Over the last 50 years, the centers now housed in the University of Michigan International Institute have published over 300 ground-breaking books about East, South, and Southeast Asia. In 2018, these centers collaborated with University of Michigan Press and the U-M Asia Library to successfully apply for a Humanities Open Book program grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, aimed at making important backlist books broadly available again. This funding has allowed a complete record of the centers’ publications to be compiled and for 100 selected titles to be brought back into print and made digitally-available open access. These are now all freely available on major online platforms including JSTOR, Project MUSE, OAPEN, and as part of the University of Michigan Press Ebook Collection.
On Friday, February 26, from 1 pm to 5 pm, the U-M International Institute and the U-M Press will hold a free Zoom roundtable event to highlight the impact of the Michigan Asian Studies Open Access Books Collection. While the event focuses on University of Michigan publications, the panels aim to explore opportunities for open access publishing in Asian studies more broadly, and the event will also feature breakout room discussions on the subject. View the event program here, and use this link to register.