Aug. 28, 2025
Dear President Bravman and Provost Sternberg,
We, the undersigned, write to you as members of the American Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) to express our dismay at the intended closure of Bucknell University Press, which we learned about through various channels, including The Chronicle of Higher Education. As you may know, Bucknell University Press has long championed eighteenth-century studies and remains, to this day, one of the most internationally renowned publishers in our field, which includes affiliate societies around the globe. We author this letter to articulate what Bucknell University Press has meant to our membership and society over its nearly six decades, not just as scholars but also as teachers of undergraduate and graduate students who rely on Bucknell University Press publications. We sincerely request that Bucknell’s administration reconsider the decision to close the Press at the conclusion of this academic year.
As a member of the American Council of Learned Societies, the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, and the National Humanities Alliance, ASECS represents a diverse, global membership—with 1400 members from 11 different countries, 36 affiliate societies throughout North America and Europe, and an Annual Meeting of 800 scholars—that contributes to humanistic and interdisciplinary inquiry. We affirm that a university press, such as Bucknell’s, is the hallmark of scholarly and public good that we currently see under threat with attacks against higher education writ large. The closure of Bucknell University Press threatens to endanger the international circulation of eighteenth-century studies scholarship and do away with an esteemed press that has long supported dedicated communities of members, either through the well-established Transits series, or through the innumerable associated monographs, anthologies, and edited editions of primary texts. Indeed, Bucknell University Press texts are mainstays in our classrooms and commonly enfolded and cited in our scholarship. Put simply, the loss of Bucknell University Press will be, to us and without question the wider academic community, immeasurable.
As intellectuals and teachers committed to the nurturing and growth of eighteenth-century studies, we encourage you, Bucknell’s administration, and other university stakeholders to rescind this decision. We hope to impress upon you the significance of the Press to us, as a learned society, but also to us as individuals committed to the growth of critical and scholarly inquiry, which, without Bucknell University Press, is jeopardized.
Sincerely,
Misty G. Anderson, University of Tennessee, ASECS President
Lesley Thulin, The George Washington University
Manushag N. Powell, ASU
Kathleen E. Urda, Bronx Community College, CUNY
Thomas Keymer, University of Toronto
Fiona Brideoake, American University
Peter Walmsley, Professor, McMaster University
Francesca Saggini, Università della Tuscia
William McCarthy, Professor Emeritus, Iowa State University
Kelly Plante, PhD, Managing Editor, ABO
Martha F. Bowden, Kennesaw State University
Julie Murray, Carleton University
Mary Helen Dupree, Georgetown University
Paul Kelleher, Associate Professor of English, Emory University
Sabrina Yates, Stanford University PhD Candidate
Marilyn Francus, Professor Emerita, West Virginia University
Fabienne Moore, Associate Professor of French, University of Oregon
Linda Zionkowski, Ohio University
Miriam Wallace, University of Illinois Springfield
Helen Deutsch, UCLA
Elodie Tantet
Laura Engel, Professor of English, Duquesne University
Taylin Nelson, Rice University
Ashley Schoppe, Catawba College
Jeremy Chow, Bucknell University
Jessica Leiman, Carleton College
David Francis Taylor, University of Oxford
Richard Squibbs, DePaul University
Peter DeGabriele, Mississippi State University
Shane Agin, Duquesne University
Dr. Sarabeth Grant, Assistant Professor of English
Bridget Donnelly, Middle Tennessee State University
Victoria Barnett-Woods, Washington College
Heidi Schlipphacke, University of Illinois Chicago
Jason Farr
Joseph Bartolomeo, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Angelina Del Balzo, Utah Valley University
Sal Nicolazzo, Associate Professor, UC Davis
Rebecca Anne Barr, University of Cambridge
Katarina O’Briain, York University
Carla J. Mulford
Melissa J. Ganz, Marquette University
Carole Paul, University of California, Santa Barbara
Elizabeth Oldfather, University of Louisiana Monroe
Susan Spencer, University of Central Oklahoma
Tekla Babyak, Independent Scholar and Disability Activist
Suvir Kaul, A M Rosenthal Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania
Yann Robert
Stephanie L. Merkel, Ohio Wesleyan University
Kirsten Saxton, Professor of English Northeastern University Oakland
Christopher Nagle, Western Michigan University
James Woolley, Lafayette College
Tracy Rutler, Penn State University
Dr. Kristine Palmieri, LMU Munich
Diana Campóo, Centro Superior de Música del País Vasco, Spain
Leah M. Thomas, Virginia State University
Yvonne Fuentes, University of West Georgia
Eleanor F. Shevlin, Professor of English emerita, West Chester University
Jess Keiser, Tufts University
Kandice Sharren, University of Saskatchewan
Karen Griscom Community College of Rhode Island
Greg Clingham, Director Bucknell Univ Press, emeritus; Prof of English, emeritus
Jonathan Williams, Bilkent University, Ankara
Deidre Lynch, Harvard University
Paula McDowell – New York University
Regina Hewitt, Prof. Emerita of English, U. of South Florida
Eleanor ter Horst, University of South Alabama
Marcie Frank, Concordia University
Jeffrey M. Leichman, Louisiana State University
Francesca Savoia
Marta Kvande, Texas Tech University
Tita Chico, Professor, University of Maryland
Heather Heckman-McKenna, University of Missouri
Aparna Gollapudi, Colorado State University
Mellissa Black, Ph.D. University of North Alabama
Christopher F. Loar, Western Washington University
Elizabeth Kraft, Professor Emerita of English, University of Georgia
Steve Newman, Temple University
Kimberly Takahata, Villanova University
Michael Berlin, Washington and Lee University
Lisa Maruca, Wayne State University (emerita)
Rivka Swenson, Virginia Commonwealth University
Megan Peiser, Oakland University
Li Qi Peh, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)
Misty Krueger, University of Maine at Farmington
Jonathan Sadow, Associate Professor, SUNY Oneonta
Fiona Ritchie, McGill University
Joshua Swidzinski, University of Portland
Min Wild, Honorary Research Fellow, co-editor of Reading Christopher Smart
Jennifer Golightly
Brett D. Wilson, William & Mary
Joseph Drury, Villanova University
Kit Kincade, Indiana State University
Janet Sorensen, Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Sören Hammerschmidt, GateWay Community College
Kevin Joel Berland, Professor Emeritus of English & Comparative Literature, Penn State
Timothy Campbell, University of Chicago
Teri Doerksen, Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania – Mansfield
Christopher Douglas, Jacksonville State University
Margaret Ezell Texas A &M university
Erin M. Goss, Clemson University
Abigail Zitin, Associate Professor, Rutgers University–New Brunswick
Daniel Timothy Erwin
Nina Moon
Jessica Richard
Masano Yamashita, University of Colorado Boulder
Emily Spunaugle, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Richard Sher
Stephanie Insley Hershinow, Baruch College and the Graduate Center, CUNY
Karen Stolley, Emory University
Logan Connors, University of Miami
Chloe Wigston Smith, University of York
Thora Brylowe, University of Colorado Boulder
Kelly Swartz, Adelphi University
Bethany Qualls, Université de Caen Normandie
Cass Turner, UCLA
Lynn Festa, Rutgers University
Vivian Zuluaga Papp
Julie Park
Mita Choudhury, Purdue University Northwest
Michelle Lyons-McFarland
Stephen Ahern
Mehl Penrose, University of Maryland
Elaine Bander
Allison Cardon, Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History
Anne Betty Weinshenker, Montclair State University
Dena Goodman, Lila Miller Collegiate Professor Emerita, University of Michigan
(signatories will be updated at regular intervals)