JHU Press Journals, Journals Marketing Division Take Home Awards 

The JHU Press Journals Division has much reason to celebrate! At last week’s Modern Language Association (MLA) annual conference, the Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ) announced the winners of their 2020 awards for scholarly publications. Three journals published by JHU Press were among the winners.  

Best Special Issue: American Quarterly, vol. 71, no. 3, Origins of Biopolitics in the Americas

This special issue showcases the abundance of exciting new works that have emerged on early Americanist work, especially in tandem with the growth of such fields as Indigenous studies, studies of empire and settler colonialism, the Atlantic world, environmental studies, and racial capitalism. Guest editors Greta La Fleur and Kyla Schuller brought together an array of cutting-edge scholarship that sheds light on differential valuations of life in early America. 

Best Public Intellectual Special Issue: Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, vol. 63, no. 1, Special Issue on CRISPR 

The 12 essays in this special issue focus on CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats), a genome-editing tool that allows researchers to alter DNA sequences and modify gene function. Written for the general public, the articles probe the urgent questions posed by this genetic editing tool that has the potential to give an individual the power to genetically engineer the human species. Dr. Neal Baer, the issue’s Guest Editor, is an Emmy-nominated television producer and pediatrician and has explored the potentially harmful uses of CRISPR on Designated Survivor, a Netflix series he writes and produces. 

Best Digital Feature (inaugural award): Modernism/modernity Print Plus

Print Plus is an open-access, peer-reviewed digital publication platform that is an integral part of Modernism/modernity, the print journal of the Modernist Studies Association. The primary purpose of the platform is to provide an online peer-reviewed academic publishing environment that maintains the same high standards and thorough review and editing procedures as the prize-winning print journal, but enhanced by multimedia possibilities, more timely publication, and open access. This award is shared with co-winner Meridians “On the Line” from Duke University Press.  

PRSA Best in Maryland, Publication: 2020 Scholarly Journals Subscriptions Catalog

In addition, earlier last month, the Public Relations Society of America's Maryland chapter awarded the Best in Maryland prize for Publications to the JHU Press Journals Marketing Division for their 2020 Scholarly Journals Subscriptions Catalog. The catalog, which details information for each of the Press’s 97 journals, used the theme of microscopic diatoms to reflect on the lasting, global impact of academic researchers’ individual and collective efforts. The award winning catalog was designed by Journals Marketing Graphic Designer Karen Coughlin.