New Director of Northwestern University Press Named

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Jane Bunker has been appointed director of Northwestern University Press, according to Northwestern University Librarian Sarah M. Pritchard. Bunker will assume her position at Northwestern University Press in August.

Bunker currently is associate director and editor-in-chief of the State University of New York Press, where she has held a number of positions since 1996.  She said she looks forward to "creating a visionary strategic plan for Northwestern Press."  

"Jane Bunker has been a leader in addressing the broader challenges facing the industry," said Northwestern University Librarian Pritchard, who oversees the administration of the press. "In addition, she has a deep knowledge and love of the academic areas that are the core strengths of Northwestern University Press."

Among the titles Bunker has acquired in her career as an editor are "The Participating Citizen: A Biography of Alfred Schutz" by Michael Barber and "Kindness and the Good Society" by William Hamrick, both winners of the Edward Goodwin Ballard Book Prize in Phenomenology, "Constructing the Nation: A Race and Nationalism Reader," edited by Mariana Ortega and Linda Martin Alcoff and numerous translations of Martin Heidegger and F.W.J. Schelling.

A graduate of St. Norbert College, Bunker earned a master's degree in philosophy from Fordham University. She is active in the Association of American University Presses and in the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy.
 
The search committee that selected Bunker to head Northwestern University Press included Marianne Ryan and Peter Devlin of Northwestern University Library; Jean Shedd, associate provost; David Easterbrook, Herskovits Library of African Studies; Parneshia Jones and Serena Brommel, Northwestern University Press; Saul Morson, Slavic languages and literatures, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences; and Carol Simpson Stern, performance studies, School of Communication.

Since it was founded in 1893, Northwestern University Press has produced important scholarly works in a broad range of disciplines as well as quality regional and Chicago books, fiction, poetry, literature in translation, literary criticism, and books on drama and the performing arts. Northwestern University Press authors have been the recipients of numerous prizes, including three Nobel Prizes for Literature, the National Book Award and the Tony Award.