University Press Roundup: Free Speech, Digital Burnout and Festive Phrases

Check out this collection of 8 of the most interesting university press blog posts for this month. We aim to keep you informed, engaged, and part of the ongoing scholarly conversations.

1. Telling people things that they do not want to hear: Free speech debates and contemporary culture wars

Charlotte Riley shares the introduction from her book The Free Speech Wars, analysing the rise of the free speech debate in recent years. She explains how often debates about ‘freedom of speech’ “flatten all contours and eradicate all nuance; a discussion that screams about being silenced but does not explore how and why pressures on free speech are exerted or what the consequences really are”. Read the full piece here. (Manchester University Press).

2. Digital Burnout – It’s Time to Take Back Control

Erika Osváth writes about a condition which many of us may have experienced this year – digital burnout. Her step-by-step guide aims to help us all take back control and avoid the confinement, disconnection and anxiety associated with digital burnout. Find out what you can do here. (Oxford University Press)

3. Why should social workers care about sex positivity?

SJ Dodd, author of Sex-Positive Social Work, discusses the importance of social workers embracing issues of sexuality in their practice in this blog piece for Columbia University Press. Find out more about the importance of examining sex positivity and sexual wellbeing within social work here. (Columbia University Press)

4. ‘I Slip into Your Skin’: Identity and Novelistic Representation

Dorothy Hale, author of The Novel and New Ethics, explores the 2019 Booker prize winning Girl, Woman, Other. Focusing on the centrality of identity, she elucidates as to “why the novelistic art of slipping into a character’s skin adds ethical friction as a component of novelistic aesthetics”. Read it here. (Stanford University Press)

5. A Gift for Every Giver!

The University Press of Kentucky have compiled the ultimate gift-giving guide for the biggest gifting season of the year. They’ve offered book suggestions for a variety of profile types and family members, so if you’re stuck on which to choose, check this list out! (University Press of Kentucky)

6. Teaching During the Pandemic: Postcards from Around the World

As part of a two-part blog series, Oxford University Press asked teachers across the globe to ‘send a postcard’ with their experiences of teaching during the pandemic. Transforming overnight to online sessions has been a complex experience for all educators, and these teachers offer advice and share their stories. Find the full post here. (Oxford University Press)

7. Festive Phrases: The Language of an Online Christmas

This year, Christmas will be a lot more digital than usual for many. Language researcher, Robbie Love explores the online language of the festive period (in present day English). From shopping to faux trees: find out about our language trends this christmas here. (Cambridge University Press)

8. UTP Holiday Gift Guide: Top Ten Books Under $35

Seeing as it’s December, we thought we’d include one more gift-giving guide in this month’s round-up. The University of Toronto Press has produced a selection of gift-giving guides (book focused, of course) for a range of price brackets: this one is for under $35. For some great book selections covering a range of budgets, check out this article, and the full series! (University of Toronto Press)