Editor

E-mail: pnelson@uchicago.edu

Subjects: Anthropology, history (European, world, history of ideas), current events
Series: Chicago Studies in Practices of Meaning, The Life of Ideas, Silk Roads

I acquire books for the Press’s long-standing and distinguished lists in anthropology and history. In anthropology, books that combine ethnography and critique fit particularly well with our list. Economics, technology, work, religion, love, urban studies, media, epistemology, social theory, and ethnographic writing are topics of special interest. Recent books from my list in anthropology include Down and Out in the New Economy by Ilana Gershon, Living in the Stone Age by Danilyn Rutherford, The Trials of Mrs. K. by Adam Ashforth, and Dream Trippers by David A. Palmer and Elijah Siegler, to name just a few.

My interests in history include the history of ideas, world history, biography, and works of broad historiographical significance. A few recent highlights include Deborah Cameron on feminism, Yoav Di-Capua on Arab existentialism, Daniel Edelstein on rights, and Wendy Brown, Peter Gordon, and Max Pensky on authoritarianism.

I am profoundly lucky to have inherited the riches of our back list and look forward to bringing the classics of twentieth-century scholarship to new readers, including a landmark retranslation of The Savage Mind by Claude Lévi-Strauss. Finally, smart reportage that speaks beyond the academy – for instance A Village with My Name by Marketplace Correspondent Scott Tong – is a vital strength of our list.

I am the proud sponsor several series at Chicago. The Life of Ideas, aims to nourish the resurgent field of intellectual history. Chicago Studies in Practices of Meaning brings an interdisciplinary ethos to rigorous social scientific inquiry. Meanwhile, the Silk Roads series, supported in part by the Luce Foundation, aims to cultivate transregional work in diverse fields, from history and religious studies to current events.

I joined the Press in 2011, and my fields of acquisition reflect my academic training at the University of Chicago and the University of Texas at Austin. Here I work with Editorial Associate Dylan Montanari, who provides essential support for these editorial endeavors. We welcome inquiries from authors and agents who, like us, are curious, energetic, and deeply committed to good writing.