About the Press
The University of Calgary Press
(UofC Press) was founded in 1981 and is committed to the advancement of scholarship
through the publication of first-rate monographs and academic
journals.
The Press publishes scholarly
and trade books, with subjects as diverse as Folklore, Economics, Literary Criticism,
Travel & Tourism and Post-Modernism. The Press also has
an active journals program since its inception and now includes
6 print
journals and two electronic journals.
Publications
The first book published by
the Press,"Alternative
Transportation Fuels in Canada" by C. Slagorsky, appeared in July 1982
Our all time best-selling book, Galapagos:
A Natural History by Michael H. Jackson, was first published
in 1985. It is currently its in the tenth printing of the second
edition.
To see more highlight publications move the slider at the top
of the page over the timeline markers. You can peruse all of our publications on the Web at:
www.uofcpress.com.
People at the Press
The first Director of the Press
was Harold Coward, Professor of Religious Studies and Associate
Dean of Humanities. He brought with him trusted administrative
employee Joan Barton, who remained with the Press for 22 years.
All of the
past directors of the UofC Press made great contributions
to its success. Presently, Geoffrey Simmins has taken on the role of Interim Director.
He is a former Editorial Board member, was the Board Chairman from 1992-1994, and is a professor in the Department of Art at the University of Calgary
Wondering who we are now?
Meet the people at the UofC Press and on our
Editorial Board, past and present.
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Support for this
project has been made possible, in part, with
funding provided by the University's 40th
Anniversary Special Projects Fund. |
Directors
Harold Coward 1981-1983
Louis Vagianos 1983-1984
Alan MacDonald 1984-1989
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Highlighted Publications from 1981 to 1986 |
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An Introduction
to the Properties of Fluids and Solids
Robert A. Heidemann, Ayodeji A. Jeje, and Farhang Mohtadi |
This book has sold well enough over its lifetime to
warrant being reprinted an astounding 9 times - the most
recent printing happening just a few months ago. Next to
Galapagos this book is the best-selling and most reprinted
book at the Press.
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Galápagos - A Natural
History
Michael H. Jackson
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Twenty
thousand copies of the first edition of Galápagos were
sold. The book has been translated into Spanish and
was revised and updated by the author in 1994. Galapagos
continues to be the all-time best-selling book at the
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This book deals with some basic thermodynamic and
transport properties of fluids and solids that are
of interest in engineering applications. Various
notions about the basic structure of matter, fundamental
concepts of our physical world and the conditions
of equilibrium between different phases of matter
are discussed in the first part of the book. The
macroscopic properties of fluids and solids are
explained in the latter part. Click
the cover to go to the Press website page for
this book.
An
attractive and comprehensive guidebook, this work
has been completely revised and updated by the author.
The reader will find an easy-to-use text which details
the natural history of the plants and animals found
in the Galápagos Islands. Management and conservation
of the Galápagos National Park is discussed, and
visitor information and notes about the various
tourist sites are given. An index and checklist
of plants and animals with page references and a
glossary of technical terms are provided. New photographs
were added in the 1994 revision.
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Directors
Alan MacDonald 1984-1989
Linda Cameron (Acting) 1989-1990
Linda Cameron 1990-1992
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Highlighted Publications
from 1987 to 1991 |
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Roland Gissing: The Peoples'
Painter
Max Foran, with Nonie Houlton |
The first art book from the Press that highlights a
single artist and their work. This book was the precursor to the Art in Profile
series, established to showcase the meaningful
contributions of Canadian artists and architects, both
emerging and established. |
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Place Names
of Alberta -
Volume I: Mountains, Parks
and Foothills
Aphrodite Karamitsanis, editor
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The first of what would eventually become four volumes
on the subject of Alberta's toponymy. A recent, single-
volume edition was published in honour of the province's
centennial,
The Concise Place Names of Alberta . |
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Spain - 1001
Sights:
An
Archaeological and Historical Guide
James M. Anderson
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This book represents the first concerted effort to publish a blended trade and
academic book. Archaeological knowledge is presented in an accessible format
to a wide audience. It spawned the companion volumes,
Portugal: 1001 Sights, in 1994 and
France: 1001 Sights, in 2002 |
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The book begins with a description of the impression
Canada made on Gissing upon his arrival in this
country in 1913 at the age of 18. Gissing wanted
to be a cowboy. He traveled from Alberta to California
and back on horseback, sketching and painting as
he went. Examples of this early work appear in the
book. Gissing began selling his work and supporting
himself solely by painting. The author discusses
Gissing's technique as his style began to change
and how the artist's frame of mind was reflected
in his work. There is a good representation of the
work of this period in the book. The book concludes
with a discussion of Gissing's love of steam locomotives
and some details about his time spent building these
scale trains. Finally a sampling of paintings of
the drastically different seascapes and badlands
he was doing in the few years before his death,
concludes the pictorial record of Gissing's life
and works.
This first in a series of four reference books focuses
on Alberta's official geographical place names combining
gazetteer and origin information within the mountains,
mountain parks, and foothills and is the most current
and complete tool regarding this area of the province's
toponymy.
Place names fascinate everyone, and certainly Alberta
has its share of striking and unusual place names.
Some evoke an atmosphere, such as "Gloomy Creek"
or "Happy Valley"; some are simply descriptive,
such as "Castle Mountain" or "Thin Lake." Origins
of place names are as diverse as the names themselves
and in Place Names of Alberta: Volume I. Mountains,
Mountain Parks and Foothills, many of the historical
stories will unfold.
This unique historical and archaeological guidebook
to Spain introduces the reader and traveler to the
very foundations of the modern state from the earliest
period down to medieval Moslem and Christian societies.
With its broad scope, classification of monuments
and integrated site-based history, the reader is
guided to in situ remains, which may be cave
paintings, ancient Iberian villages, Celtic castros,
Roman villas or necropoli, Paleo-Christian churches,
or the remnants of age-old monasteries tucked away
in the hills. Here a traveler can select an archaeological
and historical theme, easily determine the location
of that interest, and then have it related to the
country's history. The Iberian peninsula offers
much palpable evidence of ancient and unique cultures,
often set among absorbing natural surroundings.
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Directors
Linda Cameron 1990-1992
Shirley Onn 1992-2000
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Highlighted Publications
from 1992 to 1996 |
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Maxwell
Bates:
Biography of an Artist
Kathleen M. Snow
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This book is probably the most intricate and extravagant publication
from the Press to date. A limited edition hardcover
was produced with no less than 40 colour photos, 39
black and white photographs, a lino-block print, 3 notebook drawings-
all handbound in goatskin. This book is truly one-of-a-kind.
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Law, Politics
and the Judicial Process in Canada
Frederick L. Morton, ed. |
Shown here as the third edition of this book, it was first
published in 1984. After six printings and numerous
course adoptions across the country, a second edition
appeared in 1992. In 2002 a third edition followed,
and author Ted Morton once more completely revised and
updated the text, ensuring its success as a routinely
course-adopted title for the Press. |
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This is the first major study of Maxwell Bates,
a western Canadian artist and architect who is now
recognized as one of the major figurative artists
in Canada. This book confirms the power and influence
of his work. Kathleen Snow has used Bates's notes
and journals as well as memories and observations
of his colleagues and friends to record his career
as an artist, architect, and poet. The author and
her husband, artist John Snow, enjoyed a long friendship
with Maxwell Bates. The biography will become the
standard reference on this reticent, driven artist
who is best known for his evocative, sometimes haunting,
depictions of the human figure.
Since the first edition of this popular textbook
appeared in 1984, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
has transformed the role of the courts in Canadian
politics. The book introduces students to issues
raised by the new political role of Canadian judges.
The revised and updated third edition features new
introductions and new readings that deal with current
issues in the realm of Canadian law and politics.
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Directors
Shirley Onn 1992-2000
Walter Hildebrandt 2001-2006
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Highlighted Publications
from 1997 to 2001 |
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Muskox Land - Ellesmere Island
in the Age of Contact
Lyle Dick
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This book would go on to be the Press's first winner
of the Harold Adam Innis Prize for Best English-Language
Book in the Social Sciences, from the Canadian Federation
for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Only two short
years later, the Press would repeat the honour as
The People Who Own Themselves was chosen for the
2005 Harold Adams Innis Prize.
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No One Awaiting Me
Two Brothers Defy Death
during the Holocaust in Romania
Joil AlpernPublished
in the US by the Jewish Heritage Project, New York.
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A multiple award winner, this book was selected by the
Manitoba Writers Guild for both the Alexander Kennedy
Isbister Award for Best Non-Fiction Book, and the Eileen
McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book. The accolades
continued and the book was also honoured with the Jack
Chisvin Family Award for Best Holocaust Memoir at the
15th Annual Canadian Jewish Book Awards. A year later,
another Holocaust memoir,
Never Far Away won the 2002 City of Ottawa,
Best Book Award, English Language. |
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Looking for Country
A Norwegian Immigrant's Alberta Memoir
Ellenor Ranghild Merriken |
Legacies Shared Series, No. 1 , launched
the most prolific series at the Press. The latest installment
in the series is number 22, Medicine and Duty: The World
War I Memoir of Captain Harold W. McGill, Medical Officer
31st Batallion C.E.F. which is slated for publication
in the Spring of 2007. |
Highlighted are discussions of material exchanges
and adaptations, coupled with the many stresses
precipitated by natural forces, the dynamics of
contact and the progression of events during this
period.
Lyle Dick has been a historian with Parks Canada
for many years. He lives in Vancouver, BC where
he is currently the West Coast Historian for Parks
Canada's Western Canada Service Centre. He has written,
researched and published extensively in the fields
of Arctic history, western Canadian history and
historiography.
Here is the riveting account of two orphaned brothers
whose unshakeable courage enabled them to survive
the still rarely told horrors of the Holocaust in
Romania. As Jews expelled from Bukovina and Bessarabia
to Transnistria, young Joil and Avrum witnessed
the cruel destruction of their own parents and many
others. But underlying the author's unflinching
account of the unthinkable brutality of the Holocaust
is the inspiration and passion Joil and his little
brother had to live. No One Awaiting Me
is a story both triumphant and poignant. Readers
will never forget the powerful and loving bond which
existed between these two brothers. Their fight
to endure this nightmare was waged with unmistakable
optimism. Joil Alpern's indefatigable will to survive,
and to protect his younger brother, enabled the
boys to live through the most oppressive existence
mankind has ever devised.
"Looking for Country" refers to the thought process
of animals bent on escape. A stampeding herd, or
a spooked horse running away with its rider, may
be described as "looking for country." It could
also be applied to this memoir in another sense
-- immigrants were looking for land, a piece of
new country and, perhaps, an escape from their old
country. This memoir documents the experiences
of a young woman growing up as a pioneer in Alberta.
Although for many people, immigration brought great
sadness, Ellenor loved Alberta and took tremendous
pride in the years spent there. She did not deny
the struggles, as shown in her writing, but was
amply rewarded by "the satisfaction of knowing that
I have had a part in the making of a great country."
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Directors
Walter Hildebrandt 2001-2005
John Humphrey (Acting) February - September 2006
Geoffrey Simmins (Interim) September 2006 -
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Highlighted Publications
from 2002 to 2006 |
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The People Who Own Themselves:
Aboriginal Ethnogenesis in a Canadian Family 1660-1900
Heather Devine
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This is the second book from the Press to win the prestigious
Harold Adams Innis Award, following 2001's
Muskox Land: Ellesmere Island in the Age of Contact,
by Lyle Dick.
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Bearing Witness:
Partition, Independence, End of the Raj
Sukeshi Kamra
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In 2002 the Kiriyama Prize singled out this publication
for a Notable Book mention, one of only three others
receiving this distinction. The Kiriyama Prize
was established to honour outstanding books that promote
greater understanding among nations of the Pacific Rim.
Past winners have included authors Michael Ondaatje
and Rohinton Mistry.
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The Madwoman in the Academy
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43 Women Boldly Take on the Ivory Tower
Edited by Deborah Keahey and Deborah
Schnitzer |
This uniquely witty, and sometimes irreverent look at
academia, The Madwoman in the Academy scaled impressive
heights, winning for the Press a Best Scholarly Book
Award from the Book Publishers Association of Alberta
(BPAA). This book was the first in a trio of Press publications
to win the Best Scholarly Book Award, with
The Bar U winning the next year in 2005, along with a design award from the American Association of University Presses, followed
in 2006 by Don Smith's,
Calgary's Grand Story.
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The search for a Metis identity and what constitutes
that identity is a key issue facing many Aboriginals
of mixed ancestry today. The People Who Own Themselves
reconstructs 250 years of the Desjarlais´s family
history across a substantial area of North America,
from colonial Louisiana, the St. Louis, Missouri
region, and the American Southwest to Red River
and Central Alberta. In the course of tracing the
Desjarlais family, social, economic, and political
factors influencing the development of various Aboriginal
ethnic identities are discussed. With intriguing
details about the Desjarlais family members, this
book offers new, original insights into the 1885
Northwest Rebellion, focusing on kinship as a motivating
factor in the outcome of events. With a unique how-to
appendix for Metis genealogical reconstruction,
this book will be of equal interest to Metis wanting
to research their own genealogy and to scholars
engaged in the reconstruction of Metis ethnic identity.
The book studies the three groups most affected
by Partition: educated Indians, for whom the moment
was a rite of passage; survivors of partition, for
whom the event is linked with trauma and loss of
home, family, and community; and the British, for
whom this was the beginning of exile.. “a new
and important discussion about a stupendously significant
moment in the history of modern India [and] a notable
contribution to the field of modern Indian history
as well as postcolonial literary criticism.”
– hubel, huron college, university of western
ontario
A dynamic and eclectic collection of life writing,
this book offers an original and highly subversive
critique of the academy’s relationship to its female
members. In this powerful and engaging volume, the
authors touch on topics well-known to women working
in academia around the world: the clash between
family and work, the politics of academe, and the
contradiction between an academic career and political
activism.
The first book of its kind to focus primarily on
Canadian women, The Madwoman in the Academy
is sure to take readers on a ride that will forever
change their ideas about the relationship between
women and the academy.
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