Columbia University Press seeks to enhance Columbia University’s educational and research mission by publishing outstanding original works by scholars and other intellectuals that contribute to an understanding of global human concerns. The Press also reflects the importance of its location in New York City in its publishing programs. Through book, reference, electronic publishing, and distribution services, the Press broadens the university’s international reputation.

Vision

Publishing a universe of knowledge for readers worldwide.

Mission

Columbia University Press advances knowledge about our world through essential writing and research focusing on the global, the urban, and the contemporary. For more than 125 years, our widely reviewed and award-winning books have brought new ideas and foundational understanding to students, academics across different disciplines, policy makers, and general readers around the world. Through our publishing program, we embody our parent institution’s educational and research mission as well as its international reputation.

Importance of a University Press

The aim of a great university is to create and share knowledge. A university press is an essential part of the mission of sharing and promoting knowledge to a global audience. Throughout its 128-year history, Columbia University Press has defined a place for itself among the most prestigious university presses. We pursue excellence through a focused publication strategy in key areas that are university priorities and are not always covered thoroughly by other university presses or by trade publishers.

Columbia University Press has a venerable and deep publication record in climate science, critical theory, East Asian studies, film, global politics, literature, sociology, social work, and business (by means of our Columbia Business School imprint), representing a wide range of Columbia University’s strengths while maintaining a leading reputation in these fields among scholars, general readers, public intellectuals, librarians, booksellers, reviewers, critics, and other university presses. From our long-standing commitment to publishing the Asian classics and European critical thought to our more recently established list in climate science and our new collaborative venture with Howard University and the AAADS faculty, Black Lives in the Diaspora, Columbia University Press provides readers with a gateway to ideas and critical perspectives from around the world and insight into and solutions for pressing problems confronting us today. We are an essential channel to amplify the strengths, interests, and values of Columbia University in addressing impending and ongoing challenges worldwide.

Our publishing commitments are rooted in the academic disciplines, which provide the necessary rigor and method applicable to world problems as they arise and recede and as the university’s relationship to them evolves. The challenges of the twenty-first century—changing climate and the legacies of racism among them—are systemic and global, affecting all people, everywhere. We intend to play a meaningful role in their solutions through our books.