Academic Publishing

What this episode covers

In this episode of OP Talks, historian Dr. Felipe Hinojosa engages with Alejandra Mejía, an Assistant Editor and Editorial Operations Coordinator at Duke University Press, focusing on Latinx history. Mejía delves into the press's identity and shares insights on what she seeks in book proposals. Drawing from her experiences as both a writer and editor, she discusses the challenges authors face and offers valuable advice on manuscript development, highlighting the collaborative relationship between editors and writers in shaping scholarship. She also shares her work with Migrant Roots Media, where the power of lived experiences serves as a foundation for building knowledge around migration analysis. The contributions from immigrants, organizers, students, and scholars often blend personal narratives with sociopolitical analysis and historical context. Mejia emphasizes the platform's focus: “...what we understand to be the root causes of migration. By root causes, we mean the effects of U.S. foreign policy or, for example, global capitalism; the effects of those larger systems of power in creating displacement to begin with, because we feel like this is often left out of narratives about migration in the U.S.”

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