Small, but Mighty: Maintaining and Elevating the Value of Humanities Content through Strategic Partnerships

Duration: 52 mins
Publication Date: May 2025

About the session

The missions of small publishers and university presses are not just big at heart—they are ambitious, impactful, and play a huge role in shaping trusted humanities and social sciences (h/ss) scholarship. From flagship journals published in university departments and societies to award-winning books from university presses, small publishers are contributing to publishing on a mighty scale. These publishers bring a wealth of history, editorial experience, and top authors but also take on financial risks. How do small publishers maintain the value of their content amidst shrinking budgets and the devaluing of h/ss research?

This panel will explore how small publishers create and distribute content through community collaborations and strategic partnerships. Panelists will discuss the value of h/ss content and how partnerships can amplify groundbreaking ideas, reflect DEIA priorities, and enhance discoverability. Attendees will leave with strategies for building impactful partnerships that increase the reach and influence of h/ss scholarship.

Collection

Annual Meeting (2025)

Speakers

Director of Project MUSE, Johns Hopkins University Press

Kelley Squazzo is Director of Project MUSE at Johns Hopkins University Press in Baltimore, Maryland. Throughout her vast career in academic publishing, Kelley brings expertise in acquisitions, product development, and sales strategies for books, journals, and born-digital works. In her leadership role at Project MUSE, she develops and implements sustainable, future-forward business models that support the shared missions of its publishing partners and library customers. Kelley is a strong advocate for opening access to humanities and social sciences publications for a more inclusive and equitable scholarly ecosystem. Kelley holds a Master of Arts in English Literature from the University of Maryland and occasionally teaches humanities classes at a local community college.
Associate Dean for Academic Engagement and Editorial Director, Carnegie Mellon University Press/Carnegie Mellon University Libraries

Dr. Nicky Agate is Associate Dean for Academic Engagement and Principal Librarian at Carnegie Mellon University Libraries, where she also serves as Editorial Director of CMU Press. Nicky’s research focuses on creating more equitable systems for scholarly evaluation, transforming academic culture through values-based decision-making, and fostering sustainable, ethical approaches to academic publishing. Nicky is currently spearheading the Project on Open and Evolving Metaliteracies (POEM), an IMLS-funded initiative curating and publishing OER for AI literacy in higher education. She is also a co-PI on the HuMetricsHSS project and on the Hewlett and Mellon-funded Values-Enacted Leadership Institute, which facilitates values-based approaches to academic evaluation and leadership. Before joining CMU in 2023, Nicky held leadership positions at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Columbia University Libraries, and the Modern Language Association. She has a PhD in French Literature from New York University and an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Iowa.
Director of Publications, American Historical Association

Laura Ansley is director of publications at the American Historical Association. From 2022–24, she was co-facilitator of the Society of Scholarly Publishing's Humanities and Social Sciences Publishing Professionals community of interest. She is managing editor emerita of Nursing Clio and co-editor of The Nursing Clio Reader: Histories of Sex, Reproduction, and Justice (Rutgers University Press, 2025).
Editor in Chief, University of Virginia Press

Nadine Zimmerli is Editor in Chief at the University of Virginia Press. She acquires books in the subject categories of History and Politics, with a special focus on colonial, revolutionary, and nineteenth-century American history and on the American presidency and on democracy in global perspectives. She earned her Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2011 and has worked in academic publishing since 2005. Before joining UVA Press in 2019, she first worked at the University of Wisconsin Press and then for a decade in the books program of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.