Happy New Year! Did you spot the 2026 journal issue that snuck in amongst the 2025s in the above photo?

While there’s a lot to look forward to in the coming year, let’s take a moment to look back at the last three months of 2025 with our Journals Q4 UPdate. We’ll be highlighting special issues, podcasts, blogs, and more to keep you up to date on University of Illinois Press journals news.

P.S. Check out our 2026 Journals Catalog!

Cover Update

Special Issues

• “Fathers and Sons,” Diasporic Italy, Volume 5, guest edited by Elisa Bordin and Theodora Patrona
• “Folklore, Comics, and Graphic Storytelling,” Journal of American Folklore, Volume 138, Number 550, guest edited byErin Kathleen Bahl and Andy Kolovos
• “Connecticut Women’s Political and Economic Experience,” Connecticut History Review, Volume 64, Number 2, guest edited by Cecelia Bucki and Elizabeth Hohl
• “Current Perspectives on Cuba and Puerto Rico,” American Music, Volume 42, Number 2, guest edited by Marysol Quevedo
• “Fake News in or as Invective in Ancient Texts and Contexts,” Illinois Classical Studies, Volume 50, Number 1, guest edited by Andreas Serafim
• “Gordon D. Logan Festschrift,” American Journal of Psychology, Volume 138, Number 2, guest edited by Darryl W. Schneiderm, Matthew J. C. Crump, and Frederick Verbruggen
• “Sino-Soundscapes in Latin America,” American Music, Volume 42, Number 3, edited by Nancy Yunhwa Rao
• “Sport Studies as a Public Service,” Journal of Sport History, Volume 52, Number 3, guest edited by Carly Adams, Aaron Bonsu, and Cam Mallett
• “Embracing the Radical Potential of Art + Design Education,” Visual Arts Research, Volume 51, Number 2, guest edited by Veronica Hicks, Lillian Lewis, Courtnie N. Wolfgang, and Mindi Rhoades *OPEN ACCESS*
• “A Tribute to Bob Hirst,” American Literary Realism, Volume 58, Number 2, guest edited by Kerry Driscoll
• “In Memoriam Nicholas Rescher 1928–2024,” American Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 63, Number 1, edited by Patrick Grim

Blogs

We celebrated two years of a pilot program with the Consortium of Academic Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) earlier this year and recently shared a blog post discussing the CARLI and UIP partnership and how the pilot is proceeding. In brief, CARLI and UIP announced a partnership to provide member libraries access to more than 40 scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences. This initiative grants nearly 3,000 library subscriptions to complete coverage of UIP journals throughout the CARLI system. We are pleased to report a more than 200% increase in journal usage by CARLI members since the beginning of the program.

In October, we celebrated Italian American and Polish American Heritage months with a curated reading list. Check them out to learn more about Journal of American Ethnic History, The Polish Review, Polish American Studies, Diasporic Italy, Italian Americana, and Italica.

In November, we participated in the Association of University Presses’ University Press Week with daily blog posts around the theme of “Team UP.”

• We highlighted some very important members of the University of Illinois Press community: the scholars who not only serve as editors of our journals, but also as authors of books published by our Press! At UIP, we try to look for opportunities for the books and journals departments to Team UP as much as possible, so we’re always excited when there is cross-over! This list of Who Teams UP at, with, or for UIP is just a sampling of the connections between our editors and authors, joining an extensive array of past editors who have published with us.
• University Press Week was the week before National Education Week, so we gave a preview of an education-related reading list showing What UIP Does to Team UP: the attention we give to our relationship within and in support of the education system.
• From the physical to the digital, in our local communities, on campus, at independent bookstores, libraries, and across the publishing ecosystem—Where does the University of Illinois Press Team UP? We showcased one digital place where we Team UP with our authors, editors, and contributors to spread the word about their new books, journal issues, and articles to the scholarly community and beyond: the University of Illinois Press podcasts, The Contemporary Film Directors Podcast and The UPside for a variety of book and journal content.

We also celebrated World Philosophy Day. Check out the post to learn more about recent special issues, podcasts, free articles and more from Process Studies, Journal of Animal Ethics, Journal of Aesthetic Education, The Pluralist, Public Affairs Quarterly, American Philosophy Quarterly, History of Philosophy Quarterly, and the American Journal of Theology and Philosophy. Plus, there are links so you can find the right journal to submit your own work.

While you’re on the blog, find your next read on one of our other reading lists:

• National Arts & Humanities Month
• National Immigrants Day

Featured Top Articles

What’s been a highly read article in these journals for the past three months? Many of our journals have content on several different online platforms, so this feature section is only highlighting one top article from one platform (in the case of the below, these are top articles from Project Muse).

• American Literary Realism: “Godfrey St. Peter’s ‘Picturesque Shipwreck’” by Sarah Mahurin Mutter (Vol. 42, No. 1)
• American Music: “Indeterminacy and Performance Practice in Cage’s Variations” by David P. Miller (Vol. 27, No. 1)
• Journal of Aesthetic Education: “Learning Jazz Language by Aural Imitation: A Usage-Based Communicative Jazz Theory (Part 1)” by Mattias Solli, Erling Aksdal, and John Pål Inderberg (Vol. 55, No 4) *OPEN ACCESS*
• Journal of Animal Ethics: “The Global Watchdogs: Toward International Animal Rights Law?” by Kit De Vriese and Maria Elena Handtrack (Vol. 11, No. 1)
• Journal of Education Finance and Law: “The Effect of Higher Education on Youth Unemployment in European Regions During a Period of Economic Instability” by Kristinn Hermannsson, Rosario Scandurra, and Marcello Graziano (Vol. 49, No. 4)
• Journal of English and German Philology: The Medieval Chastity Belt: A Myth-Making Process [Review] by Claudia Bornholdt (Vol. 108, No. 1)
• Journal of Film and Video: “Film Collaboration and Creative Conflict” by Carroll Hodge (Vol. 61, No. 1)
• Journal of Sport History: “Witnessing Painful Pasts: Understanding Images of Sports at Canadian Indian Residential Schools” by Taylor McKee and Janice Forsyth (Vol. 46, No. 2)
• Music and the Moving Image: “Understanding the Music for Parasite (2019) by Jung Jae Il with Satire, Counterpoint, and Third Meaning” by Gui Hwan Lee (Vol. 18, Iss. 3)
• Visual Arts Research: “Muralism, Graffiti, and Gentrification in Los Angeles: Nuances of a Radical Imagination” by Arón Montenegro (Vol. 51, No. 1)
• Women, Gender, and Families of Color: “An Introduction to Race, Gender, and Disability: Intersectionality, Disability Studies, and Families of Color” by Liat Ben-Moshe and Sandy Magaña (Vol. 2, No. 2)

Podcasts

December 6 is Finland’s Independence Day, and we celebrated this year with a Journal of Finnish Studies podcast. With co-editors Thomas A. DuBois and Anne Mäntynen, we discussed the holiday, recent special issues on “Multilingual Finland,” the journal and the field of Finnish Studies more generally, and more. You can listen to the interview wherever you enjoy podcasts or read the transcript on our blog. For the Process Studies special section on “A Century of Process Thought: Commemorating Whitehead’s Legacy at Harvard” from Volume 54, Number 2, we spoke with editor Dr. Daniel A. Dombrowksi. You can listen to the interview wherever you enjoy podcasts or read the transcript on our blog.

What’s Next UP?

Well, what fun would that be to spoil the surprise? We’ve got new special issues and new editors to introduce, so keep an eye on our social media accounts and this blog for all the latest journals news.

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