The Association of University Presses (AUPresses) mission statement recognizes that “AUPresses advances the essential role of a global community of publishers whose mission is to ensure academic excellence and cultivate knowledge.” The launch of our new website in summer 2020 afforded the opportunity to evoke this global community by inviting translations of our mission statement for inclusion in the new site. Member presses’ staff and authors answered this call, providing 28 translations—ranging from American Sign Language and Arabic to Thai and Yiddish—that are also displayed in rotation throughout the site.
In early 2021, AUPresses launched a pilot program that seeks to deepen transnational dialogue and collaboration among mission-driven scholarly publishers. The AUPresses Global Partner Program will pair member presses with non-member presses in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America, aiming not only to amplify the work of presses in the “Global South” but also to expand the knowledge base of the university press community worldwide. During calendar year 2021, African Minds from South Africa will partner with Duke University Press from the United States, and Makerere University Press from Uganda will partner with Liverpool University Press from the United Kingdom.
The Association also continued to engage scholarly publishing and library colleagues in professional exchange and network-building conferences:
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- The Association supported the online third biennial UP Redux, organized by the Association of Learned and Professional Scholarly Publishers (ALPSP) and Cambridge University Press during the spring and summer months of 2020.
- P2L4 was convened virtually in partnership with the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) over summer 2020. This year’s symposium was open not only to press directors and librarians with reporting relationships, but to all ARL and AUPresses members throughout North America and the globe.
- AUPresses continues to serve on the international organizing committee for Peer Review Week. Our Acquisitions Editorial Committee hosted a virtual conversation on Trust in Peer Review during last year’s observance, September 21-25.