A little more than 25 years ago, the University of Rochester’s then provost was thinking that the University would benefit from the establishment of a scholarly press. He was open to inventive ideas that would let his new enterprise hit the ground running.
At the same time and across the ocean, two British scholars whose scholarly press was seeing expanding U.S. sales were pondering how to establish a better foothold in this country for their own operations.
A medievalist scholar at the University knew both parties. He made the initial connection, and today the University of Rochester Press is celebrating the 25th anniversary of a successful partnership with Boydell & Brewer, Ltd., based in Suffolk, England.
In this innovative collaboration, the University makes the editorial selection of new books to be published, while Boydell & Brewer provides production, marketing, and worldwide distribution. The distinctive “Rochester model” has been noted in discussion among colleague presses in the Association of American University Presses (AAUP).
In 25 years, the Press (www.urpress.com) has published more than 600 books across an array of fields. The Press has maintained a focus on selected areas of scholarship, including musicology, African studies, medical history, and European and American history. More recently, it has added series in ethnomusicology, gender and race, and medieval political thought. A special imprint, Meliora Press, publishes books on University-related topics.
In addition to its more academic titles, the Press has published well-reviewed biographies and memoirs of important cultural figures such as famed composer, conductor, and music educator Gunther Schuller and conductor Julius Rudel. Other titles have become classroom staples in their fields.
“Fortunately, when the time was right for us to be thinking about starting a scholarly press, Professor Thomas Hahn brought Boydell & Brewer to us, and they ended up as our longstanding partners,” said Provost Emeritus Brian Thompson, the Press’s founder. “I am very glad to see that the University of Rochester Press has not just survived the test of time after 25 years, but has really prospered.”
“We realized that our only hope of making a real impact in such a large market was to have a genuine connection with an American university,” said Richard Barber, founding director of Boydell & Brewer Ltd. “By offering our skills to create a press, we could in return establish ourselves with a proper identity and base in the US.”
University Provost Peter Lennie said, “For a quarter of a century, the University of Rochester Press has made significant contributions to the scholarly literature in such fields as music, African studies, and medical history, and it continues to flourish today even within a vastly changing landscape for academic publishing. It is a pleasure to mark this milestone with the Press.”
The Press draws authors’ submissions from around the world. Three of its series editors are faculty at the University: musicologist Ralph Locke, for the Eastman Studies in Music series; historian Ted Brown, for Rochester Studies in Medical History; and musicologist Ellen Koskoff, for Eastman/Rochester Studies in Ethnomusicology. Locke is also a member of the Press’s Editorial Board, in addition to Stephanie Brown-Clark, associate professor, Department of Medical Humanities and Bioethics, School of Medicine and Dentistry; Peter Clifford, managing director, Boydell & Brewer Group, Ltd.; Robert Kraus, retired University associate vice president; Joan Rubin, Dexter Perkins Professor in History, College of Arts and Sciences; Sue Smith, managing director, Boydell & Brewer Inc.; and Thompson.
The University of Rochester Press is housed (along with Boydell & Brewer’s U.S. office) on the University’s Mt. Hope Campus; its building, between the Witmer House and the Patrick Barry House, originally was the business office for the Ellwanger and Barry Nursery.
Events celebrating the Press’s 25th anniversary include:
- A presentation by Alison Parker, professor of history at the SUNY College at Brockport and co-editor of the Press series on Gender and Race in American History, who will speak about the series and about her book Interconnections: Gender and Race in American History, at 4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 1, at the new Barnes & Noble Bookstore at College Town on Mt. Hope Avenue. The presentation also will include remarks by local author Kenneth Marshall, whose book Manhood Enslaved: Bondmen in Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century New Jersey appeared in the Gender and Race series.
- Displays of Press publications at Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester River Campus (Sept. 2 through Sept. 30) and at the Eastman School of Music’s Sibley Music Library (Sept. 5 through Oct. 24).
Other events will be announced at a later date.
