I acquire Chicago’s books—for both scholarly and general audiences—in sociology, education, and music, especially jazz and blues studies. I am particularly looking for books in the social sciences that challenge our thinking and point us in the right direction.

I welcome books on education broadly—from early childhood education to higher ed and beyond. Jillian Berman masterfully delves into America’s student loan crisis with Sunk Cost: Who’s to Blame for the Nation’s Broken Student Loan System and How to Fix It. Two other new books examine the social costs of college: Ingrid A. Nelson’s Yet Another Costume Party Debacle: Why Racial Ignorance Persists on Elite College Campuses and Anthony Simon Laden’s Networks of Trust: The Social Costs of College and What We Can Do about Them. Nora Gross’s Brothers in Grief: The Hidden Toll of Gun Violence on Black Boys and Their Schools promises to move and enlighten you.

Our wide-ranging sociology list features books of theory, history, mixed methods, longitudinal studies, and more, but its heart belongs to ethnography, as exemplified by Neil Gong’s new book, Sons, Daughters, and Sidewalk Psychotics: Mental Illness and Homelessness in Los Angeles. Shani Adia Evans gives us a fresh look at gentrification in We Belong Here: Gentrification, White Spacemaking, and a Black Sense of Place. Carrie M. Lane’s More Than Pretty Boxes: How the Rise of Professional Organizing Shows Us the Way We Work Isn’t Working takes the reader on a remarkable journey from professional organizers to a critique of work and life in the neoliberal era. Take a look also at Abigail Ocobock’s surprising Marriage Material: How an Enduring Institution Is Changing Same-Sex Relationships and Claire Laurier Decoteau’s compelling latest, Emergency: COVID-19 and the Uneven Valuation of Life. And you will actually enjoy thinking about rats with Andrew McCumber’s Bad Nature: How Rat Control Shapes Human and Nonhuman Worlds.

In music, Andrew S. Berish’s Hating Jazz: A History of Its Disparagement, Mockery, and Other Forms of Abuse helps us understand why jokes about jazz will never die. And Bob Gluck has returned with a book on Pat Metheny, Pat Metheny: Stories beyond Words.

Music editor Marta Tonegutti is responsible for the critical editions of Verdi, New Material Histories of Music series, and the Opera Lab series. Mollie McFee sponsors our Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology series and also acquires our books in popular music studies.

Assistant Editor Mollie McFee ably assists me and is a close collaborator in all of these endeavors.

I studied English literature and music at Yale, then taught middle school for a few years before joining Chicago in 2000. Until 2019, I acquired our books in philosophy; that list is now sponsored by Kyle Wagner. And until 2021, I acquired our ethnomusicology series.

Prospective authors are encouraged to consult our submission guidelines. We also provide an overview about publishing with Chicago here.