Trent University and Peterborough-based Broadview Press have announced a new agreement that will provide more publishing opportunities for Trent faculty, give students real-world publishing experience, and create a new academic prize to be awarded every year for scholarly work in the humanities or social sciences. 

The 10-year agreement, which takes effect June 1, 2024, was signed at a special event at Broadview Press and officially associates Trent with a major academic publishing house in Canada.  

"Academic publishing is a key way in which universities contribute to knowledge and teaching, and all that they make possible,” said Dr. Leo Groarke, president and vice-chancellor of Trent. “This collaboration, with one of Canada's most successful independent academic publishers, will promote these aims by creating valuable experiential learning opportunities for students who seek to pursue a career in publishing."  

The agreement will allow Trent graduate and undergraduate students in Public Texts, English, History, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Sociology, Indigenous Studies, Education, Canadian Studies, Business, and other fields to gain invaluable real-world publishing experience through co-op placements and internships. In cooperation with Broadview, Trent students will have opportunities to learn about both the editorial and production side of publishing (copy editing, annotation, design, etc.) and the business side (finance, marketing, book promotion, etc.). Additionally, Broadview staff will provide guest lectures in Trent courses and facilitate student tours of Broadview’s facilities in Peterborough. 

For Trent faculty, the agreement opens doors to joint editorial initiatives with Broadview, including the development of textbooks, literary editions, and digital publications across humanities disciplines. Broadview will also appoint a Trent professor to its Board of Directors (after consultations involving Trent’s president, provost, and vice-president of Research & Innovation). 

“This is a wonderful example of how Trent can support and propel scholarship in the humanities and social sciences more directly through a tremendous collaborative relationship with Broadview Press,” explains Dr. Cathy Bruce, vice president of Research and Innovation. “We see this agreement as an exciting development that supports the high calibre of scholarship and knowledge sharing in the arts that Trent is known for, as is Broadview Press.”  

Through the agreement, the Trent-Broadview Prize, an annual $5,000 award, will be established to honour outstanding scholarly work in the humanities or social sciences. The winner will be selected by a committee of Trent academics. 

The agreement also includes an undertaking between the parties to explore potential tenancy for Broadview Press at Trent’s Cleantech Commons research park, anticipating Broadview’s future need for a new facility. 

Broadview Press is a successful independent Canadian publisher, well known in academic circles, that publishes textbooks and other academic works. Majority owned by its employees, Broadview publishes print and digital books in the humanities and social sciences, focusing in particular on literary studies, philosophy, history, and political science, and including numerous publications in interdisciplinary fields such as Indigenous studies. 

“Broadview Press has a long history as a company publishing in the postsecondary sector, with a strong reputation internationally as well as within Canada,” said Don LePan, CEO and company founder of Broadview Press. “We are delighted that this agreement will provide students with genuine publishing experience, both through the materials that Broadview will provide for use in Trent courses and through internships and co-op placements that will give students accurate and useful knowledge of the publishing industry.” 

Broadview was founded in Peterborough in 1985, its largest facility is located in Peterborough, and over the past 40 years it has forged strong connections to Trent as well as to the city. The University’s founding president, Thomas H.B. Symons, was a member of Broadview’s Board of Directors for decades; other Trent professors (among them William T. Hunter, Robert M. Campbell, and Barbara Marshall) served on the company’s Board of Directors and/or Editorial Board; former Trent president and professor Leonard Conolly remains an associate general editor of The Broadview Anthology of British Literature and served for many years as series editor of the acclaimed Broadview Editions series; and many Trent faculty have published with Broadview and/or use Broadview books in their teaching and research. Two Peterborough mayors (Sylvia Sutherland and Daryl Bennett) have served on Broadview's Board of Directors. 

"I am delighted to see this new partnership which will provide pathways for students particularly in the humanities to engage with all aspects of the publication and creation of texts,” said Dr. Suzanne Bailey, associate dean of Graduate Studies at Trent and faculty member in English Literature. “The partnership will highlight the skills and critical thinking our students bring to society through exploration and discovery in undergraduate and graduate-level education.”