The Humanities in the World

Series Editor

Peter Christensen, University of Rochester (Rochester NY, United States)

Series Advisory Board

  • Nadia Al-Bagdadi, Central European University (Vienna, Austria)
  • Maya Dodd, Flame University (Pune, India)
  • Roland Greene, Stanford University (Palo Alto CA, United States)
  • Kader Konuk, University Duisburg-Essen (Duisburg, Germany)
  • Jie-Hyun Lim, Sogang University (Seoul, South Korea)
  • Nomusa Makhubu, University of Cape Town (Cape Town, South Africa)
  • James Ogude, University of Pretoria (Pretoria, South Africa)
  • Pablo Oyarzun, University of Chile (Santiago, Chile)
  • Erika Pani, Colegio de Mexico (Mexico City, Mexico)
  • Rosana Pinheiro-Machado, University College Dublin (Dublin, Ireland)
  • Samantha Pinto, University of Texas – Austin (Austin TX, United States)
  • Nasser Rabbat, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge MA, United States)
  • Carlos Rojas, Duke University (Durham NC, United States)
  • James Stark, University of Leeds (Leeds, United Kingdom)

Call for Manuscripts

The Humanities in the World series addresses vital issues facing the humanities and humanistic inquiry. Volumes in this new series from University of Rochester Press will advance the conviction that, despite the unceasing drumbeat of stories bemoaning the “crisis” in the humanities, the current moment represents not just a crisis, but a critical opportunity for the humanities. The series’ aim will be to demonstrate how the humanities can be prominently and permanently reinserted into public and scholarly discourse. Political Science desperately needs to draw on history and ethics to repair our increasingly perilous and authoritarian global political landscape. The climate sciences desperately need to draw on the environmental humanities to understand not just how our environment is changing but what notions of justice must change with it. Artificial intelligence has gone and will continue to go wrong if it is not guided by the principles of equity, privacy, and care taught to us by the humanities. “The Humanities in the World” brings this recuperative, emancipatory promise of the humanities to the fore through a mix of both thematic edited volumes and topical scholarly monographs.

There are surprisingly few avenues in scholarly publishing for the publication of pan-humanistic issues and, as such, this series plays a key role in addressing this lacuna. Topics which are at the front of the line include those already mentioned: the erosion of democratic norms, climate justice, and artificial intelligence but also anti-racism, cosmopolitan ethics, the value of creativity, and care and stewardship.

The Humanities in the World will foment a new (and post-crisis) tradition of thought that positions the humanities not defensively but rather as an umbrella of emancipatory thought relating to major questions facing humanity today. Successful manuscripts will foreground the belief that the greatest questions of our day are questions for humanity, and hence intrinsically humanistic. Despite the “crisis” narrative, we seek to reinsert the human values of empathy, fairness, diversity and care back into everyday life to help save our institutions and our planet. While this series will not be able to offer ready-made answers to the big problems of our time, it will be able to frame and disseminate foundational ways to approach them.

To propose a book for the series, please write to Peter Christensen at peter.christensen@rochester.edu