From: Sigi Jottkandt <sigij AT openhumanitiespress.org>
To: "ohp AT lists.ibiblio.org" <ohp AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [OA-monographs] OHP and SPO OA Book series annoucement
Date: Sat, 08 Aug 2009 23:44:08 +1200
We're thrilled to be able to make this announcement from OHP and SPO - a
partnership that emerged from this list. Thanks to everyone here for
helping us make this happen!
Sigi
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
7 August, 2009
Wellington, New Zealand
Contact: Sigi Jöttkandt (sigij AT openhumanitiespress.org) or Shana Kimball
(kimballs AT umich.edu)
NEW OPEN ACCESS MONOGRAPHS SERIES - Open Humanities Press (OHP), in
conjunction with the University of Michigan Library’s Scholarly
Publishing Office (SPO), is pleased to announce the following
forthcoming open access series in critical and cultural theory: New
Metaphysics (ed. Graham Harman and Bruno Latour), Critical Climate
Change (ed. Tom Cohen and Claire Colebrook), Global Conversations (ed.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o), Unidentified Theoretical Objects (ed. Wlad Godzich),
and Liquid Books (ed. Clare Birchall and Gary Hall).
In a unique collaboration, the scholars of the Open Humanities Press are
partnering with the University of Michigan Library’s Scholarly
Publishing Office to launch five new OA book series, edited by senior
members of OHP’s editorial board. All of the books will be freely
available in full-text, digital editions and as reasonably-priced
paperbacks.
“This is a tremendously exciting development for humanities publishing”
said Barbara Cohen, Director of HumaniTech and a Steering Group member
of OHP. “For faculty and libraries to work directly together to address
the monographs crisis in this way makes perfect sense. It is a savvy
solution to a long-standing problem of access whose effects have been
having a major impact on scholarship worldwide.”
“We are delighted the scholars of OHP approached us to support their
innovative vision” said Maria Bonn, Director of SPO. “We are
enthusiastically supportive of what they are trying to accomplish, and
excited about the opportunities our collaboration offers for rethinking
existing models of scholarly publishing.”
All books published by OHP in conjunction with SPO will go through the
highest standards of editorial vetting and peer review that will be
managed by OHP’s series editors and board, which contains some of the
most well-respected names in literary criticism and cultural studies
including Alain Badiou, Chair of Philosophy at the École Normale
Supérieure, Donna Haraway, Professor of the History of Consciousness and
Feminist Studies, UC Santa Cruz, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Director of the
International Center for Writing and Translation, UC Irvine, Gayatri
Spivak, Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities, Columbia
University, Peter Suber, Open Access Project Director for Public
Knowledge and Professor of Philosophy at Earlham College, and Stephen
Greenblatt, Cogan University Professor of the Humanities, Harvard
University.
After the vetting and peer review process, manuscripts will be handed on
to SPO for conversion to structured XML for electronic and print on
demand publication, metadata creation and cataloging, and archiving in
the University of Michigan Library for long-term preservation. The books
will be available electronically through the OHP and SPO websites, and
in paperback through the usual online distributors. “This model allows
us the speed, editorial flexibility and boldness to focus on purely
academic considerations in our series, and with the sharp sense of
mission that accompanies such ventures,” said Graham Harman, Associate
Provost for Research at the American University of Cairo, who is
co-editing OHP’s New Metaphysics series with Bruno Latour, Directeur
scientifique of Sciences-Po, France.
Authors will retain the copyrights for their works and have a choice of
Creative Commons licenses. They will also have the option of making
their manuscripts available online in various pre- and post-publication
versions for reader commenting and annotation if they so wish. “As well
as creating a prestigious open access venue for humanities monographs
publishing, our collaboration with SPO will also enable OHP to explore
new directions that the book-length argument might take once it’s
released from marketability concerns” said Gary Hall, one of the
co-founders of OHP (with Paul Ashton, Sigi Jöttkandt and David Ottina),
and co-editor of the forthcoming Liquid Books series with Clare
Birchall. “Liquid Books is intended as a series of experimental digital
‘books’ published under the conditions of both open editing and free
content.”
Commenting on OHP’s Critical Climate Change series, J. Hillis Miller,
Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California,
Irvine, OHP board member, and long-time supporter of the Open Access
movement said, “The world is changing so rapidly and in so many
interconnected ways that theory has only begun to make the innovative
responses demanded. This series is at the frontier of new developments
in theoretical and practical thinking.”
“I love the New Metaphysics prospectus,” added Donald N. Levine, Peter
B. Ritzma Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago. “It gives
promise of a badly needed entrée into the kind of philosophizing that
Georg Simmel advocated: the pursuit of questions that can never be
definitively answered but which our intellects cannot stop themselves
from asking. The experience of joining voices as we explore such
questions can lead to some of the most magnificent moments in human life.”
“Any venture aiming to lower the linguistic barriers that inhibit free
discussion among thinkers pursuing related projects is to be warmly
welcomed,” said Derek Attridge, Leverhulme Research Professor, Chair of
English, University of York. “Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s series, ‘Global
Conversations,’ promises to take advantage of new technological
possibilities to overcome enduring problems in the world of learning,
and deserves to be a resounding success.”
###
Open Humanities Press is an international Open Access publishing
collective specializing in critical and cultural theory. OHP was formed
by academics to overcome the current crisis in scholarly publishing that
threatens intellectual freedom and academic rigor worldwide. OHP
journals are academically certified by OHP’s independent board of
international scholars. All OHP publications are peer-reviewed,
published under open access licenses, and freely and immediately
available online at www.openhumanitiespress.org.
The University of Michigan Library, through its Scholarly Publishing
Office, provides academic publishing services that are responsive to the
needs of both producers and users, that foster a sustainable economic
model for academic publishing, and that support institutional control of
intellectual assets. http://www.lib.umich.edu/spo/
[OA-monographs] OHP and SPO OA Book series annoucement,
Sigi Jottkandt, 08/08/2009