Advancing human knowledge, particularly through the pursuit and publication of high-quality humanities research, is central to the mission of a majority of our member presses. In the past year, the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) supported our community’s deep commitment to humanities scholars and the crucial work they do to support critical thinking in these ways:
- The Association presented its 2026 Stand UP Award to digital humanities advocate and funding champion Brett Bobley, founding director of the National Endowment for the Humanities Office of Digital Humanities, at the Fall 2025 Membership Meeting of the Coalition for Networked Information.
- AUPresses sponsored Humanities Advocacy Day 2026 during which state delegations visited Capitol Hill to meet in person with Members of Congress and their staffs. The Association helped University-Based Publishing Futures Advocacy Working Group co-chair Robin Bedenbaugh to attend as an advocate.
- Peter Berkery continued to serve on the National Humanities Alliance Board of Directors.
- The Association supported the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) #TalkAboutHumanities / #TalkAboutSocialScience social media campaign in April 2026 by sharing ACLS resources, encouraging member participation, and amplifying member posts, including from American Historical Association, Association of Asian Studies, Clemson University Press, University of Illinois Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, Leuven University Press, University of Michigan Press, Modern Language Association, and SBL Press.
- Humanities scholarship continued to be an important focus of the Association’s advocacy work this year, as AUPresses joined in speaking out in defense of the Smithsonian Institution museums’ presentation of American history and promoted humanities and social sciences scholarship published by our members as essential to understanding immigration and the war in Iran (see “Voicing our Values”).
- The Association continued to represent and communicate the perspectives of humanities publishers in international discussions and collaborations within the scholarly communications ecosystem as part of the leadership of Rosenblum Award for Scholarly Publishing Impact and within new collaborative partnerships working to protect research value across the university.
