Category Archives: Books

Today is World Social Media Day, a moment to reflect on how deeply digital platforms shape everyday life. From sharing moments with friends to building communities across continents, social media has become central to how we connect, communicate and understand the world.

This makes it the perfect moment to revisit the ground-breaking open access Why We Post series, which explores not just how we use social media, but why it matters across different cultures and societies.

Why We Post set out to answer these questions by looking beyond headlines and assumptions. Nine anthropologists spent 15 months living in communities across China, Brazil, Turkey, Chile, India, England, Italy and Trinidad. Their research focused not just on platforms, but on what people actually share and why.

The series moves beyond headlines and assumptions. Nine anthropologists spent 15 months living in communities across China, Brazil, Turkey, Chile, India, England, Italy and Trinidad, exploring not just the platforms people use, but what they share and why.

Their findings are clear. Social media is not simply a tool for communication. It is a place where we live our lives.

Across the series, common assumptions are challenged. What looks like self promotion in one context can signal belonging in another. What appears to weaken relationships may instead strengthen them. Social media takes on different meanings depending on culture, community and everyday experience.

By bringing these perspectives together, Why We Post offers a powerful comparative view of social media worldwide. It remains a landmark open access series, reshaping how we understand digital life and its impact- explore the open access books below!

We’re currently aware of an issue affecting downloads from UCL Discovery, which means some readers may be having difficulty accessing UCL Press books. UCL Press journals are unaffected by this issue.

Our technical team is actively looking into the problem and working to restore normal service as quickly as possible.

In the meantime, all UCL Press books remain freely and immediately available to download via our partner platforms:

• JSTOR Open Access
• OAPEN Library

Both sites host our full open access catalogue, so you should still be able to access any title you need without interruption.

We know how important reliable access is for readers, authors and librarians alike, and we’re sorry for any frustration this may cause. Thank you for your patience while we resolve the issue.

We’ll share a further update as soon as downloads via UCL Discovery are back to normal.

We are delighted to announce that New Sensory Approaches to the Past: Applied Methods in Sensory Heritage and Archaeology, edited by Pamela Jordan, Sara Mura and Sue Hamilton, has been shortlisted for the 2026 European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) Book Prize.

Awarded annually, the EAA Book Prize recognises exceptional recent publications by EAA members. This year’s prize attracted a highly competitive field, with a selection of seven titles shortlisted.

The winner will be announced at the Opening Ceremony of the 32nd Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, which will take place in Athens later this year.

Shortlisting for the prize reflects the originality, scholarly quality and wider contribution of New Sensory Approaches to the Past. Bringing together an international range of contributors, the volume explores how people in the past experienced their worlds through the senses, offering innovative approaches that challenge the predominantly visual focus of traditional archaeological research.

Through case studies spanning diverse periods and geographies, the book demonstrates how attention to sound, smell, movement and embodied experience can open up new perspectives on cultural environments and lived experience. Its interdisciplinary scope highlights the value of integrating methods and insights from across archaeology and beyond.

Published open access by UCL Press, the book is freely available to read online, ensuring its research can reach and inform readers across the world.

We warmly congratulate the editors and contributors on this well-deserved recognition and look forward to the announcement of the 2026 prize winner in Athens.

Russian Pendulum: Paradoxes, Practices and Patterns named among six titles on this year’s shortlist for the prestigious £10,000 award.

Pushkin House has announced the shortlist for the 2026 Book Prize, with Prof. Alena Ledeneva’s Russian Pendulum: Paradoxes, Practices and Patterns selected as one of six outstanding titles.

In Russian Pendulum, Ledeneva offers a compelling exploration of Russia’s political and social dynamics, examining the enduring interplay between tradition and modernity, power and society. Framed through the concept of ambivalence, the book identifies long-standing patterns that shape governance and everyday life, highlighting the role of informal networks sustained by practices of co-optation, control and camouflage.

The winner of the £10,000 prize will be announced by the judging panel at the award ceremony in September 2026.

Congratulations to Prof. Ledeneva on this well-deserved recognition

We’re delighted to announce that Between Feast and Famine: Food, Health, and the History of Ghana’s Long Twentieth Century by John Nott has been shortlisted for the Royal Historical Society’s First Book Prize 2026.

Moving between the dry Northern savannah, the mineral-rich and food-secure Southern rainforest, and the youthful, ever-expanding cities, Between Feast and Famine is a comparative history of nutrition in Ghana since the end of the nineteenth century. At the heart of this story is an analysis of how an uneven capitalist transformation variously affected the lives of women and children. It traces the change from sporadic periods of hunger in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, through epidemics of childhood malnutrition during the twentieth century, and into emergent epidemics of diet-related non-communicable disease in the twenty-first century. Employing a novel, critical approach to historical epidemiology, John Nott argues that detailing the co-production of science and its subjects in the past is essential for understanding and improving health in the present.

The prize recognises first, sole-authored monographs published in 2025 by early career historians. This year’s shortlist of eight titles was selected following an open call, and the shortlisted titles span a wide range of subjects, periods and geographies. Two winners will be selected from the shortlist and announced in July 2026. Each will receive a prize of £1,000.

Links

• Read and download Between Feast and Famine free: https://uclpress.co.uk/book/between-feast-and-famine/
• Royal Historical Society announcement: https://blog.royalhistsoc.org/2026/05/18/royal-historical-society-first-book-prize-2026-shortlisted-titles/
• Image: Cuadro de comedor by José Agustín Arrieta. Public domain. Available from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cuadro_de_comedor_basket.jpg

We are delighted to share that Shelley with Benjamin: A Critical Mosaic by Mathelinda Nabugodi has been shortlisted for the British Association of Romantic Studies (BARS) First Book Prize 2026.

The shortlisting recognises an outstanding first monograph in Romantic Studies and places Nabugodi’s book among an impressive and highly competitive field. Published by UCL Press in 2023, Shelley with Benjamin offers a bold and innovative critical reading of Percy Bysshe Shelley through the philosophical lens of Walter Benjamin, reframing Romanticism as a dynamic, fragmentary mode of thought and interpretation.

This year’s judging panel received a large number of high‑quality nominations, making the selection process particularly challenging. The final shortlist reflects the breadth and vitality of current scholarship in Romantic Studies, and includes works published by major academic presses from the UK, Europe, and North America.

The 2026 shortlist is chaired by Professor Ross Wilson (University of Cambridge), with judges Dr Susan Civale (Canterbury Christ Church University), Professor Daisy Hay (University of Exeter), Dr Andrew McInnes (Edge Hill University), Dr Cleo O’Callaghan Yeoman (University of Glasgow), Dr Emily Paterson-Morgan (The Byron Society), and Dr Amy Wilcockson (Queen Mary University of London).

The winner of the BARS First Book Prize will be announced at the BARS International Conference 2026, Romantic Retrospections, which will take place at the University of Birmingham from Wednesday 29 to Friday 31 July

On 17th March, more than 100 colleagues, friends and members of the academic community gathered  to celebrate the life and work of Dr Paul Ayris, and to mark the launch of his open access book, Thomas Cranmer’s Register, which was the result of more than 40 years of extraordinary academic endeavour.

Speakers reflected on Paul’s significant contributions to UCL and to the wider scholarly community:

• Professor Jennifer Hudson, Vice-Provost (Faculties) reflected on her work with Paul during the past two years, and his leadership of LCCOS (Library, Culture, Collections and Open Science) at UCL
• Professor Emeritus David Price, former Vice-Provost (Research) at UCL, who shared warm recollections of working closely with Paul and spoke about their long-standing friendship.
• Professor Richard Rex, Professor of Reformation History at the University of Cambridge, who placed Paul’s pioneering research on Thomas Cranmer’s Register in its wider scholarly context and reflected on their academic collaboration.
• Dr Michael Spence, President and Provost of UCL, who led the audience in a moment of remembrance.

Paul was founder, CEO and a champion of UCL Press, and dedicated most of his career to UCL. He joined in 1997 as Deputy Librarian and later became Director of UCL Library Services, where he strengthened the university’s commitment to openness and public engagement. In 2018, he was appointed Pro-Vice-Provost of LCCOS (Library, Culture, Collections and Open Science) with an expanded portfolio, and his leadership in Open Science helped shape practice across the sector. His influence played a key role in establishing UCL Press as a global leader in open access publishing.

Paul also volunteered his time to a range of organisations across the sector in service of his vision of an open, accessible and publicly engaged higher education ecosystem, including as President of LIBER, the Association of European Research Libraries, and as Chair of League of European Research Universities’ Working Groups on Roadmaps for Open Access, Research Data and Open Science. He was latterly proud to serve as Chair of the LERU Group for Open Science Ambassadors.

Paul’s impact is felt across UCL, within the international library and scholarly communications communities, and among all who had the privilege of working with him. 

Find out more about Paul Ayris’ life and work: https://uclpress.co.uk/in-memoriam-dr-paul-ayris-ba-phd-frhist/

Read and download Thomas Cranmer’s Register: https://uclpress.co.uk/book/thomas-cranmers-register/

UCL Press is pleased to note the recent coverage of University College London: The Bloomsbury Campus in the Daily Telegraph. Writing in the paper, Christopher Howse described the volume as ‘a magnificent new architectural history of UCL’s Bloomsbury campus’, recognising the significance of this landmark publication for the university’s bicentenary.

Published as part of a trio of books marking UCL’s two hundredth year, the volume offers the most comprehensive study to date of the buildings, landscapes and planning decisions that have shaped UCL’s central London home. It is the nineteenth volume in the long running Survey of London series and the first to be published by UCL Press, where it is available in full as open access.

The authors trace the evolution of the Bloomsbury estate from UCL’s radical beginnings in 1826 to its position today as a global university committed to openness, innovation and public purpose. Through extensive archival research and newly commissioned photography, the book brings to light the architectural character of the campus and the ideas that have guided its development over two centuries.

Links

• Read the article (££).
• Read and download the open access book

We are delighted to share that Morning Star has reviewed Walter Benjamin’s Ark: a departure in biography by John Schad.

The reviewer draws attention to the book’s striking and unconventional approach to Benjamin’s life. Rather than following a traditional biographical path, the book traces the experiences of Benjamin’s son, Stefan, and uses this perspective to illuminate new dimensions of Benjamin’s story.

The review highlights the vivid and unsettling quality of the narrative. The chapters that follow Stefan’s journey aboard the Dunera are described as possessing the intensity of a magic realist novel. This captures something essential about the book: its willingness to blend archival insight with creative energy in order to reveal the emotional complexity surrounding Benjamin’s legacy.

It is great to see the book’s originality and emotional depth recognised. If you are interested in new approaches to life writing or want to discover a different perspective on Benjamin, this is a powerful place to start.

Read the review: https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/walter-benjamin-not-you-know-him
Download the book free: https://uclpress.co.uk/book/walter-benjamins-ark/

UCL Press is pleased to share that Dr Jovana Diković, author of The Laissez-Faire Peasant: Post-Socialist Rural Development in Serbia, has been honoured by the Ethnographic Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

The award recognises Dr Diković’s outstanding contribution to ethnological and anthropological research. Presented once every four years, it is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious honours within the Serbian anthropological community.

Published by UCL Press in 2025, The Laissez-Faire Peasant offers a timely and original examination of post-socialist rural transformation in Serbia. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, the book explores how evolving political and economic structures have shaped everyday life, agricultural practices and rural identities.

We warmly congratulate Dr Diković on this outstanding achievement.