Are you publishing a new book or other significant work?
The Aydelotte Foundation and Swarthmore College Libraries can help you fund a launch event.
We’ve updated our process and are longer accepting rolling applications. Applications are currently closed.
Swarthmore faculty and staff who have authored a published or forthcoming signature scholarly or artistic work (e.g. a book, an important paper, an artwork, etc.) in the last three years can gain our assistance in developing ideas for a launch event that disseminates and further enriches the important work you have completed. Formats can vary, and could include a discussion between you and a crucial interlocutor; a round table of responses from colleagues at other institutions; or other creative possibilities, including the generation of a teaching guide, a limited run podcast, or a gallery exhibition.
Offering up to $2,000 per project, this program can also work with your press (or other supporters) on an advertising plan to help get the word out on campus and beyond about your significant accomplishment.
We hope to help you connect with your existing scholarly community as well as expand the audience for your work to an adjacent discipline, the campus community, and/or the public, while also celebrating your accomplishments.
Please get in touch with Andy Hines (ahines1@swarthmore.edu) at the Aydelotte Foundation or with Maria Agahazarian (magahaza1@swarthmore.edu) at the Libraries for more information about the program.
Current Scholarly Promotion Projects
Sony Devabhaktuni. Curb-scale Hong Kong: Infrastructures of the street, Applied Research & Design Publishing.
Sony will be hosting a book talk and reception at Bleak House Books, Honeoye Falls, NY, the afternoon of May 4, 2024. This event will also be live-streamed. Details are still TBA, so check back for more details!
Upcoming Scholarly Promotion Projects
Syon Bhanot. Behavioral Public Policy in a Global Context: Practical Lessons from Outside the Nudge Unit, Palgrave McMillan, Spring 2024.
Roseann Liu. Designed to Fail: Why Racial Equity in School Funding Is So Hard to Achieve, The University of Chicago Press. Planned for Spring 2024.
Betsy Bolton. Mouth Art of the Bald-faced Hornet, Finishing Line Press. Planned for Fall 2024.
Paloma Checa-Gismero. Biennial Boom: Making Contemporary Art Global, Duke University Press. Planned for Fall 2024.
Sunka Simon. German Crime Dramas: from Network TV to Netflix, Bloomsbury Publishing. Planned for Spring 2024.
Itzue Caviedes Solis. Planned for Spring 2024.
Nicolette Bragg. The Ruins of Solitude: Maternity at the Limits of Academic Discourse, Punctum Books. Planned for Fall 2023/Spring 2024.
Andrea Lee. Lincoln Went Down To The Nile. Planned for Fall 2024.
Steve C. Wang. Are we in the sixth mass extinction? Planned for Spring 2024.
Past Scholarly Promotion Projects
Alejandra Azuero-Quijano, The Strike as Theory: History of the Present and Uprising in Colombia, Herder Editorial. Book Launch and discussion with Sara Tufano. The event was hosted by Making Worlds Bookstore and Social Center and took place Friday, October 27th, 2023 from 6-8pm.
Lara Cohen, Going Underground: Race, Space, and the Subterranean in the Nineteenth-Century United States. A book launch and discussion with Daphne Brooks and S.S. Sandhu. The discussion was hosted by Making Worlds Bookstore and Social Center and took place on Thursday, September 14, 2023 from 6-8pm.
Lei Ouyang, Music as Mao’s Weapon: Remembering the Cultural Revolution. A book launch and discussion with Marié Abe ’01, Shalini Ayyagari ’00, and Lei Ouyang in conversation with Steven Hopkins and Deborah Wong. The discussion took place at the Inn at Swarthmore on Friday, September 8th, 2023 from 4:30-6pm, and a reception followed. Sponsored by the Aydelotte Foundation & co-sponsored by Asian Studies, Global Studies, Music, Sociology and Anthropology, and the Advancement Office at Swarthmore College.
Michael Wehar, AlgoArt Exhibition @ Swarthmore College, An exhibition of visual artworks generated using the AlgoArt platform, curated by Michael Wehar at the McCabe Library at Swarthmore College. The exhibition featured work by Xingyu Dong, Xinxin Li, Maya-Newman Toker, Alyssa Zhang with additional works by John Mancini and students from UMass Boston. AlgoArt is a digital platform that brings together Artists and Technologists to create algorithmically generated visual designs and artworks. Opening Reception, Thursday, April 27th, 6:30pm. Supported by the Aydelotte Foundation, Swarthmore College Libraries, Swarthmore College Research Fund, Academic Division Research Fund, and Frances Velay Fellowship.
James V. Fenelon, DeColonizing American Colonial/Environmental/Imperial Racisms and Racialized Capitalism, A launch and discussion of Indian, Black and Irish: Indigenous Nations, African Peoples and European Invasions, 1492 – 1790 (Routledge, 2023). The panel featured Manley Begay, Barbara Thelamour, Michael Wilson Becerrill, and Seth Jeter ’25. Friday, April 28th, 2023, 2:30pm.
Sibelan Forrester, Translation of Volodymyr Rafeyenko’s novel, The Length of Days, Harvard University Press. Sibelan Forrester presented her new translation of a novel by Ukrainian writer and literature specialist Volodymyr Rafeyenko, THE LENGTH OF DAYS, opening with a subtitled video of Rafeyenko himself. Complimentary copies of the novel, published last month by the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and on sale at the Swarthmore Campus and Community Store, were available and light refreshments were served. Saturday, April 8th, 2023, 2:00 pm.
Nia King, Queer & Trans Artists of Color, Volume Three Book Launch
A night of art and interviews that featured the following artists: Anthony James Williams, Joamette Gil, Kamal Al-Solaylee, Osa Atoe, Venus Kii Thomas, andQwo-Li Driskill. Nia King and Maliha Ahmed were the co-hosts of this event and the co-editors of Queer & Trans Artists of Color, Volume 3. ASL Interpretation was provided by the Libraries at Swarthmore College. Thursday March 23rd, 6-8pm
Megan Brown, The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community, Harvard University Press. “Transnational Solidarities, Diplomatic Endeavors, and International History: A Roundtable on Researching and Writing Histories that Cross Borders,” a roundtable discussion event with Kesewa John and Cindy Ewing, moderated by Angela Zimmerman. Thursday, February 9th, 2023.
Daniel Laurison, Producing Politics: Inside the Exclusive Campaign World Where the Privileged Few Shape Politics for All of Us, Beacon Press. “Is Politics for Everyone? A Forum on Making our Democracy More Inclusive”. As Daniel Laurison suggests in Producing Politics, political campaigns in the United States are largely run by a set of professionals with virtually the same backgrounds and credentials. Beyond generating repetitive political strategies, how and why does that homogeneity limit political participation more broadly? Laurison discussed the impact of these matters on American democracy with the esteemed journalist Sasha Issenberg and Philadelphia City Councilmember At-Large Kendra Brooks on Thursday, September 8 at the Friends Center in Philadelphia. Professor Edwin Mayorga moderated the conversation.
Tia Newhall and Kevin Webb, Dive into Systems: A Gentle Introduction to Computer Systems, Computer Organization, and Parallel Computing, No Starch Press, By Suzanne Matthews, Tia Newhall, and Kevin Webb. “How do you write an open-access textbook and why should you do it?” was a panel discussion featuring Carmelo Galati, Tia Newhall, and Donald Wargo. It explored the benefits, challenges, and development practices of open-access textbooks across a range of disciplines. By bringing together experts from the sciences, social sciences, and the humanities, the panel engaged wider issues surrounding institutional support for faculty developing these books, incorporating these works into courses, and examining how open-access works uniquely connect faculty working across institutions. Suzanne Matthews moderated the conversation.
Donna Jo Napoli, In a Flash, Wendy Lamb Books. Commissioned Education Guide for Teachers.
Katie Price, Pataphysics Unrolled, Penn State University Press, Edited by Katie Price and Michael R. Taylor. Book launch event hosted by co-editors Katie L. Price and Michael R. Taylor at Slought.
Edwin Mayorga, What’s Race Got to Do with It?: How Current School Reform Policy Maintains Racial and Economic Inequality, Second Edition, Peter Lang, Edited by Edwin Mayorga, Ujju Aggarwal, and Bree Picower. An interactive webinar conversation with Ujju Aggarwal, Wayne Au, Bill Ayers, Amy Brown, Brian Jones, Edwin Mayorga, Bree Picower, David Stovall, and Terrenda White.
Andy Hines, Outside Literary Studies: Black Criticism and the University, University of Chicago Press. Webinar conversation with Roderick Ferguson, Jared Loggins, and Andrew J. Douglas.
Chinelo Okparanta, Harry Sylvester Bird, HarperCollins Publishers. Reading and Q&A Event.
