translated by Joseph E. Lowry (University of Pennsylvania,) and A Treasure of Virtues: Sayings, Sermons and Teachings of Ali, by al-Qadi al-Qudai, edited and translated by Tahera Qutbuddin (University of Chicago.) Four more books will be out this summer.

Find original articles, podcasts, and reviews on our blog, From the Square, at www.fromthesquare.org

For more information about NYU Press events and announcements, follow us on Facebook and Twitter. www.facebook.com/fromthesquare www.twitter.com/nyupress

Also sign up to receive monthly e-newsletters at www.nyupress.org

The Library of Arabic Literature made its debut in December at the inaugural meeting of the NYU Abu Dhabi Research Institute in Abu Dhabi. In attendance were students, faculty, and members of the wider NYU and UAE communities, including (pictured, L to R) LAL editorial board members Shawkat Toorawa, Joseph E. Lowry, and James Montgomery; NYU President John Sexton; Rima Al-Mokarrab, chair, Tamkeen Office, Abu Dhabi Executive Affairs Authority ; and LAL General Editor Philip F. Kennedy.

MARGIE GUERRA, Press Forward Editor and Assistant to the Director/Subsidiary Rights Administrator

Envisioning the Future of Open Peer Review


During the 2011-2012 academic year, NYU Press and MediaCommons jointly undertook a study of open, online peer-to-peer review in scholarly communication, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Our goal was to articulate a set of community protocols and technical specifications in order to help systematize open peer review practices. Creating such a systematic approach to open peer review, we hoped, would ensure that these practices would meet academic expectations for rigor while embracing the openness made possible by social networks and other digital platforms. We discovered, howeverand perhaps unsurprisinglythat different publications and different knowledge communities have strikingly different goals for the review process as well as different norms for collegial interaction around scholarly work. As a result, the outcome of our meetings a white paper contains fewer answers than it does questions. But the document delineates the core debates and highlights specific areas that require more nuanced assessment. We lay out many scenarios in which open peer review might flourish on its own terms and improve upon standard peer review. We invite you to read and comment at mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/mcpress/open-review.

NYU Press 838 Broadway, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10003 www.nyupress.org

You might also like