Medieval Institute Publications partners with De Gruyter

Contact: Molly Goaley
August 1, 2018

Dr. Schulman and Theresa Whitaker sit in chairs reading a book
KALAMAZOO, Mich.—A leading academic publishing house has been selected to partner with Medieval Institute Publications, a unit housed within Western Michigan University's College of Arts and Sciences that is the publishing arm of its Medieval Institute.

An official partnership agreement between MIP and De Gruyter, an international publisher headquartered in Berlin, will take effect immediately.

The agreement comes on the heels of recent growth in the number of titles MIP produces in late antiquity, medieval and early modern literature. The partnership will allow MIP to expand its niche publishing market in these areas significantly over the coming years, while also developing new areas of publication.

"We are pleased to enter this new partnership with De Gruyter and look forward to expanding MIP's international presence," says Dr. Jana Schulman, director of the Medieval Institute.

"The new partnership will allow MIP to continue its mission of promoting humanistic study, inquiry and discourse through an ambitious worldwide publication program," adds Theresa Whitaker, co-editor-in-chief of MIP.

The benefits of the partnership are twofold. De Gruyter gains from MIP's experience and reputation in the field of medieval studies and MIP benefits from De Gruyter's extensive global reach and advanced mechanisms for marketing and production.

Over the years, MIP has become known for quality publications focusing on what it means to be human through the ages, particularly emphasizing literature and literary culture, lived experience, and art, music and drama.

"We are delighted to be able to work with MIP to ensure that valuable content in medieval studies is more broadly accessible to researchers across the globe," says Tom Clark, vice president, humanities and social sciences at De Gruyter. "With existing De Gruyter medieval studies titles, the partnership will also lead to a substantial collection of high-quality content that academics and librarians can find in one place."

MIP continues to seek submissions from scholars in its existing areas of expertise for consideration of future publication. Additionally, the partnership will allow both organizations to develop new areas of publication, reach new readership and build on WMU's international reputation for excellence in the humanities.

De Gruyter

De Gruyter publishes first-class scholarship and has done so for more than 260 years. The international, independent publisher is headquartered in Berlin and has offices in Boston, Beijing, Vienna and Munich, as well as in Basel, Switzerland, and Warsaw, Poland. It publishes more than 1,300 new book titles each year and more than 900 journals in the humanities, social sciences, medicine, mathematics, engineering, computer sciences, natural sciences, and law. The publishing house also offers a wide range of digital media, including a large number of open-access journals and books. The group includes the imprints De Gruyter Akademie Forschung, Birkhäuser, De Gruyter Mouton, De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Sciendo, De Gruyter Saur, De|G Press, Deutscher Kunstverlag and the publishing services division Sciendo.

Medieval Institute Publications

Medieval Institute Publications assumed its present structure in 1978 as the publishing arm of the Medieval Institute and became a member of the Association of University Presses in 2011. MIP contributes to the research function of the institute by publishing scholarly journals, books for classroom use, and academic books and book series. Those book series include Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Culture; Richard Rawlinson Center Series for Anglo-Saxon Studies; Studies in Iconography: Themes and Variations; and Early Drama, Art and Music. MIP also publishes periodicals as well as materials produced by the Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages.

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