Welcome to our weekly roundup of news from university presses! Once again, there is a lot to share this week from our fellow academic publishing houses and much to learn on What SUP at the social university presses. This week, we stop meddling, participate in citizen science, and evaluate research on inequality. What did you read this week?
Columbia University Press asks why Roberto Bolaño’s novels, especially The Savage Detectives and 2666, were so widely read and so well regarded in the United States. Chris Andrews, author of Roberto Bolaño’s Fiction, gives a brief history of the writer’s reception and lists seven possible reasons for his popularity.
New York University Press celebrates the end of summer with a giveaway of Books That Cook, a collection of American literature written about food and organized like a cookbook. It includes pieces by Maya Angelou, Sherman Alexie, and Nora Ephron, among many others.
Indiana University Press encourages everyone to mind their own business with the latest episode of the Press’s podcast. John Lachs discusses his book, Meddling, and distinguishes between helping people and intruding on their private lives and decisions.
Johns Hopkins University Press considers reactions to neoliberalism in Central America with a guest post by Paul Almeida. In his books, Waves of Protest and Mobilizing Democracy, he focuses on economic conflicts in El Salvador with attention to Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and other countries as well.
Temple University Press tells the life story of Albert M. Greenfield, a Jewish immigrant who shook up business practices in the 1920s and ’30s. In an interview, Dan Rottenberg discusses The Outsider, his book about Greenfield, and the challenge of separating fact from myth when writing about a man who described himself in many different ways at different times.
Oregon State University Press explores the new and interrelated ways policy makers, professional researchers, and enthusiastic amateurs engage with science. Sharman Apt Russell, author of Diary of a Citizen Scientist, shares her reflections on the first national conference for citizen science and mentions some of the ongoing projects in which she and others participate.
Oxford University Press argues that laughter and aggression might have more in common than we usually think with an excerpt from Comedy, Matthew Bevis’s contribution to their series of Very Short Introductions. Bevis shows how near oxymorons like “playful anger” and “outrageous outrage” capture key emotional realities.
Stanford University Press evaluates the success and importance of research on inequality with a post by David Grusky. He explains that questions about systemic change remain largely unanswered and calls for study in the field to continue. Grusky acknowledges that academics trends shift unpredictably, but hopes that inequality will remain a mainstream concern.
Between Memory and History