The mission of the Darlene Clark Hine African American History Fund is to continue the legacy of Dr. Hine’s commitment to mentorship and scholarship by supporting Black studies publications at Illinois. Contributions to this fund will support the Press’s premier Black studies list, which has expanded and enriched the field of Black studies and helps to build a greater understanding of the African American experience in its myriad dimensions. Dr. Hine is a prolific author, a National Humanities Medalist, and a teacher and mentor to many. Darlene has been instrumental to the growth and success of UIP’s Black studies program, particularly through her work on The New Black Studies Series, which she coedits with Dwight A. McBride. However, “Darlene’s influence on our Black studies publishing program can be seen well beyond the series,” says senior acquisitions editor Dawn Durante, “in the breadth of the Press’s commitment to African American history and culture and particularly African American women’s and gender studies.” We are grateful to Darlene for allowing us to honor her with this fund, and we invite you to join us in building resources to sustain the work of the next generation of Black studies scholars.

We can’t thank our donors enough for making it possible to achieve our mission of spreading new scholarship. The last year has been exceptional, and our donors enabled the publication of several notable titles. As a token of our appreciation, we’d like to put the spotlight on a few specific funds that made this phenomenal year possible.

WHEN UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS acquisitions editor Judy McCulloh launched the Music in American Life series in 1972 with Archie Green’s book Only a Miner, her dream was to build a series that would be capacious enough to encompass all of the dimensions of music in the American context. “A desert isle” series, she called it, meaning that if one were marooned with only the books in the series, that would be sufficient to tell the story of American music. Forty-five years later, with more than two hundred volumes published, the series continues to grow into Judy’s vision.

Good news! The Bruno Nettl Fund for Ethnomusicology permanent endowment level of $25,000 was reached. The future of publishing groundbreaking, exceptional scholarship that contributes to diversity in the field is assured thanks to the generosity of our donors.

The first two recipients of the Bruno Nettl Endowment for Ethnomusicology subvention have been selected: both Gamelan Girls: Gender, Childhood, and Politics in Balinese Music Ensembles by Sonja Lynn Downing, and Island Gospel: Pentecostal Music and Identity in Jamaica and the United States by Melvin L. Butler will be published in our fall 2019 season. Stay tuned for more information about these two exciting titles, which exemplify the spirit of this endowment.