Every day, university presses worldwide step up to educate and enlighten, motivate and inspire, support and act.
During University Press Week 2024, we explore the myriad ways our community’s publications and platforms give context to current issues and events, offer solutions to global challenges, and present diverse voices in a broad range of disciplines. It’s not hard to see how the work of these mission-driven publishers helps all to stride forward with purpose.
This week, the University of Illinois Press (UIP) is highlighting exciting content, projects, and initiatives from our journals and books departments that allow our us and our authors to #StepUP. Make sure to check out blog posts from other university presses in the Association of University Presses’ (AUP) UP Week blog tour and browse the #StepUP gallery and reading list here.
An example of something the University of Illinois Press does to StepUP is offering several different types of internships and work experiences for undergraduate and graduate students. Read the below reflection from a previous intern who was with us during the spring semester to learn about some books and journals that stood out to him, as well as what he learned from getting to be involved across multiple Press departments.
Hello, my name is Hollis Druhet, and I interned at the University of Illinois Press for the spring 2024 semester. I’m a graduate student in the UIUC English department and my research concerns North American Black and Indigenous contemporary poetry. Some authors I’ve written about include Audre Lorde and Joy Harjo, where I’ve examined how their writing incorporates critiques of colonial institutions while also exploring relationalities across differences of land, ethnicity, and sexuality. In this post, I’m going to share my thoughts on a pair of University of Illinois Press titles, some journals, as well as my internship experience.
The first University of Illinois Press title I’d like to highlight is Jennifer L. Freeman Marshall’s Ain’t I an Anthropologist: Zora Neale Hurston Beyond the Literary Icon. I’ve taught Hurston’s writing in the past, and it’s exciting to see how new generations of students and scholars alike continue to offer fresh perspectives on her multifaceted life. As students continue to be largely introduced to Hurston’s novels and short stories, Freeman Marshall’s study should provoke renewed conversation around Hurston’s anthropological legacy.
Another book I’ll mention is Donal F. Lindsey’s Indians at Hampton Institute, 1877-1923. I came across this title while doing tasks in the Marketing Department to digitize descriptive details for older Press titles. After completing my tasks, I wanted to review Lindsey’s book in my free time as I wasn’t so familiar with the history of Virginia’s Hampton University, a historically Black college that was founded in 1868 and later added a small program for Indigenous students. Lindsey’s study is a rich historical document, and should be of interest to those who are curious about US education history as well as Reconstruction-era race relations. While Lindsey’s writing does examine how white citizens and educators wrote about the institute, I especially appreciate how the text provides ample space to consider how Black and Indigenous students regarded one another.
Near the end of my internship, I got to work with our Journals department. This period was quite rewarding, as I was able to see the great variety of articles published across the more than 40 University of Illinois Press journals. For instance, there’s the Journal of American Folklore, Utah Historical Quarterly, American Philosophical Quarterly, Italian American Review, and Journal of American Ethnic History; taken together, these journals exemplify the great variety of topics supported by the Press.
In particular, when I was researching for our blog’s monthly reading lists, I came across a special essay, “Asian American Disability: A History and Its Archives,” written by Naoko Wake for the Journal of American Ethnic History. Wake’s essay asks its readers to consider ways in which the concept and study of disability have been disconnected from discussions of Asian American history and literature, and vice versa. Wake’s essay is just one of many insightful articles circulated by the Journal of American Ethnic History.
Overall, I’ve greatly benefited from my internship at the Press, which has involved time spent in four departments: Acquisitions, EDP (Editing, Design, and Production), Marketing, and Journals. This process allowed me to see the initial step where a Press selects a title to contract, the period when a proposal grows into a publishable manuscript, and, finally, the date of publication. Furthermore, I got to see how the different departments work individually and across each other, collaborating to ensure that each title is receiving the appropriate attention with respect to the authors and audience. Whether it is a volume of poetry or a historical study, everyone loves to have a new book in their hands, and I appreciated having this opportunity to see what goes on behind the scenes.