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Cornell University Press fosters a culture of broad and sustained inquiry through the publication of scholarship that is engaged, influential, and of lasting significance.
Established in 1869 as the first American university press, shortly after the founding of Cornell, the press embodies and advances the university’s core values by disseminating fundamental and practical knowledge, while commanding its own distinct editorial profile. The press, as part of a land-grant institution, is also dedicated to transforming research into publications that reach and benefit the wider public.
Works published under its imprints reflect a commitment to excellence through rigorous evaluation, skillful editing, thoughtful design, strategic marketing, and global outreach.
Since early 1993, the acquisitions, editorial, production, and marketing departments of the Press have been located in Sage House, where the staff keeps company with the house’s carved bats and stained-glass birds. Sage House was built in the 1880s by Henry Williams Sage, then chairman of the University’s Board of Trustees, and was designed by William Henry Miller, the architect later responsible for many important buildings on the Cornell campus. Contractor and chief mason were master craftsmen who had come to Ithaca from England, bringing old-world skills to the construction of the early campus.
To learn more about Cornell University Press read our history of the Press published to celebrate our 150th anniversary in 2019.
Cornell University Press is a proud member of the Association of University Presses , which serves to advance the essential role of a global community of publishers whose mission is to ensure academic excellence and cultivate knowledge.
Our Publishing Profile
Cornell University Press publishes peer-reviewed, nonfiction books (and two journals) for diverse readerships under several distinct imprints, each of which have their own faculty and expert advisory boards. The Press also publishes fiction under its Three Hills imprint.
The Cornell University Press imprint has particular strengths in anthropology and sociology; classics and archaeology; geography and urban studies; higher education; history (U.S., Western and Central Europe, East Asia, and military); law and society; literary and cultural studies; medieval and early modern studies; political science (international relations, security studies, humanitarianism and human rights, political economy and the politics of money, and area studies concentrating on the EU, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and East and Southeast Asia); and the history and politics of New York State. (The journal New York History is also published under the CUP imprint).
The ILR Press imprint publishes books in labor and industrial relations; management and human resources; labor history; issues of class; workplace culture; and health care policy and practice.
Our Comstock Publishing Associates imprint publishes scholarly and general-interest books in life sciences (including ornithology, entomology, herpetology and ichthyology, mammalogy, botany, and ecology); natural history; and environmental studies; as well as nature writing and field guides.
In collaboration with Cornell’s Southeast Asia Program, Southeast Asia Program Publications (SEAP) publishes books on Southeast Asian history, culture, and society, as well as the journal Indonesia.
The Cornell East Asia Series (CEAS) imprint, published jointly with Cornell’s East Asia Program, focuses on China and Taiwan, Japan, and the Korean peninsula, covering topics in history, culture and society, and translations of literary works.
The Three Hills imprint publishes books of general interest about the history, politics, cultures, communities, and the environment of New York State and City. Novels, short stories, and other creative writing projects are also published under Three Hills.
The Northern Illinois University Press imprint, a collaboration with NIU, publishes books in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian studies; Orthodox Christian studies; Southeast Asian history; politics; and books about the Midwest, with a particular focus on Illinois and Chicago.
Active Series by Subject