Charlottesville, Va. (Aug. 3, 2023) - The University of Virginia Press is proud to announce that Dr. Beth Colón has accepted the position of Associate Acquisitions Editor for Africana Studies. The creation of this new role reflects UVA Press’s commitment to promoting diversity in both its organization and in its publications. Encompassing the deepest history and most timely issues of today, the Africana Studies list will keep UVA Press at the center of key discussions in the academy and beyond.

Dr. Colón will assume responsibility for a number of distinguished book series, including the Carter G. Woodson Institute Series; New World Studies; CARAF Books: Caribbean and African Literature Translated from French, and will contribute to other series including Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, Reconsiderations in Southern African History, as well as two recently launched series, The Black Soldier in War and Society and Race, Place, and Justice. She will spearhead new acquisitions in Black history, literature, and culture in multidisciplinary and diasporic perspective, and will actively work to raise Virginia’s profile in the field of Africana Studies. In doing so, Dr. Colón’s list will build on UVA Press’s legacy as a pioneer in this field, which includes works such as Annette Gordon-Reed’s landmark Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy and Maryse Conde’s classic novel I Tituba, Black Witch of Salem.

“After engaging the rich canon of Black Studies as part of my academic training,” said Dr. Colón, who earned her PhD in Africana Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, “joining UVA Press as the new Associate Acquisitions Editor of Africana Studies to expand said canon and contribute to the field in such a way is so thrilling.”

“Given the history of Virginia from 1619 at Point Comfort to 2017 in Charlottesville, we felt it incumbent upon the University of Virginia Press to prioritize publishing the best scholarship in African and African American studies. The appointment of Dr. Colón is a significant step toward UVA Press becoming a leading publisher in this category,” said Eric Brandt, Press Director.