See the full post on the Red Room blog here
Red Room Poetry would like to state its full and ongoing support for UWAP and its fight to stay open, as well as for the broader West Australian poetry and writing communities this will affect most. extinction shows nothing back, nothing we can learn from, nothing we can focus on ~ John Kinsella, Red Room Commissioned Poet We learned last week of the proposed demise of one of the nation's leading poetry publishers, UWAP. Over the years Red Room Poetry has commissioned and worked closely with many Western Australian poets, more recently as part of New Shoots WA where we collaborated with Westerly and City of Perth. Among our list of commissioned poets are leading voices from the UWAP stable including the likes of Richard James Allen, John Kinsella, Tricia Dearborn, Renee Pettitt-Schipp, Quinn Eades, and our 2018 Red Room Poetry Fellowship recipient, Candy Royalle, one of the leading lights of our generation. UWAP was the first imprint to commercially publish Candy's work. More ... *** *** Support UWAP by signing the petition at Change.org Professor Norman Etherington (AM, FASSA, FRHS, FRGS), former Chair of History at UWA and President of the Australian Historical Association
I was present during two previous misconceived attempts to kill UWA Press, the first 30years ago in 1990. Both were killed off by a concerted defence mounted by Academic Board and the Senate. Let us hope that those bodies retain sufficient spine to stand up to this latest madness. Four reasons to retain the press stand out for me. The first is that without UWA press there will be no platform left for quality academic writing about Western Australia. I have lost count of the times that I have seen outstanding manuscripts on WA history knocked back by national and even international presses on the grounds that there is nothing to interest people in Melbourne or Sydney. The second is that it has never been cheaper to run a university press. Short print runs, on-demand printing and online availability make costs much lower than 30 years ago. In South Australia, the University of Adelaide, which never previously had a press, launched one specialising in online work. The Wakefield Press, heir to the government printer, continues to be almost the sole outlet for print books on South Australian topics. Their preferred strategy is a short initial print run of 100 copies to test the market, followed by printing on demand. The third is that only a properly run university press can provide the kind of peer review that secures full credit in publication audits. Fourth is the intangible but priceless asset of tradition, which sets UWA apart from its competitors in WA, and inspires graduates on whom we depend for future resources. Sincerely, Norman Professor Norman Etherington AM, FASSA,FRHS,FRGS *** *** Support UWAP by signing the petition at Change.org Tayyeb Shah
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Global Partnerships Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global Partnerships) The University of Western Australia Dear Mr Shah, Recently the International Australian Studies Association wrote in support of the continuation of the Chair of Australian Literature at the University of Sydney, following that University’s decision to discontinue this Chair unless external funding could be sourced. It is further regrettable to hear today that the University of Western Australia (UWA) is closing its press (UWAP). Opening in 1935, UWAP has a long and important history. Publishing fiction, non-fiction, and academic scholarship—with a particular but by no means exclusive interest in Western Australian history, literary fiction and poetry, and with significant Australian and European and further distribution networks—UWAP has played a vital role in both fostering and promoting Australia’s cultural and intellectual capital. More parochially it has offered balance to an otherwise eastern seaboard bias. While it is heartening that UWA is continuing the now decade-long Chair in Australian Literature (established in 2008), the decision to close its press tarnishes this position. Announcing the establishment of the Chair in 2008, Professor Alan Robson, the then Vice-Chancellor, said that the new Chair would ‘play an important role in developing Australia’s cultural and intellectual capital’, and that part of the Chair’s role would be to take ‘Australian literature to national and international audiences.’ The imminent closure of UWAP makes that role more difficult. In responding to the University of Sydney’s decision to no longer support the Chair of Australian Literature at that university unless external funding could be sourced, we noted the relevance of this decision in the context of the ongoing Senate “Inquiry into nationhood, national identity and democracy”. Similarly, UWAP has long played a national and international role in the elevation of cultural issues now thought to be under threat. UWAP books are prize winners in various categories of awards, demonstrably making a major contribution to the Australian national conversation and our links to the region. We strongly urge the University of Western Australia to reconsider its position and to continue supporting UWAP. Asoociate Professor Noah Riseman, President, International Association for Australian Studies *** *** Support UWAP by signing the petition at Change.org An open letter to UWA from a former international student and UWAP author Roanna Gonsalves12/11/2019
Dear Mr. Tayyeb Shah, I came to Australia as an international student from Mumbai, India in 1998. One reason that attracted me to Australian institutions of higher education was their commitment to creativity, to intellectual rigour and to encouraging a plurality of ideas. I wrote a book of short stories called The Permanent Resident, mainly to chronicle the lives of Indians in Australia, including the lives of international students. This book is published by UWAP. It has since won a NSW Premier’s Literary Award 2018 (Multicultural), been very well-reviewed in Australia and India, is on the syllabi of a number of universities and on several “must-read” booklists. This would not have happened without UWAP, particularly Terri-ann White, championing my book. Since its publication, I have had innumerable conversations with readers of my book who are international students from India and China, as well as potential international students considering Australia as a study and work destination. These people are hungry for stories about what it might be like to live in Australia, to experience the country, to get a true sense of life as an outsider here, a true sense that is difficult to get from news media and advertisements. More... *** Support UWAP by signing the petition at Change.org Dear Mr. Shah,
We, the undersigned, are the publishers of the other major university presses in Australia. We write to you to voice our deep concern about the proposed closure of UWA Publishing. We understand the motivation is the non-alignment of UWAP with the University's core mission, and that the published content does not directly relate to the University and its work. Considered narrowly, the same non-alignment could be said of all our university presses, but we are driven by a broader imperative. We see university presses as the connection between the university and the general community, a dissemination of knowledge and culture from the centres of higher learning to those who support universities with their taxes. We see it as a democratisation of knowledge. UWA Publishing is held in high regard among its peers. Terri-ann White and her small team stand tall in their achievements. They publish academic and general titles by local and national writers. Their titles explore our culture, society and politics. Their publishing is at the highest standard. It must be noted that in a state such as WA it can be difficult for academics to find a home for their research and scholarship when it is directly West Australian focussed, and UWAP appears to champion this work and promote it widely. We respectfully submit that University publishing in fact enhances the core business of the modern university: education, research and community engagement. We sincerely hope that the university decides against the closure of one of Australia's most significant university presses, and West Australia's only one. Yours sincerely, Kathy Bail, UNSW Press/New South Books Greg Bain (and staff), Monash University Publishing Chris Feik, La Trobe University Press Nathan Hollier, Melbourne University Press Ben James, University of Queensland Press ***** ***** Support UWAP by signing the petition at Change.org Brenda Tournier Associate Director Alumni & Community Relations University of Western Australia Dear Ms Tournier, The University of WA announced last week that it intends to close down UWA Publishing (UWAP) current operations and move to a digital/Open Access model. I am writing to you today to share my dismay at this announcement and to ask the Alumni to bring their influence to bear on the University, by whatever means they chose, to show their support for the ongoing operation of UWAP and the retention of its staff. My dismay is shared by many others Australia-wide and further afield. This very positive response, accompanied by calls to retain the publishing house and its staff, is being expressed in print, online and social media. I, like many others, have also written directly to key representatives of the University. I am a UWA graduate (MA 2007), receiving a scholarship from the UWA Centenary Trust for Women (2005). My long association with the University also includes working as a Poetry Consultant for Westerly, and a sessional tutor (English) at the UWA Albany Campus during its first two years. The UWA Albany Campus recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary, and I was proud of my small association with this achievement. I am also a writer and past-winner of the WA Premier’s Book Award for Poetry (2002). As a long-time member of the Western Australian writing community, I am acutely aware of the devastating impact that the loss of such an essential and influential publisher will have at home, nationally, and abroad. Western Australian writers, including students and academics, will struggle to find alternative publishers. The loss of the poetry publishing program and prestigious Dorothy Hewett Award will be an additional blow in an industry renowned for its lack of publishing opportunities and rewards for writers. I believe traditional print and digital publishing are not mutually exclusive, and they can both be components of a vital, modern publishing program. Many contemporary publishing houses preserve print and also produce digital e-text and audio publications. I have personally known Terri-ann White for three decades and hold her in high regard. I respect her knowledge of the industry, the dedication she has shown, and admire her enormous contribution to the University, UWAP and Australian literature overall. I ask the Alumni to actively support the campaign to #SaveUWAP and to communicate their thoughts and feelings to the University by emailing key people, for example: The Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global Operations), and members of the University Senate. It will be a significant loss to the University and all its stakeholders if UWAP does not continue in its current role. Yours faithfully Barbara Temperton ***** Support UWAP by signing the petition at Change.org Frank Bongiorno is Professor of History at the Australian National University and chair of the social sciences editorial board of ANU Press. He has published books with Melbourne University Press, Black Inc., Monash University Publishing and University of New South Wales Press.
Welcome to Australia. I am writing to protest against your decision to destroy an eighty-five year-old Australian academic press, UWA Publishing, with a superb record of publishing non-fiction, fiction and poetry. While its list is diverse, in my own field of Australian history UWAP has been a most distinguished contributor to ground-breaking Australian scholarship. I think of Geoffrey Bolton's classic study of the Depression era, A Fine Country to Starve In (1972) and John Robertson's life of a Labor Prime Minister, J.H. Scullin: A Political Biography (1974), still the standard work on the topic after 45 years. There are Mary Ann Jebb’s Blood, Sweat and Welfare: A History of White Bosses and Aboriginal Pastoral Workers (2003) and Regina Ganter’s Mixed Relations: Asian-Aboriginal Contact in North Australia (2006), both the recipients of prestigious national awards. The record of high-quality publication in the field continues through to more recent first-class work: Robert Crawford and Jackie Dickenson’s Behind Glass Doors: the World of Australian Advertising Agencies 1959-1989 (2016), Tony Hughes-d'Aeth’s Like Nothing on this Earth: A Literary History of the Wheatbelt (2017), Anna Haebich’s, Dancing in Shadows: Histories of Nyungar Performance (2018) and Jo Hawkins’s Consuming Anzac: the History of Australia's Most Powerful Brand (2019). There are also massive, ground-breaking collective projects of the Western Australian historical profession such as A New History of Western Australia (1979), edited by Tom Stannage, and the Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia (2009), edited by Jenny Gregory and Jan Gothard (2009). What a rich legacy this is: and what an atrocious betrayal of it by the present University of Western Australian management. I am struggling to recall a more ill-considered decision by an Australian university in my twenty-five years as an academic, as sure a sign of a university leadership that has lost its way as it would be possible to conceive. The UWA then vainly seeks to obscure with risible management-speak the reality that it has failed to register even its basic responsibilities to the community that created it, and which it is supposed to serve. It is a decision that, if not reversed, the University of Western Australia will wear like a crown of thorns for years. Outstanding, internationally important Western Australian historians such as Bolton and Stannage would be turning in their graves at this appalling vandalism. Like so many others who have helped make UWAP a success over the years, they fully understood the importance of telling Australian, and especially Western Australian, stories. The university has shamefully repudiated everything that they stood for. The current Director of UWA Publishing, Terri-ann White is widely admired for her understanding of this valuable legacy and essential mission, as well as for the innovation, energy and creativity she has brought to UWAP. The reprehensible nature of the decision is only underlined by the growing importance of UWAP during her tenure as place for telling the stories of the Nyungar people, including books by leading Indigenous writers and artists. What a message for the University of Western Australia to send to the nation and the world, a university that claims to be committed to supporting the right of Noongar people 'to practise their values, languages, beliefs and knowledge'. But not, it would seem, if it costs the university anything. I call on you to reverse this decision. Yours sincerely, (Prof.) Frank Bongiorno AM FASSA FRHistS ***** Support UWAP by signing the petition at Change.org The Australian Society of Authors, the peak national body for authors and illustrators, calls on the University of Western Australia to reverse its decision to close UWA Publishing, a highly successful university publisher for almost 85 years.
Of course the University can and should support its academic writing and research under the UWA Scholarly imprint but a complete move to an open access model will result in the loss of opportunities for many Australian authors who are professional writers rather than tenured academics. It is UWA Publishing’s trade publishing that generates essential royalties for authors and enriches diversity of publishing for the broader Australian community. Under the management of current publisher Terri-ann White, the press has in recent years gained national and international recognition for literary fiction, for example the Miles Franklin winning Extinctions by Josephine Wilson. UWA Publishing is also one of the largest poetry publishers in the country, publishes many important Western Australia-specific works which otherwise would not be seen in book form, and actively supports the publication of works in language, including internationally acclaimed author Kim Scott’s series of storybooks in the Noongar language. This short-sighted and damaging decision puts the future earnings of 350 backlist authors in jeopardy, destroys the plans of the authors with new works under contract and puts a team of talented publishing staff out of work. Chris Pash ASA Chair says, “The ASA is appalled by this move that will further narrow opportunities for authors around Australia. A move to modern digital publishing should not mean the closure of a fine publisher. Open access publishing may be suitable for academic writers but does not remunerate our poets and novelists.” The ASA supports the Small Press Network statement here, and encourages further support via the petition on Change.org to condemn this short-sighted and damaging decision. Dear Mr Shah I am sure that you have been overwhelmed with responses to your memo about the future of the UWAP. It was received with shock by the UWA community and the news has spread like wildfire through arts and humanities networks locally and nationally — and as you know, has been widely reported in the local and national press. While you have no doubt heard many excellent arguments for reconsidering your decision, from the importance of the press to UWA’s mission as a public university for the Western Australian community; as a widely recognized and applauded venue for new Australian writing and indigenous languages; and for the publication of high quality books on the history and natural history of this special place, I would like to add one that may be of specific relevance to your role as DVC of Global Partnerships. Earlier this year I was invited to speak at a conference in Hangzhou organized by Peking and Zhejiang universities, Wenli Confucian Academy, the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies and the Accademia Vivarium Novum (Italy). The conference, on humanist education and classical languages (Chinese, Sanskrit, Latin and Greek) was attended by over 300 local people (i.e. non-academics), and I’m told that the organizers had to turn away as many more for want of a bigger venue. After the conference, together with three professors from Harvard, Cambridge and Malaga, I visited the Wenli Confucian Academy to meet and participate in a question-and-answer session with senior students. It was truly eye-opening for me. Contrary to popular perception in Australia, Chinese students are not all STEM or business fanatics. These young people and their parents had a real hunger for the humanities — for languages, history, poetry, music, and the arts. Colleagues in the School of Humanities who have taught in Asia can confirm that Australian studies are flourishing there. Indeed, the China Australia Writing Centre hosted a conference in Shanghai last year featuring a panel with two UWAP authors, Miles Franklin award-winner, Josephine Wilson and Rachel Robertson. The event was live-streamed to an audience of thousands within China, and without UWA Publishing it would never have happened. UWAP thus has a vital role to play, along with the Berndt, the Perth Festival, and the LWAG, in promoting what is special about our place and the excellence of our humanities to high-quality future international students. You may be aware that our School hosted the first humanities ARC Centre of Excellence, for the History of Emotions, drawing in $35,000,000 of federal funding. My own position, the Cassamarca Chair in Latin Humanism was seed-funded by an Italian organization, along with 13 other lectureships in Italian studies around the country (in a national competition, UWA won funding for the only senior post). We are also home to the Wesfarmer’s Chair in Australian History and I believe that continued funding has now been confirmed, mercifully, for the Chair in Australian Literature. In short, we are already punching above our weight in the School of Humanities — the loss of UWAP would be a punch in the guts. As for the University, the damage in terms of local and national reputation will be immediate; in terms of lost opportunities for international teaching and research, incalculable. Yours sincerely, Yasmin Haskell Professor Yasmin Haskell, FAHA Cassamarca Foundation Chair in Latin Humanism Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Education University of Western Australia Perth, WA 6009 AUSTRALIA ***** ***** Support UWAP by signing the petition at Change.org Professor Jane Lydon is the Wesfarmers Chair of Australian History at The University of Western Australia. Her recent books include The Flash of Recognition: Photography and the emergence of Indigenous rights, which won the 2013 Queensland Literary Awards’ USQ History Book Award, and Photography, Humanitarianism, Empire.
I write to express my concerns regarding the intended closure of UWA Publishing after 85 years of cultural leadership in Western Australia and beyond. I urge you to re-consider this decision. As I know you have heard from many people by now, UWAP is very highly esteemed across Australia, and its publications are world class. Under Professor Terri-ann White’s acclaimed direction, UWA Publishing has been a powerhouse of creativity, serving to identify, nurture and produce work of the highest quality, including many award-winning books. While it is distinctively West Australian, the work it produces makes a crucial contribution to our national scholarly and literary culture. University publishing is of inestimable value to the intellectual life and reputation of the university, and performs both an institutional and public good. Within a global ideas ecosystem, UWAP serves as a portal between university scholarship and the wider world we seek to engage. In a national context, closure of UWAP has been perceived as an attack on Australian humanities and social sciences (HASS) scholarship and culture. HASS research, unlike that in the STEM disciplines, continues to find its primary scholarly and general audience through books, including book collections, and scholars working in these fields will be disproportionately affected by this loss. You will be aware that recent national debate was prompted by the withdrawal of support from the University of Sydney’s Chair in Australian Literature, and media queries were directed to UWA regarding its prestigious Chair of Australian Literature, established in 2009 as a result of the University's successful bid to the Federal Government. Many of us felt proud of UWA’s re-commitment to this position (The Australian, 16 October 2019). While you have stated that the press serves only a small number of UWA staff, the School of Humanities performs very highly across all academic criteria, and its scholarly achievements are demonstrated for example in the most recent Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) exercise. We consider UWAP an important element of our success. Until now, UWA has acknowledged the value of UWAP as a global ambassador of the university’s brand and has rightly trumpeted its many achievements. For example, both the 2018 Division Report — Community and Engagement and the UWA’s 2018 Annual Report note that UWA Publishing ‘continues to be recognised nationally as a publisher of new ideas and brilliant writing’. ( https://www.annualreport.uwa.edu.au/annual-report-2018/our-year/division-report-community-and-engagement andhttps://www.annualreport.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/3399200/Annual-Report-2018.pdf) Given this acknowledgement, it is disappointing that the sudden closure of UWAP has been announced without any financial or other justification. Two key questions have been voiced: first, what is the financial basis for the decision, and what alternatives are proposed? While profit must not be the measure of academic value, this seems relevant. Second, in various responses you have specified that plans for the future centre upon ‘open and digitised access’. More detail about these plans would be very reassuring. Successful open access models are not readily available for humanities publishing. Immediate precedents indicate the challenges for such models in the Australian context: for example, the University of Adelaide Press (UAP) published peer-reviewed scholarship produced by staff in print and open access ebooks between 2009-2018 (https://www.adelaide.edu.au/press/about-the-press ). During the era of HERDC block funding there was an advantage to publishing in quantity in order to generate points for UoA staff, however in the shift to ERA it became more difficult to sustain the so-called 'world standard' argument for a publishing house that only published in-house academics. UAP closed in February 2019. Conversely, when Stanford University’s provost announced the cessation of funding for the highly respected Stanford University Press in April 2019, the overwhelming response very quickly caused her to reverse this decision, and instead she has committed to developing new initiatives through the existing press infrastructure (e.g., https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/05/01/stanford-backs-down-year-ending-support-university-press). My appointment as Wesfarmers Chair of Australian History – the first endowed position of this kind in Australia- is intended to further teaching, study and public engagement with history from a West Australian perspective, and the loss of UWAP will be severely felt in achieving these aims. UWAP has been a major partner in developing scholarship in this field through actively seeking out the best research conducted by my colleagues and students and making it accessible to a wide audience. Since my appointment, ground-breaking research has been published by UWAP in the fields of Aboriginal and colonial history, immigration and imperial history, local West Australian history and biography. The publication of Noongar culture, history and language is of exceptional significance. Just this year, historian Anna Haebich’s Dancing in Shadows was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Award and Rozanna Lilley's Do Oysters Get Bored? was shortlisted in the National Biography Award. As a judge of the State record Office of Western Australia’s annual Margaret Medcalf Award, I note that UWAP’s work is always prominent in submissions and recipients. More personally, as a UWA historian and author, my intellectual life will be significantly damaged by this decision. I write Australian histories set in a global context, and I have an international profile beyond my immediate audience of fellow Australians. In publishing this work I therefore alternate between international and domestic presses, but always seeking those of the highest possible quality. So, for example, last year I published a book collection with UWA Publishing, titled Visualising Human Rights, presenting research emanating from the Australian Research Council-funded Discovery project Anti-slavery and Australia (DP 140101793), while my most recent monograph has just appeared with Cambridge University Press’s prestigious Critical Perspectives on Empire series. (As an aside, I write from Hong Kong, where I have been the guest of an international symposium. As a gesture of thanks, I gave my hosts a copy of my UWAP book, which they admired in part for its beautiful design and production values.) My current research agenda will be directly injured by the closure of UWAP. I am currently a Chief Investigator on a major Australian Research Council-funded Linkage project, Collecting the West: How collections created Western Australia, (LP160100078, $750,000), led byProfessor Alistair Paterson and Prof Andrea Witcomb, with UWA colleagues Prof Stephen Hopper, Prof Jenny Gregory, Dr Shino Konishi, Dr Jacqueline Van Gent, Dr Toby Burrows; British Museum – Dr Jeremy Hill, Dr Gaye Sculthorpe; Lincoln – Dr Sarah Longair; The Western Australian Museum – CEO Alec Coles, Ms Corioli Souter, Ms Amy Wegerhoff, Ms Patricia McDonald, Dr Moya Smith, Ms Diana Jones; Deakin University – Prof Andrea Witcomb, Dr Tiffany Shellam; the State Library of Western Australia – Dr Katherine (Kate) Gregory, Ms Theresa Archer; the Art Gallery of Western Australia – Ms Melissa Harpley. In addition to the major book already contracted (‘Collecting The West: Revealing Western Australia Through Its Collection’ ), I have received a commitment from UWAP to publish a companion book, titled Seeing The West, which will include ground-breaking research produced by project collaborators and doctoral students aimed at a wide readership. For the first time this project aims to demonstrate the important but overlooked history of West Australian visual culture in a national and international context. This project is to be submitted to UWAP in 2020 and published in 2021 to coincide with a 3-day international conference to be held in the Cultural Precinct in Perth in March 2021, and closely associated with the opening of the new WA Museum at the end of 2020. Finally, I wish to note the outstanding achievements of Professor Terri-ann White, whose leadership has put UWAP on the national cultural map. Terri-ann’s stature as writer, thinker and publisher is indicated for example by her election as Honorary Fellow to the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the national body for the humanities in Australia. Honorary Fellows are elected in recognition of their significant contribution to the humanities and the arts, and to Australian cultural life; Professor White is the only West Australian Honorary Fellow. She closely and generously engages with the UWA community of staff and students- for example recently judging the School of Humanities Three Minute Thesis competition for HDR students, alongside the Dean of FABLE. It would be very disappointing to lose her deep knowledge of publishing, the humanities, and UWA. In sum, the closure of UWAP will constitute a major blow to UWA, to Australian history and literature, and to our national public culture. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue further with you and the Executive. With best wishes, ****** ***** Support UWAP by signing the petition at Change.org |
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