Annual Michigan Faculty Awards Honor University of Michigan Press Books/Authors
Where do MacArthur “Genius Award” winners, Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, top physicians, scientists, engineers, and humanists gather on a Michigan fall evening? At the University of Michigan’s Faculty Awards Dinner, of course, where President Mark Schlissel and Provost Martha Pollack presented handsome certificates to the brightest and best of the University’s professoriate. As the sun sunk below the horizon and a delicious three-course dinner was served by expert caterers from Ann Arbor’s favorite deli, Zingerman’s, named professorships were awarded, rising stars were honored, and several University of Michigan Press authors were celebrated.
The main award of the evening for a publication was made to Andrei S. Markovits and Katherine N. Cosby for their book From Property to Family, a sociological study of the breed-specific dog rescue community as an exemplar of the turn toward empathy in American life. Presenting the honor, Provost Pollack noted not only the way in which the book exemplifies the distinctive interdisciplinarity of much Michigan research (Markovits is Karl W. Deutsch Professor of Comparative Politics and German Studies) but also the opportunities for students to deeply engage in publication while studying at the University (co-author Crosby was an undergraduate at the time of writing). Celebrating with the authors were Kate Crosby’s parents, Kiki Markovits, Regent Mark Bernstein and his wife Rachel Bendit, and Director of the University of Michigan Press Charles Watkinson.
Also honored for her distinguished contributions to academic life was Sidonie (Sid) Smith, Director of the Institute for the Humanities at the University and author of the forthcoming book, A Manifesto for the Humanities: Transforming Graduate Education in “Good Enough” Times. This important public policy title is distinctive not only for the originality of its author’s thinking but the manner of its production. In addition to being traditionally peer-reviewed, the volume was exposed for open peer review as part of Michigan Publishing’s continued partnership with Hypothes.is, the online annotation tool. The final book is being made available open access under the Press’s digitalculturebooks imprint in time for the winter meeting of the Modern Languages Association of which Dr. Smith is past-President. Dr. Smith is also co-author of an important report on the future of humanities monographic publishing funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that draws on data from University of Michigan Press. Produced in collaboration with Indiana University, the report was recently released on Deep Blue.
