The Environments of East Asia--A New Cornell University Press Book Series

Cornell University Press proudly announces the launch of a new Open Access book series, The Environments of East Asia, supported with a major $240,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.  The series will bring together scholars from across the humanities and social sciences to address the complexity of factors that affect ecological interconnectivity in the region. Edited by Ann Sherif (Professor of East Asian Studies, Oberlin College) and Albert L. Park (Bank of America Associate Professor of Pacific Basin Studies, Claremont McKenna College), it will address such topics as the social frameworks that manipulate nature and the ethical, philosophical, and imaginative constructions of environment and nature.  The Luce grant will facilitate exceptional support to authors, including manuscript review workshops, editing, and cartography.

“This exciting new series,” comments Jane Bunker, Cornell University Press Director, “brings to the fore great strengths of our press: excellence in the field of Asian Studies, broadly construed, and groundbreaking research across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.” It draws on the expertise of an advisory board comprising a team of leading scholars that represents political sociology; Korean, Japanese, and Chinese history; and anthropology: Anna L. Ahlers (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science), David Fedman and Eleana Kim (University of California, Irvine), and Micah Muscolino (University of California, San Diego). 

Ann Sherif and Albert L. Park are Co-Principal Investigators of the Luce grant, administered and overseen by Claremont McKenna College and EnviroLab Asia at the Claremont College.  Books in this series will be released both in a print edition and, crucially, as Open Access ebooks, thus allowing global readers (often in the very communities about which the research pertains) to access this material without restriction, as well as making it readily available to undergraduate and graduate students, unaffiliated researchers, and international journalists and policymakers looking for essential background. Jane Bunker expresses “gratitude for the Luce Foundation’s support of the circulation of knowledge and its commitment to accessibility.”

Although the series will showcase high-quality single- or coauthored books, the first will be a flagship edited volume, a work of intense and creative collaboration by the advisory board and series editors.  In the questions it asks and the themes it approaches, Forces of Nature, on the environmental politics and history of the Korean peninsula, will provide a model for future books in the series.  It is slated for publication in Fall 2022.

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The Henry Luce Foundation seeks to enrich public discourse by promoting innovative scholarship, cultivating new leaders, and fostering international understanding. Established in 1936 by Henry R. Luce, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time, Inc., the Luce Foundation advances its mission through grantmaking and leadership programs in the fields of Asia, higher education, religion and theology, art, and public policy.

Works published under Cornell University Press’s imprints reflect a commitment to excellence through rigorous evaluation, skillful editing, thoughtful design, strategic marketing, and global outreach.  We are pleased to welcome The Environments of East Asia to the fold.

For more information: 

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/series/the-environments-of-east-asia/

https://www.cmc.edu/news/cmc-awarded-major-grant-for-open-access-book-series