Helping scholars navigate the publication process—from first article to first book and beyond.
Publishing in the humanities can be opaque, even for experienced researchers. Contracts contain surprises. The authorial voice you craft for a book is rarely the same as the one you craft for an article. The journal that seems like the right home for your scholarship is not always the one that actually is.
Since 2022, the Whitney Publishing Project has worked to make humanities publishing more navigable through workshops and panel discussions, editors-in-residence, grants supporting faculty who edit major humanities journals, and celebrations of the books scholars bring into the world.
Humanities Faculty Bookshelf
Celebrating the humanities, one book at a time
The Humanities Faculty Bookshelf celebrates new books across the humanities at Yale. Launched in 2023, this virtual exhibit features a rotating display of recently published and forthcoming book covers by Yale authors on the screen in the front foyer of the Humanities Quadrangle. Managed by communications officer Megan O’Donnell, it has become a beloved fixture of HQ.
Have you recently published a book?
Help us showcase the vibrant scholarship of Yale’s humanities community. We are currently featuring books published or forthcoming in 2025 and 2026.
Faculty Book Party
An annual Whitney Humanities Center tradition
Each fall, the Whitney Humanities Center gathers faculty, postdoctoral fellows, librarians, archivists, curators, editors, and other scholars across the humanities at Yale to celebrate the year’s new books. The evening is festive—food and drink, live music, and a looping slideshow of book covers from the Humanities Faculty Bookshelf—with plenty of time for conversation with colleagues and friends. Whether you published a book this year or simply want to toast your colleagues’ achievements, you are warmly welcome.
Save the date: Tuesday, November 17, 2026, from 4:30 to 6:00 pm.
Upcoming Events
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Event Archive
Editors-in-Residence
Leading editors from major university presses come to the Whitney Humanities Center for week-long residencies, meeting one-on-one with faculty and postdoctoral fellows to discuss book manuscripts and offer hands-on feedback. These editors also participate in public conversations about scholarly publishing open to the Yale community.
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Sharmila Sen
Spring 2024
Editorial Director and Director of Special Initiatives at Harvard University Press
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Alan Thomas
Fall 2022
Editorial Director at the University of Chicago Press
Diane Berrett Brown
Deputy Director of the Whitney Humanities Center
Diane Berrett Brown founded the Whitney Publishing Project and leads it today. She brings decades of experience in scholarly publishing to the project, including her work as managing editor of Diacritics, the influential journal of theory and criticism at Cornell University, and her role in founding Corpus Juris, a law and humanities book series at Cornell University Press.
Interested in collaborating or have an idea for the project?
Diane is eager to support new events and programs in humanities publishing. Please write to her with ideas and questions at diane.b.brown@yale.edu (there are two Diane Browns at Yale—please include the “b”).
