#NextUP: Black Women’s History Series

Happy University Press Week 2022! We are thrilled to be announcing a new series from UNC Press, Black Women’s History, during the Association of University Presses annual celebration.

#UPWeek garners awareness and recognition for the vital publishing university presses offer, and this year’s theme, “Next UP,” highlights the dedicated work performed by those in the university press community to seek out, engage, advance, and promote the latest scholarship, ideas, best practices, and technology.

The field of Black women’s history is experiencing a renaissance. Scholars from all over the world are publishing exciting and award-winning work on women of African descent both in the U.S. and abroad across time periods, themes, and historical moments. The academy recognizes the uniqueness of Black women’s history, and multiple publics are expressing a deep interest in learning more about enslaved, incarcerated, and free Black women in all time periods as citizens, activists, and thinkers.

After decades in which Black women historians have built a body of masterworks, including novel methods, and a network of connections and institutional frameworks, a moment of unprecedented interest in Black women’s history has arrived – this series will capture this moment by curating and publishing works that advance the field and celebrate Black women’s history.

Black Women’s History draws on the research and teaching of generations of scholars who have developed the distinctive theories and methods that have made Black women’s history a robust field. Works in this series reflect and build upon the archives, approaches, and themes elucidated by classic and cutting-edge scholarship to push the field in new directions. In a moment that demands a reckoning with the past and the tools historians use to recount it, the Black Women’s History series meets this challenge and transforms how historians and popular audiences understand the world today.

To help develop works in progress on Black women’s history, we will hold an incubator once a year. Applicants will be able to apply to participate in a manuscript workshop and receive feedback from series editors and other interlocutors.

Series Editors