One of the oldest academic presses in the United States, Stanford University Press is a leader in print and digital dissemination of innovative research. It publishes around 130 books a year in the humanities and social sciences.
The press is a pioneer in the "born digital" scholarship movement, which is applying new methods of digital storytelling to disseminate scholarly work. Its future, though, is under threat.
History
Founded in 1892 as the Stanford Publishing Company, the press soon became synonymous with high production standards and rigorous editorial scrutiny. The earliest titles ranged from scholarly meditations like Illustrated Flora of the Pacific States, and Between Pacific Tides, to works of evocative literary fiction and poetry by authors like Robert Graves, Henry James, and Jack Kerouac.
As the press’s output grew, so did its facilities, including an expanded printing plant in 1929 that featured state-of-the-art equipment including the first offset printing apparatus and six linotypes. By 1952, the press had earned a reputation for its high output per square foot and was ranking seventh nationally with respect to the number of titles published.
Today, the press focuses on the humanities and social sciences, publishing a diverse array of books that advance academic discourse on topics ranging from political theory to the history of Jewish studies to contemporary anthropology. As of this writing, there are over 3,000 books in print and the press is well-positioned to continue publishing innovative research for years to come.
The press is also leading the charge in digital publishing, launching an acclaimed program in 2016 that allows scholars to publish their scholarly endeavors in an interactive format, a feat previously unthinkable for academic work. In a letter to Provost Persis Drell, a group of professors on the press’s editorial board cited the press’s efforts as “a groundbreaking milestone in the field.”
For the past five years, the press has produced a quarterly review that highlights its most notable titles. This year, its top-ranked review was Nothing Happened: A History, a book that moves effortlessly between modes of seeing Nothing (and other related concepts), drawing on cultural studies and visual analysis to explore the many ways in which our world has changed since the dawn of civilization.
In the words of its director Alan Harvey, the press has been “at the forefront of the most innovative and exciting developments in the field of academic publishing.” Whether the press can sustain itself as a fully independent operation is not yet clear. The provost has set up two committees to study the issue: one commissioned by her, the other created by a resolution of a Faculty Senate meeting last fall.
Humanities
The humanities are a major part of Stanford University Press's mission to publish new knowledge that will benefit, challenge and illuminate our society. Their books range from the interdisciplinary to the historical, and in recent years they have expanded their focus to include new areas such as political science, sociology, anthropology, and religion.
The press's humanities staff are dedicated to publishing rigorous work that explores the past, present and future of our world. From the groundbreaking online encyclopedia Catalhoyuk to a new digital mapping project on money paid by the federal government to counties and states across the American West, humanities scholars at Stanford are using their expertise in the arts, social sciences, and digital humanities to unlock untold stories.
In English, Professor Mark Algee-Hewitt and his team of graduate students combine textual analysis with the emotional experience of reading to uncover what creates suspense in novels. They sift through two centuries of British novels to uncover the different parts of London readers felt most about in their own stories.
A digital humanities project led by a historian reveals the role that national parks played in establishing and reshaping nations throughout the twentieth century. Their maps illustrate the role that these legally protected spaces played in establishing a geopolitical weapons system, while also revealing that their establishment was accompanied by a plethora of other impacts – from funeral reform and grave relocation to tourism and urban growth.
Another team at the press uses data to shed light on the history of post offices. Their project, Geography of the Post, allows users to map where post offices were located and how they changed over time.
In June, Provost Persis Drell proposed cutting the university's subsidy for the press by $1.7 million in an attempt to create a "sustainable" and "right-sized" press. The move would have a devastating impact on the press, which is one of the most important and influential publishers of research in the humanities. But Drell has deferred the decision to cut support for a year and is committed to reassessing the future of the press. The university's Committee on Libraries, which has a long tradition of discussing the role of the press, will have to play a leading role in any decision that is made regarding its fate.
Social Sciences
At a time when the social sciences are facing unprecedented global challenges and generating new knowledge that will benefit, challenge, and illuminate our societies, Stanford University Press strives to publish books that matter. Under the stewardship of Alan Harvey and Grant Barnes, the Press has expanded its publishing program to include humanities and literary studies, scholarly theory, and works by prominent sociologists.
During its first half century, the Press established itself as one of the leading academic publishers in the United States. Under Leon Selzer, the Press published landmark books by Donald Frame, Roberta Wohlstetter, and other authors, as well as a range of translations from the European classical period. Under Grant Barnes, the Press expanded its scholarly program to include a large selection of works by prominent philosophers and political theorists, including books by Jacques Derrida, Helene Cixous, and Pierre Bourdieu.
Today, under the direction of Alan Harvey, the Press is committed to publishing books that are concise, accessible, and timely, while also establishing and maintaining exacting editorial standards. Under his leadership, the Press has launched a new imprint of short, accessible scholarly books, Stanford Briefs; a new trade imprint, Redwood Press; and a Mellon Foundation-funded digital publishing program.
As the scholarly world undergoes profound transformation, we need bold, inventive programs of social science research that address the complex issues that arise in an increasingly interconnected world. With the development of novel data sources, powerful computing tools, and a growing emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration, Stanford researchers are tackling some of our most important societal problems.
To meet these challenges, the Stanford Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRiSS) facilitates world-class interdisciplinary research, trains the next generation of scholars, and incubates research projects to address critical societal issues that affect communities around the globe. The IRiSS's core mission is to produce evidence-based research that will help scholars and policymakers understand, address, and mitigate the complexities of our rapidly changing society.
In the social sciences, this means developing an interdisciplinary approach to the study of human social behavior that is grounded in rigorous empirical data and employs a variety of innovative research methods. The IRiSS is a leader in developing new, powerful approaches to the collection and analysis of data, and its scholarly community has a strong commitment to promoting the ethical and responsible conduct of research. It is this commitment that guides IRiSS's research program and ensures a vibrant community of scholars at the forefront of their fields.