Open access initiatives
Sharing innovative and forward-looking scholarship in premodern studies free of cost.
Open Access ACMRS Press
We must transform the way premodern texts are taught so that every person can see themselves in the archive. We publish projects that are historically grounded and theoretically and pedagogically expansive, with the aim of fostering dialogues that reach into the present moment and point us to different, more inclusive, futures: this is complex learning.
The problem, however, remains access. Most academic books, including ones about how to best teach the past, are prohibitively expensive, and fewer and fewer libraries have standing orders to purchase them. If our vanguard research and pedagogy remain behind a paywall, only those who can afford access can truly participate in new knowledge creation. Therefore, our press seeks to publish this scholarship in an open access format.
In partnership with the ASU Library, ACMRS Press is piloting an open access program to publish all monographs on Pressbooks.
The Sundial: A digital publication of ACMRS
To begin seriously addressing inclusivity in the premodern fields, we must commit to embracing difficult conversations, uncomfortable moments, and hard work. As Sierra Lomuto recently argued we cannot let terms like “global,” “diversity,” or “inclusion” become tokenistic stand-ins for the structural changes needed at all levels. One way that ACMRS is working to promote this is by providing greater access, as many noted following our livestreaming of RaceB4Race.
The Sundial is another platform we’ve created to help facilitate access, a place for new audiences to find new work and begin new conversations. The Sundial is a space for authors to write for broader audiences and gain greater exposure for their work. It is a space for writers to try out new, daring, risky ideas, no matter where they might be at in their career. Above all, it is a space where we all begin to have those difficult conversations and experience those uncomfortable moments, where we do the hard work of thinking about what inclusivity is and should mean for all of us, and where we start envisioning inclusive futures.
Digital, free, open to the public events
In an effort to promote greater access to forward-looking conversations in the premodern fields, ACMRS is hosting digital, free, and open to the public events. These events invite speakers to engage in dialogues on the contemporary and historic lenses through which we can investigate, interrogate, and reeinvision the issues our world faces now.
Look to our schedule of upcoming events to register now.