Baylor University Press is a university press affiliated with Baylor University, which is located in Waco, Texas.[2] The press releases books largely about religion and theology; it also publishes works about social criticism, sociology, literary criticism, and popular culture.[3][4][5]
While an older "Baylor University Press" was established in 1897 (making it one of the first university presses to be established in the United States);[9][10][11] this iteration of the press, operated by Baylor students, published original research by faculty,[12]textbooks,[13] and monographs,[14] as well as periodicals like the Baylor Bulletin (a bimonthly magazine that served as the "official organ" of the university), the Lariat (a weekly university newspaper), and the Round-Up (an annual).[15]
The modern version of the press, on the other hand, was founded in 1955 as a faculty committee that released books intermittently. The press instituted a more "intentional program" of publishing in the 1980s before beginning to expand in 1997.[8] The following year, it joined the Texas A&M University Press's Texas Book Consortium program (although it is not presently a member).[8][16] Domestic distribution is currently provided by the University of North Carolina Press's Longleaf Services.[1][17]
Controversy
In 2006, Baylor University Press drew attention for cancelling the publication of a book (initially titled Baylor Beyond the Crossroads: An Interpretive History, 1985-2005) that focused on former president of Baylor, Robert B. Sloan, and his controversial "Baylor 2012" project.[18] According to Baylor University Press, the book was dropped because it "did not survive external peer review", but other sources (such as the ABC news program Good Morning Texas) contended that the press dropped the book after former Baylor president Herbert H. Reynolds sent a "threatening email to editors ... denouncing" it.[18][19] After a rewrite, the book was published by St. Augustine's Press as The Baylor Project: Taking Christian Higher Education to the Next Level (2007).[20]
^Tebbel, John (1975). "The Rise of the University Press". A History of Book Publishing in the United States. Vol. 2. New York City, NY: R. R. Bowker Co. pp. 535–539. ISBN9780835204897.
^Lane, Robert Frederick (1939). The Place of American University Presses in Publishing (PhD dissertation). University of Chicago. p. 21.
^Klassen, N. (2016). The Fellowship of the Beatific Vision: Chaucer on Overcoming Tyranny and Becoming Ourselves. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock. p. 6. ISBN97814982-83687.