The University of Arizona Press
June 29, 2020
The University of Arizona Press announces the receipt of a major National Endowment for the Humanities Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act grant, which provides emergency relief to institutions and organizations working in the humanities. The $90,037 grant provides the Press ongoing support for the publication of humanities scholarship, and acknowledges, in particular, its record publishing books relevant to communities of color.
This CARES Act grant will allow the Press to dramatically increase availability of e-books in Indigenous and Latinx studies, raising the total number of available eBooks to nearly 75 percent of the total list of 1,500 titles in print published by the Press. By making works available for digital delivery, the Press can fulfill its mission regardless of social distancing requirements and help maintain financial viability during the pandemic and beyond.
“We are grateful to the U.S. Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities for providing us with this opportunity to provide this significant scholarship to a larger audience. Since the onset of the pandemic, the circulation of print books radically decreased while the need for eBooks grew,” said Kathryn Conrad, director of the University of Arizona Press.
The Press’s high-profile list in Indigenous and Latinx studies, emphasizes history, comparative religion, literary criticism, media studies, and gender studies. This scholarship is part of our history of publishing books by, about, and for underrepresented communities in the United States, said Conrad.
For the highly competitive NEH CARES grant category, the Humanities Endowment received more than 2,300 eligible applications from cultural organizations requesting more than $370 million in funding for projects between June and December 2020. Approximately 14 percent of the applicants were funded. The Press is one of four organizations in Arizona to receive this funding.
“These new e-book versions of important works in Indigenous and Latinx scholarship will greatly expand the readership of these books at a time when public interest in these topics is rapidly growing,” said Shan Sutton, dean of University Libraries. “NEH support will ensure that the general public has greater access, while also enabling these books to be more easily integrated into online college courses that are increasing as well.”
About the National Endowment for the Humanities Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at neh.gov.
