New York University’s Division of Libraries has named Eric I. Schwartz, whose three-decade career in publishing includes positions in the US and the UK, as its new director of NYU Press.
“Eric is known for his collaboration with faculty and university senior leadership as well as his ability to align press goals with university directions. I have no doubt he will create an atmosphere in which all staff will flourish and that he will enrich our collective achievements,” said H. Austin Booth, dean of the Division of Libraries.
Schwartz, editorial director of Columbia University Press since 2014, was previously an editor at Princeton University Press (2008-2013) and held editorial and production positions at Cambridge University Press (2002-2008). He began his career in the production departments of Springer-Verlag and Oxford University Press.
At Columbia University Press, Schwartz launched multiple series in conjunction with departments within and outside Columbia University, including its departments of Anthropology and East Asian Languages and Cultures and the university’s Oral History Program. Recent highlights from his work as an editor Columbia University Press include: Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action by Dana R. Fisher, Harvard Square: A Love Story by Catherine J. Turco, and Life Underground: Encounters with People Below the Streets of New York by Terry Williams. Most recently, with Columbia’s Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies and Howard University’s College of Arts and Sciences, he took a lead role in the development of the interdisciplinary series Black Lives in the Diaspora: Past, Present, Future. He edited the first book in the series, Vital and Valuable: The Relevance of HBCUs to American Life and Education by James V. Koch and Omari H. Swinton.
During his stint at Princeton University Press, he initiated a cognitive science list, which included Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep?: A Neuroscientific View of the Zombie Brain by Timothy Verstynen and Bradley Voytek.
Schwartz, whose 2022 Sociologica article “Author, Editor, Audience” outlines the role publishers play in enhancing an author’s work and in finding the intended audience, is a member of the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) and the Association of American Publishers and past president of the Bookbinders’ Guild of New York.
Schwartz, whose appointment is effective October 7, 2024, holds a PhD in political science from the New School and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Delaware. He replaces Ellen Chodosh, who has held the position since 2014.