All eyes on Liverpool for university presses conference

Liverpool University Press is to host the first 'University Press Redux' conference next year.

Although the Association of American University Presses has held an annual conference for several decades, this will be the first event to focus on the university press in a UK context.  

There are at present more than 20 university presses in the UK, for whom this event will be an essential forum to benchmark existing practices and map out possible future developments.  

Organisers say the two-day conference, on 16 and 17 March, will also provide a useful primer for the increasing number of UK universities that are considering the launch of their own imprints through library repositories, corporate communications departments or as discrete entities.

The UK offices of American presses, university presses in mainland Europe, and publishing studies scholars will also find this an important forum for the discussion of the university press.

Speakers will include:

•   Alison Mudditt, Director, University of California Press;
•   Mandy Hill, Managing Director, Academic Division, Cambridge University Press;
•   Professor Mark Llewellyn, Director of Research, Arts and Humanities Research Council;
•   Steven Hill, Head of Research Policy, Higher Education Funding Council for England;
•   David Prosser, Executive Director, Research Libraries UK;
•   Alison Shaw, Director, Policy Press at the University of Bristol;
•   Marike Schipper, Director, Leuven University Press;
•   Andrew Lockett, Publishing Manager, Westminster University Press;
•   Samantha Rayner, UCL, Principal Investigator, Academic Book of the Future; and
•   Richard Fisher, Wolfson College, Cambridge.

The event will be hosted by Liverpool University Press, The IPG Frankfurt Book Fair Academic and Professional Publisher of the Year 2015, and The Bookseller Independent Academic, Educational and Professional Publisher of the Year 2015, as part of The Academic Book of the Future project.

For more information visit the Liverpool University Press site (link below).