Scholars to Storytellers: An Introduction to Trade Publishing
Time: Feb. 6, 2026, 10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Location: Zoom
Sponsored by the CNY Humanities Corridor
Have you ever wondered about how trade publishing works, and how it differs from traditional academic publishing? Do you want to learn more about how to write in ways that engage a wider readership? If so, this workshop by John Ghazvinian is for you! Scholars to Storytellers bridges the gap between academic expertise and commercial publishing success. Learn some basics about commercial publishing — its pros and cons, how it differs from academic publishing, and some resources available for scholars interested in making this transition. Bring your questions, as there will be a Q&A at the end of this Zoom workshop.
This workshop is intended for humanities faculty. Live-captioning will be provided.
John Ghazvinian previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania, where he served as Associate Director (2018-2020) and Executive Director (2020-2025) of the Middle East Center.
About the presenters:
- John Ghazvinian is an author, historian and former journalist, specializing in the history of US-Iran relations. His latest book, America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present (Knopf, 2021), is a comprehensive survey of the bilateral relationship, based on years of archival research in both Iran and the United States. He is also author of Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil (Harcourt, 2007), as well as coeditor of American and Muslim Worlds before 1900 (Bloomsbury, 2020). He has written for such publications as Newsweek, the New York Times, The Nation, the Washington Post, the Sunday Times and the Huffington Post, and has taught modern Middle East history at a number of colleges and universities in the Philadelphia area. He earned his doctorate in history at Oxford University, and was the recipient of a “Public Scholar” fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2016-2017, as well as a fellowship from the Carnegie Corporation's special initiative on Islam in 2009-2010.
- The HF4: Corridor Futures & Initiatives Working Group of the CNY Humanities Corridor organizes several professional development opportunities each year.