Open Humanities Press

Open Humanities Press (OHP) is an international, scholar-led open-access publishing initiative focused on the humanities, particularly critical theory, cultural theory, media studies, philosophy, and adjacent interdisciplinary fields. Rather than operating primarily as a conventional commercial publishing house, OHP functions as a collective platform that supports the production, dissemination, and visibility of openly available scholarly journals and books. The initiative was founded by Paul Ashton, Gary Hall, Sigi Jöttkandt, and David Ottina, with the stated purpose of increasing awareness of open-access publishing in the humanities and providing promotional and technical assistance to journals invited to join its publishing collective. OHP launched in May 2008 with seven open-access journals. Its emergence was part of a wider movement seeking alternatives to subscription-based academic publishing, especially in fields where monograph publication is central to scholarly communication but commercial economics make free distribution difficult. OHP's editorial and advisory network has included prominent scholars such as Alain Badiou, Jonathan Culler, Stephen Greenblatt, Jean-Claude Guédon, Graham Harman, J. Hillis Miller, Antonio Negri, Peter Suber, and Gayatri Spivak. Their involvement helped position the initiative within international debates about open knowledge, digital scholarship, critical theory, and the political economy of academic publishing. The Public Library of Science described the new press as a “beacon of hope” during its early development, reflecting the attention it attracted as an experimental humanities publishing model. In August 2009, OHP announced plans to publish open-access book series edited by senior members of its board. These programs expanded the initiative beyond journal hosting into scholarly monographs and edited volumes. Its book portfolio has included series such as New Metaphysics, Critical Climate Change, Fibreculture Books, Liquid Books, Immediations, Technographies, and MEDIA: ART: WRITE: NOW. The series cover subjects including speculative philosophy, climate theory, digital culture, media art, technology, contemporary theory, and experimental forms of scholarly communication. From 2010 to 2015, OHP collaborated with the University of Michigan Library's MPublishing branch to support the production of monographs. The partnership represented an effort to combine scholar-led editorial direction with library-based publishing infrastructure. OHP later developed a similar collaboration with the Main Library at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. These relationships illustrate the press's reliance on institutional library partnerships and cooperative publishing infrastructure rather than a conventional profit-maximizing model. OHP has also hosted or supported open-access journals including Cosmos and History, Culture Machine, the International Journal of Žižek Studies, and Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular. Its publishing program therefore spans both established journal formats and experimental digital humanities practices. Across these activities, the press's positioning is defined by open availability, collective editorial governance, international scholarly participation, and an emphasis on critical and culturally engaged research. Publicly available reference material does not establish a precise headquarters, corporate ownership structure, legal form, revenue figures, current leadership roster, or a complete list of presently active journals and book series. Those details should be verified directly with the organization if a current institutional profile is required.

Open Humanities Press was established in 2008 by Paul Ashton, Gary Hall, Sigi Jöttkandt, and David Ottina as a scholar-led response to the limitations of conventional humanities publishing. Its purpose was to promote open access and to provide technical and promotional support to selected journals participating in a common publishing collective. The initiative launched in May 2008 with seven open-access journals and quickly attracted attention in discussions about the future of scholarly communication. The Public Library of Science characterized the project as a hopeful development for humanities publishing, a field in which journals and monographs had traditionally depended heavily on subscriptions, institutional purchases, and specialist commercial presses. The press's early identity was shaped by its international and interdisciplinary editorial network. Its board included influential figures from literary studies, philosophy, cultural theory, media studies, and open-access advocacy, including Alain Badiou, Jonathan Culler, Stephen Greenblatt, Jean-Claude Guédon, Graham Harman, J. Hillis Miller, Antonio Negri, Peter Suber, and Gayatri Spivak. This network gave OHP visibility while also aligning the press with critical theory and experimental humanities scholarship rather than with a broad, general-purpose academic publishing list. In August 2009, OHP announced that it would begin publishing open-access book series edited by senior members of its board. The move addressed a central challenge in humanities open access: monographs are often essential to academic careers and intellectual debate, but their production involves substantial editorial, design, and distribution costs. OHP's book program consequently became an important complement to its journal work. Its documented series included New Metaphysics, edited by Graham Harman and Bruno Latour; Critical Climate Change and CCC2 Irreversibility, associated with Claire Colebrook and Tom Cohen; Fibreculture Books, edited by Andrew Murphie; Liquid Books, edited by Gary Hall and Clare Birchall; Immediations, associated with the SenseLab; Technographies, edited by Steven Connor, David Trotter, and James Purdon; and MEDIA: ART: WRITE: NOW, edited by Joanna Zylinska. From 2010 through 2015, OHP worked with the University of Michigan Library's MPublishing branch to support the production of monographs. The collaboration combined OHP's scholar-led editorial model with library publishing capabilities and funding support. It demonstrated how open-access presses could operate through institutional partnerships rather than through a conventional commercial infrastructure. After that period, OHP was described as working with the Main Library at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in a similar arrangement, although the available reference material does not specify the full terms, dates, or scope of the later partnership. OHP's journal program has included Cosmos and History, Culture Machine, the International Journal of Žižek Studies, and Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular. These publications reflect the press's continuing interest in philosophy, cultural studies, critical theory, digital culture, and technologically mediated scholarship. Its work has therefore combined conventional academic peer-reviewed forms with broader experimentation in digital publishing and the circulation of research outside paywalled systems. The available sources do not provide a complete current catalogue, a formal corporate structure, a fixed headquarters, financial information, or a verified list of current officers. They also do not establish whether every journal and book series historically associated with OHP remains active. The press is best described on the available evidence as an ongoing open-access humanities publishing initiative whose main historical contributions have been collective journal support, experimental monograph publishing, and collaboration with academic libraries.

1. 2015University of Michigan collaboration period ends

   The documented collaboration with MPublishing covers the period from 2010 through 2015.

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2. 2010University of Michigan publishing collaboration begins

   OHP collaborates with the University of Michigan Library's MPublishing branch on funding and producing monographs.

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3. 2009Open-access monograph program announced

   The press announces plans for open-access book series edited by senior members of its editorial board.

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4. 2008Open Humanities Press launches

   OHP begins publishing with seven open-access humanities journals and introduces its scholar-led collective model.

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A collaborative, scholar-led alternative to conventional academic publishing, emphasizing free public access, critical and cultural theory, library partnerships, and experimental forms of humanities communication.

• Open-access journalsAcademic journals2008

  OHP's journal activity provides open access to humanities research without the traditional subscription barrier. The documented portfolio includes titles such as Cosmos and History, Culture Machine, the International Journal of Žižek Studies, and Vectors. The journals cover philosophy, cultural theory, critical studies, media, and digital culture, reflecting the press's interdisciplinary and theoretically engaged editorial orientation.

• New MetaphysicsOpen-access monograph series

  New Metaphysics is an OHP monograph series associated with editors Graham Harman and Bruno Latour. Its title signals an emphasis on philosophical inquiry and contemporary theoretical approaches to metaphysics. The series forms part of OHP's effort to make substantial humanities books openly available while retaining specialist editorial direction.

• Critical Climate ChangeOpen-access monograph series

  Critical Climate Change is a book series edited by Claire Colebrook and Tom Cohen. It approaches climate change through critical theory and humanities scholarship rather than treating it solely as a scientific or policy subject. The series illustrates OHP's interest in connecting major social and ecological issues with philosophical, literary, and cultural analysis.

• CCC2 IrreversibilityOpen-access monograph series

  CCC2 Irreversibility is another OHP series associated with Claire Colebrook and Tom Cohen. Its focus on irreversibility extends the press's critical engagement with climate change, temporality, crisis, and ecological thought. It represents the type of theoretically driven interdisciplinary book program that distinguishes OHP from broad commercial academic publishers.

• Fibreculture BooksOpen-access monograph series

  Fibreculture Books is an OHP series edited by Andrew Murphie and connected with the study of digital culture, networks, media, and technology. The series extends the concerns of the Fibreculture intellectual community into book-length scholarship and fits OHP's broader commitment to digitally oriented and experimentally published humanities research.

• Liquid BooksOpen-access monograph series

  Liquid Books is a series edited by Gary Hall and Clare Birchall. Its name and editorial positioning are associated with flexible, experimental, and digitally aware approaches to the book as a scholarly form. Within OHP's program, it represents an effort to explore how open publishing can alter the boundaries between authorship, reading, circulation, and academic production.

• ImmediationsOpen-access monograph series

  Immediations is an OHP series associated with the SenseLab, an interdisciplinary research environment known for experimental work in philosophy, art, and collective inquiry. The series contributes to OHP's focus on forms of scholarship that cross disciplinary and media boundaries, making research available through an open-access publishing framework.

• TechnographiesOpen-access monograph series

  Technographies is a series edited by Steven Connor, David Trotter, and James Purdon. It addresses technology and its cultural, material, and intellectual effects through humanities scholarship. The series demonstrates OHP's practice of pairing established academic editors with open dissemination and specialist, interdisciplinary subject matter.

• MEDIA: ART: WRITE: NOWOpen-access monograph series

  MEDIA: ART: WRITE: NOW is an OHP series edited by Joanna Zylinska. It links media theory, contemporary art, and writing, reflecting the press's interest in hybrid forms of humanities and creative scholarship. Its inclusion in the book program shows how OHP's publishing remit extends beyond conventional disciplinary monographs.

• 2010Library-based monograph production partnershipStrategy

  Open-access monograph publishing requires editorial, production, and distribution resources that scholar-led initiatives may not possess independently.

  What changed. OHP partnered with the University of Michigan Library's MPublishing branch to support the funding and production of monographs.

  Aftermath. The collaboration continued through 2015 and established an institutional-library model for supporting OHP books.

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• 2009Expansion from journal support into open-access booksProduct launch

  After launching with open-access journals, OHP identified monographs as an important area for extending humanities open access.

  What changed. The press announced book series edited by senior members of its editorial board.

  Aftermath. The announcement led to a documented portfolio of specialist series covering philosophy, climate theory, digital culture, media, and related fields.

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• Further collaboration with the University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignStrategy

  Following the earlier University of Michigan arrangement, OHP continued to use partnerships with academic libraries as part of its publishing infrastructure.

  What changed. The press collaborated with the Main Library at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in a similar manner.

  Aftermath. The available reference material does not specify the start date, detailed terms, or complete outputs of this collaboration.

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• 2015University of Michigan monograph collaboration concludes

  The documented OHP collaboration with the University of Michigan Library's MPublishing branch ran through 2015.

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• 2010Open Humanities Press collaborates with University of Michigan MPublishing

  OHP began a collaboration with the University of Michigan Library's MPublishing branch to help fund and produce open-access monographs.

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• 2009Open Humanities Press announces open-access book publishing program

  The press announced plans to publish open-access book series edited by senior members of its editorial board, extending its activities beyond journal publishing.

  Product launch
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• 2008Open Humanities Press launches with seven open-access journals

  The scholar-led initiative began operations with seven open-access journals and presented a collective model for humanities publishing.

  OtherProduct launch
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• Open Humanities Press develops library partnership with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  OHP is described as collaborating with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Main Library on a model comparable to its earlier monograph-production partnership.

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1. Open Humanities Press
2. Open Humanities Press official website