April 27, 2023
AAP Announces Line Up for Annual General Meeting
Professor Annette Gordon-Reed to Deliver Keynote Address
Congresswoman Judy Chu to Receive Distinguished Public Service Award
The Association of American Publishers announced its Annual General Meeting program today, which will be held virtually on May 8, 2023. The line-up features Harvard law professor and historian Annette Gordon-Reed, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for The Hemingses of Monticello, and Congresswoman Judy Chu, a tireless advocate for copyright law and the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress.
“How inspiring to celebrate Professor Gordon-Reed and Congresswoman Judy Chu at our annual meeting of members, two extraordinary people who have transformed society through their respective gifts of scholarship and public service,” commented Maria A. Pallante, President and CEO, Association of American Publishers. “Their accomplishments remind us that stories matter, and that authors, publishers, and democracy are crucially intertwined.”
Program
The program, which is open to AAP’s member houses and invited guests, will include policy and litigation reports from Ms. Pallante and AAP Board Chair Julia Reidhead, Chairman and President of W. W. Norton.
Professor Annette Gordon-Reed will deliver the keynote address.
Congresswoman Judy Chu will be honored with the 2023 Award for Distinguished Public Service.
A group of distinguished CEOs—Ms. Reidhead; Kumsal Bayazit, Chief Executive Officer of Elsevier; Christie Henry, Director of Princeton University Press; and Adrienne Vaughan, President, Bloomsbury Publishing USA— will discuss ongoing challenges and emerging opportunities across the higher education, scholarly, and trade publishing sectors.
Sergio Dahbar, who received AAP’s International Freedom to Publish Award in September 2022 on behalf of Venezuelan publishing house Editorial Dahbar, will appear via video remarks.
2023 Annual General Meeting Keynote: Professor Annette Gordon-Reed
The keynote address will be delivered by Professor Annette Gordon-Reed, who, according to the New York Times, “has earned acclaim as one of the most important American historians of our time.” Ms. Gordon-Reed is the recipient of numerous prizes and honors, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, which she was awarded for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton, 2008).
Her most recent book is the New York Times best-seller On Juneteenth (Liveright Publishing, 2021). Her other works include Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy (UVA Press, 1997), Vernon Can Read! A Memoir, a collaboration with Vernon Jordan (PublicAffairs, 2001), Race on Trial: Law and Justice in American History (Oxford University Press, 2002), a volume of essays that she edited, Andrew Johnson (Times Books/Henry Holt, 2010) and, with Peter S. Onuf, “Most Blessed of the Patriarchs”: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination (Liveright Publishing, 2016).
Professor Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard. She was previously the Vyvyan Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at the University of Oxford (Queens College) and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. She is a past President of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic and the current President of the Ames Foundation.
Among her many other recognitions are a MacArthur Fellowship, the National Humanities Medal, the Frederick Douglass Book Prize, the George Washington Book Prize, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.
Annette Gordon-Reed was born in Livingston, Texas and was the first to integrate her elementary school in Conroe, Texas. She later graduated with high distinction from Dartmouth University with a B.A. degree in history in 1981, and then attended Harvard Law School where she received her J.D. degree in 1984 and was the first African American editor of the Harvard Law Review.
AAP’s Distinguished Public Service Award
AAP’s Distinguished Public Service Award honors “individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the public good by advancing laws or policies that respect the value, creation and publication of original works of authorship.”
This year’s honoree is Congresswoman Judy Chu, the co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Creative Rights Caucus and the first Chinese American woman elected to the U.S. Congress. Elected to Congress in 2009, Congresswoman Chu represents the 28th Congressional District, which includes Pasadena and the west San Gabriel Valley of southern California.
Congresswoman Chu is a steadfast champion of individual authors and artists, a powerful voice for creative industries, and a tireless advocate for effective copyright protections. In 2013, she co-founded the bipartisan Congressional Creative Rights Caucus, which helps to educate Members of Congress and the general public alike about the importance of copyright law and creative expression in society. Among many issues, she helped to establish the groundbreaking copyright claims board that is now available for low value copyright disputes, and supported legislative efforts to modernize the authority, governance, and operations of the Copyright Office.
Congresswoman Chu currently serves on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, as well as the House Small Business Committee. Since 2011, she has served as Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, which advocates for the needs and concerns of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community across the nation. She helps lead the Tri-Caucus, a joint effort with the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. She also serves in leadership of the House Democratic Caucus as a Member of the Steering and Policy Committee.
She holds a B.A. from the University of California, and a Ph.D. from the California School of Professional Psychology.
About AAP
AAP | The Association of American Publishers represents the leading book, journal, and education publishers in the United States on matters of law and policy, advocating for outcomes that incentivize the publication of creative expression, professional content, and learning solutions. As essential participants in local markets and the global economy, our members invest in and inspire the exchange of ideas, transforming the world we live in one word at a time. Find us online at publishers.org or on Twitter and Instagram at @AmericanPublish.